Madden 22 (PS4)

Product Information

One of the major reasons gamers buy next-gen consoles is to see titles brought to life in a way that was impossible on the previous generation of systems. The barometer for this unofficial–but relevant–metric is usually visuals. While there are some things I don’t care for in franchise mode and still some glaring omissions, we see some real growth in franchise for the first time in more than a decade.

Next Gen Stats Star-Driven AI† fuses with immersive Gameday Atmosphere† to deliver the smartest gameplay experience ever. It’s all powered by real-world data and built to emulate player and team tendencies. When choosing a custom coach, there is one less option this year. Instead, you are presented with Staff Builder, which has an eye for talent, or Team Builder, which has a secret remedy. Not really sure what either of those perks are as no other additional information is given. Buying Madden every year only emboldens EA to continue down the same path. We know EA is fully capable of providing a premium NFL football experience. Just look at the 2000’s Madden games. It’s long past the point for EA to do better. Scouting will be a big addition, but it isn’t scheduled to be active until September, which doesn’t do much for users who buy the game on Day 1.It seems a little less spotty than it was during the playtest, but still too frequent for my tastes. Likewise, receivers still run sideline routes with no respect for the out-of-bounds line.

The other new addition to Franchise Mode is Weekly Strategies. Here you will select what you want your team to work on, whether it’s playing against the mid-field pass or stopping the run, and you can select from a variety of offensive and defensive tactics for your team to pursue. In addition, you can monitor your players’ health and fatigue. Depending on how a player is performing, you may choose to have them play less reps in practice to avoid injury.I’m beginning to believe this is an issue we’re just going to have to live with forever. It’s not game-breaking, but man is it annoying. You can choose how hard players practice, and how reps are split. That feeds into the all-new fatigue system. Practicing harder yields more results, but the increased fatigue can lead to more injuries. It’s an enjoyable, if shallow balancing act. EA does about as good of a job with Face of the Franchise: United We Rise as you can expect considering this is a concept that needs a refresh. Oftentimes, the safety is sort of ambling in the direction he’s supposed to cover, but not reacting with enough urgency to become a part of the play. This one is game-breaking, thus I’m pretty sure it’ll get patched. A coaching tree is being introduced: Outside of homefield advantage, another feature that Madden 22 is seemingly lifting from NCAA Football 14 is the ability to hire offensive and defensive coordinators and improve them through a skill tree. It's a long-requested feature that should add a solid layer of depth to franchise mode. As for its inspiration, Executive Producer Seann Graddy says Madden isn't looking toward NCAA Football. "[H]onestly, their influences are more rooted in games like God of War," Graddy says, "My son and I have been playing a lot of it."