Madden 24 Review

Madden 24

Release: August 18, 2023
Publisher: EA
Developer: EA Tiburon
Genre: PS5 Reviews, Reviews, XBox One Reviews, Xbox Series X Reviews
PEGI: 12
Comments:

 

Comment

There are very few things you can count on in life. What’s the saying go the only sure thing are death and taxes? Well, I would say the only sure things are Call of Duty and Madden…yes, it’s that time of year again. The air gets a little crisper, the beers get a little more pumpkin-y, and it’s time for that Sunday tradition of FOOTBALL. So of course, we need our annual installment in the Madden series to allow us to be the best armchair quarterbacks as possible.

While lots of people like to make jokes (me included) about how the game fundamentally doesn’t change that much year to year, while it may be true, but there is a reason for that. Largely there isn’t really much ground to debate that any other past attempts at a football game have done it better than Madden, so year over year, the team behind Madden just makes some fine-tuning adjustments maybe add in a few new things and focuses on making it better looking and better running than its previous iteration.

Just like last year the crowd noises, commentary and animations make the game look more and more lifelike. Running Madden 24 on a 4K TV with a PS5 or Xbox Series X can really make it sometimes look real.

EA has stated they have tweaked and added in over 1700 tackle animations and it shows. The action looks more natural and less stiff than in the past, and each player might tackle slightly different than the others on the team making each player stand out much more on the field. One of the areas I struggled with as a casual Madden player was always on defence, and thankfully they seem to have spent more time retooling and adjusting the defence.

No longer am I the victim of my opponents running up the scoreboard as I struggle to stop the plays. While for some this might not be a big deal, but for me it made for a much more enjoyable experience overall. That’s really major takeaway from this year’s instalment it just felt more fun and enjoyable to play and less simulation.

Now on to the game modes, franchise and ultimate team don’t really feel any different than last year’s entry so there isn’t much to say there at all. The superstar mode aka story mode continues to be a big letdown, and honestly, I wish they would just do away with it, it’s really not needed and if they aren’t going to do it right, they can allocate those resources to something else (which I will get to later).

The only real highlight to the modes is the return of mini games which can be a lot of fun and be used to enhance the skills of your players. Much like it sounds like, mini games allow players to take part in a handful of special games that can help upgrade your players or simply be done for fun. In total, 26 mini games have been added into the game, including passing drills that task you with hitting targets, avoiding tacklers as a running back, or perfectly nailing field goals and punts.

Now for everything EA has done to try and make this the best experience possible, the overhauling of defence, the new skeletal system and tackling animations to make things look and feel more realistic, the continued tweaks to passing. I don’t for the life of me understand why they can’t fix menus. The navigation again is slower than ever, more convoluted than ever. If they need to cut out the Superstar Mode to fix the menus….do IT! It honestly is quite laughable how bad it can. be.

All in all, it’s another solid entry and when I can get through the menus to a game, it’s the most fun and fluid experience I’ve had with Madden in quite some time.

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