EA is finally giving players some long-awaited improvements in Madden NFL 22, with massive overhauls to Franchise like expanded staff management with skill trees and extensive weekly strategy and game prep. While all Franchise improvements will be available for every player regardless of platform, such is not the case with all the game's improvements.
In yet another example of pushing toward next-gen consoles, Madden 22's new Dynamic Gameday improvements will only be available on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X - surprisingly, even leaving out PC. For anyone playing on next-gen consoles, though, the game will bring major improvements to the stadium atmosphere, in-game momentum, and better AI functionality, thanks to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Some of these features are revitalizations of previous ones, such as the Gameday Atmosphere working to capture the unique feeling of each NFL stadium, while others are improvements on recent additions, like the utilization of NFL Next Gen stats that began in Madden 21 expanding with this year's release. According to EA, the focus of all of these improvements is to make each game feel like a unique experience and is split into three primary categories: Gameday Atmosphere, Gameday Momentum, and Next Gen Stats Star-Driven AI.
Gameday Atmosphere is supposed to give each stadium a unique feel with the addition of superfans, varied crowd animations, and specific sideline reactions based on the new Gameday Momentum features. The super fans won't be the ones players may be used to seeing at an actual NFL game, but each stadium will feature unique fans different from other stadiums in order to replicate the real NFL experience in Madden 22. These unique stadium effects will feature things like the flyover at Soldier Field and will also affect the on-field gameplay like the raucous crowd at Arrowhead. All of which will be further affected by the new Momentum effects.
The new Gameday Momentum feature will add a momentum meter for both home and away teams that will give them unique abilities known as M-Factors to unlock via gameplay, which should give some much-needed improvements to Madden's game-to-game experience. Similar to how X-Factor gives specific players additional abilities, M-Factors will shift the entire game experience by giving players abilities like making non-checkdown receivers harder to see or having unlimited stamina while holding the momentum. These momentum features go as far as keeping a kicker in an iced state, making receiver icons go missing, or making a hot route more difficult to execute. The home and away teams will battle throughout each game to control the momentum, but home teams will have a unique home-field advantage with an additional M-Factor specific to each stadium. This M-Factor will be the first to unlock for the home team and will give them various abilities like field goals being significantly more difficult in the Windy City or The Twelves making passing routes hard to view, a feature many players will remember from NCAA Football games.
Next Gen Stats Star-Drive AI will add real-world player tendencies such as how quickly a given QB typically pulls throws off. So when Big Ben was averaging a league-leading 2.29 time to throw in 2020, his in-game counterpart would update to function similarly. Other tendencies include passing aggressiveness for players that tend to force the pass, or decision-making under pressure. So if Aaron Rodgers is actually playing this season, his Madden 22 counterpart shouldn't be prone to throwing picks. Ball-carriers will also mimic their real-world tendencies with breaking or evading tackles, being more or less prone to spin or juke, and much more.
While it's still odd these features won't be available on PC, these updates should eliminate annoying issues from Madden 21, such as every QB making the vast majority of their throws quick checkdown passes before a play even develops. Along with promised improvements to route running, releases, more responsive control of QB scrambling and receivers turning upfield, and more intelligent tackling mechanics, the changes for Madden NFL 22 on next-gen consoles could be a big step forward.
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June 29, 2021 at 11:58PM
