I think everyone in at least their late teens or early twenties can remember when Madden didn’t have a monopoly on the NFL video game market. A simpler time, when Peyton Manning was on the Colts, Brett Favre was still slinging it, and Randy Moss was running with his arm up down the sidelines. A time when 2K Sports made NFL games. Unfortunately for gamers, the good times ended when EA Sports bought the exclusive license from the NFL, becoming the only company allowed to make NFL games. It’s sad the NFL and EA Sports took away the choice from consumers, but that’s just the way it is. Nothing will change unless the people decide it’s just not good enough, and it is not. Madden games are full of flaws that are overlooked because it is a professional football game, and people need their “fix.”
I say fix because Madden has turned into a shallow card game to rip-off unassuming kids and even adults into not only buying the game, but also spending hundreds or more on packs of fictional cards. And I don’t blame them, because the rest of the game is so weak. Ultimate Team is the only fun part, and EA seems to want it that way. No one spends money in online head-to-head or career mode, because there is nothing to purchase in those modes, but they spend a heck of a lot of money on Ultimate Team. Including FIFA’s and NHL’s Ultimate Team modes, EA made about 380 million dollars from additional content, according to their own financial update. 380 MILLION DOLLARS. And that was in 2014. And EA has reported that the revenue continues to grow. Think about that. Why would EA Sports make an effort — and spend money and resources — to make a good NFL game if they don’t have to? People will buy it no matter what and literally spend hundreds of millions on a fantasy card game.
It would be one thing if the profits from MUT was used to make the game better, but it’s hard to believe that is the case. All-Pro Football 2K8 has much better animations than Madden 17. It’s been a decade, and still, Madden is playing catchup with 2K Football games when it comes to gameplay. The blocking is better. The tackling is better. The game is just much smoother in general. Go on YouTube and look up gameplay from 2K Football games. It will look better than Madden 17.
There is no way to truly know if there was an NFL 2K17 that it would be better than Madden 17, but we can look to NBA 2K17 to try to figure it out. 2K Sports continuously improves and upgrades its game every year. There are thousands of animations for players including jump shots, dunks, dribble moves, celebrations, taunts, dances, etc. You name it, and it’s probably in the game. Those are the kinds of things that makes the players who they are. Why has Madden been stuck with the same looking — and limited — animations for years? A guy like DeAndre Hopkins catches different than someone like Andrew Hawkins in real life. Not in Madden, though.
Not only has Madden shown little improvement, but it also has been stripped down from what it used to be. The former beloved franchise mode has only taken steps back. “Connected Franchise Mode” as they now call it, is far from a simulation football game. There are no assistant coaches. If you start a CFM as an owner or coach (for some reason they took out General Manager in Madden 17), you have no option to hire your own guys as assistants. In real life, when a new regime comes in, they almost always get their own guys. As an owner, if we want to get a new head coach (because that’s the only thing we can do since there are no assistants), we have to chose between a bunch of fictional characters, instead of letting us try to hire an up-and-coming coordinator from another team. In NBA 2K games, we can hire assistants from other teams, so if NFL 2K was still around, we probably would be able to in that, too.
NBA 2K17 MyGM mode completely blows Madden 17’s CFM out of the water. First and foremost, the games are realistic in 2K. There is literally a gameplay option called “simulation,” which is what Madden is supposed to be, but isn’t. If you play 2K on simulation, you will get a realistic basketball experience. There will be more fouls, the computer AI will be more intelligent (so you won’t be able to just pass without thinking), and more. Madden is not simulation at all. There are almost no punts from the user or computer (most drives end in a score or turnover). It’s almost impossible to have a low-scoring, physical game like in real life.
I cannot think of a single big improvement that EA has made to Madden’s CFM. I can think of several for NBA 2K. This year, 2K17 has expansion teams. You can add up to six teams to your league, and then there will be an expansion draft. Like a realistic expansion draft where you get to choose your team name, jerseys, arena, etc. How cool is that? I know I’ll be creating the Winterfell Wolves as an expansion team.
Another flaw in Madden is the trade logic when it comes to offering draft picks being broken. The value of draft picks are not close to the value they have in real life. NBA 2K is extremely realistic when it comes to trades, and if I recall correctly, so was NFL 2K5. So, a game that is over 10-years-old has better trade logic than Madden.
It is not just trade logic, but all logic in franchise mode is gone. Scouting is weird in my opinion. Big games feel like nothing. The new announcers are repetitive already. Worst of all there are no consequences. In 2K, if you are not successful, you are getting fired. The stakes are so low for Madden CFM that it is not even worth playing.
There are so many little things that Madden just can’t get right. If we accidentally hit Y/triangle instead of B/circle, our team will lineup to take a knee rather than spike it, and there is no option to audible. So, if you have no timeouts and the clock is running out, it would cost you a game. Also, where guys lineup is so different this year. It feels like wideouts that typically line-up on the right-side of the formation in real life are always on the left side in Madden 17.
Something else that has been stripped down from Madden in recent years is game-planning. We used to be able to at least choose defensive match-ups. If I have Darrelle Revis, I want him guarding Sammy Watkins and Julian Edelman twice a year. Teams can hide guys in the slot or the other side of the formation and your shutdown corner is useless because he is guarding the fourth option in the passing game for four quarters. It used to be in the game, but it suddenly disappeared one year.
It is also clear the game developers do not have the requisite knowledge of the NFL or football in general to be the creators of the only professional football game on the market. A madden ratings release from July is very telling. For the top 5 quarterbacks, they say about Russell Wilson, “Wilson is a smaller version of our #2 quarterback on this list, Cam Newton.” Have they ever watched the two quarterbacks play? How exactly is Wilson a smaller version of Newton? Just because they both have strong arms and can run? Newton has a lot more designed runs than Wilson. Both are elusive, but Wilson is an absolute magician when avoiding pass rushers. Both are fast, but Newton uses his size, strength, and speed like no one in league history. Wilson is more accurate than Newton, but the two are different style passers. Wilson uses more touch on his passes, while Newton throws darts. Besides both being quarterbacks that can run, the two are very different players.
Patrick Peterson agrees that Madden is a joke. When the top-5 cornerback ratings were released this summer, many would have guessed that Peterson would have been the best corner in the game. But Josh Norman was ahead of him. So was Richard Sherman. And even Chris Harris Jr. — the same guy who was roasted (16/189/2 line) by Antonio Brown last year — was ahead of him. Peterson was fourth best and Darrelle Revis was fifth best. After a training camp video of Josh Norman getting beat by Pierre Garcon surfaced, Peterson took to Twitter, saying “but he’s the highest rating lol madden is a joke.”
The best cornerback debate has turned into what the best wide receiver debate used to be. There is no consensus best, but the Madden developers should at least be smart enough to give Peterson a higher man coverage rating than Norman, who spends much of his time playing Cover-3. Unfortunately, they are not, giving both players 92 MCV rating. Chris Harris Jr. was given a 94 despite the torching by Antonio Brown when he was tasked with manning up with him last year.
Even though the debate about top wide receivers lost some prestige to cornerback debates, the Madden ratings might bring it back up — and that’s not compliment. Many people would rank Jaguars WR Allen Robinson among their top 5 players at the position — I know I would. He has to be at least top 10 after putting up 80 catches, 1400 yards, and 14 touchdowns last year, right?
Not if you ask Madden. They don’t have him top 10, or even top 15. They rank Robinson as the 17th best WR in the game. After the numbers he put up last year, the only explanation is the developers have no idea what they’re doing. Players that you cannot even try to argue are better than Robinson, but are rated higher in Madden, include Larry Fitzgerald, Alshon Jeffery, Doug Baldwin, Julian Edelman, T.Y. Hilton, Steve Smith Sr., and Golden Tate III. No disrespect to any of those players, especially the not-in-their-prime Fitzgerald and Smith Sr., but Robinson should unquestionably be rated higher than them. And he likely would if the people making the game had any idea what they were doing.
A specific rating that is extremely frustrating is Jordy Nelson’s speed. Nelson consistently gets behind the defense because of his speed. I can recall a Monday Night Football game where after the game, Jordy was saying how he might not start fast, but once he gets going, he’s fast. He’s definitely right about that, but not according to his Madden rating. He’s behind guys like Jarvis Landry and Keenan Allen, who while very good players, are not close to the deep threat, and don’t have the top-end speed, that Nelson does.
That stuff doesn’t matter though. EA has the only game on the market so people will just buy it. Madden supposedly has authentic equipment this year, and the cleats and gloves do look good, but if simple things are still wrong, it barely makes a difference. In real life, a few guys wear full arm sleeves every game for one reason or another. Keenan Allen is an example. He wears loose fitting long sleeves and it looks cool in real life, but in Madden, sleeves look terrible. They literally look like they are painted on players’ arms.
Guys that do not even wear long sleeves are the same way. A guy that wears half sleeves, whether on their upper arms or on their forearms, looks like he painted them on before the game. The worst part of the sleeves might be what they added this year. They are talking up adding “arm sleeves” like a lot of basketball players wear, and guys in the NFL have started to wear recently. Le’Veon Bell is the most notable example.
You can look up a picture as see that Bell wears a normal arm sleeve that ends on the back of his bicep. In Madden, though, the arm sleeve is just like long sleeves — from the wrist to the shoulder. It looks awful, and no where close to authentic. One final example from real life is Antonio Brown. Everyone who watches football knows that AB wears a forearm band. But not in the “simulation” and “authentic” Madden 17. Instead, he wears a wrist band. There are no forearm bands in Madden. There were in 2k5.
It is frustrating because although minor, the minor details make the game great. NBA 2K has arm sleeves, leg sleeves, calf sleeves, rubber wrist bands, even finger bands. EA Sports cannot even put a forearm band in the game, or give players sleeves that aren’t painted, or make an arm sleeve actually end. NBA 2K even has mouthpieces, unlike Madden — even though almost everyone in the NFL wears a mouthpiece.
Another reason the equipment needs to be close to 100% correct is because there is also no player likeness. Nothing differentiates players from each other. Punters and kickers are jacked. Quarterbacks are jacked. Linemen are ripped. It looks like an arcade game rather than a simulation football game. The faces for many players are bad, too. 2K gets face scans for all their players. You can clearly tell even the last player off the bench is his real life counterpart. 2K now even does body scans for players. I think EA can put out some of that 650 million to get full face and body scans done for players. Another example of either the lack of effort or knowledge — or both — was evidenced in Madden 16. Falcons rookie running back Tevin Coleman was given dreadlocks in the game. In real life, Coleman has short hair. It was never fixed. This year, take a look at Saints WR Willie Snead’s hair in the game compared to real life. It’s laughably bad.
Weather is another key that is missing in Madden. Snow and rain feels like it has no impact on the game besides some strong winds. And if there is precipitation to start the game, there will be to finish it. Hardly ever in real life is there a game that has rain or snow from start to finish, but in Madden, if it’s snowing, it does not stop. It would be awesome — and realistic — if it suddenly started snowing in the 3rd quarter in a December game in Foxboro.
Finally, the general presentation in the game in unrealistic. For the game introduction, the announcer will say how there is a matchup of two great tight ends or something. It could be Gronk on one side, and Jermaine Gresham on the other, and they still hype up the matchup. In reality, Gresham caught 18 passes last year, and Gronk is Gronk. There is no reason to talk about the tight end matchup coming into the game. Instead, they could use Larry Fitzgerald or talk about the Cardinals’ weapons in general. Also, if the matchup on display is the quarterbacks, and it includes a rookie passer making his debut, the stats will show 0’s down the board. When is that ever shown in a real-life broadcast? They should show the player’s college stats, or even his preseason stats. I guess that would take too much effort for EA to do.
Announcing the starting lineups before kickoff is even worse. A camera glides over the field and shows the units of the defense and offense. They small group of players look at the camera and cross their arms or point or whatever. That simply does not happen. It looks like an arcade game. The presentation during the game proves it. Recently the developers have decided to add experience points and drive goals in franchise mode, so when you get a first down or some other accomplishment, a bubble will appear over the player saying “+100 XP” or something like that. Maybe I’m watching a different broadcast than them, but I’ve never seen players with little XP points over their heads in real life.
At least Madden 17 finally added Team Chemistry to the game. But wait, it is not for franchise mode; it is for Ultimate Team! What a surprise. EA must be more worried about adding content to Ultimate Team because that is where the money is.
I admit, MUT has a lot to it. The cards look good and the holiday promotional stuff is always cool. But there is all this stuff in Ultimate Team, and CFM and the game in general is stripped down. Real NFL fans want to play a SIMULATION football game, like NBA 2K makes a simulation basketball game. Sadly, Madden does not offer it, divulging more and more into the fantasy and arcade genre.
Also, there are things hurting MUT in this year’s game. The biggest is the contract prompt the pops up every 5 seconds while you navigate the menus. If you’re quickly trying to get into a solo challenge or something else, you’ll have to be extremely careful not to add more contracts. I’ve accidentally clicked to add more contracts several times (sometimes because the pop-up is slightly delayed so I don’t think it’s coming).
To be clear, my opinion is completely unbiased. I have no reason to criticize EA Sports for no reason — I was a huge fan of Fight Night games. As a huge NFL fan, I would love for Madden to be great, but it simply is not. There is so much more that can be said about my disappointment with the game. Once I played the EA Access trial and realized there were no penalties in online play, I decided that was it. Unfortunately, I was sucked in by Best Buy’s offer, so I got the game for basically $15. At least I got to see even more flaws in the game.
It would be great if everyone would step-up and not buy Madden anymore until the NFL decides it needs to bring competition back, namely 2K Sports. I don’t think that’s possible, though, because people will continue to buy Madden just because it is the NFL fix all year. Hopefully EA’s new game engine next year, Frostbite, will improve the game and give us the Madden we deserve. If not, I will be forced to sit out football video games and stick to NBA 2K, or even play ESPN NFL 2K5. Because believe it or not, the more-than-a-decade-old game is still better than Madden.