I’m a long-time Madden NFL fan who’s been with the series through its highs, like when Madden 2003 added online play, and its lows, like when they added Gameflow in Madden 11. When I got my hands on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Madden 25, at first I liked a lot of what I saw, including some really good player AI. But after a few games, I started noticing more and more problems with how these players handle, and those dogpiled on top of each other. Right now, if I’ve got to pick between the next-gen version and the current-gen one? I’d rather play Madden 25 on an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3.

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Obviously, Madden 25 looks a bit better on a next-gen console. It still won’t be winning any awards for bigtime graphical advancements, but it does have some pretty cool touches around the field. The stadiums feel alive, and the days of flat and blurry crowds are over. Whenever I broke a long touchdown run, the crowd made me feel like I had just done something grand. And when the home crowd isn’t happy with how their team is performing, you’ll definitely hear it.

All the cutaways to the sidelines to show coaches and players are satisfying, and EA deserves to be proud about how good they look. But they shouldn’t have had it happen quite so often, because some of the player interactions have gotten repetitive already, and even though character models look much sharper in 1080p resolution, we’re in serious uncanny valley territory here. There’s something kinda off about these guys, and not just their soulless facial expressions. I’m not a fan of how a lot of the players look: everyone has extremely long legs and small torsos, and it just looks generic to me. A couple of guys are particularly bad. For example, the 49ers’ Colin Kapernick doesn’t sport any of his trademark body ink, and I didn’t even recognize Kansas City Chiefs star running back, Jamaal Charles. I just kept saying, “There’s no way that’s Jamaal Charles, there’s no way!” He doesn’t look like that.

Here’s another weird thing: every so often it seems like player animations speed up. They’re moving unnaturally fast, and it was screwing up my timing on offense. This isn’t a framerate issue – they’re just moving really fast. Loading

The Xbox One and PS4 versions of Madden 25 have all the exact same features and modes I like in the 360 and PS3 versions. The Connected Franchise is a fun game mode to enjoy with a big group of friends, and Ultimate Team is a cool way to play with all your favorite players at once. That’s a strong foundation.

Where it’s different is in the little things, and some are better than others. I’ve always wondered how much a player's awareness and ability ratings really affected the game, but now you can plainly see it: these next-gen players are definitely smarter, and I really like watching how they react to real football situations. Watching Champ Bailey defensively dissect one of my offensive plays was great. I planned on throwing an out route to my receiver for a first down, but Champ read the play and made his move right as I started my throwing motion. By the time the ball arrived he was already in position to pick it off and head the other way for a touchdown. All I could say was damn – that's exactly the sort of thing he used to do in his prime. The same thing could be said about the 49ers' corner, Tarell Brown: one time, I called a cover 2 defensive play and I was controlling the middle linebacker. I watched as he passed the receiver off to the closest defender, and immediately he recognized the tight end running a route to the flat. Before the quarterback even threw the ball, he broke toward the area where the tight end was heading and stepped in front of the ball for a pick six. Good player AI like this forces you to make better choices when your offense, and that’s another area where this Madden does it right.

You can see this player awareness in other ways, too: for example, any self-respecting fan knows that the game of football is won and lost in the trenches. In the replays, you can see the offensive and defensive lines counter each other decisions, and that’s really cool. But I wish it was more noticeable when you’re actually playing. Loading

For me though, where Madden 25 makes its big fumble is in how EA changed the running game. I fancy myself a decent runner - in Madden on 360 and PS3, I enjoy following my blockers to make one cut and run for daylight. However, on Xbox One and PS4, far too many times I’ve had my runner slow down, shuffle his feet, and lose momentum while trying get around the defender. Yeah, that’s how they do it in real life, but I didn’t feel like I was in control of the player. At times it felt like Madden might be getting too realistic for it’s own good. It may be a better simulation, but it also makes playing less fun.