Heavily advertised for the past two years, I pretty much ignored Madden’s story-based Longshot mode. That’s far from a bad thing, but if you were hoping for substantial changes, you’d better adjust your expectations. There wasn’t a lot that needed to be done to build off last year’s engine, so it will feel intimately familiar to anyone who spent an extended amount of time with that one. Both sides of the ball feel great to control, and the addition of RPO and more trick plays give the playbook added depth. EA Tiburon has been doing an excellent job of tweaking the engine year after year, and Madden NFL 20 might just be the best playing entry of this console generation. X-Factor skills help juice up the franchise’s already strong core gameplay. It’s an important facet of the game and one that needed to be expanded upon. Steelers speedster JuJu Smith-Schuster and Texans ace DeAndre Hopkins are two of the best receivers in the NFL, but they’re great in different ways. They even help differentiate the best from the best and emphasize their respective skill sets. I’m a fan of these additions because it is important to differentiate the elite players from the merely good ones. This prevents it from completely throwing the balance of Madden NFL 20 out of wack. While it’s easy to get in the zone, it’s just as easy to fall right out of it. There was the chance that this could have been poorly implemented, but EA Tiburon mitigated that. This will prevent AI defenders from being able to intercept him until he either throws two incomplete passes in a row, gets sacked, or turns the ball over. For example, if Packers gunslinger Aaron Rodgers completes three consecutive passes of five-plus yards through the air, the Gambler ability will be triggered. By fulfilling a set goal, you will enter the zone until you are knocked out of it. Designed for the stars of the league, these abilities amplify their best traits when activated. The big additions to this year’s edition, and the ones you’ll instantly be smacked in the face with, are the X-Factor and Superstar abilities. It turns out, Madden NFL 20 is a solid, if not overly ambitious, entry to the cannon. Perhaps it was due to my boy Patrick Mahomes getting the cover star treatment, but I still felt compelled to seek out this year’s iteration. I considered myself a pretty big fan, but the past two entries just didn’t really grab me. After my last go-around with the franchise (writing for We Got This Covered), my interest in EA Tiburon’s juggernaut had dwindled.
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