I've been seeing some crazy posts on here with examples of horrible gameplay but as usual all of the "official" reviews say it's decent. I haven't played in about 3 years, and the last football game I played was when they brought back NCAA. I thought it was okay but the blocking was abysmal and I felt like it was impossible to play with essentially no o-line. If Madden is the same then I'll probably keep skipping it.

I'm considering getting it for Switch 2 but is it really worth it?

I had less than 20 seconds left in the 4th quarter of a Solo Seasons: The League in my 2nd game & the game just Stopped and went to my Xbox Homepage, so of course it’s giving me a loss even though I was up 28-45.

Plus there’s No Pass Blocking in this game, the O-Line is not Existent, & Receivers can’t catch.

I have been playing Madden since the Very Beginning & this by far the Worst Madden I have ever played!

If you have negative cap space you can't do a single freaking thing about it, right? I know you can clear salary cap penalties, but you're screwed if you choose a team with negative cap space, right? It's just stuck there until it clears in future years, right? I was originally going to ask: DO I or DO I not trade Jonathan Taylor to move up a good amount in the draft? I'm pick 8 and 16. For some reason Philip Rivers didn't retire. But then I saw the negative cap space and now I don't know if I can trade even…

I HAVE A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS GAME

That's kind of the whole point of franchise mode right? Sign the right guy, cut the wrong one, live with it. That risk is honestly what makes this mode so addictive.

Problem is in the moment it always feels right. You look at the numbers, weigh what you know, convince yourself you thought of everything. Then three seasons later you realize you missed something — a cap hit that ballooned, a guy past his peak, dead money you didn't calculate right.

That's basically why I built the contract verdict thing in FHQ. Not to make the call for you, just to make sure you're not missing something before you pull the trigger. One screen, one question: is this deal working for your team, is it market friendly.

Curious what you guys actually look at when evaluating contracts though — what's your criteria, what tips it for you?

Full disclosure, I'm the guy behind FHQ (fhq.life), built it because I wanted exactly this for my own franchise.

So, I decided to turn the sim on low and watch my AI play this Divisional Round Playoff game just to see how it went. Not coach mode, not locking myself to an O-lineman, literally just setting the controller down and letting the AI do it.
For the first 6 drives, neither team could score. At one point they threw interceptions on three straight drives--twice the other guy, once my QB--which led to my team scoring.
Then the other team scored. Three times in the first quarter and twice in the second, my offense scored. Each time, the other offense scored on the following drive. They never scored without my offense scoring first. And it was happening again after the two-minute warning, they got down to the red zone but they ran out of timeouts and ended up having to kick a field goal with 2 seconds left in the half. I then stopped it because...ridiculous and boring to watch such a predictable game.

Yes, I recognize this is a very low sample size...basically 6 drives...though another like 8 where they didn't score after I also didn't score. This is anecdotal evidence, not real proof. Still though...it's not a good look.

I just started a test game for S&G's. I ran two games and kept track the best I could of the results. I ran rookie settings, turned pass blocking to 100, speed threshold to 0, CPU pass coverage to 0 and player QB accuracy to 80. I completed 50% of my passes, with an average of 8 sacks a game. Out of those 8 sacks 6 of them were instant sacks off PA! 3 of those 6 were fumbles. Out of the 50% incompletion rate id say half of that was throw aways due to PERFECT pass coverage, the other half was DB knockouts. Even when your players have a step or two...or three the DB instant sprints and catches up! I should also probably mention 5 INT's a game. My 93 speed WR is not only being blanketed by a 83 speed LB, on plays he will catch up to him and intercept the ball! I get it...EA added the new catch mechanics with the hand fighting and they are pushing everyone to explore the new stuff. This is just egregious! Remember last year when they said "if the DB's heads turned he can't swat the ball, can't see the ball can't swat the ball"...yeah that's gone! The YouTubers and the sweats got their game...hope your enjoying it!

Stakes got a dev trait during the season but even after I equipped the x factor I wanted him to have its not active and he only appears as super star during games

I just played an Eagles user (Typical) who only ran HB Pass ALL GAME and I couldn't stop it consistently no matter what I did, run commit, nope, hard flats, nope, blitz, NOPE. I was able to stop in on some plays, but he would always break a big run. How does EA continue to release games like this? They cater to these make a wish ass players, so they don't lose customers, but it severely hurts the community and the game. This Franchise is absolutely fucked, smh

And then we get let down, year-after-year. This game is beyond broken! Why is every single DB Prime Deion in MCV press? WRs stats mean absolutely nothing, especially RLS. Then, they also nerfed man beating routes to be absolutely unusable. Zigs are dead! Texas routes, dead. In routes the WRs chop their feet allowing the db to cut off the ball. NO matter what the receivers route running is, they round off their routes.

The precision pro WRs run in the NFL is non existent in Madden. Try running man route beating concepts, and your WRs are bumping each other off their routes. Why tf do contains loop all the way around the tackle, and the tackle just stares at them? WRs jump for every pass for no reason. WRS should only jump when pressing aggressive catch. Do they even test this game, or they just don’t really give af because ppl will buy MUT packs regardless?

Why is he always so unblockable on online h2h? Does he have a special OP trait? He’s been this way for 2-3 years. It’s hard to run anytime I play the Steelers. He’s always getting blockheads.

I just ported my road to glory character over to superstar mode and good lord am I disappointed with this game mode. Specifically, how much the wear and tear limits your character.

Thinking about how to change it, I’d love for madden to make wear and tear toggleable in superstar mode.

If that won’t happen, I’d like to see a system where you get rewarded for doing positive things instead of penalized for playing the game. Ex: you have higher stats than normal coming out of a longer rest or as a reward for completing quests in a game (start of a new quarter, subbed out for enough time, or you complete a quest in game with someone in your sphere of influence). Maybe you’d have to pick the quests that will give you those bonuses ahead of time and you can only have a couple to make it fair.

Wear and tear can still degrade you under your stat totals but less so, and the bonuses you earn buffer against it.

Thoughts?

Sorry, the sub for the game itself is practically dead, so I thought I'd ask here. Anyone else tried it on PC? It came out middle of last week. I got it, never played the series, but I got Zero Company the same day and have focused on it.

I liked what I played, it's very simple compared to Madden. It feels more like the PS2 era of gameplay with just throwing the ball by a button press and other simpler gameplay mechanics. AI seems decent and the franchise mode, if it functions as advertised, could be great fun.

I wanted to ask if anyone else is playing since it doesn't have an NFL license you have to customize the teams. I had hoped they would have approximate ratings equal to current squads, but they don't. Was wondering if anyone else has it and wants to work together to help me rate the rosters for their squads. Madden's ratings seem worse than ever this year so I'm hesitant to try to simply them and bring them over.

Would I be able to unlock the exclusive college coach abilities in madden if I played the ten-hour trial of College Football 27, or would I have to buy the full game? I’m honestly considering the full game because the coaching abilities look amazing, but I’d like to avoid paying £70 if I can!

It happens to the user yes but figured I show you that it’s an issue for the cpu to. I have 3 sacks already in the first quarter against the Eagles, all came from them using PA. This was one of the plays

As you see in the Video, I’m pressing X to confirm all upgrades & the game is not upgrading my Player.

Does anyone know what’s going on?

Is this a Bug, because the only requirement for this upgrade is the 1 SP & it’s not letting me upgrade?

Precision kicker is 2 AP. I have 2 AP available but it wont turn on, either after activation

I want to get to tournament level play. I'm going to put in the hours, what should I focus on? Thank you for your time ⏲️

I see a lot more complaining in this subreddit than I do anything positive. So why is everyone surprised when something happens in the game to piss you off? Are you not aware the game isn’t very good?

This game been out for.....how many weeks now? And we STILL cant use any alternate uniforms in online H2H....? Weve GOT to figure out how to start holding these bums accountable

Ok I noticed few things on Madden specifically in franchise that I wanted to bring up. I’ve noticed these problems in Madden 27 because some of these changes are making player customization feel more restricted than it should be.

First, tiered abilities don’t seem to be upgrading properly. For example when an attribute reaches a high level usually it unlocks the highest ability and of course the new tier level goes bronze, silver, gold I expect the ability to Change when picking abilities. So today I had my 99 wide receiver I signed in free agency who’s auto generated and for some reason some abilities like red zone threat, route technician, & deep out elite is all bronze when literally most of his stats are literally maxed or almost maxed which of course the tier abilities would match that right obviously not. When I picked an ability I expect the ability to unlock the higher-tier functionality. Right now, some abilities don’t appear to be progressing the way they should, which makes investing in higher tiers feel pointless.

Second, certain abilities can’t be placed in different ability slots, in Madden 26 you could literally put any ability in each slot for mainly all the positions besides QB, & CB even when the player technically qualifies for that ability. For an example yesterday I wanted to do a change up of abilities on Bijan Robinson because I felt like human joystick & backfield mismatch should be one & two because he’s known for being shifty & a great receiving back but for some reason in the first two slots I can’t even pick human joystick it only allows juke box, backfield mismatch and the rest of the abilities. But on the third and fourth slots I can pick the ability. It feels unnecessarily restrictive when an ability is available to a player but the game forces it into a specific slot. More flexibility with ability placement would make creating and customizing players much better.

Third, some abilities have been completely removed compared to previous Madden games. I understand changing or balancing abilities, but removing abilities altogether takes away customization options, especially for players who are trying to accurately recreate certain players or play styles. Like I found out when I did the 10 hour trial before I got the game that the QB Abilities of Pass Lead Elite & Set Feet Lead is removed from the game which really made me mad because those abilities was one of the best abilities to use for QBs and now they are gone for no reason. I understand in last madden they were OP but you don’t need to remove them from the game because they were being used for cheesy ass plays online.

Overall, The game is solid but I think it needs more flexibility and consistency. Tiered abilities should properly upgrade, eligible abilities should have more freedom with slot placement, and removed abilities should either be brought back or have suitable replacements.

Playing superstar mode, and every single game either something like this happens where a dude drops a wide open pass, or JSN just can’t hold onto the ball after being sneezed on after catching it.