This was my first time playing a Madden Game since Madden 18. Since that time, all I had had seen were sloppy absurd madden clips of errant catches, fumbles not being recovered properly etc etc. Against better judgment, I picked up Madden 24 and found it to be the same usual Madden antics that are alright. There's weird glitches in superstar mode in places I wouldn't expect like with dialog or day to day options your character can choose. As for the gameplay, I will give credit and say this feels the most realistic madden I've ever played (keep in mind my last time touching Madden was '18). I was playing all pro Superstar mode and there was no margin of error for my mistakes. I couldn't play sloppy and not have the consequences come back to bite me in this. I felt the pressure of trying to be a rookie/sophmore qb and being selective and purposeful with your deep and medium throws. In previous experiences, I would just throw Four Verts, PAs and slants but the defense AI mechanics felt tougher in this year's all pro compared to previous editions I've played. X-Factors and Team Advantages were a cool kick too.

My previous experiences with madden were primarily on the PS2 and the last I owned was 09 on the PSP, so now I that I have an up to date non-Nintendo console for the first time in a good while, I thought I'd see what had changed with Madden. As you can probably guess, the answer is "not all that much." Well, not all that much except it now runs like dogshit. The damn main menu brings the PS5 to its knees and both performance and quality mode hitch like hell despite not even being all that impressive-looking compared to what this machine is capable of. It's clear that the yearly cycle of Madden has taken its toll, and I imagine something this rushed and barely functional is all the developers could manage while ensuring the next one releases on time.

It's sad, just about the only novel addition I've found is a mode reworking the Create-A-Team of old into a loot box-driven affair. I would've tried this out more to assess if it has any value at all but this is where the menus struggle and inappropriately overlap each other the most, a few jpegs with players' faces on them clearly being too much for the Playstation 5. I spent most of my time playing a custom career and planned to log this as completed once I got a ring in that, but I just lost interest after my goofy creation John Darksouls' third season. Didn't character creation back in the day involve a bunch of fun flavor like rolling your parents' professions and such? I miss that. Anyway, this mode is just too repetitive and requires far too much menuing and mindless practice between each game to be worth it. Still, this is where I had the most fun and when you're enthusiastic enough about football it's still a good time. That's the thing: football is fun by default. You'd have to really fuck up to ruin that, and modern Madden isn't yet that much of a disaster.

There are still various projects out there updating Madden 08 for current rosters and such. I'm not going to say that outclasses '24 in every respect, the passing mechanics are a fair bit richer now and for the novelty of being up to date this will probably be what I reach for to play head to head locally, but for the most part 08'll probably serve you about as well and at least the menus will fucking work.

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Side note: This is an example of one of the many reasons intellectual property is bullshit which steals from what should rightfully belong to us all. Football games would be so much better if we weren't stuck with a single company holding the license for the league which is practically synonymous with the sport itself.

The game is very much the same in a general sense. But it is actually a significantly better experience than 23. The animations/camera angles alone make it feel far more immersive. And more importantly, far less game breaking bugs. You can go a play session without something going wrong! Unreal! Revolutionary!

I also like the Minor improvements to player customization.

Thats about it. Would recommend if its on sale if you are playing the hell that is 23