Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

[GisherJohn24]

About an average of 2 stars on all versions. I've never seen a madden game with those kind of scores on Amazon. I take those with a grain of salt, they could be trolls.... because

I still enjoyed the trial pretty extensively on Arcade mode, so still on the fence. But with my enjoyment I had on 17, I may stick with that until a major price drop to justify a purchase.

https://www.amazon.com/Madden-NFL-18...ustomerReviews

[augmental]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

Actually, most of those reviews seem pretty accurate to me. I've put in maybe 12 hours with the game.

[Jm0ney2001]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

Stick with 17 if you like sim gameplay imo

[GisherJohn24]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

Actually, most of those reviews seem pretty accurate to me. I've put in maybe 12 hours with the game.

what's your biggest gripe?

[teeteegardner]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

that's prob deserved.. I would give it a 5 of 10. and the 5 is mainly the graohics upgrade to the players and fields and uniforms. other than that its basically 17 . although 18 plays a little better on the field.

[StayPlation82]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

that's prob deserved.. I would give it a 5 of 10. and the 5 is mainly the graohics upgrade to the players and fields and uniforms. other than that its basically 17 . although 18 plays a little better on the field.

What would you give 17? sounds like you're saying the game got a little better. it leads me to assume you think 17 was a 4/10 perhaps?

[augmental]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

what's your biggest gripe?

I have several gripes, I guess my main would be the defense A.I.:

I think Longshot is overrated, I am having issues with the defense not doing what it is supposed to with man or zone coverage, there are bugs in MUT where it doesn't display comparison ratings correctly and I have had it tell me I won an auction and then as I back out of the menu it tells me I was outbid. Just seems buggy in general.

[Sheba2011]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

Personally, I would give it a 6.5/10 at the moment, and possibly a 7.5 if some of the biggest issues get patched. Overall though I am enjoying it a lot more than 17. To me, it is 17 with better graphics/lighting/colors (thanks to Frostbite), some slight tweaks to CFM that are actually pretty big (off the ball injuries, retirement etc) and a really fun new game mode in Longshot. I had a lot of fun with Longshot.

[Rebel10]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

What would you give 17? sounds like you're saying the game got a little better. it leads me to assume you think 17 was a 4/10 perhaps?

I think the idea is that if you release virtually the same game two years in a row, that you might give that sequel a lower rating than the game that came before it because it's so similar.

The H2H multiplayer got a lot of upgrades this year, but the single player CFM modes and single player human vs. CPU either got no upgrades or is really a lateral change with some things improved and other things worse. The equivalent for another EA game would be if EA release Battlefield 6 this year, and it has an identical campaign mode to Battlefield WW1 which came out last year, like identical -- same levels, same characters, almost nothing changed, but then they focused a lot on the multiplayer. Some people might thinkg "wow, there's a few good additions here to multiplayer!" but if EA kept the single player story mode identical to Battlefield WW1 and just released it again the next year for $60, there'd be a lot of negative opinions about it.

As far as franchise mode is the biggest single player mode in sports games year over year, I think Madden deserves low reviews this year. I was down on Longshot but really impressed with what EA put together, I think they did a great job, but aside from those 8-10 hours, a football game needs to have longevity for me, and longevity in sports games (for me) has always been in the franchise modes... since at least NCAA '98. When the franchise mode in Madden 18 is identical to Madden '17, and gameplay is nearly identical with some things improved but other things downgraded and the majority of things the same, it deserves harsh reviews. And then wrapped around all of this was a really cagey, selective marketing campaign to obscure all of these things, it's created a lot of distrust in gamers.

If you're an NFL freak and need an NFL game every year, Madden is an easy buy, but if you're a moderate fan of football, I couldn't recommend Madden '18 to somebody who played Madden '17, not at $60. Maybe in 4 months when it drops to $20 for the holidays, but not at the full price.

[jomo6619]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

Agreed. It's annoying when people say a game is "just a polished version of the year before" or whatever but Madden 18 actually defines this. Graphics are obviously much better, but gameplay is the exact same with just a couple of added quirks such as bobbled catches.

The thing that frustrates me the most is how they made the graphics look much better yet the sidelines still look like they're from 2005 and the fans don't look any better either.

IMO fans look worse this year because I go to Broncos games all the time and 80% of the people wear orange to the game and for some reason this year Madden changed the crowd color in Denver to just a dark blue haze. Looks awful.

They spent their time on longshot rather than perfecting small details that bother everybody year to year. The sidelines are empty! The aisles are empty in the stadium and it overall just feels like a shell rather than an actual atmosphere.

[StayPlation82]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

cool man, i respect it. i don't think campaign and franchise modes are that close but i understand the idea.

[garyraymond23]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

I'd give it 7/10 personally.

Graphics are improved, gameplay is essentially the same.

It's really just a roster update. Longshot is OK, not great, not terrible by means. MUT seems the same in my few hours of dabbling with it.

I've also been a CFM enthusiast for nearly 2 decades, so, yea, not exactly thrilled about the outcome of this mode.

Madden 18, from my CFM perspective (which is really the only mode I play), is simply just a glorified roster update to Madden 17.

I'd say I'm disappointed, but I didn't really have any expectations for them to change the CFM mode, so I'll just say what I've been saying for the past several years .. hopefully they'll rehaul CFM next year.

[goillini03]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

I'd give it 7/10 personally.

Graphics are improved, gameplay is essentially the same.

It's really just a roster update. Longshot is OK, not great, not terrible by means. MUT seems the same in my few hours of dabbling with it.

I've also been a CFM enthusiast for nearly 2 decades, so, yea, not exactly thrilled about the outcome of this mode.

Madden 18, from my CFM perspective (which is really the only mode I play), is simply just a glorified roster update to Madden 17.

I'd say I'm disappointed, but I didn't really have any expectations for them to change the CFM mode, so I'll just say what I've been saying for the past several years .. hopefully they'll rehaul CFM next year.

This pretty much sums up my limited experience with the game. Not sure that I could give it a 7 though.

[JayD]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

I did find it funny that one of the reviews state that he can't do anything but play the Falcons & Patriots game, lol.

[GisherJohn24]

Re: Wow, The Amazon reviews are scaring me a little

I have several gripes, I guess my main would be the defense A.I.:

I think Longshot is overrated, I am having issues with the defense not doing what it is supposed to with man or zone coverage, there are bugs in MUT where it doesn't display comparison ratings correctly and I have had it tell me I won an auction and then as I back out of the menu it tells me I was outbid. Just seems buggy in general.

can someone explain how they can let their A.I. take a backstep from previous games? I played Madden 11, 12 and 13 the other day, and they don't have these extensive AI issues, or if they did, nobody seemed to notice or care...