Madden NFL 16

Game Info

Football is back and you know what that means,  Madden is BACK baby.  EA’s annually released franchise has definitely seen its fair share of rises and falls over the past 25 years but there is one thing that we all cant deny, we love football so yeah of course we are going to play Madden no matter how bad it might seem because we want to see our favorite team go undefeated and win it all.

In the past years of Madden we have seen things from rewinding back your mistakes to what is now favorite game mode players called Ultimate Team.  This year’s Madden you still have your Ultimate Team and Connected Franchise mode but now you have what is called Draft Champions mode which is very much like Ultimate Team but you pick your players who are either legends or they have a very high rating.  My first try I had Brett Favre, Barry Sanders and Odell Beckham Jr.  You only get to play one game with that particular team and then you have to pick from the top tier players again.  There is also a Gatorade Skills Trainer for any of you who are new to Madden and want to test out the controls and prepare for certain situations you can do so on there.

The game play in Madden this year works like a dream come true.  The graphics are all on par and look exceptionally realistic.  Seeing your favorite stadium and playing as your favorite team definitely gives you that feel like you are actually watching football.  There some new mechanics to the passing and catching which is more of a risk and reward kind of a thing if you ask me.  In the passing you can not only just lead the receiver on where you would like them to go so they have an open area to catch the ball but you can throw either high or low passes.  If your receiver is running a slant and you want him to go up in the air and get after the ball you will press L1 and the receiver button.  If he is running a button hook you just press L2 and the receiver button.  It is simple and easy to use with the correct pass that you throw which can range from lob, bullet or standard.  Now catching the ball has changed as well and this works for defense as well.  In catching you can decide if you want to be aggressive with the catch which means you will give it your all to catch the ball and make some extreme highlight worthy plays or you can do a RAC catch which means your player will already be in high gear to run as soon as he catches it or you can do a possession catch which focuses on if you need to make the catch by the sideline or you just want to get yards and your afraid of your receiver taking a huge hit. I know it may seem a lot to take in if your a seasoned Madden Player like myself but trust me when I tell you that it is the best thing they added in a long time. I have told you all the rewards of you being able to catch the ball but lets talk about the risks.  If your going for an aggressive catch there are times where either the receiver will make the catch and you want to put it in your highlight reel and show your friends but there are times where the ball gets knocked out of the receivers hands even popped up for a defender to grab and get an interception so you just need to be careful throwing those long hail mary throws down the field.  Also if you like to keep a track of your stats while in game EA has added a stat tracker for the players to let you know how many catches they made to the yardage and when in franchise mode you can keep a eye on how far your player has to go before reaching his goal.  Also in the franchise mode there is in game drive goals that you will need to try and focus on to build up confidence with your team.  The confidence helps out their overall as well.  At times this particular system works but at times it will give you a confidence boost when the play that just occurred you would think would bring down your team.  For example on defense your task is to not let the other team score a passing touchdown but what if they break out into a huge run and score it will still give you the confidence boost.

Like I have said before the graphics are amazing in this game with no frame rate drops or pop ins.  The sound is great as well on the field and the soundtrack is pretty good this year.  There is one problem I have with the sound though and its the freaking commentary.  The commentary in this game the past few years of Madden has been just passable leaning towards bad.  Almost to the point where you want to just turn off the commentary entirely.  There has been nothing really new added to the dialogue except new names and faces that joined the NFL this year.  In my opinion it wouldn’t be bad to have a more than just 2 people to call the commentary like if we had 2 or 3 commentary teams I think would be a great addition and make this game perfect.

The Recommendation

Alright let’s be honest here if you love football and you watch it every Sunday, Monday and Thursday on TV why wouldn’t you pick up this years Madden.  I play for the love I have for the game I like to see my Tampa Bay Buccaneers go all the way and win it all year in and year out.  If you love football and you own a PlayStation 4 just do yourself a favor and pick this up.  You will absolutely be glad that you did.