Madden 17

Madden 17 once again marks an improvement over its immediate predecessors.  By building on the Madden 16 catching mechanic by re-vamping the run game, Madden 17 is a blast to play.  The graphics remain stunning and new options for playing just key moments or offense/defense only allow for shortening the length of games considerably.  It also does not hurt that the cover of the game features the greatest tight end in the game, none other than the Patriots star, Rob Gronkowski.

My playoff run started in the divisional round with the Pats hosting the Titans in the snow, who turned in a surprisingly strong season in the simulations.  The first thing I noticed was the newly revamped kicking game, which was disorienting at first, but adds to the challenge of making field goals.  I immediately took to the new offensive controls, marching down the field on my opening drive to go up 7-0.  Following a three and out by the Titans, I did the same thing again, mostly through the air, going up 14-0.  The offense felt great, and everything was clicking, even a few deep passes.  Following a 12 play drive by them that ended in a pick (I should note that the deflection mechanics seem improved), I had a 75 yard run to go up 21-0.  FOR SOME REASON though, the commentary was still saying things that made no sense – at one point noting that the Patriots were “still trailing” in the game and saying a few other things that were just flat-out false.  Regardless, I easily held onto the big lead to set up the AFC championship game.

The match up was once again between New England and a surprising team – this time the Jaguars.  After going up 7-0 on a long drive, the Jags managed to respond to make it 7-7 with just 1:33 left in the first half.  Nevertheless, that was enough time for Brady as I went aggressive in the 2 minute drill to answer their score and make it 14-7 with just 33 ticks left on the clock.  The second half included a short-yardage Blount TD to go up 21-7, a lead that I held onto to close things out.  The CPU's poor clock management at the end of the game was noteworthy though, with little urgency in the final two minutes of the game.  I guess they just gave up, which was fine with me, but questionable AI for sure.
All of this set up the Super Bowl against the Seahawks.  Unlike my first two games, my offense struggled, particularly on third down.  Countless times, I would make it third and short only to get stuffed or throw an incompletion (often deflected).  After defensive stands on both teams, it was 0-0 going into the half.  Just when nothing seemed to be working on offense, a sustained 13 play drive to open the second half got me my first points of the game to go up 7-0 with a Dion Lewis TD.  The run mechanics were working beautifully on that drive, showcasing the positive changes made to Madden 17 in this arena.  I got another chance to score late in the forth, driving to the 9 yard line, but instead opted to run out the clock and preserve the 7-0 win.  After posting 21 in my first two games, the Seahawks proved a more challenging defense (just like in real life), but my defense was rock solid across all three games and kept anyone from being a real threat.

In my final estimation, Madden 17 is definitely the best Madden game on the current generation of consoles.  It continues to build on game mechanics and with the exception of a few strange comments from the commentators and questionable CPU clock management, seems solid top to bottom.  A great time for Madden fans and well worth investing some time into.

Madden 16

The first thing that I noticed in getting into Madden 16 was the addition of a new catch mechanic allowing the player to control the type of catch a receiver makes – aggressive, possession, or yards after catch.  I thought that this new mini-game added a lot to the offense, innovating on an already solid foundation dating back to Madden 13.  A new menu interface also helps to modernize the look of the game, and I found it more intuitive than its immediate predecessors.  In addition to the new catch mechanics and menus, the graphics in Madden 16 have improved even over Madden 15, marking further steady progress.  While load times remain lengthy, I suppose that this is the price paid for such impressive graphics and visual effects.

As far as the action went, I played my first game in the wildcard round against the Colts.  Once again, it was a defensive struggle, made more challenging my injuries to Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski (sadly a realistic development).  A touchdown late in the fourth was enough to put me over the top though, with a 7-0 win in another low scoring affair by me.

For the divisional round game in a snowy Pittsburgh, I decided to take points however I could get them, even field goals, given how rare scoring seemed to be in my games.  When my opening drive stalled at the four yard line of the Steelers, I took three rather than risk getting stuffed.  A Devin McCourtey pick set up my second FG at the end of the second, making it 6-0 going into halftime.  While the halftime show once again confused me by citing the Steelers’ special teams touchdown (what are they talking about?), I dove into the third trying to build on my pathetic score.  I once again drove deep into Steeler territory, but stalled at the 2 and kicked another field goal to go up two scores - 9-0.  However, the Steelers weren’t done and nearly came back after a TD put things at 9-7 and they got the ball back with 1:28 to go.  While they nearly converted as the clock ran out, my D held to preserve the 9-7 win.  Another low-scoring game.

The Championship game at San Diego played out differently, this time with me finishing drives and hitting long field goals.  After racing to a 10-0 lead, the Chargers took advantage of some penalties on my D to narrow the lead to 10-7.  A frantic drive in the last thirty seconds of the half pushed my lead up to 13-7 at the end of the half.  Furthermore, a third quarter TD cemented things, resulting in a 20-7 final in which Brady played great (81% completions).  A slightly more respectable score, but nothing like the real Patriots offense.

All of this served to set up Super Bowl 50 against the Packers.  After a nice intro, a 50 yard screen play to LeGarrette Blount resulted in my first TD with 1:56 left in the first quarter – finally a big play from my offense!  Midway through the second quarter, Green Bay responded with a TD to tie things up, before disaster struck and Brady threw a pick six.  Down 7-14 at the half, I knew I had to finally figure out a way to score if I was going to pull off a comeback.  That moment finally came at the very end of the game with a frantic two-minute drive culminating with a Brady TD pass to Edelman (see below).  This set up a Super Bowl overtime period and a Stephen Gostowski field goal to take the lead 17-14.  A Jerod Mayo pick on Green Bay’s final drive immediately ended the game and set the field into wild celebration.

This final game was without question the most fun I had with Madden 16, which marks a further improvement in the series.  While incremental, additions like the new catch mechanic, smoother interface and improved graphics all move in the right direction.  The series continues to improve and pave the way for future innovations.

Madden 15

Madden 15 begins with a bang, putting the player in a highly scripted opening sequence in which you must control Cam Newton as he navigates the challenging Seahawk defense in the NFC Championship.  This all takes place before the player has even reached the main menu (it only happens the first time you launch the game), but I thought it was an interesting attempt to make the intro sequence more immersive (no more FMV with a Madden rap).

After completing this sequence, there is an option for a skills trainer to get the player acquainted with the new changes to game play.  I thought this was nice, but largely unnecessary for those familiar with Madden 25 or its immediate predecessors.  Once finally onto the main menu, I started a franchise and was pleased to see an option to immediately sim to the playoffs, which saved me from the tedious task of advancing every week manually, one at a time.  While it took some time to sim through every game, it was nice to be able to click a button and walk away before finding my Patriots in the Wildcard game against the Chargers.

Once in the actual game itself, I was immediately impressed by the graphics and the silky smooth frame rate.  Even the crowd animations are improved.  Despite some long load times, upgrading to the PS4 clearly presents its advantages.  As Tom Brady took the field, I was treated to some nice video highlights of his from last season.  The game itself was a defensive struggle, with my (not unusual) challenge of having long, grinding drives that result in few points.  After this rather boring experience, with multiple picks by each QB, I advanced with a 7-6 win.  There are now commercials have been inserted between the first and second quarter (for the Verizon halftime show), with the sponsor changing each game.  I liked the fact that the highlights from the halftime show used actual key plays from the game, and gave the option to view these at any time from the options screen.  The only issue that I had was that some of the commentary was just plain wrong – with the announcer saying that there was a kickoff return from a touchdown at one point, something that never happened.
The divisional match up was at Baltimore, and once again I struggled with ball control, throwing two picks.  Thankfully for me, the Baltimore offense was abysmal (or stifled by my “great” D).  I managed two scores this time, including monster 13 and 16 play drives, leading to a 14-3 win that set up the championship game in Denver.  Once again, I was able to put together some long drives, along with a pick 6 from Jerod Mayo and a safety by Vince Wilfork, leading to a 26-0 shellacking.

This all set up the Super Bowl match up between the Patriots and the Seahawks – the actual Super Bowl match up in reality that year.  While I fell behind 0-3 early after my long opening drive stalled with a goal line stand at the 1 yard line, a TD late in the 3rd quarter put me back up for good.  I was able to tack on a field goal in the fourth to cement a 10-3 final.  In a somewhat strange finish, despite losing by just one score late in the fourth, the Seahawks opted to punt the ball with 2 minutes left and allow me to knee out the clock and win the game.  Whatever.

Despite some wonky stats and strange clock management, I viewed Madden 15 as a small but steady improvement in Madden 25.  The emphasis on defense kept the scoring low, but that may have been more a result of my style of play.  Much of what I liked about that game remains intact, with upgrades to animations and graphics to improve game play.  Overall a fun experience, but still with some bugs, and probably not as good as Madden 2005 or some of the earlier greats in the series.