Madden NFL 15 is full of niggling little issues that upsets players
As usual, Madden NFL 15 is full of these niggling little issues, and they have a way of piling up after a while. The blocking is good, for example, but every once in a while the AI linemen will let a pass rusher go through untouched for seemingly no reason and yield a crushing sack. Attempts to streamline game intros by removing the coin toss-now selectable in the team setup screen-are foiled by the fact that you can't skip large chunks of the intro and halftime, nor even challenges. The playcalling, as much as I like it, can be a chore to navigate if you're looking for something specific. And of course, Owner Mode is still terrible, with the sole reason for using it being to fullfill Jacksonville's destiny and relocate them to Dublin. I could spend the rest of the review explaining why it's really bad, but suffice it to say that the navigation is almost unusable and funds earned selling t-shirts are virtually worthless.
Defensive play of Madden NFL 15 gets a big boost thanks to a new camera perspective that peers over the shoulder of your selected defensive lineman. It’s an intentionally limiting perspective that forces players to really focus on whichever segment of the defense they’ve decided to commandeer. New visual indicators also help, better signposting how a defender can respond after the snap and what his tackle range is. Once you get the hang of the new elements, you really start to feel like you can make a difference on defense. It’s so satisfying to jump off the line right at the snap, blow by an offensive lineman, and slam into the QB like an out-of-control freight train without letting the AI handle any of it.
Temperatures are cooling, leaves shall soon begin to drop, and the feel of rain is in the air. This could mean only one thing: Fall is fast approaching, which means football is back! That’s right, time to break out the coolers, load up on brews, and become one with the couch. But only on Sundays…and two games on Thursdays…and Monday night, but the rest of the week, it’s you and the ol’ ball and chain. Until playoffs start and Saturday games are added. Fellas, just remember to bring home flowers from time to time. Especially with the return of Madden season, football overload is imminent. The more accessible long-haul mode in Madden NFL 15 is Connected Careers, where you get to improve a real-life player or team over multiple seasons. It lacks the depth of the best sports management sims, but that’s not to say you won’t have fun trying to convince Tom Brady to sign for Tampa Bay. (Until he says no, every time.) If you're one of those lapsed Maddenites who’ve spent years deliberating over whether to rejoin the NFL bandwagon, the hour to do so is finally at hand.
The last addition to Connected Careers mode we’ll mention here is actually a form of addition by subtraction. Since EA lost the license to make college games for the time being, they completely removed the ability to import draft classes. To make up for this, we’re finally seeing truly random draft classes that seem to have talent throughout as opposed to just a few key players near the top. Hardcore fans will be a bit upset that they can’t import drafts to keep the game more realistic, but knowing that every draft is going to be decided by who has done the better scouting as opposed to who looked at a cheat sheet is a nice bit of compensation.
The New York Giants are not the defensive powerhouses they used to be, but defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul still has the singular ability - when under your control - to wreak havoc across offensive lines. This is thanks to a new control scheme that puts all of his actions under your direct control; no longer are the winners and losers of individual battles determined by disenchanting dice rolls influenced by the players' stats. Halftime is one of the parts of football nobody likes because football isn't happening. Why don't you put a commercial after a touchdown, then another 15 seconds later after the 2 yard kick return while you're at it? (Please, don't.) All in all, what more can be said about Madden NFL 15 other than to quote Tina Turner and say it’s “Simply the Best.” From the way the game looks, plays, and how much the it offers for only the games’ second year of being a new generation release, there is little if much of anything to gripe about.
