It's been a running joke for years that Madden is a 60 dollar roster update. To be fair to Madden, I hadn't played one since Madden 15, so trying this should have been spectacular... but... it's just not. See, I still play 15 pretty regularly. I've been following every release and wondering just how these games score so well. I get the standard "don't compare it to previous iterations" in any other genre, but in this anual release format with nary a tangible upgrade to the player experience, lack of comparison seems nearly negligent.
But let's start first with what 19 does right. Its menus? Its graphics (I mean, I don't think they're anything to write home about after my many logged hours of 15)? Probably the MUT mode or online, but I don't play either... so meh? The roster. That's something they do right. Right down to Seattle's linebacker who's missing a hand.
Honestly, everything about 19 isn't anything to write home about. They have somehow made the series feel worse to play. "Real player motion" is fairly terrible, and seems to slow the game to an insufferable crawl. The changes to franchise are superficial at best, while ignoring the most requested features from their core audience. I imagine it's only a matter of time that EA loses the last shred of their audience when the fans of Madden finally wisen up.
The game looks shinier. But that certainly doesn't translate to better graphics. I do like the stadiums, though I find myself wishing the long-wished for audience-immersion (where you would see half full stadiums) was added.
The announce team is up to par, but they don't gel as well as I've seen in the past. Not a fifteen-yard penalty, maybe more of a five?
But the most egregious "addition" I found was the presentation of it all. The game CONSTANTLY stopped to watch unimportant moments between the players, and when given the option to skip it, the skip wasn't seamless, but you were met with an extremely obnoxious EA logo.
At this point, it certainly feels like EA is committed to doing absolutely nothing with the series. So unless you plan to waste your money on MUT, I would pass on this.
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