John White
Take your team all the way in Madden NFL 17 and put yourself at the center of your team’s Championship run in Franchise mode, delivering new ways to play and more decisions to make. Arm your team for gridiron glory on both sides of the ball with innovative ball carrier feedback cues, defender fake out mechanics and a new, authentic defensive AI system. Experience the most dynamic gameplay analysis with unprecedented depth throughout the NFL season with the all-new, in-studio Madden NFL commentary team featuring Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis. Driven by the most balanced gameplay yet, the deepest commentary in Madden NFL franchise history, along with fun and fresh ways to play modes such as Ultimate Team™ and Draft Champions, Madden NFL 17 is the most complete Madden…ever.
Building on from last year’s installment, EA have really listened to the fans and your feedback has been used to the best of its ability, Franchise mode has been made shorter for more enjoyment and quicker careers. They have included Play the moments mode into Franchise mode, it is a short experience which can be turned on and off at your leisure. It is basically an upgraded super sim mode from past games, only now if your defense is on the back foot on a 3rd and 5 you’re asked to get involved to help the team out, or whether you’re on a 3rd and 10 you need to lead your attack. This feature is awesome to use however to my disappointment you can’t gain achievements whilst playing games in play the moments, which is understandable, even if you take over the game early on and play the full experience, they still don’t count. For them to count you have to select the full experience from the off and then they will start to roll in, the achievements are fairly spread out unlike other EA Sports games that mainly focus on Ultimate Team. This year they have a lot focused on skills trainer which makes you the player a better player overall and helps to learn some of the new features and brush up on old ones.
Whilst in the game some of the new features are so welcome in my opinion you have automatic skill moves which really brings your plays to life and lets you get some extra yards on the field. These automatic skill moves are only automatic when on Rookie and Pro Difficulty, I play on Pro as I’m not the best but I’m not awful either. You can use the skill moves using the LT or RT and either pressing B to Spin, Y to Hurdle a tackle or flick the stick to juke and press A to stiff arm a defender.
Run path assist, this is really helpful for players that aren’t that good at running the ball, shock I’m one of those players, I love passing the ball and find it really easy in Madden 17. The Run Path appears when your desired player obtains the ball and begins to run yardage to gain an advantage. It appears blue when in clear space but red if a defender is in the way, but in my experience, i’ve never seen it red because as soon I run and get a bit of daylight smash I go down like Bambi on ice. But it is really helpful.
Concept Counters is a new feature that lets you identify what the offense is doing and gives you plays best suited to stop it. This can be turned on and off, I personally didn’t really see a difference between them as I played four or five games with it turned off and then a few more with it turned on and still had the same outcomes…I sacked the s*** out of the QB (Quarterback…he is the lad that throws the ball if you didn’t know).
Also in the franchise mode, you have a feature called Big Decisions where you have to re-sign players to new contracts, drop returning players from injuries, signing new talent whether it being a free agent or trades. You get a full experience this year.
One of the big requests coming from the fans was the editing of appearance and equipment and other aspects of your players in your franchise, now this is cool but it can really ruin your game…you can literally increase every player’s ratings and make them absolute beasts on the gridiron, this really can ruin a game for people that decide to make all their players immortal whilst turning off the salary cap they can basically commit crimes in the league. I personally had to refrain myself from doing it as I was really enjoying the franchise.
Draft Champions and MUT (Madden Ultimate Team) is in the game again and hasn’t really improved but hey if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. For years I have been praying to EA to add some of the features they have in MUT like completing challenges to get inform players and boost cards for players. And Finally they have answered in my favorite game Fifa but more on that in the Fifa 17 review. Madden has always given back to its fans and doesn’t  really require you to spend untold amounts of money on packs. You can get packs from playing Draft Champions which is free unlike the FUT Draft on Fifa, you can also complete skills challenges to get top players. But the newest feature they have added this year is a salary cap on your MUT which really makes it challenging and interesting.
The sound of the game is really enjoyable with a host of well-known artists lending their tunes to the backgrounds music and the stadium half time sounds to give it a real life effect. I also found that the Madden EA Trax are to update monthly or weekly through Spotify which is awesome, you get tired of the same tunes over and over again. There are two new commentators now in the hot seats and god are they fun to listen to, they also give advice to the players as well like if you’re on 3rd & 4 and have been running the ball for that play they say whether you should pass or run the ball again. EA started from scratch with the commentary and it shows and gives the game so much more depth. Thank you, Charles Davis and Brandon Gaudin.
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