Mitch H

An underwhelming delivery from the EA sports team once again. Although the final product is OK at best, this game still leaves a lot to be desired, in what, was a ‘make or break’ year from EA. They made their money on it, and I’m sure don’t overly care with what the game looks like any more. It’s not “simulation football” even though it’s the only NFL simulation football game on the market, and doesn’t quite come close to it. Instead, its main focus is the gambling, micro transaction focused mode that is Ultimate Team. This is where they make their money, so this is where the focus was. A mode that has no sustenance or reflection of the actual NFL and rewards buying packs and better players with actual money, instead of grinding or playing the game. Graphics: 5/5 Honestly graphics are quite good. Nothing to overly complain about, except maybe we should be seeing better graphics on the next gen gaming models, but that’s a different argument. Gameplay: 2/5 Although much improved, in terms of ball flight path and player movement, there is still a ton to be desired. Glitchy animations still happen. Defenders’ arms going through offensive players bodies to catch balls still happens. Blocking and the struggle to fight the rough blockers is lacking. And with the game heavily focused on competitive and arcade game style, simulation football is put to the wayside. The game pushes big plays and high offense, and even on the hardest difficulty with run blocking sliders all the way down (or up just to test things) users will still average 7 yards a rush attempt with their rbs without really trying. It’s not simulation football. And even though playbooks got an “overhaul”, because the game doesn’t play like actual football, crosser routes and fast wrs are still the meta and are easily exploited to move the ball Franchise mode: 1/5 It’s fine. But that’s it. It’s relatively unchanged over the last 8 years. Minimal additions, and what has been added is quickly obsolete as it’s often unused. Examples of this are: the scouting system. It’s barely used past a few years as there’s nothing to it. Underwhelming, and can get the same results whether you sim or the do the few tasks there are. Contracts: actually good now, but that didn’t come until a January update. At release, this was still broken. Coaching: coaching trees seem to have no effect on anything, and there’s no contracts for coordinators nor stats for them, and real life coordinators are not in the game. Progression: players still don’t progress great, even though this has been overhauled. A 90 overall speed player can become a 99 speed guy with enough upgrades, which just doesn’t make sense. A 4.50 40 guy will never become a 4.25 40 guy just because he has a couple good seasons. News stories: been overhauled, still underwhelming and quickly stop paying attention to them as the seasons go on as they add nothing. No team records for anything. Relocation finally got updated and is pretty decent. Unis could use some work but nice to FINALLY have an update here after years of nothing. And much more. Overall a lacking mode for the game.