New York Giants: 2015 Madden Review

Aug 2, 2014; Canton, OH, USA; Ray Guy (left) and John Madden pose with bust of Guy at the 2014 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement at Fawcett Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Madden Review: New York Giants Edition

First off, if you come for the most in-depth Madden Review you’ve ever read in your GIANT life, you probably came to the wrong place. Now — that’s not to say that we can’t point you in the right direction and give you some feedback on this year’s Madden and how they did concerning the New York Giants.

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Secondly

, if you swing by the EA Sports website,

you’ll be greeted with

:

It’s Madden Season

Followed by a “SEE WHAT’S NEW BOX“. If you click it, it’ll give you some tidbits like:

"DELIVER ON DEFENSESet the tone on defense with more control thanks to an all-new arsenal of pass rush moves, contain the open field with intuitive tackling mechanics, and play as a team with redesigned zone and man coverage logic all while being immersed in the play from the other side of the line, with defensive player lock cameras. Madden NFL 15 delivers on defense.Player Sense 2.0In Madden NFL 15, Player Sense 2.0 creates the smartest playing Madden ever by improving player emotion, contextual awareness, head tracking, reach tackles and more.War in the Trenches 2.0All-new pass rush mechanics and new animations.Tackling MechanicDefense (still) wins championships.INACCURATE PASSESIn past versions of Madden NFL, any quarterback could consistently shred an opposing defense with accurate passes. But in Madden NFL 15, the quarterback accuracy rating (THA), situation, and scenario have never been more important. In the NFL, not all quarterbacks are created equal. The difference between the haves and have-nots in the NFL often comes down to who is under center.That will also be the case in Madden NFL 15, as players will feel the accuracy of elite quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers."

Typical Madden Hype?

Anyone who’s ever read a game box or user guide for Madden Football understands this is just the upgrade talk that happens every season. To EA, the Madden Scientists are always hard at work to create the most life-like gridiron experience that fans can possibly imagine.

Really, EA Sports is a company that’s been patting itself on the back for over two decades about this game. Sometimes the praise is well deserved, sometimes the praise is just EA attempting to repackage a sure thing. So, what about 2015 Madden? How is it? What is the review…

Madden Review

When you first turn on the game, it takes forever to load on the XBOX One.

Why?

Because it automatically downloads to the hard drive; don’t expect to play right away. As it’ll take a fair amount of time to even turn the game on and finally get to the menu.

Once the game finally comes on, you will be blown away by the movie quality graphics and sound. However, you will quickly be irritated by Cam Newton and guys like Trey Wingo as they refuse to shut the hell up. We know without a doubt that they won’t shut up — we asked them several times to no avail — “mute” becomes the only option. This is just a nuance, but games are supposed to be fun — Madden will never feel exactly like Game Day morning at the studio — so they should probably quit trying to set it up like you’re watching on Sunday afternoon, because you’re simply not. Please EA, put those extra RPM’s into the Science you’re always bragging about.

“EA Sports has created a beautiful engine that should be praised, just perhaps not by EA themselves, every-single-year.” – Will Watts

That said, this really is a pretty game. Sure the ever present annoying music is there, but the game itself is beautiful on the XBOX One. It will make any standard 1080P TV from the last 7 years look amazing. There is no way one anyone can complain too much about the graphics versus the original days of

Madden on the Apple II Series

competing with legendary games like Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo Entertainment System. EA Sports has created a beautiful engine that should be praised, just perhaps not by EA themselves, every-single-year…

For the game play, the graphics on Madden has this slick feature where the closer you zoom-in, the more amazing the graphics get. If you zoom-out, it looks like old Madden and plays somewhat like old Madden, but more crisp. Seriously, everything looks awesome: the tackling, the running, the battles in the trenches… it’s all heavy on pristine eye candy.

The thing the game struggles with and always has is repetitive cutscenes, sack dances, celebrations… you gamers know what I’m talking about. The things you get tired of endlessly seeing after winning the Super Bowl a few times with your favorite team. That said, this year’s game does have a large library of repetitive commentary and cutscenes, so it doesn’t irritate you to the point of wanting to break the game. At least, not after one day.

Madden Modes:

In no way do we claim to know anything about the modes on this game, or what it can do… it literally just came out and there are a lot of modes and training features. The best thing GMEN HQ can tell you is to read the IGN.com review for Madden. They gave the game an 8.7 and talked more about what you’re getting this year in terms of Madden modes:

"THE VERDICTAfter the letdown of Madden 25 last year, Madden 15 feels like a mostly fresh start for the series. The increased emphasis on defensive play, a great new play-calling system, and the return of long-time favorites makes this year’s Madden one of the best in recent memory, even if it could still use work in regards to its stale commentary and longstanding bugs. As a lifelong Madden and football fan, I’m impressed. This year’s game is both exciting and reassuring that EA Sports isn’t wasting opportunities to improve the series."

Madden Review: New York Giants

If you want to look at the Giants specific player ratings, click this. Though we can tell you, it’s not all that impressive.
 
Madden grades are all over the place, for instance… Kansas City fullback Anthony Sherman is good, but is he really a 95 overall? So Anthony Sherman is 8 overall points better than Victor Cruz, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Jason Pierre-Paul?
 
GTFOH-EA…
 
Those three names all have an 87, the highest rating for any Giants player. Your fearless leader, Eli Manning has an 81. Going back to the Kansas City Chiefs, Alex Smith has an 89… little things like this are noticed throughout the game.
 
While the Giants roster doesn’t include S Will Hill… it hasn’t retired David Wilson and, preseason hero Corey Washington is nowhere to be found. Those wanting to play as Andre Williams will find him in the game, but players like Kansas City’s De’Anthony Thomas are also a no show.

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As IGN hinted in their verdict, there is so much to absolutely love about this edition of Madden… It plays smooth, it’s looks incredible, it just doesn’t “seem” like they combed over the details very well. This is an annual problem with the Madden games, as they’re all developed; there seems to be a we’ll fix the bugs next year attitude about the issues.

Yet every single year, the bugs come back and they’re not addressed. Granted, it’s not a big-GIANT problem, but at times it can take away from a fantastic Madden playing experience. Overall, almost everything about this game is absolutely fantastic; except for the same problems and bugs from last year’s Madden, a million years running now.

Regardless, you’ll have an excellent time as you take your favorite team to the Super Bowl and run through the NFL like you’re a genuine “Mara” type owner. If you don’t have 2015 Madden and you are thinking about buying it, get up right now — not later — right now and go buy it. Sure, you’ll be disappointed in a few minor things, but you’ll also be blown away. This isn’t last years’ version.

Get it today, Giants Nation.