It's a whole new Madden, but not without flaws!

[ShelLuser]

Hi gang!

Figured it might be nice to share some of my first impressions with y'all, also because some Steam features (like screenshot uploads) are still blocked for now.

Generally speaking I am very impressed with what I'm seeing. The whole game has been streamlined and really feels more, well, professional? Take the main menu for example: that's now an actual menu: a vertical row of entries on the left side of the screen, ready for you to pick while you get to see some cool animations in the background.

Speaking of animations: I really like the new red/black theme: when a new game loads you get to see a sick red football turning while the NFL logo becomes visible, all with red outlines showing. It looks very slick and plain out menacing.... Same applies to the main logo: the main star shown all in red, this has 49'ers vibes all over it, and I'm loving it!

But... it's not all good. For exampe... Ultimate Team... why can't I see my current points and level and what not while I'm in the store? That is sloppy! Turned out to be glitch (reload fixed it), but it's still sloppy!

I also can't help notice that my controller sometimes misbehaves, especially in the settings screen. I press 'B' to exit and my current selection moves up, but I can't exit? I press RB and/or LB and suddenly I get an empty screen: "NO FILES". Errrr, whut? Or it suddenly asks me out of the blue: "Reset settings?". Errr, no?!!

Oh right... and in trainingscamp the game refuses to award me a medal for passing the "capture mechanics", even though I passed 6 out of 6. It just refuses to acknowledge this, and won't give me a medal. Oh right, the game insists that you press LT to show the playbook on the field (at the line of scrimmage?) but that's actually RT.

No, this game is not perfect.... but still so much better than '24. Even the music is a lot better, you don't get constantly bombared with rap crap but... <gasp>, actual music! So far I can't be bothered to turn this down, I'm actually enjoying it. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against rap music, I even like several songs even though it's not a favorite. The reason I mention "crap" is because this was all you heard in '24 (and 23 and 22). I got sick of it. But not anymore!

Better team logos, the playbook selection also looks nice, the sound is good... loading times seem a bit long at times, but the game itself runs a lot smoother than I anticipated.

I also enjoy the new mechanics... trying to make a field goal actually requires some effort now! No longer just timing your A press a little, you now need to take care of aim, strength... it's awesome!!

All in all... this is an amazing game I think. I'll be spending plenty of time here :)

Thanks for reading, an actual review is of course gonna follow too, but for now... figured I'd share. Hope you enjoyed.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

An actual review is of course gonna follow, too.

Hopefully after sixty to a hundred hours.

Don't be that guy who reviews video games after two hours.

It was released at 1 o'clock. It's been out for 2.5 hours.

I don't play Ultimate Team. I'm a Franchise aficionado.

[lefty1117]

Yeah coming from a massive two week binge on CFB 25 I have to say ... damn I'm actually pleasantly surprised with this. I'm playing via the EA app on the Trial, only played Franchise exclusively today and yeah. The presentation is really nicely updated, it's slick and smooth. The game performance is good, i'm running max settings 1440p on a 4090. I don't know what the frame rates actually are but it's completely smooth. I don't even see some of the hitching I've seen in past years.

Gameplay feels fast like in CFB. In fact you can see the similarities even in the way some of the play options are laid out ... I'm not complaining just an observation. I'll try some other modes but so far in Franchise, while it's not a complete overhaul the polish they've applied makes it seem really fresh. And most importantly the servers haven't fallen over. We'll see if this positive impression continues but so far it's not a dumpster fire.

[Bordric]

Its much better and immersive with fans now and the players on the field are mostly realistic a few glitches of course but nothing horrible. Enjoying so far.