Are you ready for some footbaaaaall? You should be, because Madden NFL comes out this time every year. It’s not a surprise, folks. What is a pleasant surprise is that Madden NFL 15 has turned out to be one of the better years for improvements to EA’s long-running football sim. There’s a majorly revamped defensive system that makes defending exciting again, improved play calling, and a system-wide focus on fine-tuning aspects of Madden that have been stationary for far too long. It looks wonderful on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, too.

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For years, defensive play in Madden has always been a chore you have to do in between the fun parts where you’re trying to score. Things are different this year, and it’s a hugely important and long-overdue upgrade. Defense now feels impactful, like you’re in charge of how things play out instead of just waiting for the offense to mess up.

It does this in two ways: first, you have this all-new defensive camera that faces toward the quarterback. You get to stare down your primary objective during pass rush, and race right toward him as soon as the play starts. Fighting your way through the offensive line with the mashing of the face buttons is an exciting charge.

Then, if you manage to break free, you actually get to control how your tackle attempt plays out. It isn’t just about running at players and hitting them. You can choose to tackle high or low, and even modify the intensity of your hit. It’s all contextual and built toward being more realistic. This is increasingly important as the wonky physics system introduced in Madden 13 is still present, though slightly more refined. The only bummer is that this new defensive camera doesn’t work in local multiplayer. That’s a pretty big downside, but it’s a non-issue if you play mainly online.

I’m also thrilled to see that a new play-calling system has replaced the simplistic suggestions from last year with something that strikes a great balance between complexity and ease of use. Instead of requiring you to dig through menus in-depth or simply handing you a play, Madden NFL 15 uses context to provide helpful play choices. Say you’re sitting at First-and-10; it’ll take statistics for your opponent’s typical defense in this situation and pair that with your common moves to provide you with the best play options. You can modify these based on what you’re looking to accomplish with the play as well, so if you want to take it strategically and not go for the big yards, it’ll suggest different plays on the fly to help you accomplish that. After years of EA trying out new systems that never seemed to work out, this is one I’d love to see stand the test of time.

All of my favorite parts of Madden are still around, too, including Connected Franchises and Ultimate Team. Actually, I’m more of a fan of the Offline Franchise and wish it wasn’t always trying to keep me online and engaging with friends in a fantasy football-like setting. Sometimes it’s nice to just build out a team and play on my own schedule.

Ultimate Team has been slightly revamped to streamline the team-building systems a bit, getting rid of your reserve deck and focusing on your main team. That should be your main priority anyway, so the change works great. Unfortunately the card-pack microtransactions are still here, and still feel a bit gross, as if to capitalize on my impatient nature interacting with the player progression system.

Compared to the incremental graphics upgrades seen in Madden 25, Madden 15 looks significantly more “next-gen.” Player and uniform textures look dramatically better. Games that take place at night under stadium lighting and in midday shadows look great, especially next to last year’s blown-out nightmares. Stadiums, too, are notably improved. This is much more like the intensity and hype that a Sunday night game has on TV.

Unfortunately, this makes the travesty on the sidelines and in the crowds all the more apparent and noticeable, as the characters seen there continue the trend of looking significantly worse than anyone on the field and repeating every five feet. Every time the camera pans across the sideline, you’re sure to see no more than five faces repeated throughout 80 people. It seems that even the PS4 doesn’t have the horsepower to beautify the masses.