Madden19 Archives - Shane the Gamer

MADDEN 2019 (XBOX ONE) REVIEW

Nathan Smith — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 10:04:33 +0000

Well here we are again, another year’s passed and another version of Madden has been released.

Madden 19 has been out for a few weeks now and just like the real-life NFL, it both seems to never get here quick enough but also frustrates that it is here so quickly. It’s a conundrum that has plagued me for more than 20 years as a die-hard Madden and NFL fan. I constantly tell myself “I’m not getting next year’s title, it’ll just be the same as this year with new visuals and updated rosters”. Yet I always seem to wake up the day after launch with a fresh copy in my hands.

EA latest rendition is the best yet.

The visuals are realistic, crisp and sometimes hard to decipher from reality, the sounds on the field are more akin to the players being mic-ed up, the menu music is amazing, and filled with current or future hits. But this is what we expect from our yearly Madden upgrade and as great as these things are, it’s not the reason we the invested, buy Madden every year. We want to see the changes to Madden Ultimate Team, Career Mode, or if anything new has been added to Longshot, Madden’s fantastic story mode.

Madden Ultimate Team, for those who don’t know, is where you can compete online against other Madden players to really see who is the best Madden player out there.

The games are set up so that the better you perform against your opponent, the more experience and coins you’ll earn, which in turn you can use to purchase card packs for the opportunity to obtain better players (or points to upgrade your current players). Anyone that has played FIFA Ultimate Team will be very familiar with this mode.

There are some nice offline parts to the mode if playing against others isn’t your thing. The challenges are a nice touch and really help you understand how to play and hopefully master the game from all vantage points. Offence and Defence scenarios are in abundance here and with the ability to restart at any point, you can really hone your skills in one or all areas of Madden.

Career mode is typically my favourite mode to play in Madden.

Being an Owner / General Manager of a flailing team and guiding them back to relevance is really fun if you can pull it off. I was surprised at how many players across every team are rated in the mid to high 90’s. I don’t necessarily disagree with how good they are in real life, it doesn’t feel as special having so many highly rated players as it has in the past. Building your team through trades, free agency and the Draft is a really in-depth and detailed way to play and may not be everyone’s cup to tea but I suggest you try it at least.

Where Madden 19 really shines this year, is with Longshot.

You follow the story of two high school friends, Devin Wade and Colt Cruise, who’s lives have diverted into different directions with Devin trying to take his chance of making it as an NFL Quarterback and Colt trying to get into the NFL. Colt not being offered an opportunity to play the sport he loves and the real-life drama that comes with his storyline carries this mode much more so than Devin but that’s not to say that Devin doesn’t have a compelling storyline himself. The pressure of trying to make an NFL team is well told and provides a good insight into the constant need to perform well or face being cut from the team and potentially never playing again. Again, those familiar with the FIFA titles will find some similarities with Alex Hunter and The Journey.

Just like most other EA annual releases, Madden 19 is a game that is built on the past 25+ years of constant refinement and writing this review only focusing on Madden 19 in isolation would be a disservice to the entire back catalogue. EA is doing a wonderful job of taking what is working well and making tweaks to ensure the three distinctive modes are improved year on year.

Whether you are someone who is looking to take on the best of the best from around the world, you enjoy taking on the responsibility of an entire Franchise on your shoulders, or you’re looking for a compelling story to sink hours into, Madden 19 has something for you. Even if you aren’t a fan of the sport, a good title is hard to come by these days and this is definitely one of the good ones.

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Madden NFL 18 (PlayStation 4) Review

Blair Loveday — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 00:14:11 +0000

Every year a round of sports games gets released, from FIFA to Madden, and each time slightly iterating on their predecessors. For the most part it’s a graphics upgrade, with some gameplay tweaks to make the experience better or more diverse, but more recently they have had a crack at incorporating story modes. This year Madden NFL 18 has had a crack with Longshot mode, but is it worthwhile.

It would be so easy to tell a story told many times. A player is naturally talented, has his slim to no chance, but pulls it out in a game to take the win, and launch him into the NFL. Longshot takes this trope and throws a spin on it with the incorporation of a TV Show.

Devin Wade and his best friend Colt Cruise are football players who win their debut game for the Bullfrogs out of nowhere to launch themselves on a winning trajectory. As this goes down Devin loses his father who was his mentor, and coach at a young age. This results in Devin making a bad call when playing for University of Texas sending him away from the game seemingly forever.

An opportunity knocks for him to take part in a reality show that is designed to get a promising player to work with an ex-NFL coach to try getting good enough to get drafted. Devin signs on and with Colt they work away tirelessly to get his shot.

The story jumps in time between the pair’s successful youth and the present as it progresses. Thanks to some great writing, some good motion capture -except for the odd weird eye movement- and a great overarching story, it pulls on the heartstrings while entertaining throughout.

One criticism I have is the football gameplay moments. The bulk of the game is a visual novel with you choosing certain dialogue options and some other gameplay elements. Each of these add or detract from your score determining your likelihood of being picked in the draft. Other gameplay includes more involved sequences such as recalling plays, throwing balls at objects, QTEs including a strange one where you control a ball mid-flight, and occasional portions of matches.

These matches make total sense in context, but thanks to some shaky AI, they can be unnecessarily frustrating. Take for example I was two feet from the goal on the fourth down, I passed to a player who was two feet away who instead of diving for the touchdown, opts to run backwards five feet and get tackled, ruining the situation for me. This happened far more than I would have fancied, and killed the pace of the story multiple times.

Aside from some shaky AI I also had the game crash on me three times. This happened when I was in the last challenge in a set of challenges, which set me back to the start, cut scenes and all, which was immensely frustrating. These bugs aside, the story was well worth the time, and a great reason to dabble in Madden again for people who have been out for a while.

Outside of the story the rest of Madden NFL 18 is what you would expect. Online play – where people whooped my ass – worked well every time, regular style matches, where you can play careers, a comprehensive training mode and the Madden Ultimate Team mode. Madden Ultimate team allows you to buy cards which you slot in places to load up your team based off current and former NFL teams. This alone has always been cool, but on completion of the Longshot story you acquire cards for Devin and Wade, meaning you can keep their story alive as you see fit.

A new gameplay mechanic called Target passing is introduced this year which is a chore and a pain to master, but it seems like it would be worthwhile if you can nail it. Target passing allows your Quarterback to see the ground in a different way, with where players are travelling and throw the ball to where they will be to execute the perfect pass plus control where your players go and avoid the opposition. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours I still couldn’t nail it, but not using it doesn’t seem to hamper the experience.

All in all, Madden NFL 18 is a worthwhile game, even to beginners. With gorgeous graphics, a great soundtrack, with excellent tutorials, it is not too much to pick up, and a blast once you get your rhythm. Come for the story Longshot, and stay for the hours of content thereafter.

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