Madden 26 Review: Moving the Chains

[Steve_OS]

Loading up a new Madden game is a lot like visiting extended family on Thanksgiving. You...

Written By: Tyler Erickson

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[BIGBLUEFAN2023]

Personally, I am liking this new Madden. The Intros and new Presentation give it a bit of a new feel. The gameplay is pretty good. There's more of a run/pass balance for the CPU now, which makes things more realistic. Seeing much reasonable scores and number of plays, even at 15 minutes quarters.

But it does have its warts. Pass rush needs to be scaled back. Roughing the kicker is too sensitive. Kickoffs are still wrong on Super Sim Fast and Normal, with no landing zone and touchbacks coming out to the 30 instead of the 35. Overtime in Play Now doesn't reflect real life - it has 15 minute quarters instead of 10. And there's a consistent commentary error in the 3rd quarter where the broadcaster keeps thanking Scott and welcoming fans to the 3rd quarter - no matter what part of the quarter it is. In Slow Sim, the halftime show seems to be messing up the ability for the 3rd Quarter to start back up. It reverts back to Fast or Normal and you have to manually set it to Slow to get the quarter started. Finally, the first roster update after launch omitted Amari Cooper - he needs to be added back.

I'm sure most if not all of these things can be patched. Hopefully, EA is aware and working on fixing these bugs.

[drugsbunny]

I'm finally enjoying Madden Football as a whole. Some of the new features, such as weekly recap are a little Shallow, but still a push in the right direction. I still wish for the ability to bring over draft classes from NCAA Football 26.

[GisherJohn24]

IMO we need these things brought back.

1. Option to change Game speed (obviously offline only) this was a staple on 360/ps3 versions even to the ps4 and xbox one.
2. Still stuck animations and hard to make a defensive play when it should COUNT! Animations continue to dictate the physics vs the old way of the physics dictating the animations. That is the core issue with the current games. It's still just janky to me.

I'm not a fan of the scoreboard, but overall, presentation is good. They still don't say player names in real time like they should. I want the old CBS Style presentation they had in Madden 25. More stat screens really improves immersion.

The whiteout (snow) is actually the most appealing thing I saw so far. Really did a good job and the snow and fog really affect how you play. More weather elements like floods/downpours would be sweet too.

I will say it's an improvement. But long way to go.