There seems to be a pretty regular cycle when it comes to the Madden release every year, so there does come a point where promises start to feel empty and you wonder what has to give. EA Sports will promise the world and assure their players that they’ve listened and are ready to respond, so let’s take a look at some of the key features in their announcement and trailer release for Madden 24.
Cover Athlete
This always attracts plenty of attention and the NFL betting sites appeared to be fairly split on who it could be. Patrick Mahomes is undoubtedly the biggest star but you can’t use him every single year, while Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow were strong candidates after recent breakouts. In the end, it’s Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills QB who will grace the cover of Madden 24. It’s a decision that makes plenty of sense, he’s a very marketable athlete with a pretty unique QB style so he’ll be fun to use in the game, while the Bills are also seen as one of the favorites for the Super Bowl this year with the NFL sportsbooks so it all ties in rather nicely.
Will Franchise Mode be fixed?
Undoubtedly one of the most newsworthy topics when it comes to Madden is the situation with Franchise Mode. Last year saw some improvements with plenty of improvements promised as patches during the game cycle, but some of them never came and it felt like EA Sports were already on to Madden 24.
That’s not to say nothing has changed in recent years, while this year has seen some announcements that a lot of fans have been clamoring for:
- Six trade slots + improved trade logic from the AI
- New Free Agency model and the ability to restructure contracts
- Mini Camp is back in preseason
- New Draft generators
We’ll need to wait and see how it all shakes down, but there are some positives in here for sure.
Gameplay
Critics say that this is where the game has become extremely stale over the years, but there was an interesting new addition last year with a complete overhaul of the passing system that allowed the user to have more control of the QB.
Where the problems have often lay is with the animation-based gameplay and a lot of things feel scripted, the movement and general play of defensive backs just made absolutely no sense at times and your offensive line could also do some fantastically strange things at time – or just nothing at all as the AI pass rush got home immediately.
The big reveal this year focuses on what EA calls “foundational football” That’s a nice expression and it does fit what a lot of players might be looking for. They promise that QBs will have enhanced awareness and behavior, the AI will be much more realistic when carrying the ball and finding where to go, blocking is going to be improved and finally pass defense and defensive back awareness is finally going to be enhanced as well.
All of this sounds perfect if they can pull it off, and it would be a big leap for Madden 24 if the game can actually play and feel a bit like football again rather than an arcade game.
Conclusion
There are other parts to the announcement that may interest certain fans and hopefully, there will be plenty more to come as well. for years its felt like EA were trying to build on something which had no real foundations and was always crashing down around them. If Madden 24 can deliver a game where the fundamentals are there, then this could be a great thing going forward.
