Madden NFL 24 Review (Sax Oh Nator)
Well EA, you've done it. You have made (by far) the worst Madden Franchise game I've seen as a player since Madden 2005. The amount of stupid things that happen throughout your gaming experience is enough to give a 23 year old a heart attack. I primarily play Franchise mode with friends in my time on this game and the amount of problems are truly insane that I must break them down by literal aspects of the game.
For starters, if it wasn't obvious I play as the Miami Dolphins for my franchise primarily on All-Madden and the defense is literally broken naturally that you must alter damn near every aspect of it to play it properly, unless you want Bradley Chubb and Jaelen Phillips dropping into coverage... Now, lets continue with the defensive issues. You cannot tackle. It's literally impossible. The running backs break every fucking tackle - whether its aggressive, conservative or hit stick, they're bouncing off dudes like crazy and the receivers are only slightly easier to tackle. CPU pass blocking is unparalleled in strength, they get so much time in the pocket its crazy, 85 overall speed rusher Jaelen Philips has a whopping 3 sacks through 10 games and 80 overall power rusher Bradley Chubb has just 4 on the other side of the line. The pass coverage reaction is abysmal which is disappointing as I had seen many clips that showed it being improved for this years version of the game, however my DB's who are literally Jalen Ramsay, Jevon Holland and Xavien Howard, get smoked every fucking play and don't play the ball at all; then if you make the coaching adjustments to play the ball you can write off every possible tackle after catch you even had a chance of as they will soar right by them without hesitation. Now, lets by chance say you get an interception... the CPU doesn't worry because the ancient tight end Mercedes Lewis will run down Jalen Ramsay in a straight away going the other direction. No fucking way that ever happens.
Now lets discuss the offense, going inversely to the issues on defense. My players never break a tackle, only time it happens is if I get the spam A break tackle prompt and i hit it, but even then it only shows up when I am smack in the center of 5 defenders so whats the use. My pass blocking is horrendous, like last year I notice moments where my tackle doesn't even touch the defender rushing. I'm running for my life and get unbelievable negative plays as a result and even with adjustments being made such as keeping a tight end in or a half back to pick up some stray blocks it just doesn't matter. Then this fucking momentum meter has some severely stupid enhancements - and let me be clear, I do like the momentum meter. However - in what situation does momentum make it so I don't even know my receivers??? That is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Another issue I run into is in my season with the Denver Broncos I can't throw a go route to save my life. Dude will be wide open with 5 yards separation from the receiver and that sucker gets under thrown every time - its amazing. I have been Tyreek Hill with the ball in my hands on a straight away and a man chased me down running at an angle up the field, again, never going to happen.
Even special teams is broken. I had 3 games in the rain and windy, the wind is not accurate. Playing in clear conditions my kicker can hit from 62 going full power, playing with 13 mph winds going in favor of me the ball came up way short from 59 out. Playing in rain with the wind going 16 mph up and to the right, aimed the kick ever so slightly to the left to adjust for it and the ball went hard left like i was aiming in to section G on my left hand side.
Fix the fucking game. Make the game fair. Make harder difficulties be harder because they play smarter not make them broken and literally impossible to tackle. Make it so they have fucking clock management for fuck sake, for yet another year the CPU will run out of time going into half time on the 25 yard line in clear field goal range when they started their drive with 3 full time-outs. Game has promise but has sever game breaking issues in key spots that make it no fun. I've played madden every year since 2005 on All Madden and I'm 1-9 with the most overpowered team in the game specifically because "I can't play defense" because my players can't make a tackle with 3 people to assist them.