![]() ![]() These include creating your own team, bringing in the latest NCAA draft class to your game, and even the presence of referees on the field just to name a few. Just look at all the features that have been removed from the series over the years. One could even make the case that the franchise goes backward instead. In contrast, change in modern Madden games happens at a snail’s pace. As a longtime player, I still remember when every year would bring significant changes in the graphical or gameplay department. This brings up one of the key issues with Madden in the modern era. All in all, however, visuals and presentation do not see a significant leap from last year’s version, especially when playing on the same console. We even got a good chuckle from one pre-rendered scene, a recreation of the Tom Brady high-five meme. It also adds some new player animations on the field that make certain interactions such as reactions to tackling, sliding and diving look more realistic. Madden NFL 22 does add some new twists to the presentation such as the game’s menus and play arts. That’s when I realized that both of them played Madden NFL 21 on the PS5 last year. “It doesn’t really look that much different than last year’s game,” one of them said. So I asked them what they thought of the visuals. I thought it was odd, especially given how one of them, in particular, would always comment on the graphics every time we played a PS5 game. As I found myself thinking that the game looked nicer compared to last year, I noticed that my two cousins weren’t even talking about that aspect of the game. In comparison, Madden NFL 22 looked much crisper and detailed even on my ginormous 80-plus-inch, big-screen TV. I remember Madden NFL 21 looking dated to me when I gave it a spin last year. Will Madden NFL 22 bring back that loving feeling? Or is it gone, gone, gone like Tyreek Hill seeing daylight during a punt return? Behind the line of scrimmageĪs someone who played last year’s Madden NFL 21 on the PS4 instead of the PS5, the first thing I noticed was how improved the graphics were, at least on the latest consoles. To give the game the benefit of the doubt and get a second or even third opinion, I invited two of my younger cousins, who are some of the biggest Madden fans around. I started thinking, “Maybe it wasn’t Madden’s fault.” So when I received a review copy of Madden NFL 22 for the PlayStation 5, I decided to give the series another chance. But I’d put down the controller after a day or so and never pick it up again, at least not for a Madden game.Īt the same time, I also wondered in the back of my mind if this was a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” After all, the game continues to sell like hotcakes, with last year’s iteration setting sales records. I tried the game intermittently in between, including last year. Or cold turducken for you true John Madden fans out there. For the next several years, I stopped playing Madden cold turkey. I honestly felt like I was going through the motions - that I was playing the game not because I was excited for us to have quality time together but because it was something I’ve always done.Īnd so I stopped. But I noticed that I was starting to focus more on its faults instead of the things that I liked about it. I still spent some quality time with the series in the following years. And while I liked the game overall, I could also feel like I was drifting apart from the franchise. The last time I reviewed a Madden game was way back in 2014. But I’ve also stopped yearning for it to be a part of my life. I still treasure the wonderful memories born from more than two decades of playing the franchise. You don’t forget your first love after all.įast forward to the present and my feelings for Madden are akin to that of an ex-boyfriend. Even as we started dabbling in competing games such as Visual Concepts’ NFL 2K series, which we loved and bought every year as well, Madden continued to have a special place in our hearts. As 16-bit consoles gave way to newer, more powerful successors, our affinity for Madden prevailed. Like the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, getting Madden became a new annual tradition for my brother and me, a source of comfort in a strange new land that helped us acclimate and feel like we belong. For me, however, it was the year that I got bitten by the Madden football bug.Īs a young immigrant who fell in love with American football, I remember getting “John Madden Football ’92” for the Sega Genesis. For many people, 1992 signified the official end of the Cold War. ![]()
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