I feel like we’re still waiting on the sort of visual leap that will make us say, “wow, this looks so much better than the PS4 and Xbox One X versions.” An expansive new set of features across the redeveloped Franchise Mode puts you in charge of literally everything. (Yes, that includes winning Super Bowls.) Hire and manage your coaching staff and dish out staff points to upgrade your coaching crew's specialized talent trees. Regulate your team's practice reps, counter your opponent's strengths, and integrate your strategies into play-calling. So when gameday happens you're ready for anything. Oh, and forget about last season. An enhanced scenario engine will ensure that this Franchise season, and every one after it is going to be different. Got all that? Good. Now go win championships. It’s a far more intriguing concept than another college-to-pro story, which are beginning to feel redundant. You can choose how hard players practice, and how reps are split. That feeds into the all-new fatigue system. Practicing harder yields more results, but the increased fatigue can lead to more injuries. It’s an enjoyable, if shallow balancing act. Madden NFL 22 PS4 Review– If you’re like me, you’ve known for quite some time to keep your expectations low with every new Madden game. Every year, it’s a rehash of the previous entry with updated rosters and minimal improvements in an attempt to keep the community happy. Don’t expect anything to change in Madden 22.

As it pertains to in-game presentation, from an excitement and immersion standpoint, Madden 22 does a good job of making you feel the magnitude of a given moment. Madden NFL 22 is more focused on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S this year, fully completing its transition to the new generation of consoles. However, it hasn’t left the Xbox One and PS4 entirely behind. The previous-gen version includes many of the individual improvements to the modes, such as The Yard’s new campaign and updates to Face of the Franchise. However, the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions won’t include the touted Homefield Advantage improvements, nor will they feature the enhanced animation introduced in last year’s version.

See who’s taking home the hardware in the first-annual celebration to recognize the best of Madden NFL 22, decided by user stats at key positions plus expert and community votes. Superstar KO mode introduces NFL teams and rosters for the first time in Madden NFL 22. Play fast games in this co-op eliminator mode featuring dynamic rules, unique stadiums, and icons of football culture. a b Wakeling, Richard (August 23, 2021). "Madden NFL 22 Review -- Momentum Shift". GameSpot . Retrieved August 23, 2021. EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently promised "a massive year of innovation" across its sporting line-up, including Madden 22. More in our news story. Lastly, there is still no create-a-team option or expansion. All of these things or something comparable are available in other sports video games. Because franchise mode is such an important aspect of the Madden experience, it hurts even more to have those features omitted for another year.

After years of justifiable clamouring from fans, EA finally makes transformative changes to franchise mode this year. For instance, you’re now – finally! – able to hire and upgrade coaching staffs across four positions: Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator, and Player Personnel. Each position has its own RPG-like skill tree which enables you to improve coaches in a similar vein to individual players. Learn the best ways to stop the run in Madden NFL 22, how to identify run fits and various defensive formations. The other new addition to Franchise Mode is Weekly Strategies. Here you will select what you want your team to work on, whether it’s playing against the mid-field pass or stopping the run, and you can select from a variety of offensive and defensive tactics for your team to pursue. In addition, you can monitor your players’ health and fatigue. Depending on how a player is performing, you may choose to have them play less reps in practice to avoid injury. From the front office to the field, you’re in charge of literally everything. Dish out Staff Points to upgrade your coaching crew, dominate with weekly strategy and counter your opponent’s strengths.The Yard introduces a campaign mode: Fans of Madden’s co-op mode will find a new campaign mode featuring unique stages, challenges, and bosses. The mode is divided into four chapters, each featuring a unique venue with its own house rules. The Yard is Madden’s “other half” – a surprisingly fully-featured co-op mode that dispenses with any hint of realism in favor of pure arcade silliness. If it’s to your taste, there are plenty of enjoyable hours to be had with The Yard. Of course, even if EA does refine its interface and improve on its global rewards, none of it will matter much if it doesn’t fix Face of the Franchise, arguably a symbol of everything that ails the series. Ostensibly Madden’s flagship story mode, Face of the Franchise is short, pointless, and ugly. It takes a good idea – letting us live out the dream of getting drafted into the NFL and playing out a career – and utterly fails to execute on it. How does Madden NFL 22 differ on Xbox One, PS4, and PC? Being able to play the mode with real NFL teams added something to the experience. It is a much better way to entice players to try Ultimate Team, if they haven’t already, and it was nice to play the KO style under those parameters.

The PS4 and Xbox One versions are also getting updates: While EA's focus has plainly shifted to the PS5 and Xbox Series X, previous-gen consoles will continue to be supported for another year. Graddy confirms that all of the modes should be very similar across all platforms. "So Face of the Franchise is going to be very similar between Gen 4 and Gen. Ultimate Team will be very similar. The Yard and Superstar KO, which we didn't talk about a lot, those that are going to be a fairly similar," Graddy said. "With franchise, staff management will be there, game planning will be there, but some of the other dynamic gameday elements around atmosphere, and obviously the Next-Gen stats gameplay, which is only available on Gen 5, won't be there. But I think our Gen 4 audiences are going to be happy with a lot of the content that they're getting." M-Factors are like X-Factors for entire teams while playing at home, and each team has unique ones based on their location and franchise.The momentum meter, which also is what triggers your team’s M-Factor, serves as a game-long heartbeat for the current contest. When things aren’t swung in your favor, there are on-screen effects that make you feel the anxiousness of the moment (a wobbly screen and scrambled play art), it is all a nice touch.

XBOX ONE game playable on XBOX SERIES X. XBOX SERIES X features and content not available on this product Ramsey is the only newcomer to the club, which shows the exit door to DeAndre Hopkins (WR, Arizona) and Stephon Gilmore (CB, New England). Hopkins drops a point to 98, while an injury-hit season takes Gilmore down to 97.Franchise mode has had a major facelift in Madden 22. You still choose to be a player, focused on your career, a coach, focused on the field success, or an owner who focuses on financial solvency. Practice has been replaced by weekly strategy planning. This allows you to tailor your focus to stopping certain types of plays on defense, and boosting success with certain offensive plays. Overall, I feel like the bar is always set low when it comes to improving the presentation in Madden. Not only does EA have the official NFL license, but the license to ESPN. This includes officially licensed ESPN music too. It would be nice to see some of that incorporated into the Madden series. Just look at ESPN NFL2k5’s halftime show with Chris Berman, a game that came out in 2004, and you’ll realize that EA puts almost zero effort into its game when it comes to presentation. Deploy a team of scouts across the country to find the next NFL superstar for your Franchise. See everything the most in-depth Scouting feature set in Madden NFL 22 has to offer. I’ll be honest, Superstar KO was my second least-favorite way to play Madden 21. I came into this year’s game expecting it to be more of the same, but I was pleasantly surprised. The fact the AI hasn’t seen any improvement over last year’s edition is a big letdown. Not sure how big of a difference the Next Gen Stats Star-Driven AI in the PS5 version changes things, but as far as the PS4 version goes, it’s the same as Madden 21. The current state of the AI heavily favors offense.