What's Hot and What's Not With Madden NFL 25

Feature Article

Submitted on: 06/03/2013 by Matthew Coe

We've been bombarded with tons of information on Madden NFL 25 in the last week. While a lot of what we are hearing sounds great, such as the return of Owner Mode -- we are not seeing any real gameplay up to this point.

It's doubtful the Madden team is hiding a red herring in the form of atrociously bad gameplay, but most Madden fans want to see what this year's game is bringing to the table with the new 'run-free' feature as well as the second iteration of the 'Infinity Engine.'

Here's what we're excited about and what gives us pause for this year's edition of Madden NFL 25 heading into E3:

Owner's mode is back, and not a moment too soon!

What's Hot

The return of Owner Mode and full 32 team control. This is truly not a moment too soon, Madden is getting a much needed infusion of depth in it's franchise mode. Full 32 team control is an underrated feature for those who like to keep their NFL world running realistically as well.
NCAA Draft Import is back! A very unpopular decision to remove this feature from Madden NFL 13 has been rectified for Madden NFL 25. While yes, this feature should have never been removed, it is nice to see the feature's immediate return after a one year hiatus.
More depth to the commentary in Madden NFL 25. Jim Nance and Phil Simms should have more lines recorded and hopefully more relevant information for Madden 25. Stitching should be better and the commentary should be more specific to your world.
More authentic audio. Supposedly the Madden team has been hard at work adding more team chants, first down and stadium sounds. Also promised is more authentic tracks from various stadiums and redone referee audio. All of this 'sounds' good. We'll see how it plays out when we see some in-game footage.
Trey Wingo and Adam Schefter at the NFL Draft. The NFL Draft is a huge NFL event in real life and in Madden 25 the team aims to make it feel more alive and real with branching storylines and new audio. New this year, draft guides should be rendered less effective since the same draftees won't boom or bust in every draft class.

The big problem: WE WANT TO SEE MORE GAMEPLAY!

What's Not

No news on improved late game AI, game planning, and other weak points of Madden NFL 13's gameplay. We haven't heard anyone acknowledge the issues with the awful single player late game AI, play calling, and roster management. I think we're all looking to hear and see that these things have been fixed.
No PC version of Madden NFL 25. News broke recently that Madden 25 will not be headed to the PC. There was some initial hope that there might have been a PC version in the works, but no dice this year and the outlook doesn't look great going forward.
Owner Mode restrictions. In Madden NFL 25, we're finding out that we don't have all of the freedom that we had in Madden NFL for last-generation consoles. We're restricted to relocating to a select 17 cities and we still have some player editing restrictions. It's great that Owner Mode is back, but it might be another year away from greatness.
"Exclusive" content for XBOX ONE. We don't quite know what this means, but EA has made some kind of deal to bring exclusive content to the XBOX ONE version of many of it's next-gen games. What does this mean for Madden NFL 25? There's too much vagueness going on here currently.
We need to see some actual gameplay. I'm sure EA Sports is holding off on gameplay for E3, but it would really help assure the restless Madden fans if we could see some gameplay footage showing improved blocking, Infinity Engine 2.0, and much improved AI decision making.

What are you looking forward to most with Madden NFL 25 and what are your top concerns as we head into E3?

Madden NFL 25 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 NaturalSelected @ 06/03/13 12:57 PM

What were the player editing restrictions? I missed this in the flood of news on owner mode.

# 2 jpdavis82 @ 06/03/13 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NaturalSelected


	What were the player editing restrictions? I missed this in the flood of news on owner mode.

I guess that in Connected Franchise you can't edit a player's position until the offseason.

# 3 jpdavis82 @ 06/03/13 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniel77733


	Can you still edit left to right or right to left during the season like in M13 or was editing positions during the season completely removed?

I am guessing you still can, but you just can't move a WR to CB, DT to DE, etc.. until the offseason.

# 4 myownsun @ 06/03/13 01:46 PM

This is a nice write-up and sums up all my concerns about m25 (Now&Next-gen) well all except one, will the next-gen versions of m25 contain all of the features found in the ps3/360 versions of the game?

PROBABLY NOT

# 5 KBLover @ 06/03/13 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpdavis82


	I am guessing you still can, but you just can't move a WR to CB, DT to DE, etc.. until the offseason.

What's so silly about this is that packages and sets "move" players all the time. The idea that a position is the player and not just where you happen to be lined up needs to die in sports games in general. Player skill set and physical characteristics determines that.

At the very minimum, they need to do away with depth chart restrictions. Let the skills do the talking and tell me if the player can handle it, not hard-coded "you can't do thats".

# 6 Indyboy180 @ 06/03/13 06:17 PM

I hate to be "that guy" but it's Jim Nantz.

# 7 schnaidt1 @ 06/03/13 07:45 PM

What's not hot is that Donny Moore still fits ratings and over rates absolutely everyone. The reasons need to be spread out and we need 80% of the players need to be rated 75 and under. And they still haven't fixed progression..... smh

# 8 JaymeeAwesome @ 06/03/13 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schnaidt1


	What's not hot is that Donny Moore still fits ratings and over rates absolutely everyone. The reasons need to be spread out and we need 80% of the players need to be rated 75 and under. And they still haven't fixed progression..... smh

Ratings are subjective. You have to put your trust in Donny or just edit them yourself. No one is ever wrong in a ratings debate.

# 9 TheBleedingRed21 @ 06/03/13 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KBLover


	What's so silly about this is that packages and sets "move" players all the time. The idea that a position is the player and not just where you happen to be lined up needs to die in sports games in general. Player skill set and physical characteristics determines that. At the very minimum, they need to do away with depth chart restrictions. Let the skills do the talking and tell me if the player can handle it, not hard-coded "you can't do thats".

No.. no they do not. I do not want CBs playing WR, etc online or anywhere at all unless they are that position. Positions are part of real life and that is the way it needs to be.

# 10 Robcards @ 06/03/13 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaymee13


	Ratings are subjective. You have to put your trust in Donny or just edit them yourself. No one is ever wrong in a ratings debate.

They aren't entirely subjective. A free agent that literally no team is even kicking the tires on in real life should NEVER be 88 overall, but it happens every year in madden. I just bought the game used for 15 bucks and could not stop laughing at teams signing an 88 kellen Winslow and 87 Kurt Warner with updated CCM rosters. Joke.

# 11 JaymeeAwesome @ 06/03/13 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robcards


	They aren't entirely subjective. A free agent that literally no team is even kicking the tires on in real life should NEVER be 88 overall, but it happens every year in madden. I just bought the game used for 15 bucks and could not stop laughing at teams signing an 88 kellen Winslow and 87 Kurt Warner with updated CCM rosters. Joke.

The jokes on you my friend. OVR is absolutely useless. It's the individual stat categories that make up the players worth. When talking about ratings, you can't speak of OVR.

# 12 Robcards @ 06/03/13 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaymee13


	The jokes on you my friend. OVR is absolutely useless. It's the individual stat categories that make up the players worth. When talking about ratings, you can't speak of OVR.

Umm k I'm pretty sure OVR is how AI controlled teams determine who to sign and how to order their depth chart, so I have no clue how you're getting that its useless lol

# 13 jpdavis82 @ 06/03/13 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schnaidt1


	What's not hot is that Donny Moore still fits ratings and over rates absolutely everyone. The reasons need to be spread out and we need 80% of the players need to be rated 75 and under. And they still haven't fixed progression..... smh

Idk if it was official or not but, I saw a screen from madden 25 cfm and AP was a 94, actually seems low but I'd rather see that then every decent hb be a 95+

# 14 splff3000 @ 06/03/13 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robcards


	They aren't entirely subjective. A free agent that literally no team is even kicking the tires on in real life should NEVER be 88 overall, but it happens every year in madden. I just bought the game used for 15 bucks and could not stop laughing at teams signing an 88 kellen Winslow and 87 Kurt Warner with updated CCM rosters. Joke.

I wonder about this same thing. I wonder how the hell Donny Moore could give a player a 85+ rating and he's not even on a NFL roster when the game drops. I mean if the player was really a 87, don't you think some team would want him? I usually just go through and make every free agent a 79 or lower. I have been saying this a long time, but I really wish there was more than one person with input over ratings.

# 15 PioneerRaptor @ 06/04/13 12:14 AM

What's Not:
- Not knowing what feature set will be for the Next-Gen version and whether or not it launches with the Next-Gen consoles.

# 16 Step2001 @ 06/04/13 12:46 AM

What's not: The lack of in-depth info for presentation and Franchise/CCM.

Thought May 20th was going to be the day for ALL of the info to be dropped. Some, but not all.........
Now we get a little more, but have to wait for details on certain aspects of the info released.

Still waiting for:

46 man Gameday Rosters (a weekly NFL decision) (NFLHC 09 had this)
8 Man Parctice Squads (all teams use the P.S.)
Injuries - Can they carryover to the next year? (NFLHC 09 had this) Can injuries happen during practice? Can they happen during the offseason (player fell off a ladder while working at home).

Overall Audio, will it change year to year? Will my QB who was in his 10th year NOW be in his 11th year.
Will a team be called the Defending Super Bowl Champs.
Will the presentation have stat overlays and audio on that player.
Will keys to the game be talked about?
Injuries to players & Injuried players (key players) be shown on sidelines in streets (w/stats up on screen), then move to his replacement (w/stats on screen).

Just a touch of the details everyone wants & CAN BE DONE, should already be in the game.

News Center fixes:

Went for my 2nd Super Bowl and it was saying that I was going for my 1st Super Bowl? Yeah........

It's the little things, if it's a bug, then hopefully it's fixed

Will trades be more detailed when posted, Especially during the draft! Key little thing.

Why do teams trade up? Had a team trade up into the 1st rd (giving up next years 1 & this years 5rd). They selected a safety.........2 years later in my CCM that safety does not start for that team. smh.

Checked rosters in Pre-Season. Some teams carrying 3 QB's, a few carrying 4, the rest carrying 2 and ONE team carrying one QB. It's pre-season, teams usuallyhave 3-4 QB's

How the AI/CPU handles the roster in Pre-Season is key.......becomes a mess. Starters still playing in the 2nd half at different positions. Fixed?

# 17 DeuceDouglas @ 06/04/13 04:43 AM

Wasn't sure where to put this but I thought it was relevant to being 'hot' right now at least in terms of being a good sign. If you didn't see, this is an in-game fighter render from EA's UFC game:

Spoiler

I would say it looks just as good, if not a bit better than the CGI trailer we saw at the XBOX One reveal.

Spoiler

Obviously, not trying to put too much into it but I think that it could be a good sign that Madden looks very similar to what we saw, visually, in that trailer. As far as movement is concerned there's really no way of knowing until E3 but the good thing is that it's right around the corner.

# 18 secondsolution @ 06/04/13 05:43 AM

I think the lack of videos is due to them wanting to show off the game on the next gen consoles. Its a bit of a concern for the current gen versions.

# 19 infemous @ 06/04/13 06:52 AM

The 'what's hot' list strikes me more as 'what's tepid'...

Not too excited about seeing things we expect to be in the game returning as 'new features' again.

# 20 DKHardee @ 06/04/13 09:58 AM

I hope next-gen M25 has these features but I'm sure it won't. I remember when I got M07 for PS3, worst Madden ever!

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