MADDEN 25 HAS NEW ‘SWITCH ASSIST’ FEATURE 6/13 news update

MADDEN 25 HAS NEW ‘SWITCH ASSIST’ FEATURE

It’s one of the worst moments of any Madden player’s life: You tried to switch players to pick off a pass, but you didn’t get the guy you wanted, and now you’re burned for a touchdown. Madden 25 is hoping to get rid of those and other player-switching woes with an all-new “switch assist” feature.

While the new Madden 25 defense video likely has most of the attention today, it’s a tidbit of information revealed in an article by Jon Robinson that may be the most interesting news. According to Robinson’s discussion with Madden NFL 25 creative director Rex Dickson, an old problem is getting a new solution this year.

Rex Dickson: “This has been something that has frustrated me and has frustrated users for a long time… You’d flick the Hit Stick, press B to switch to the defensive back, and next thing you know, he’s on the ground. So this year, when you switch players, it clears the move buffer. The input you previously had is now wiped and isn’t carried over to the next player.”

While it is not explicitly stated by Dickson, the fact that previously-used moves are now cleared upon switching players could mean a significant nerf to Madden NFL 13′s much-debated ‘Ball Hawk’ feature. The most effective way to “Hawk” in Madden 13 is to hold down the “Y” button throughout the play, and if that action gets cleared upon switching players, it could mean more timing may be involved in using the feature than previously.

That, of course, is assuming that Ball Hawk is one of the actions that are capable of being cleared.

Along with the new move buffer clearance, there will be something called “switch assist” making it into the game that expects to solve perhaps a more annoying problem than hit-stick mishaps. We’ve vaguely heard about switch assistance previously, but now we have the details. “Another problem was when you switched defenders during a pass and you expected to get the defender over the top, but for whatever reason, when you click on, you end up with the defender underneath,” said Dickson, who would go on to further explain the dilemma and Madden’s solution.

“Because you’re expecting the defender up top, you’re hitting the left stick down, but when you get the underneath defender instead, by pressing down, you immediately steer him out of the play… So what we do this year with switch assist is, if your stick input is more than a certain angle off the direction where your defender is moving, we give you a buffer which allows you to recognize which defender you switched on to. This enables you to see the direction he’s moving, and prevents you from steering the wrong way.”

If I’m understanding correctly, this means users will not be able to influence the direction of a player they switch to right away if their desired movement is too far away from what the game deems as an expected direction (think QBs during a dropback). The execution of a feature like this is critical, because if it’s not done right, players could find themselves missing out of interception opportunities as the game essentially locks you out of player movement. If done right, however, it could certainly be a good solution to an age-old problem in Madden NFL games.