Madden NFL 25 Review
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It's so much football.
Reviewed on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
It's been 25 years since John Madden crashed through the front cover of your video game like a moppy-haired Kool Aid Man. That's 25 years of digital touchdown celebrations and the Cleveland Browns making it to the pretend Superbowl, just like in their dreams that never come true. For an anniversary so important it warrants messing up a long-established naming scheme, you’d think EA Sports would do more to celebrate it than just put in some retrospective trivia in the loading screens. Unfortunately Madden NFL 25 is more of a run-of-the mill upgrade than a big anniversary edition, but it is still a great version. Madden NFL 25 makes a lot of small improvements that build on last year’s big Madden NFL 13 revamp to create one of the finest football gaming experiences available.
The differences aren’t huge, and hard to spot at a glance, because most are under the hood. Over a few games, though, it becomes apparent that Madden 25 doesn’t screw up as much. The Infinity Engine 2 physics got a lot of tweaking, and players look more realistic than ever in action. Each tackle feels and looks different, with players tumbling to the ground in myriad ways, but this year they do it without the crazy splaying legs and linebackers comically tripping over a downed receiver after a play. The cartoonish goofiness that took us out of the experience is gone, and Madden feels one step closer to replicating the look and feel of a real NFL broadcast.
The other noticeable enhancement to moment-to-moment play is a much better set of tools for the running game. Maneuvers like spins, dives, stiff arms, and hurdles have all been improved and expanded, making great running backs and tight ends more awesome to play with. If you’re playing with a superstar athlete like Adrian Peterson, you can use a new Precision Modifier to really amp up the moves – if a player's stat in, say, Hurdles, is high enough, he can leap greater bounds, jumping over diving defenders. It's tough to pull off, and can only be done with the superstar athletes, but it's so satisfying when it happens.
All of the modes from last year's game return, with some new tweaks that add another fun layer on top. Like in Madden NFL 13, each of 31 online players can decide if they want to play as a coach or as a single player (created, real, or legendary) in Connected Franchise. But now Franchise lets you play in Owner Mode, putting you in control of an entire team's staff, finances, and stadium. For the most part this is just a lot of metagame menus on top of Coach Mode, and deciding the price of hot dogs and jerseys isn’t the kind of thing that’s going to be long-term fun for most. But there is some cool stuff in here, most notably the ability to move teams to new cities. I was pleasantly surprised that when I decided to move my St. Louis Rams I was encouraged to pick Los Angeles, and when I did the mode's faux-Twitter stream mentioned the return of LA's prodigal sons. Owner Mode is a novelty to some extent, but it's a well done novelty, and adds a new way to play the already expansive Connected Franchise.
When playing Franchise as a created character, the mode has been improved by offering way more opportunities to earn XP and raise your stats. Arguably it might be too big of a boost (I became the best quarterback in the league in my rookie season), but it definitely streamlines your progress.
Another feature brought back from a few years in exile is Madden Ultimate Team, the combination online season/trading-card game. It features the return of Team Chemistry, which gives you boosts if you match up players’ styles with each other. A Long Pass QB gets a bonus if he has a Wide Receiver who can make it down the field. Again, it's an extra metagame, but I really enjoy it for its strategy and rewards. I wish this mode had more offline play to offer, though I love that EA Sports has used special rare MUT cards to incentivize Madden's new Skills Trainer (essentially a tutorial mode). Learning the finer points of the game is a lot cooler when I'm being rewarded for it.
When Madden's presentation is at its best it’s awesome, making me feel like I'm having a real Sunday afternoon experience. But all too often it dips into sub-par territory, and all of those seem like small things that were disappointingly not addressed. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms provide excellent commentary, sounding natural and well-timed. It’s some of the best I've heard, in fact, but there's nowhere near enough of it. By the end of the season I was sick of hearing them, no matter how excited they sounded. Likewise, seeing the same few touchdown celebrations I griped about being reused last year show up again is a tad discouraging, and sucks some of the thrill out of victories. On top of all that the presentation suffers from a few glitchy hiccups. News recaps and tweets occasionally say my team barely won, when the final score is 35-14, and sometimes the announcers get confused about which quarter it is.
I love that EA Sports is finally prioritizing the efforts to make Madden NFL look like real football, but it comes up short in those important spots. Other sports games are lightyears ahead of Madden 25 here, and while it seems like a superfluous thing, it makes a big difference.
The Verdict
With its incremental but noticeable improvements, Madden NFL 25 is the best football game experience I've had to date. It shines on a technical level, but the real issue with the series is that other sports games have improved so much faster that Madden 25 looks and feels dated by comparison – fake Twitter streams and pre-game montages are already old news. It would be better if EA Sports did more that was new and interesting rather than bringing back features discarded in previous versions. But the real meat-and-potatoes gameplay is better than ever, and when it comes down to it, we’re here to play some damn football. Madden 25 brings it with bone-crunching intensity.
8.5
Great
Madden NFL 25 focuses more on football than presentation. It's beautiful and plays great, but lacks some personality.
Comments
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This why I only get my sports gaming news & such from OS
that review was so general, it could be used for almost any madden review -
In other words -- it's a roster update for $60.
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Wasn't really crowded for the midnight release I'm assuming people are either tired of ea putting out another glorified roster update or they're just waiting for the release of the next gen consoles!!!
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I might not ever buy another Madden game
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My bro has had this game since Thursday... It's the same old shittt... players still disapper.
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is it worth the buy/borrow(i dont buy sports games
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Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!!
Bring back 2k!!!! -
Its terrible my boy copped it and was convincing me to do as well so we could get a career mode franchise thing going. Running game controls improved, minor tweaks, but it is basically a roster update. These companies getting paid to put out these reviews. I give the game a 4...zzzzzz EA needs some competition
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I'll see how Madden is on PS4. Just to see the next gen improvements (if any). If it isn't good I'm done with EA.
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Gamespot gave it 6/10...Why buy Madden when its only gonna get shelved after Sept 16th? $60 for not even a month of playing...
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? ea sports...gotta wait for some update cause this ? slow af
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bought it midnight and haven't played yet smh
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Sane cliche things being said about madden .
I vouch for this madden. They cleaned up the infinity engine and the ccm engine.
They added the modifier and speed burst and I gotta say this is the best running game ever in madden .
The option and triple option work as advertised.
This game is a step up in almost every direction. -
Recievers still don't come back to the ball and will watch the cb pick it .. I mean they literally will do the curl and just stand there.. and if it ain't thrown right into there hands they won't come to the ball at all
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will grimey wrote: »Gamespot gave it 6/10...Why buy Madden when its only gonna get shelved after Sept 16th? $60 for not even a month of playing...
I wouldn't mess with gamespot they've been hard on the current gen games since the systems were released. Prime example would be the fact that they gave the first bio shock & gears of war around an 8.0!!! -
will grimey wrote: »Gamespot gave it 6/10...Why buy Madden when its only gonna get shelved after Sept 16th? $60 for not even a month of playing...
I wouldn't mess with gamespot they've been hard on the current gen games since the systems were released. Prime example would be the fact that they gave the first bio shock & gears of war around an 8.0!!!
Same with Skyward Sword and Last of Us -
thats the thing @willgrimey ? are gonna always play madden 2k and COD no matter.. you cant play GTAV 24/7 .. youll burn yourself out.. youll wanna take a break no and then to get some other games in for a few ticks
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kanggoodie wrote: »Recievers still don't come back to the ball and will watch the cb pick it .. I mean they literally will do the curl and just stand there.. and if it ain't thrown right into there hands they won't come to the ball at all
Sliders make things happen
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soooooo...quick question...i just copped Madden 13 like two weeks ago(finally got another XBox) used for like $25 and i wanna get the '14 and wouldn't mind trading in all my other games for it...should i juist cop NCAA14 instead(for the draft classes) and update the rosters online?...or should i just buy the Madden for cheaper than the $60(im assuming my games can knock off at least $10-15)
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Mcnabb was on the cover of madden last time i bought it.
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last madden i bought was Madden 10 (until recently)
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kanggoodie wrote: »Recievers still don't come back to the ball and will watch the cb pick it .. I mean they literally will do the curl and just stand there.. and if it ain't thrown right into there hands they won't come to the ball at all
Sliders make things happen
do sliders work for online tho? im talking about playing against other people not cpu
EDITED grammatical errors -
Just came in today at my job. They're is a patch that fixes a few bugs like the invisible player(s) glitch.
I'm not an online guy. I run the owner mode for like 15-20+ years. Once I find the best sliders for the game, then I'll be set. I don't even get mad at EA anymore. I understand that we'll never get a true football game. Its the only NFL game out. I want to run a franchise with the Saints. Go through the draft and scout players. That alone excites me. The gameplay is what it is and I've come to grips with it. Gameplay-wise Madden hasn't been good since when Mike Vick and Ray Lewis was on the cover. -
Aight @kanggoodie when u want yo ass beat?
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kanggoodie wrote: »thats the thing @willgrimey ? are gonna always play madden 2k and COD no matter.. you cant play GTAV 24/7 .. youll burn yourself out.. youll wanna take a break no and then to get some other games in for a few ticks
Which is why I'm taking my time with Last of Us...Plus I'm copping 2k14...
But let's be real, I can play GTA for days without blinking....
