Did I finally get the Madden Franchise experience that I've been asking for?

After the disappointment of College Football 26, I wasn't sure if I would care enough to play this year's Madden. If the college game that everyone was excited about and praising last year somehow managed to get worse this year, that didn't bode well for Madden. As usual, I waited a couple weeks and bought it used, then still put off playing it for another week or so. After having to click through multiple advertisements for Ultimate Team and the stupid Season Pass, getting into the actual game didn't make me feel any better.

Just like with College Football 26, my single, biggest problem with Madden 26 (at release) is the inability to run the ball. Just like with the college game, blockers seem incapable of holding blocks, and defensive pursuit is uncanny good. There's like 3 run plays that even seem viable: draws from shotgun, read option keepers, and 01 Trap. With almost every other run play that I call, there is always a defender (or 2 or 3) in the gap. Unless you are able to quickly react to cut back, or you have the stick skills to make a move or break a tackle in the gap, you'll be lucky to average more than a single yard per run.

That's the case for the user, anyway. For the CPU, every inside running play seems to break for 20 yards, and the CPU running back will successfully juke at least 2 defenders every play.

People online are saying that in order to run the ball, you need to utilize the new "Untarget Defender" feature in order to force your blockers to ignore backside defenders in favor of sending an extra blocker to the play-side. There are a few problems with this. First and foremost, as a matter of principle, I should not have to change the blocking assignments every single play in order to get competent blocking!

Madden also doesn't bother to teach or explain this new "Untarget defender" mechanic. Unless you pay attention to pre-release promotional material, you probably won't know that this option is even available. It isn't documented anywhere, and there's no tutorials for it. I had no idea about it until I went online looking for advice on how to run the ball. Worse yet, this option is located under the "Pass Protection" pre-play menu, which means that a lot of users might not even realize that this feature can be used to modify run blocking assignments.

Almost as important is the fact that, unlike College Football, Madden does not show the actual individual blocking assignments of your blockers on running plays. It does for [most] pass plays, but not for run plays. I have no idea who the offensive line is actually going to try to block, so how am I even supposed to know that I should be modifying the blocking assignments? Or how am I supposed to know that the Untarget Defender command is even working?

If it ain't broke, break it!

Or at least, that was the case when the game released. In mid-September an update was released that seems to have inverted that problem so that running the ball is easy for the user, but the CPU cannot run the ball to save its life. I've had to reduce my Run Blocking sliders down to 20 or below in Franchise just to make CPU run defense competent, while tuning CPU Run Blocking into the 70s or higher just to make it so that the CPU running backs can gain positive yards.

Unfortunately, setting this slider so low leads to recurring problems where my own blockers will cut right in front of my running back right as he hits the hole. This is particularly annoying with receivers or tight ends who go in motion across the formation, away from the run, only to U-turn as soon as the ball is snapped and run through the hole as if to lead block. Despite there being a huge hole, my running back runs right into the back of one of my own players, has all his momentum stopped, and gets dragged down by a backside defender. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens frequently enough to really get on my nerves.

Maybe I would be able to fix some of these problems if the game would only let me see who each of my blockers is supposed to block on running plays. Then, maybe I could use the "Untarget Defender" function to force my pullers to block someone else, so that they don't get in my running back's way. But I can't do that because I have no idea who each of my blockers is actually supposed to block!

It would be really nice if publishers would stop being so reliant on post-release updates, and would actually put some QA effort into their games before they launch. That way, I wouldn't keep feeling like I have to write 2 fucking reviews for every one of these damn things!

The September patch, which made running the ball viable, exposed another problem: absolutely unacceptable pursuit angles by 2nd-level defenders. Defenders just refuse to stay in front of the play! Defenders are constantly cutting underneath lead blockers, or taking shallow angles, and end up behind the runners. As the game stands now, at the time that I'm writing this, if a runner breaks a tackle, every other defender will be behind the runner, and there will be no one between him and the endzone.

The worst change in this year's game, however, is that defenses are completely unwilling to defend against a QB scramble. Defenders in zone, with nobody to cover, won't react to a scrambling QB at all, and they will just stand and watch as the QB will run right at them, around them, or past them. If you don't want the likes of Joe Flacco or Jake Browning to scramble for over 100 yards and 2 TDs every game, you basically need to put somebody in Spy on every single play! It is absolutely broken and unacceptable!

And the problem goes the other way too. I know that scrambling with my QB is a free first down or TD almost any time I want it. But I don't do it unless it makes sense to do it, because it feels like a legitimate exploit.

Add to this more unstable and broken physics. I haven't seen this much motion shifting, warping, animation-locking, and general outcome scripting in years. Animations seem more dominant than they have in a long time, with players getting speed bursts or outright ignoring being contacted. Receivers and defenders will warp or teleport to the ball. Tacklers will lunge 5 yards sideways to make tackle. Defenders will get sucked into blocks, especially on outside running plays, and be unable to get out of them or reach through them to tackle or slow down a runner. And, as mentioned before, pursuit and pathfinding is just awful. All the stuff that used to be major complaints with Madden, but which had admittedly been minimized over the past 6 or 7 years, is now back, and relative positioning of players feels less reliable and meaningful than it has for a long time.

Worse yet, the game scripting and rubber-banding is unbearably predictable. Every time I go up by 2 scores, the CPU goes into TURBO MODE and is unstoppable. Whenever the CPU goes up by 2 scores, they become completely inept, and everything I do just works. I've yet to play a Franchise regular season match that was decided by more than 1 score. Every single match has tightened up in the 4th, and been decided by one team or the other getting a game-winning score in the final minute.

Half-assed special teams

Special teams got some updates in this year's game, but it is also not exempt from these logic and physics problems.

In one instance, I got so much penetration on a punt that my defender should have been able to tackle the punter before the kick. (I've also had multiple instances of my Field Goal Block team tackling the holder before the kick.) But the defender just rolled off the punter so that the punter could complete the punt animation. To the game's credit, the punt just fell immediately to the ground, as if it had been blocked, so it was still a positive play for me. But the game did not credit my player with a "Block" stat because of the fact that he literally should have tackled the punter before the kick.

Backspin punts will hit the ground inside the 5 yard line, and basically teleport bounce back to the 20 or 25 yard line, making backspin punts worthless for controlling field position. You basically just have to try to angle every punt out of bounds if you want to pin the opponent against their own goal line.

There's some new fake field goal plays, but they are broken.

And just like College Football 26, Madden 26 finally adds a new Longsnapper rating, and includes Longsnapper as an actual position. And hey, the Longsnapper rating actually successfully imports into Franchise Mode in this game, which is a lot more than I can say for College Football! So at least this game is a bit more technically competent than its collegiate brother. Unfortunately, the ratings for Longsnappers are non-sense. Most teams' Longnsappers have Longsnapping ratings in the single-digits, and overall ratings in the teens or 20's.

Unlike CFB26, the Longsnapper rating in Madden 26 actually might have a tiny impact on gameplay. I've seen some moderately errant snaps on punts, with the punter having to jump sideways several yards to catch the punt, and barely managing to avoid having the punt blocked by rushers coming off the edge. After about a dozen games with zero-rated Lonsnappers, I still haven't seen a single totally botched longsnap. I've only seen those few instances of the holder or punter being tackled before the kick, which may or may not be the result of the Longnsapper rating. I ran several dozen reps of field goals and punts in practice mode with a zero-rated Longsnapper, but didn't see any botched snaps or blocks there either.

Maybe it's possible to totally botch a longsnap such that it flies over a holder or punter's head, or bounces on the turf in front of them. If so, it's so rare, that even with a zero-rated Longsnapper, I didn't see it happen after well over 100 special teams snaps. If you've ever seen such a thing happen, please let me know in the comments! Better yet, post a link to a Twitch or YouTube clip. I would be very interested in seeing if a botched snap is possible.

In any case, as far as I can tell, you still don't need to go out of your way to keep a solid Longsnapper on your roster. Having a zero-rated Longnsapper will have next-to-no impact on a match.

Oh, and I also haven't seen any muffed punt or kick returns, so I'm also confident that the Kick Return rating also does absolutely nothing.

To the game's credit, I do like how chaotic loose ball situations are. This is something that actually does seem to be getting slightly better each year, as I've been seeing fewer and fewer magnetic scoop-n-scores, and a lot more players kicking or swatting fumbled balls around the field.

The exception, of course, is kickoffs. Onside kicks and squib kicks still always seem to beeline straight into the mitts of the waiting hands team, who flawlessly catch or recover the ball with one hand, without breaking stride.

Rebuilding year, or genuine contender?

For the first time in a while, Franchise Mode received a significant overhaul. And believe it or not, the goal of this overhaul seems to be in-line with what I've wanted to see from this game's Franchise Mode in a long time. There is a greater emphasis this year on trying to adjust your actual playbook and strategy on a week-to-week basis. It goes far beyond previous games, in which you get small ratings boosts from choosing one of several, broadly-defined "gameplans".

Now, each week, you get to slot different "abilities" into your coach, which sort of represent what you want your team to focus on in any given week. These might range from things like providing a small bonus to you edge rusher's special moves, or increasing the rate at which opponent defenses accumulate fatigue, or improving coverage against inside-breaking passing routes, and even making the opponent linebackers react more strongly to a play action fake. Admittedly, many of these options feel very "video-game-y", and many of them offer only marginal bonuses. However, I like the idea a lot more than the previous gameplanning mechanics, as this mechanic is a lot more granular, gives a lot more options, and actually feels like you can get "out-coached" if you guess wrong about how the other team is likely to play against you.

One type of ability is called a "play sheet", which actually adds additional formations and plays to your playbook. They are even grouped together in their own tab of the in-game play-calling screen (which replaces the old "Gameplan" tab) so that your game-specific plays are easy to find. This means that, effectively, you are adding and removing plays from your playbook each and every week, based on how you want to play against your upcoming opponent. It's not quite how I would have imagined such a system to work, but it is at least simple to use and accomplishes a similar goal.

Each coordinator contributes their own abilities to your pool of available abilities, in addition to the head coach's abilities. Not only can you choose to gameplan around abilities that your head coach specializes in, but you can also choose to build a "loadout" based on what your coordinators specialize in. You can even go all-in on one side of the ball or the other, choosing to fill all of your abilities slots with only offensive abilities, or only with defensive abilities, depending on the matchup. Is your offense rolling along, while your defense is struggling? You can ignore offensive abilities and load up only on defensive abilities to try to help contain the opposing offenses.

Unfortunately, there's still no special teams coordinator, and so there are no special teams abilities or play sheets. The Trainer also feels under-utilized -- especially considering the addition of the "Wear & Tear" system from College Football 26 (more on that in a moment). I also haven't seen any abilities to reduce penalties, reduce the maluses from weather, to prepare specifically for Thursday or international games, or other such "discipline" or circumstance aspects of game preparation.

Out-schemed

This feature comes so, tantalizingly close to being a home run. But the coach ability mechanic sadly falls a bit flat when it has to interplay with other gameplanning features -- and if you expect it to actually work consistently. As is typical of Madden, this new feature was added, with little-to-no thought regarding how it would play alongside other existing features, or without upgrading those legacy features to accommodate the new feature. and it was put in the game with little-to-no quality control.

As far as I can tell, a chosen Play Sheet does not change the frequency with which plays are supposed to be called. I've never seen a Play Sheet-specific play show up in my "Coach Suggestion" tab of the play-call screen, unless that particular play also happened to be in my base playbook. I'm also not sure if Play Sheet plays are ever called in simulated games or during SuperSim.

I'm pretty sure that the CPU will call its chosen Play Sheet plays (which are apparently chosen randomly when you load into a game). I am confident in this, because I reloaded the same game multiple times, and found the opposing offense running completely different offensive schemes each time. So I think I can safely say that the CPU will call your chosen Play Sheet plays if you SuperSim a match, but I still have no idea whether they would be called in fully simulated games.

The playbook editor itself is also completely un-touched, and is still as tedious to create or edit as ever. It would be really nice if custom playbooks could be transferred from one year's game to the next, so I don't have to spend hours recreating my preferred playbook every god-damned year.

The U.I. also doesn't bother to give a specific list of what formations and plays are in a given Play Sheet. Play Sheet plays also don't show up in the play-call screen in Free Practice either. So you don't know what exact plays will be in a Play Sheet, and cannot practice with them to learn them, before committing to using them in a match.

Coaches also no longer have their own preferred scheme anymore, and all level 1 coaches of a given archetype have the exact same Play Sheets and abilities. You don't get to set a custom coach's preferred scheme or playbook, or choose their starting abilities when you create a new coach. And, as has been the case for many years, you cannot choose a Custom Playbook as your Franchise coach's default playbook, so you have to manually select your custom playbooks before every match.

The lack of coach schemes actually means that you ironically want to hire coordinators who are diametrically opposed to your head coach's offensive or defensive philosophies. As far as I can tell, overlapping abilities or Play Sheets do not have any automatic stacking effects, which means choosing coordinators with opposing abilities and Play Sheets gives you more options and versatility on a week-to-week basis.

And, of course, it's buggy. The game will give you credit for goals you didn't meet, it will downgrade your skills even though you didn't actually meet the conditions for a downgrade, and so forth. Like, the screen will tell me that an ability got downgraded because I failed to score a rushing TD in a game, while simultaneously showing, right next to the downgrade, that I rushed for almost 200 yards and a TD. But I don't know, maybe the game didn't count the TD because it was scored by my 2nd-string Fullback?

If I had been in charge of developing this new ability and Play Sheet system, I would much rather have seen the entire Custom Playbook system be re-designed around these new features. Playbooks should be much smaller and only offer a "base scheme". Each coach could then have a pre-set base scheme ability and playbook that cannot be changed (or maybe it can be changed, but only between seasons, and at the cost of Staff Points). That base scheme should then level up as the coach gains XP and completes milestones within that scheme. And then additional Play Sheets can be bolted on top of that base scheme. Further, it would be nice if individual Play Sheets had some kind of "synergy" with particular base schemes, so that they perform better with certain base schemes compared to others. For example, a Play Sheet full of heavy, under-center running plays should not be nearly as effective when used alongside a Gun Spread base scheme, as opposed to if it were added to a West Coast Power Run base scheme.

Week-to-week

Madden also ported over College Football's "Wear & Tear" mechanic, and it actually fits better in Madden because it is integrated into Madden's Weekly Training system. Each week, you can choose whether to practice in full pads, half pads, or to rest your players. You can even drill down to specific position groups, and even to specific, individual players, and choose whether you want them to rest this week.

It's odd that the game asks you to choose whether an individual player should practice in "full pads" or "half pads" (as opposed to assigning a rep count). Like, what does the game think is happening? Is my running back practicing in shorts, while the defense trying to tackle him are in full pads? The previous rep count mechanic would have been a much better, more common sense mechanic here. Unfortunately, you don't get to control the rep count for starters versus backups, so you don't get to choose whether to give extra reps to backups to give them more experience.

Injured players now even have ranges for how long it will take for them to recover from an injury, and their status can be "week-to-week". Your trainer's abilities will help determine how accurate those recovery estimates are. Now, when a player gets hurt, he won't automatically be fully healed after, say 4 weeks, exactly. Instead, the game might say he's out 4-8 weeks, and after 4 or 5 weeks, it will switch to "week-to-week". At this point, you may have to decide whether to start practicing him, and risk aggravating the injury and extending the time he'll be out, or you can sit him out of practice and possibly have him available for the game.

Unfortunately, sitting a player out of practice doesn't seem to have any effect on how they actually play. Since players no longer receive ratings boosts from practice, there is no real attempt at simulating whether any given player "learned" the gameplan for this week. The only effect from sitting a player out of practice is that they heal faster, accrue less wear & tear, and gain less experience. But if a player is already a veteran starter, then the experience gain from weekly practice is usually negligible anyway. So there's no real downside (and so very little strategy) to sitting veteran players out of practice.

But the thing that scuttles this entire mechanic is Madden's historically awful injury logic. Almost all injuries and wear & tear happen to offensive linemen -- specifically to my offensive linemen! Most Franchise games will have every single one of my offensive linemen get hurt for at least a few plays. But since the game does not include position group-specific sliders for injury frequency, the only way to mitigate this is to turn down injuries across-the-board, which means that skill position players never get injured. Which means the new Wear & Tear system becomes almost completely meaningless.

The last Franchise?

I really want to be able to say that this year's Madden is a good game. I want to say that it's better than College Football 26. In many ways, Madden 26 seems to have more thought and effort put into it than College Football did -- which isn't a hard bar to reach, since College Football 26 hardly changed anything in its Dynasty Mode.

There is a bare minimum of production quality evident in this year's Madden. In addition to the halftime highlight shows, the storyline cutscenes in Franchise (and presumably SuperStar, but I don't play that mode, so I don't know) have been revamped to be a lot less stupid (but also happen a lot less frequently). They even have narration from Rich Eisen to add a bit of an "NFL Films" vibe to the whole thing, as if your Franchise is part of a season of Hard Knocks. Heck, even the licensed soundtrack is more varied, and leagues better than it's been in past years. I still have to disable all of it because there's no "Streamer Mode" to prevent all my Twitch streams from having their audio muted.

I've always suspected that the jump to HD graphics between the PS2 and PS3 eras made it too technically challenging to load more than 2 sets of uniforms, stadiums, and player faces, which is why Madden has lacked halftime highlight shows. I'm guessing that the fact that modern consoles all have solid state drives means that it's finally technically feasible to load all the textures and other assets required to show clips from multiple matches. Madden 26's highlight shows don't have the energy of Chris Berman's classic NFL 2k5 highlight shows (let alone his real-life "Fastest 3-minutes in sports"). It is also limited to only 3 game highlights, and doesn't include anything about injuries, trades, free agent signings, contract negotiations, locker room drama, or any other off-field events around the league. Despite all those limitations, it is a welcome and long-overdue addition that makes the league as a whole feel a little bit more alive. It's a decent start.

Unfortunately, when you get on the field, Madden 26 shows the same careless, broken gameplay that has plagued this series. In addition to all the new problems listed at the top of this review, all of the old problems still persist. Add to that the fact that the performance of the game is slow and stuttery. The game is playable on a base PS5 in "Prioritize Framerate" mode (with a few stutters here and there), but it's utterly unplayable in "Prioritize Graphics" mode.

With EA in the process of being bought by the Saudi Arabian government (and a private equity firm partially owned by Jared Kushner), I expect most of its developers will be laid off due to the excessive amount of debt the company will take on. The new owners will likely replace developers with A.I. coding agents, and will likely double-down (even more) on predatory monetization. I expect that this will be the last Madden game to get any updates to Franchise at all. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Franchise mode gets cut from Madden 27 entirely. This may have been our last chance to ever get a good NFL-licensed video game, and EA blew it.