Sports video games have advanced to a place where annual upgrades are often difficult to identify. At the height of the genre in the mid-2000s, the games were marketed with their flashy new features and dramatic graphical improvements. Now graphics are so good that visual enhancements can go unnoticed. Gameplay engines are so refined that improvements seemingly are limited to addressing exploits from the previous year. The games are so content-rich that incremental additions are made to what's already in place rather than innovative features. With that in mind, "Madden NFL 19" does not feel dramatically different than "Madden NFL 18" or "Madden NFL 17." But some subtle additions enhance the gameplay experience, and the new game looks phenomenal, particularly on upgraded hardware capable of 4K and HDR (Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, PC). Franchise Mode also feels like it finally received some long-overdue care. MORE: 'Madden' cover athletes since 2000 EA Sports https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/d0/e2/madden-nfl-19-derrick-henry_1vurwxedsijw61iwgela8yqpq4.jpg?t=-158786020&w=500&quality=80 EA Sports this year is debuting a new animation technology known as Real Player Motion (RPM) in its entire suite of sports games. RPM delivers on increased responsiveness and generates a more authentic look to player movement. Overall, there are better natural movements from players both pre-play and during the play. Post-play interactions and movement, however, still frequently looks awkward. RPM provides some dynamic moments with that improved control. Athletic players are especially dangerous in the open field with jukes and spins, and powerful ballcarriers are more effective in traffic after making a single cut. Runners also respond better to their blockers, including letting them guide them through a hole with a hand on their back. What does not seem to have carried over is a sense of momentum and weight. There's a lack of driving or falling forward for ballcarriers. Sometimes, power backs with full heads of steam are met head-on by cornerbacks who stand them straight up and take them down with ease. The Truck Stick is especially ineffective. Whether that's a side effect of RPM is unclear. The biggest gameplay issue otherwise is a lack of sideline awareness. Even cover athlete Antonio Brown often fails to get his feet down when attempting to make a catch near the sideline at full speed. Runners and receivers can also have their momentum push them out of bounds prematurely. Another sloppy area is defenders failing to touch down ballcarriers who are already on the ground. Instead of reaching or jumping on them, the defenders just run by and, apparently in the process, brush against their body. MORE: Best, worst teams in 'Madden NFL 19' On the plus side, the CPU is a more challenging opponent. Ratings and schemes seem to have bigger roles, and it's necessary to approach each matchup with a game plan based on team styles and personnel. Running against the Dolphins with the Titans, for example, might seem easy. Running against the Rams with the Seahawks will seem futile. Facing an excellent QB is a much different task than a low-rated one that will struggle with accuracy. And don't bother trying to throw the ball around on the Jaguars. While the CPU is somewhat inconsistent with its own running game and will make a few boneheaded interceptions, overall it's competent. Several depth chart positions have been added, including slot wide receiver, power running back, slot corner and rush defensive tackle. This represents a tremendous development for the game. It reduces the need to make situational substitutions manually. EA Sports https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/f/c0/madden-nfl-19-stefon-diggs_m2cw0fdrtkvqzre9y46xthcj.jpg?t=-158831956&w=500&quality=80 Never a true area of strength for the "Madden" series, the presentation made some advances this year, but still lags behind that of several other sports video games. There are some new broadcast graphics to go along with updated pregame and halftime shows, now hosted by Jonathan Coachman. Commentary is one area in which "Madden" has taken big steps forward in recent years after bringing in Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis. Updating the commentary weekly with references to both real NFL news and extra lines for Franchise Mode has paid dividends. This year, the commentary attempts to make more callbacks to events and discussions from earlier in the games while also tying in news and statistics from around the Franchise. While it does a solid job in that regard, the commentary, unfortunately, still is not able to adjust to the unexpected. In one Franchise game playing as the Titans, Marcus Mariota was knocked out on the first drive of the game with an injury. Sixth-round draft pick Luke Falk took over. Not only did the commentary fail to acknowledge the injury or say anything about Falk, but it did not even mention anything generic about the difficulty for a rookie or how the team would have to adjust. Then, at halftime, Coachman said Mariota had a strong first half. Mariota could be seen on the sidelines and running onto the field at times, too. Replays remain atrocious, often shown from poor angles or zoomed in too far. Injuries that occur away from the ball leave the player wondering what player got hurt, as no notification is given until a few plays later. Reviews are also troubled, with questionable outcomes not always being viewed automatically by the booth on turnovers or scoring plays. EA Sports https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/44/ab/madden-nfl-19-jalen-ramsey_zqzhn3phic6x1myfeavtve0ne.jpg?t=-158807828&w=500&quality=80 The presentation does ramp up its relevancy in Franchise Mode. The score ticker and new halftime presentation, which checks on scores and stats from games around the league, make the most impact. Franchise Mode fundamentally is the same as it has been for six years now, but some additions in "Madden NFL 19" have revitalized it. One of the best changes is in the way player progression is handled. The XP earned is no longer spent on individual ratings categories, which was tedious and boring because, generally, there would only be a few attributes worth upgrading for each position. The difference rarely was noticeable afterward. Now it's based on Skill Points. When one is earned, it represents a full Overall rating point. The decision is presented to put that point toward a bucket of attributes that are based on positional archetypes. For example, improving an RB as a power back might mean boosts in strength and stiff arm, while a receiving back might get boosts in agility and catching. It's a smart way to streamline the process and make the results of the upgrades more evident. MORE: 'Madden' ratings for 2018 NFL rookies Also introduced this year are Scheme Fits. A player who fits within the scheme of a given team will receive bonus XP points. The schemes can be changed at any time, and based on progression, the players can see their styles change to fit different systems. It's easy to identify what players are scheme fits, which helps for free agent, trade and draft targets. For some, the biggest new feature will be the Draft Class Creator. Not only can custom draft classes be made, but they're shareable and easy for others to download. The process involves reaching Week 3 of the regular season when draft classes are generated (or downloaded), and then they can be edited from within the Scouting area. There's a lot of potential for creativity with the Draft Class Creator, and it'll be fun to see the projects that come about in the weeks and months ahead. Having simulated a handful of seasons, the player stats appear on point with the real NFL. Almost every category came close to mirroring the final numbers from the 2017 season, at least in terms of league leaders and those near the top. Injuries might need some tweaking, as most teams only had a couple players on the injury report at any given time, and they tended to be long-term injuries rather than the day-to-day or shorter-term injuries. The number of tie games appears to be much higher than it should be. In my first season sim, five regular-season games ended in ties. The score ticker also seems to have trouble with records that include ties, making it look as though those teams have played one fewer game than they actually have. EA Sports https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/39/4/madden-nfl-19-myles-garrett_jgoudnaq15vi1szc8vigtx5i8.jpg?t=-158750380&w=500&quality=80 Last year's game introduced the first story mode to the series. "Longshot" provided some much-needed drama in an accessible form. It offered a compelling story, included strong performances and even acted as a teaching tool for those inexperienced with "Madden" and unfamiliar with general football concepts. The follow-up, "Longshot: Homecoming," comes up short in every measurable way. It feels as though "Homecoming" was rushed. The first "Longshot" was a multiyear project going into "Madden 18," and the turnaround this year — even with the advantage of having the infrastructure in place — might not have allowed it to be fleshed out as well. Gone are the dialogue interactions that shaped the characters and the way the story progressed. Gone are many of the instructional, tutorial-like elements that assisted those new to the game in learning different techniques and strategies. Gone is some of the accuracy on the football side of things — for example, the process of signings to and from practice squads is represented inaccurately. It's also missing the powerful, grounded performance from Rus Blackwell as coach Jack Ford that made him the standout of the original season. Last year's story followed main characters Devin Wade and Colt Cruise as they pursued their dreams of being drafted. In "Homecoming," the two essentially have gone their own ways and have their own storylines to navigate. Wade is fighting for a roster spot in the NFL, while Cruise finds himself conflicted over his pursuit of catching on with an NFL team and becoming the coach of his high school team. Unfortunately, the majority of the time is spent with Cruise, and it's the weaker of the two storylines. One of the biggest complaints last year was that "Longshot" never actually involved playing in the NFL, and, again, most of the story is focused on high school this year. I wanted to tune out nearly every time the story switched from Wade's side over to Cruise's side. It's possible there is not a compelling story to be told through a player's day-to-day life in an NFL season, but what hurts is that the writing falls into traps of cliches and hard-to-believe character actions. Why is this girl so upset that the half-brother she didn't even know existed a few days before might have to move to join an NFL team? There really are two different coaches with health problems as plot points? The events on the field — to the credit of "Homecoming," there's more time practicing and playing in games — also don't impact the story in any noticeable way. In fact, when tasks are failed, they're simply replayed until successful. The player is simply a passenger in "Homecoming" rather than an engaged driver picking up valuable skills along the way while influencing the events and ultimate outcome. Upon the conclusion of "Homecoming," the options are to continue the story in Franchise Mode or move into Ultimate Team and receive a number of cards based on the characters from "Homecoming," including a decently rated Brown. It's a strong way to give a boost to an Ultimate Team before any grinding with solos or spending money on packs. WATCH: 'Madden NFL 19' trailer The disparity between "Madden" and other major sports video game franchises in terms of different ways to play is evident in the home screen. "Madden" includes only four main tiles from which to choose: Exhibition, Franchise, Longshot and Ultimate Team. Thankfully, Franchise has improved, and Ultimate Team continues to expand. But Longshot lasts only a few hours, and Exhibition is just for throwaway games. The value in this game will be found with Franchise and Ultimate Team, and the latter does feature a couple new unique ways to play. The first involves MUT Squads, an online co-op 3 vs. 3 mode that debuted last year and was well-received. This time around, it is also playable against the CPU. The other is Solo Battles, which brings a competitive element to playing against the CPU in Ultimate Team. Those are nice additions for players who invest considerable time (and potentially money) in Ultimate Team, but they won't matter to those who have no interest in venturing into the card-collecting mode.<doc-sep>Madden has finally returned to the PC. At last, a great American football game on Windows that doesn’t star orcs or run on an emulator! I’ve spent a few days with the PC version, and I’m here to answer the first question for every PC release: How does it run? Does Madden NFL 19 match the best PC ports of this generation, or has EA done the minimum to bring its beloved football series to Windows? The answer is somewhere in the middle. We tested Madden 19’s PC code on both a 2018 Razer Blade laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 and a custom tower PC with a GTX 980 Ti. The port is impressive but flawed, an occasionally unreliable but promising starting point for future updates. All the basic settings are here: resolution, v-sync, locking frame rate at a couple of variables or leaving it unlocked. The game also includes a handful of more advanced options, like the ability to toggle between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 and modify the quality of the game’s shadows and crowds. Here’s a screencap of the full menu (don’t worry, we switched to 1080p for the capture): The graphics settings are only available through the main menu, frustratingly inaccessible from the options panel during games. On the Razer Blade, I ran into a variety of issues. In DirectX 12 mode, the game’s frame rate fluctuated wildly at 1080p resolution. During plays, Madden 19 ran at more than 100+ frames per second, but it dipped into the 20s when a graphical overlay wiped the screen or the camera cut to a coach on the sidelines. Many times during an uneventful matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, the action froze for a couple of seconds, and on a few occasions, the image cut to black. In DirectX 11 mode, the game no longer had these problems, though it inexplicably locked to 30 frames per second, even with the frame rate set to “no limit.” On Polygon’s office gaming PC, Madden 19, again set at 1080p, ran reliably in both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 modes. Though its frame rate wasn’t perfectly stable, occasionally hiccuping when the camera cut to wide shots of the stadium, it managed a locked 60 frames per second during plays. Beyond the graphics, both builds were littered with Madden messiness: Each game featured a bundle of moments when a football contorted in a strange way, or one character’s arms clipped through another. This may be an issue with Madden in general rather than this particular port. Otherwise, Madden 19 looks fantastic on PC. The bump in resolution, frame rate and post-processing effects makes for a smoother and more visually striking experience. More than ever, Madden 19 on PC looks at first blush like live television footage. Of course, the longer you watch, the more likely it is that a player will behave in some inhuman way or a close-up will reveal the quarterback to have the soulless eyes of a horror movie doll. But as you can see in the footage, the developers at EA Tiburon finally have put their game on a platform that truly benefits all the detail they stuff into each new entry. The unpredictability of the build is certainly frustrating, though hardly surprising. That said, it shows a lot of promise, especially for Madden’s first entry on PC in over a decade. How EA patches and updates this entry will likely decide if we must wait another 11 years for a Windows-friendly follow-up. Madden NFL 19 launches Aug. 7 for pre-order customers and Aug. 10 for everybody else.<doc-sep>
The tail end of summer is here and autumn is on its way, and that can only mean football is back. Likewise, video game football is back, as EA's annual addition to the Madden franchise helps kick off both the football season and the busy release season for new games. Madden NFL 19 is coming next week, and reviews are already rolling in. The consensus is that this year's Madden is an iterative improvement on last year's installment. Reviews run the gamut from the strongest franchise entry in years to a solid but unspectacular sequel, but all seem to agree it's dependable for some gridiron action. Our Madden NFL 19 review in progress praised the wealth of Ultimate Team activities and more precise control, but found that some changes to Longshot and Franchise XP may irk longtime fans. Read on for a variety of critical responses, and check out GameSpot's sister site Metacritic for even more reviews. Game: Madden NFL 19 Madden NFL 19 Developer / Publisher: Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Release date: August 10 August 10 Price: US $60 / £60 / AU $69 GameSpot (Review in Progress) -- 8/10 "Madden 19 is an excellent football game that improves on last year's entry in almost every way. There are problems, but there has never been a football game that more authentically represents the NFL than this in terms of presentation, controls, and depth. Madden 19 servers go live on August 10, and GameSpot's final review will be published after we've thoroughly tested their stability." -- Eddie Makuch [Full review] GamesRadar -- 9/10 "Despite a few niggling issues, Madden 19 is going to be a game you'll be playing well into the Super Bowl and beyond. It effortlessly makes its way onto the series' Mount Rushmore; every swaggering step and ankle-breaking shimmy all the more reason to want to return and replay a game at the peak of its powers on the pitch. Madden has never been better in terms of cleats-on-the-ground nitty-gritty gameplay. Its periphery content, such as Longshot: Homecoming, shouldn't be overlooked, either. Care and attention has been poured into the game from opening coin toss to final whistle--and you're going to love every minute of it." -- Bradley Russell [Full review] IGN -- 8.9/10 "Madden 19 returns the primary focus where it belongs: that moment-to-moment gameplay between the end zones. It's only true stumbling point is the lackluster story mode that fails to recapture the magic of the first, but that's entirely offset by the new player handling that once again leverages the power of the Frostbite engine. Most importantly, Madden 19 has finally cracked that slightly repetitive feel that can make it tough to go on, game after game. With Real Player Motion delivering a fluid on-the-field experience, and Franchise mode customization offering another level of realism, Madden is in a great place." -- Dustin Toms [Full review] Digital Trends -- 8/10 "Madden NFL 19 offers an accessible Ultimate Team mode, a welcome player progression change, and minor gameplay tweaks that make the game ever so slightly more realistic. Longshot: Homecoming, however, is an unmitigated disaster." -- Steven Petite [Full review] Game Informer -- 8/10 "Madden 19 doesn’t have earth-shattering features that draw me in. Some new features don't shake out how I hoped they might, and other problems haven't been fixed. But I'm still going to spend hours with this title for the way it captures the sport and puts me in the center of it with some fantastic gameplay moments. Like when the real life team you root for loses in the playoffs, you rue the mistakes but smile at the victories that got them there. Being a video game sports fan and a fan of real-life sports is no different. Sometimes things don't always go the way you think they might, but if you can't find joy in being a part of it all, then perhaps you need to find something else to invest your time into." -- Matthew Kato [Full review] USGamer -- 3.5/5 "Madden 19 is a solid, if occasionally ragged, follow-up to last year's big transition to Frostbite. The improvements to the animation and franchise mode stand out, but Longshot: Homecoming feels like a step back from last year's ambitious introduction. The multitude of interesting but mostly subtle updates ultimately make this an entry that is primarily geared toward hardcore fans of the series." -- Kat Bailey [Full review]