Madden 21 - same as 16-20.
Nothing has changed. EA won't stop until people stop being stupid and giving them money. EA is a crack dealers at this point.
https://youtu.be/UX5_6M5LLwA
Worst game ever acco ding to Metacritic user score.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/madden-nfl-21
I am going to have to disagree here.
Madden 16 IMO was the best playing Madden they ever made. CPU QB AI was pretty on point. Fatigue and auto subs worked really well. It played a very good game of football. I still play Madden 16 with some classic rosters sets, 1986,1990, 1999 (32 team control with me creating the coaches for those years and using generic playbooks for offense and defense). I have a blast with that game. The Franchise mode though had some fatal flaws (The XP System on this one was not well done and player confidence was far too OP to have a multi year franchise).
Madden 17 they began adding good features to franchise mode (Full player editing, XP sliders, practice squads, more streamlined and better draft scouting, confidence mechanics reeled in, better XP player development). However the gameplay went 5 steps back.....Madden 18 gameplay again...not good. Madden 19....massive mess with patches and updates breaking the game.
Madden 20 made some nice strides adding superstar and X factor abilities to give the star players true ratings differentiation. They also added ratings spreads, and proper rookie ratings spreads. They really improved the fictional draft classes (and Madden 19 finally allowed custom draft classes BTW which some people love). They also really improved the playbooks to reflect the modern day game with a full array of RPO’s and they added a nice scheme system that you can match up with your personal. They also improved the depth charts and adding specialists (power back, scat back, return, pass rushing LB, DT slot WR etc etc) They added coaching adjustments which are really nice to use and work.
However Madden 20 still had a crappy ### CPU AI which never was the same from Madden 16 (CPU AI and CPU QB’s in particular were great on Madden 16) They also lost the player movement and tackling from the Ignite Engine when they went to the Frostbite Engine. I hated the move to Frostbite from Ignite.
Madden 21 however is killing it. The CPU QB AI has never ever been this good. I am telling you the QB;s act and play like their real life counterparts. Scramblers scramble. Pocket passers step up in the pocket. Even QB;s who are not considered mobile but have great pocket presence move in the pocket and have far better awareness of the pass rush. Also they added a new “Throw out of sack” mechanic which works amazingly well. QB's now flutter balls when being hit, have higher rates of inaccuracy under pressure or while being hit etc.
RB’s and WR’s feel weighty, have foot planting, change of direction ratings.....they don’t simply glide on a dime lie they Traditionally did.
The crying is from all the so called sim heads (and I am a solo offline franchise player BTW) who moan and complain about franchise mode not being touched. That may be true.....but I don’t need endless menus and text menus inside franchise mode to have fun. I want gameplay to amazing. And Madden 21 does a great job of gameplay this year. Best since 16 hands down.
Now of course they are already deploying a update on 9/10 that will change up the “throw from sack” mechanic because all the E-Sport players are moaning incessantly about how they cannot get as may sacks and fumbles anymore....it is a joke. Twitter is raging from this amazing new simulation like feature.
That is the problem. EA does not cater to offline franchise players....they moved on from them after Madden 16. If any complaints come from the competitive online players....they are heard and patched. Period.
I am making sure I will not DL any gameplay updates for Madden 21 from this point forward. 1.04 is the last patch I DL (no gameplay fixes, strictly stabilization fixes etc).
The game is far from perfect. The presentation....SUCKS BALLS. No NFL Authenticity what so ever on that department. They have ESPN and NFL Network and refuse to use it. The broadcast team is crap with the same old tired lines, no tv style lineup intros....it is bad.
But I can look past that because the gameplay this year is so very good. Best I have ever played. And I have played Madden since Sega. I am a OG Madden player.
So play it for yourself. Because right now it is so trendy to bash EA....and I do not cut them a lot of slack. But I also will credit them when they get it right.
Gameplay for solo offline franchise players has never been better. Franchise mode works well and is good enough for me to have a lot of fun in my virtual football universe.