The legendary coach and broadcaster, John Madden, passed away during the holidays last season and Electronic Arts is honoring the legend in this year's Madden NFL 23. This is immediately illustrated in the awesome title screen animations and with the Madden Legacy Game featuring two generations of John Madden coaches with teams filled with legends and modern players. Along with commentary during this match that gives background to the coach and the game series, this helps to showcase not just how much he has meant to the game of football, but also to Electronic Arts in general. In relation, Madden NFL 23 continues to build like a franchise on the current generation of consoles as it carries over the bigger aspects that have been introduced since 2020 and seamlessly blends them with new technology pushing the series forward.

In recent history, the Madden series has moved to the Frostbite Engine, implemented Next Gen Stats that helps to drive the physics of the game, and instilled Superstar X-Factors to help separate the best players from the rest. For Madden NFL 23, EA has introduced FieldSENSE technology to not only allow for more freedom in the game, but also to help more properly replicate the real game of football within. Players now have the option to literally hit everything with new branching animation technology. Receivers can now be hit in the air for a new dynamic to break up passes. Great receivers will hold on to the ball while others will drop it. This also means that if there are multiple defenders approaching, the hits will be generated from everyone before the whistle blows. This adds a solid new dynamic to the passing game, but this isn't the only change in that department.

The most impactful addition to the gameplay comes in the way of Freeform Passing. Players will have the option to disable this, which those who specifically play online may not like the idea of this change, but the reward is truly a game changer. When throwing the ball, a cursor is now present to aim the ball and there's a slight learning curve to this. This allows for better ball placement and pressure on the quarterback can affect the accuracy of this. This isn't as difficult as the legendary Vision Cone from the days of old, but can give a distinct advantage. There's a zoned-off area of where the ball can be placed, but with using L2/LT, the ball can be thrown beyond the area. This means you can finally lead a receiver that has speed beyond the secondary without risk of the secondary making a play. If the quarterback doesn't have good throwing power or accuracy, this can become an issue.

The ability to place the ball where you want it is a much requested and much needed gamechanger to the Madden franchise. EA has also doubled down with implementing a passing meter to measure lob or bullet passes to help with timing. This can help with ultimate precision passing as the game will provide feedback on the passes. It is really comforting to alleviate any chance of the defenders making any type of moves and building confidence in your throws. Running a play action post and throwing the ball beyond the zone with a receiver that can run and get it is extremely satisfying.

EA has also worked on the foundational element of the game with including line play on both the offense and defense and also the defensive coverage, but this feels currently like a mixed bag. While Madden NFL 23 takes two steps forward, there are issues where it takes two steps back and feels more related to bugs that can be ironed out rather than issues with the engine. Running the ball doesn't feel overpowered, but instead streaky. The AI seems to shut things down if you have someone go on a tear. The outside run contain seems to be improved, while running the ball feels predicated on the rating of the running back. The offensive line does a solid job of opening holes and hitting blocks more quickly than in year's past, but it's not a huge difference.

Players can now take a stand up tackle in a one-on-one situation that throws up a quick-time event. This will have the player tapping X to break the tackle, and tends to work best with better rated running backs. EA has touted 360-degree cuts are in the game to allow for more explosiveness and these cuts do feel much more responsive when changing direction. This is done with LT/L2 when running the ball and is also more apparent with players like McCaffrey. Playing the defensive line still feels akin to year's past, but playing as an edge rusher will have the offensive tackle push you to the outside or drive you to the inside rather than holding you in place. So there are some changes here that can be seen.

The biggest troubles to the gameplay remains with the defensive coverage as the zone just doesn't seem to cover properly. This seems to be an ongoing issue over the years and while I understand that there will be holes in coverage in the NFL, there are too many instances where there are guys left all alone. I have also had guys literally standing and facing the wrong direction while near a receiver. While not coverage related, I had an instance where I threw the ball to the outside of an area and the receiver just stood and looked at the ball and the defensive back quickly ran behind the receiver to intercept the ball. Bugs like that need to be resolved.

EA has also reworked the WR vs DB battles, but this is more related to actually playing the position versus what you see on the field. There are new release moves for the receiver and press moves and evade moves for the DB. This can be experienced first hand in Face of the Franchise. Long gone are the days of the movie that you played through as the focus is purely on progressing your career. Defensive back has been added for this year and you'll be playing within fifteen minutes. There's a bit of narrative as you'll be starting as a fifth year player trying to revitalize your career as you choose a team that offered you a contract based on the best scheme fit. You may come in as a starter or you may have to work your way up. Your Avatar can be used in either this mode or the return of the arcade mode, The Yard, which is once again unchanged.

Face of the Franchise ends up being straight to the point as you focus on getting your player into the 99 Club. Player-lock Controls are the only option this time as you'll only play as this player. What's confusing is as a running back, why am I calling plays? Side Activities have been introduced that includes temporary boosts for smaller progression or practice drills. There are also weekly player goals to earn bonus REP points that are used to improve your player. There's also more freedom for molding the player as an overall player as opposed to just the position you signed up for. This works better for molding the player for The Yard.

While there may not be a lot of playable mode options in Madden NFL 23, Franchise Mode may get its biggest change in years. This is first apparent with scouting as you're no longer just allocating points to scout individual players. Scouts can now be hired and fired and there is some deeper strategy to scouting. Scouts will have two positions they stand out in, and you will assign which region of the country you want them to scout. You can choose nationally, but you risk reducing the amount of players that get fully scouted. The information returned is similar to the actual NFL with notes on the player, pro day stats, combine stats, etc. There are also mock drafts throughout the season and offseason. This is a much-needed overhaul and will require more focus on building a team for the future.

The Free Agency period will now have three different stages that will have players contact a specific number of players to negotiate with. This allows for more tension during this period. You can see how many teams are negotiating with the player and what the bids are. The first stage is five players, second is ten and third is unlimited. Players can evaluate the offers during this period and are limited to three. The big change comes with Motivations. Players may want to chase a ring, avoid taxes, play close to home or play for a historic team. There are plenty of Motivations and the Free Agency Tracker will show how much interest a player has in your team. Players can also have tags such as Award Winner, Franchise QB, Bridge QB, Day 1 Starter and more. These all add much-needed dynamics to this mode. The mode still lacks contract restructures and it would be nice to see quality-of-life changes like seeing active roster spots during the draft, cap penalties when trading players, or being able to place players on the trade block.

On current-generation consoles, this is the best looking Madden to date. The game offers a performance or image mode, and within the image mode, there are only a few hiccups during screen transitions as the game remains incredibly smooth during gameplay. Thanks to new gameday and player gear scans, the player and coach models look mostly great. The game finally gets the return of different body types as lineman will be bigger in comparison to other players. For some reason, the jersey numbers randomly scale to be pretty small. Player and coach faces look extremely detailed and the reflections off the helmets are beautiful. Some of the jerseys are questionable, but the wrinkles provide a new level of realism. 3D grass within the stadium along with the crowds remain excellent. EA has changed the presentation and it's more colorful. The biggest change is the touchdown animation screen and a new kickoff reception camera that pans. It would be nice to see a focus on highlights and montages that were in the game a few years ago.

Unfortunately, one of the things that needed to change was the commentary booth. Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis return, once again, and while there is new dialogue, these two have never gotten the chemistry together. They remain rather stale and with a year that celebrated the life of John Madden, I don't see why EA couldn't have just used old commentary from previous games to put in the game. It's time for a change in the booth and I'm surprised there's no sideline reporter at this point. Jonathan Coachman still does the pre-game and halftime show, which outdated in Franchise Mode. The commentary experience overall feels outdated in comparison to other sports games. The soundtrack remains heavily hip-hop focused, but this may just be the best hip-hop soundtrack in a video game ever. It features heavily-spotlighted artists, but unfortunately, the traditional NFL music has been removed.

Closing Comments:

Madden NFL 23 takes a few good steps forward, but seems to forget other aspects that will hopefully be addressed in the future. FieldSENSE is a good change that goes along with the other recent additions in the series. The Freeform Passing is a huge and fun change and the new hit animation engine is nice, but it can leave the occasional strange animation and outcome. The defensive coverage needs to be addressed as there seems to be glaring issues. The visuals continue to improve to bring a more realistic approach and the change to the presentation is a nice touch. Franchise Mode players should enjoy the changes to scouting and the offseason even though the in-season portion remains largely unchanged. The mode still needs a better attachment to the storyline of the season. While the changes are good, there's still a good bit left in the dust. Ultimate Team returns with new ways to earn rewards with Field Pass. Couple that with an unchanged Yard, a largely unchanged Face of the Franchise, online play and the Franchise Mode, and there aren't a lot of options for play here. The changes will appease Madden fans looking for gameplay and Franchise Mode improvements, which is mainly the community that provided the feedback.