We've gone on record several times that we no longer purchase Madden nor have the intent to, but we don't ridicule those who do or players who support the progress of the franchise. We opted out because progress is slow and the game at the core values money routes, high percentage actions, highlight based ratings and unbalanced gameplay elements over matchups and strategy. Why does that matter? Because it reduces the game to a contest of 'using the popular exploit' or overpowered new feature rather than one where tactics can be countered using a variety of methods. The sad or encouraging news [depending on where you stand] is that other than the ratings, the game is only a few critical tweaks away from being a platform where unbalanced elements are no longer an issue.
While we understand the need to put the leagues newest craze into the current version of the game, without checks and balances it has the potential to upset gameplay that is already weighted too far in favor of the offense. After some testing in the demo we can plainly state while Madden 25 appears to have counters in place, the introduction of the Read Option scares us, and it should concern you as well. Why? Because the offensive philosophy behind the read option requires a defense to commit a defender to a specific player or intent by the offense. Historically Madden hasnt done this very well, but the new system put in place to allow defenses to commit can change gaming if its done well.
Still, we need more control over the actions of specific defenders if Madden is going to take the next step. Right now I dont have the ability to tell my defensive ends to hit the QB on every read-option play or my MLB to hit the HB. This may seem excessive but allowing us to customize more aspects of our defenses is critical to closing the gap between offenses and defenses. Why? Because as we saw in the demo, Madden defenders are prone to be clueless and do things we can only describe as foolish, stupid and idiotic. We suggested a similar commit feature months ago and we think this is where the future of sports games lies. Our sports games have never been able to properly let us use strategy when we know what our opponents intent is and its past time they did. The fact that Madden players rarely have to vary their gameplans and can still run play action on 3rd and 20 and have defensive ends tackling the halfback is embarassing beyond words. Opponents are still fooling the AI instead of tricking the other user and this shouldnt be the case.
We applaud the addition of more defensive tools but its not only important that we can make our defenders aware, but that we can select what defenders do specific things. It does a defense no good if a corner comes up to stop the read option all while abandoning his coverage assignment. All that does is make us vulnerable to a deep passing play when our opponent uses the passing variation of his read option plays. Make no mistake, the Read Option has the ability to run wild in Madden 25 especially since we haven't seen a major campaign detailing the ability to commit on defense. The ability to Commit on D should have been highlighted as much as any of the new features.
Over a year ago we went into detail regarding how quick wins by D linemen, dislodges [hits that break up receptions] and other elements like more bat-downs by linemen [especially ones pressuring the QB] and the lowering of QB accuracy could turn Madden into a much better representation of football. We have played the Madden Demo extensively, and listened to feedback from others as well. In some instances we felt like we were playing a different game than others were. We found dislodges to be better done, but still not up to par. Contact just after the ball arrives should lead to more breakups but Madden Devs, still too concerned with casual fans who expect a receiver to catch any ball that touches their hands, are still holding back. The result is a game where the elite passers in the game can easily go 29/30 if they focus on high percentage throws. Two years ago we lowered WR catching to 25 and the entire game changed [we also lowered QB accuracy to 45] Elite QBs & WRs were still elite, but all of a sudden it mattered if the guy you were throwing to was covered or not. OS poster Van Wolf Hawk said it best talking about the high completion rate of throws like curls and slants: 'It's horrible, a game breaker for me. I hate having to police myself. I passed on last years game for 1st time in the history of the franchise. I can't get the game until these issues are fixed.' He's right too. Not only because users in the winner-take-all online won't [police themselves] But because policing is counterintuitive to winning. Why wouldnt a player use everything at his disposal to achieve victory? Simply put, there must be balance between offense and defense in order for Madden to be taken seriously as a competitive game.
And the only people who can give that to us are the Madden Devs. Sooo..Your move, Tiburon.
We would like to personally thank twitter user TyfromPhilly for his attention to detail on this piece. The first version of this article had critical errors that for all intents and purposes rendered it bad propaganda. We value accuracy at the Sports Gaming Blog and we'll use this instance to make sure we do the appropriate testing in the future.
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