EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL 26

good

Much better than Madden 25

Oh boy there's so much to break down about how frustrating it is to see this be priced at $70, and for them to not even have an OUNCE of standards to back up the price. So first of all, I will say the game is playable. I've dumped a lot of hours into it, just because at the very least (even for it being one of the only high quality options for this market) it runs, one of the better pc versions, because I have no where near high quality specs, but I don't get much performance issues. BUT, it does not justify for the absolute lack of care and standards put on this game. For how many reoccurring bugs, which let me make clear, have been in the game since its release, is an absolutely embarrassing look for this company. These bugs range anywhere from player cpu performance glitches/inconsistencies, the basic systems in the game (like coach abilities, stat counting, etc.) that have plenty of bugs that are ALWAYS there and never change, and even smaller things like visual display bugs. To start with player cpu inconsistencies, there are common glitches (which appear more often in cpu vs cpu as well) that are consistently in every match you play, and very often, cause results to differ due to them negatively impacting what happens on the field. Most common one that is absolutely annoying, is lack of reaction from the defense. Linebackers will sometimes sit in foot chopping stance, not moving or reacting to a running back/quarterback running right past them. Linebackers/secondary players will very consistently watch a ball pass right next to them, and are completely unfazed about it and would rather stare at the backfield. Defenders engaged in blocks would rather be more focused on sucking themselves into a block, rather than attempting to tackle the running back that passes by a millimeter next to them, and/or defenders will literally brush themselves up against a ballcarrier without attempting at all for a tackle. A VERY costly glitch is one where for some odd reason (mostly involving cornerbacks) two players will have coverage priorities that are across the field from each other, meaning it most likely gave them the wrong coverage priority for that player, which will allow for the easiest touchdown of an offense's life. So yeah, overall, the cpu glitches are VERY defensive heavy, and will cost you negative results in EVERY game, not just some. Which in return, makes the offense extremely overpowered, even with slider adjustments. As for basic system glitches, it is absolutely ridiculous that these glitches even exist in the first place, considering how most companies would treat these as a simple patch done within a week. Starting with coach abilities, it is an absolute cluster **** of a system. Starting with some of the more infamous bugs of this system, which a couple of them come from the scouting abilities. There is this specific ability called "talent evaluator" which is a very nice ability to the game, and would be one of the most used abilities in the scouting category. Well, it is actually the one no one ever uses, because instead of doing what it's supposed to do (boost to the talent range percentage in scouting), it instead glitches your entire talent range progress for every draft prospect for the rest of that season, making it impossible to know what the talent range is for ANY of your prospects, even if they're past the percentage requirement. Now that sounds like a bug that would've been fixed rather quickly, right? NOPE, EA has not been fazed by a largely talked about bug like that has existed since the release 10 months ago. With a bug that negatively impacts your experience with that capacity, most companies would have something like that patched within a week or slightly more, but EA would rather never touch it, throwing standards WAY out the window. Another very common one is the consistent progress counting errors for the "upgrade and downgrade" system for game abilities. Each ability has their own upgrade and downgrade goal, which if met on the field (like for example "reach 100 rushing yards in a game to upgrade, or "get held to only 75 rushing yards to downgrade) should upgrade/downgrade accordingly. Instead it's more of a gamble for A LOT of the abilities. Many of them will have cases like: needing 100 yards rushing to upgrade, the result of the game is my team rushing for 125, yet it downgrades, acting like you for some reason instead got held something below 75 or something. Other times, the ability will literally count the wrong stat. Had cases where the requirement was "don't allow more than 2 sacks in a game", which my blockers would allow zero sacks, yet it downgraded me because for some reason it will decide to count YOUR DEFENSES sacks to that number, causing you to downgrade because your own defense got sacks. So in short, the systems that are supposed to be unique, and add a interesting touch to the game, will a lot of times do quite the opposite, and just ruin the moment, way too often. Lastly, which is the least inconvenient ones is the display glitches that have never gone away, once again showing the lack of determination to make the game at the very least seem like it's cared for. You'll have the stats that show up for players describing the wrong stats, which for instance there is one where it will show you the characters current season stats on the field, but it is labeled as "2024 season stats". There is a glitch where sometimes on the scoreboard, it will show a score of something like "24 to 35" but on the team stats box score, will show "24 to 28", as if it forgot to count one of the touchdowns somehow, which I'm currently assuming is coming from whenever a score is "booth reviewed" after the play, and in return causes a stat counting glitch that will also effect the total stats of your players for their season stats. Which could be terrible for some cases if a player was leading in their position for touchdowns or something. So in short, what will happen is the game will count the scores after booth review confirms the score, but ends up acting like a score that was given for no reason, removing the fact that a player got the yards and touchdown to make it happen. In the coach abilities page, there will be a bunch of visual bugs with the labeling and upgrade/downgrade section of display. Overall, a bunch of visual displays that while can be funny at times, usually just end up loosing immersion towards the game, and/or are just annoying. So yeah, I don't know how EA just releases this **** without feeling an ounce of shame pricing it at $70, while refusing to do even the most BASIC procedures that most companies would do to polish their game. I would not recommend this game AT ALL for the price of $70, and I'm gonna be honest, even when it's at a discount of $20 (which is when I bought the game), still feels a bit of a stretch considering they don't bother having any standards for the game. These games would genuinely be at the very least decent to nowadays standards, if they would just polish their game, and the systems that are supposed to ENHANCE the game, not making it more frustrating. Buy the game at $20 if you haven't had a football game in a while, and it will probably suffice, for that football game craving. By no means should you be buying this game at $70 though, it's pretty much forcefully scamming yourself.