Madden NFL 18

You don’t always need a huge step forward to make a big difference, and Madden NFL 18 exemplifies that. Sometimes adding something new, while also polishing the already established stuff makes for a fantastic experience. Longshot is engaging without being truly time-consuming, and this year’s Madden Ultimate Team is probably one of the most fully featured Ultimate Team-like concepts implemented by either 2K or EA. The fact that you can play three different ways definitely opens up Madden to more players is beautiful in both theory and practice. Madden NFL 18 is near perfection, and I couldn’t ...

A common complaint of yearly sports franchises is that releases often feel like a mere roster change, or a fresh coat of paint on an already existing structure. Obviously large sweeping changes take time to introduce, and only so much can be done in a year, so these complaints do sometimes hold some validity to them. I don’t suspect any of these complaints will be lobbed at Madden NFL 18, though. EA Tiburon has done a lot for the 2017 installment of their football giant, and that hard work has paid dividends.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

Madden NFL 18 is one of the best Madden games I have ever played. It’s accessible to new players and offers brand new experiences for seasoned video game football vets. There are some years when Madden just doesn’t have the right feel, and I usually will be the first to tell folks to hold off on buying the game. But this is not one of those years. 2018 is coming, and Madden is ready to give you hours of awesome gameplay experiences.

A brand new story mode, run through the Frostbite Engine and various play styles, Madden NFL 18 truly is "Madden for everyone."

The shift to the Frostbite Engine definitely lets Madden NFL 18 look fantastic, and Longshot makes great use of that to tell a short but powerful against-all-odds story. MUT Squads also opens up a new way to play with more than two players. But beyond that, the underwhelming feel of gameplay improvements and lack of much of anything new within Franchise, Madden NFL 18 sails wide-right in the final seconds. That said, being a much better-looking version of a solid football game with a great new story mode makes it at least a significant improvement, even if it’s more incremental than we’d hoped...

Madden NFL 18 is a breath of fresh air in the franchise, highlighted with Longshot, a new engine, and more accessible game modes to round off the package.

Last year, I was down on EA Sports’ powerhouse NFL franchise. I had an overwhelming sense of disappointment with Madden NFL 17. Sure, the gameplay was as tight as ever and all the hardcore Madden fans seemed genuinely satisfied, yet I didn’t feel like there were any significant innovations. It felt more like an expansion or an upgrade. This year, however, is a different story. Madden NFL 18 feels fresh. They’ve ditched the Ignite engine in favor of the Frostbite engine and the implementation of a compelling single player story mode is something the franchise has never done. I finally feel like...

Fans are sometimes confused by the players NFL teams draft. Players are taken at positions the team is already strong at, while weaknesses are seemingly ignored. Fans deem some players a reach, and don't understand why their favorites weren't drafted. A coherent philosophy is not always apparent from the outside looking in. Madden NFL 18 produces a similar reaction. It plays to its competitive/hardcore side seemingly at the expense of its career-focused Connected Franchise mode (CFM), and its Longshot story mode is an entirely different kind of experience. But Madden 18 can't easily be charact...

But is it successful?

Yes, the football season may have just started in the UK, but across the pond, something different is going on: the football season is about to start. Not the one with feet or balls, mind you, but one even more complicated and technical, a sport in which “PA Max Protect” actually means something.

Madden NFL 18 marks a second consecutive year of Madden football in a holding pattern.  Features and additions to this year's game either just don't feel noteworthy, or miss the mark entirely.