If you missed the details about Career mode and Franchise mode or the new Superstar X-Factor Abilities, you can check them out, too. But let’s get to what is unfortunately the most popular mode in the Madden series: MUT.

 

There wasn’t a ton of information in the blog that EA released, but the changes are actually significant from Madden 19 to Madden 20… and I’m not sure they are good ones.

 

Missions

 

The blog says that Missions offer “a new perspective” on the mode to help guide users on their request for the best items and rewards in MUT. Missions will apparently be “a roadmap to upgrading your squad with items you want,” so I’m assuming that it’s similar to MLB The Show’s feature of the same name in Diamond Dynasty. This is just me speculating because there isn’t a direct example provided, but it will probably be objectives like “throw 508 touchdown passes for a 95 OVR Brett Favre card.”

 

Missions will be based on a player’s MUT level, and more will open up as “different areas of the game” are explored (though that’s likely a little misleading, as I’m sure you need to stay in Ultimate Team).

 

EA is taking a page out of MLB The Show’s book here, but they took the wrong one; dynamic ratings for base cards would have been a much better idea. Maybe next year…

 

Ultimate Challenges

 

Gone are the days of solo challenges. New Ultimate Challenges are a “star-based rewards system” in which you choose the difficulty from one to three stars for a challenge. These new challenges will be replay-able, so you can start at one star and work your way up.

 

Ultimate Challenge Rewards

 

Rewards are granted based on a list of milestones, meaning rewards are earned by accumulating more stars for a category. And while the difficulty goes from one to three stars, you can earn up to five stars for each challenge, as there are two other stars you can get through bonus goals. (So, to get five stars, you need to play on the highest difficulty and reach both bonus goals.)

 

EA says the goal is “more variety is terms of [a player’s] path to earning [stars and rewards].”

 

Logging In and Out of Ultimate Challenges

 

The most welcome change explained in the blog is that you can simply advance to the next challenge after completing one (to avoid the menus). It’s worth noting that you won’t receive all your rewards until you back out of the challenges, but this will definitely save plenty of time, especially for those with a strong enough team to not need to back out for new cards to put in their lineup.

 

Also, Ultimate Challenges can be played with friends if you choose. Similar to MUT Squads, rosters would merge as you take on the computer with a buddy. Personally, I’d rather just grind myself, but at least the option is there for those who want to play with friends. That said, this is very clearly another way EA is hoping to get users hooked on the money-making MUT (by die-hard users inviting people who normally might not play the mode).

 

Superstar Abilities

 

MUT chemistries in Madden 20 will be “significantly stronger” to “eliminate chance and provide more guaranteed results.” In other words—more than ever—you better have the best cards or you will have no chance against stacked opponents. Specific details will be revealed at a later date, but this is not good. Not good at all.

 

Player Archetypes

 

Straight from the blog:

 

Another exciting feature added this year in a continued effort to differentiate players is the addition of player archetypes to Madden Ultimate Team. There are a couple of noteworthy aspects to player archetypes, beginning with the ability to now craft different player OVR calculations for each archetype. Up until this point, we have had to use one OVR formula for each position, and that really made things difficult when it came to spots like tight end and outside linebacker. Now that we have archetypes, we’ll be able to better differentiate a Speed Rushing OLB versus a Pass Coverage OLB or a Vertical Threat TE versus a Blocking T.

 

Also, we will use player archetypes to appropriately offer gameplay abilities to the archetype that makes sense. So, for example, a Field General QB will not have Escape Artist, which allows QBs with that ability to quickly move out of the pocket to avoid the rush and, conversely, a Scrambling QB will not have access to Pocket Deadeye, which gives QBs perfect passing with their feet set inside the pocket. Choosing what you want on the field has never been as important as it will be in Madden NFL 20.

 

House Rules

 

Finally, House Rules will return in Madden 20, and they will be available closer to launch with more flexibility.

 

Overall, I’d say the MUT blog was very underwhelming other than the ability to advance without going back to the menus, so hopefully we hear some good things in Part II of the Gameplay Deep Dive next week.