Madden NFL 21’s new ‘The Yard’ mode: What it does, how it plays

One of the plays I grill Madden NFL 21The new mode “The Yard” reminded me of hockey players riding the puck before a shot is fired. Another, a double pass in the backfield before I bombed the Rams’ Jalen Ramsey on a seam route, looks like an old-fashioned basketball ball. When my created player grabbed the ball – he was standing side by side on it – then dragged in a short pass and lateralized to an AI teammate kicking the stage, it seemed like vague rugby-ish.

This would cost me $ 3 to say, if I said it in JP Kellams’ office.

The EA Tiburon producer led by The Yard understands that people will inevitably compare his version of American football to other sports, especially free-flowing ones where the ball is constantly in play. But among its designers, “Anyone who raised basketball or any other sport, I made it to put $ 1 in a square pot,” Kellams said, “because we had to solve new problems for football, not understanding how other sports have solved things, in a culture that already has that, like street basketball. ”

In my defense, and The Yard’s, I came across an hour-long practical test of this equation after doing something right, instead of hitting a problem or needing a solution. The Yard borrows much of its presentation, progression, and adaptation from players from the alternative modes that Madden’s brothers have provided over the past three years – FIFA’s Volta Football, NHL’s World of Chel, NBA Live’s The Streets. But the game it plays is, distinctively and familiarly, football, though with fewer players and its slicker parts to play with.

The Yard is a six-on-six game of American football, with players handling both offensive and defensive roles, and being able to do anything, anywhere on the field. It is not flag football; there are helmets, pads, and big hits in abundance. But it’s not NFL Street or NFL Blitz, either. Most of the rising dazzle comes from improvising the play after the ball has been dragged, instead of playing on a fire round or perk cards.

Rules can change from game to game, and they allow for things like multiple advances behind the line of scrimmage (e.g. a kick pass to a wide receiver who spins a whip, who rolls and spans a teammate strutting on the sideline). Bonus points are awarded for interceptions when recovering fumbles. Big plays end up with calls to ‘add a little salt’, or ‘tell’ who’s the boss’, by choosing a celebration with the right stick (to get a feature in Madden 21Also the other modes).

Legal motion in the backfield

Probably the most important twist, for The Yard’s goal of exciting, improvised plays, is the ability to snap the ball to one of the five other players on the field. The center stands on the side of the ball, flags football style, and can flip it as easily as to the designated quarterback. The Yard has a very small playbook, with anyone running some sort of passing route, so the direct snap to someone taking a backfield route, like a screen route, is how to get a running play, instead of having to in handoff.

“One of the things that The Yard has in mind, as a new way of playing Madden, is how upbeat the gameplay has become in that mode,” Kellams said. ‘One of the things that people have hit on is that standard, 11 on 11 football (in a video game) does not necessarily meet their expectation of exactly how this scene should go. For many people in 11-on-11, 80% of your success is your playcalling, your pre-play adjustments.

“We did not really make any adjustments prior to the game,” Kellams continued, although there are things like hot routes and individual blitz missions. ‘Eighty percent of your success in The Yard is what you create on the field. It’s a much more limited game book, and the plays are essentially just springboards for the upcoming gameplay. “

Image: EA Tiburon / Electronic Arts

Players not only perform offensively and defensively in The Yard, they also develop along multiple playing styles, instead of specializing in one position rather than physical characteristics. That’s why Jalen Ramsey – a defensive back in real life – was my number 1 receiving goal in single-player The Yard. When a game starts in The Yard, a player will choose a position for their created star, and if it is a cooperative multiplayer game, someone else may have chosen quarterback first. That should allow players to build about a dozen “archetypes”, from one based on the scrambling cover star Lamar Jackson, to others based on hot safeties or receivers who can tackle after catching on yards.

Defense in The Yard is still a hope-for-the-best statement, just as it is for many players in Madden’s main mode. With no pass blocking, there is a rush timer similar to the old Mississippi count that people use when they play football in the yard; after it expires, the defense can load on the field. If you’re on a user-controlled defense, who’s grabbing a defensive lineman and hitting him in the wall, you’ll need to call the right cover or get better at pass defense, because almost all sacks that i came because the thrower could not find an open man at the time.

I’m terribly on defense in Madden’s main mode, constantly overwriting the play and spamming the Hit Stick. But I did not feel like the AI ​​official in The Yard, seeing everything it had to work with, was so exaggerated that I had no chance. Simply pressing a passer will dramatically reduce the chances of a reception (and if the player is not a passer at all, make it even harder). I threw a lot of lame-duck interceptions, even with a dedicated passerby like Matthew Stafford, mostly because I tried too hard to do or was almost in a choice I was not up to.

New game, new foundations

The Yard players should expect that, with this new way of playing football, they should discover their most effective basic game for themselves, and they may not find it until a few months after launch. “I spent a few weeks convincing myself that the way to flare everyone up was to step back, throw it at one of the outhouses, and then immediately throw a slope,” Kellams said. ‘And that worked for about a week and a half until someone found a defensive counter for it.

Image: EA Tiburon / Electronic Arts

“I defeated my development manager because I discovered he was appointed to rush the quarterback,” Kellams added. ‘What I do is step right into the quarterback, step back, throw at a locksmith sitting on a stage that steps behind the line of scrimmage – to (the defender) lead over to that boy – and then throw away back to the quarterback, who will run, or throw it to an open man downfield. That will probably work another half week, until everyone gets the game. ”

Even though The Yard is a distinctive game between the lines, it looks very much like other EA Sports fast-paced game / lifestyle modes from the field. The aspect of The Yard’s world tour, which takes players from Miami and Green Bay to Berlin as an overseas military base, is evocative of The Streets’ campaign in NBA Live 19 as a Volta Football fan FIFA 20.

The layers of customization and personalization of the player – which connects both a mobile game and real money microtransactions – are also directly from Electronic Arts’ Corporate playbook. Kellams points out that there are plenty of opportunities to earn ‘Cred’ free, the Yard’s currency, or instantly virtual clothing. Even destroying in a single player match will provide some reward. “We don’t want to punish players just for working on their game, right?” Kellams said.

And I’ll give Kellams this: It was kind of silly sending my character on the field in his base-as-bread getup. After four games, I had a lot of Cred to buy him a snakeskin pattern face mask, a back plate with some sort of design on it, and roll up a sweater to expose his six-pack. (Kellams said there would be an option to flop the gut over her belt, but I have yet to see any beer bubbles in this beta build.)

But The Yard’s charm lies in the frequency of its flurry and great plays, and it feels like I might have discovered some critical tactics in a new game before anyone else did. Like, choose the position of the center / middle linebacker, but equip the player with the package to try to approach, because he always opens in the middle of the field. For the next week and a half, at least.

Madden NFL 21 launches August 28 on Google Stadiums, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions will follow later this year.