Receivers yet again drop every... single.... pass. Wide open = drop. On the run= drop. Gets touched by defender= drop. Standing still on a curl route= drop. Bubble route= drop. It's so damn stupid. Refund. One of the achievements literally says "One a game when behind..." These people can't even spell. Incompetent. Give the license up.

Purchased MVP Bundle, worst RIP OFF in the world. EA doing what they do best, nickle and diming the customers, releasing yet another monopolized NFL game that has many bugs and issues. Paid for the MVP bundle to receive early access, which off the get go couldn't with multiple server issues and not being able to get in the first 2 days. Than I purchased there STUPID team pass and season 1 pass, all to just be bugged out and now show today on the real release date that I never purchased, trying to make me repurchase the same thing I had ALREADY F***** PAID FOR!!!!! Even when I purchased the team pass, I was unable to get any of the items I paid for making it useless and just nickled and dimed me. I WANT partial refund for my MVP bundle ( I did not have early access as stated in your MVP bundle). I also want my points back for purchasing your STUPID A$$ team pass and season 1 pass. Yet another MADDEN FLOP, there's a reason why EA always get a 1 star rating year after year, same garbage with a new cover. EA only cares about $$$ and as long as they have this stupid contract which the NFL should cancel, it will be a garbage monopoly, PLEASE 2K get a contract and license with NFL to show EA how its done. F***** EA

Haven't played a madden since 2021. How is the game worse? The challenges are not necessarily hard, but the players don't like to path where their routes say they should go, which cause you to fail the challenge not because your throw was bad, but because the computer controlled receiver didn't run the route correct. My first game I played I threw 14 interceptions because I would see a defensive player running in a certain direction, throw the ball behind them, only for the defensive player to COME TO INSTANTANEOUS STOP to pick off my throw. Morale of the story, I refunded it.

EA finally listened and removed the "End Racism" helmets.

I'ma start with this, did an experiment, put the ravens O line all at 0 stats and they can still block the likes of TJ Watt and hold him out of the play and to only 1 sack all game(while controlling or not). So with this i went into franchise mode and lowered the cheifs overalls down to like 80 OFF and 80 DEF as a team. they still won the superbowl. Welcome to madden where the rules are made up and the points dont even matter. have to start the game 3 or 4 times since the game just wont open sometimes, sitting there for 15 to 20 seconds just to look over at my steam and the play button is there again because the game closed itself without telling me. I'm a franchiser. They made improvements and its better than it has been in years. coaching abilities/playsheets setup makes sense, but your playsheets can be downgraded after you lvl them up. so instead playing to win, you're just playing to clear milestones. I cant stand the wear and tear stuff they added, it makes sense it should be in a football game, but execution with EA isn't on their resume in the strengths category jumped into superstar mode as a running back, got to the drills session of the combine, idk who coded this, but i hope your goldfish gets the rona. the dummy juking deal is a big no go homie. Its same game as usual though the loading screens take forever menu music doesnt play right and skips or cuts out like i'm listening to a CD player while falling down a mountain you run blockers are braindead animations be wild sometimes the settings i put change themselves on their own your DLine doesn't do any pass rush moves unless you're controlling them the community share searching is the same as last year (unfilterable garbage) the new traits stuff they put in doesnt work for Edge players (gotta change them to DT to get them) your WRs still drop the ball after being stared at menecingly by DBs from yards awaya as a runner as soon as i hit sprint the defenders come off their blocks and snatch you up the new RUN OUT OF THE TUNNEL being different for each team, is like 3 seconds of cutscene and only works during night games. at year 5 the NFL rosters has more 99's than the Hall of Fame(gotta turn xp down to like 30%) the scouting is garbage, screen goes black and have to go back and forth between positions to get info back But its madden and its the only NFL game i get, so good for EA getting paid for yet another half assed attempt

It is, with no exaggeration, literally unplayable. Fix your game EA.

my glorious broncos are back in top 10 overall teams so this game is peak

Unlike others who have given negative reviews of this game, I have played for more than single-digit hours. Most of the negative reviews you will see are people say "Another copy paste Madden, and that just shows they don't pay attention or only play Online game modes like MUT or H2H. That being said, at the time of review, the game is in early access and has a few problems, such as quarterbacks very easily overthrowing your wide receivers and wide receivers having issues holding on to the ball. When combined, these issues can make the game infuriating while playing. If you love Franchise mode, this Madden is great, with all the effort put into presentation from the pre-game walk-outs to the weekly recap and halftime shows. Madden 26 is also improved one of the biggest issues I had, which was that my AI either did not react at all or took a super long time to react to plays like dump-off passes, short over the middle passes, and so on. Madden 26 improves the AI to make it react better, so the dump off passes, and short over the middle plays get shut down quicker and even in some cases get shut down altogether. I hope the few issues mainly: overthrowing WR's and WR's not being able to hold on to the ball gets fixed by full launch so the game can be even better. Overall, I enjoy this game and it feels even better than Madden 25 did and I feel it's yet another step in the right direction for Madden. I hope EA can keep it up.

This game runs perfectly fine on my pc because im not poor, and its also really fun and better than last year, but i'm leaving a bad review because everyone else is.

I've been DOMINATING Madden since 1999.... Since 07, EA has been on a STEEP decline. I played just 3 quarters of this game (26) and I truly hope to never play Madden again. They have ruined everything good about this game and replaced it with S*@$ mechanics that nobody requested... on the flip side of that, any improvements they SHOULD make, they don't even try. The new kicking and passing mechanics are COMPLETE ASS (TRASH I SAY, TRASH!!!). Coverage is a JOKE (I had 5 defenders wiff on easy picks that turned into 15-25 yard gains for the offense). Penalties are NONSENSE (had a CB called for "Pass Interference" on a go route for jumping up and knocking the ball down while the receiver was behind him the whole time). They MAKE you choose between "wear and tear" or "fatigue" with no option to disable both (What if someone just wants a casual experience without those things??? duuurr). They completely removed "owners" from Franchise mode (What if i like the current coach, don't want to play as him, AND want to play/manage that team??? No??? Exactly). If you relocate your team, all of the uniforms and options are the same (why the F*@$! cant we at least choose our own *INDIVIDUAL AND NOT PRESET* color schemes and uniform styles!?!?!? AAAAHHHHHHHH). Scouting rookies/offseason is just a mix of several previous games with ZERO actual improvement to experience or content. The faces and builds of SPECIFIC rookie players is prioritized over TONS of veteran players (just.... why? like come on). I could rail this pathetic game for HOURS but I'm too dam angry... Its 2025 EA!!! How TF are things FAR WORSE now than they were in 2007??? I'm DONE! Don't buy this S*@$! WITHHOLD YOUR MONEY AND MAKE THEM IMPROVE THIS FRANCHISE or LET THEM FAIL. My official rating for this game: ***TWO MIDDLE FINGERS***

another copy and paste game with the same usual bs as always

My very first Madden was Madden 07. As a kid I used to love these games but I felt like after Madden 12, they gradually started to get worse year by year. I thought 18 had a minor bounce back despite some ridiculous bugs, but 19 was a big step back and it ended up being my last Madden before giving up on the series. 7 years on, I decided to jump back in, and while I can’t compare it to the most recent games, I can compare it to the games that caused me to quit Madden. One thing that always plagued those Maddens was that experimenting with and adjusting sliders was essential to getting a realistic simulation. It was a real chore getting it set up every year. Madden 26 feels very much ready to play out of the box in comparison. The only thing I did was change quarter time to 8 minutes and reduced accelerated clock run down to 25 seconds minimum and in game stats resemble their irl counterparts with these settings. I played the game for 11 hours straight without realising since I was having so much fun starting my Patriots rebuild in Franchise mode. But there is one massive flaw for me and that is that you have to sit through a loading screen for far too long every time you want to view a player card. This made roster cuts a time consuming nightmare. My only other issue so far is with the commentary. At half time, the commentary team sometimes overlap each other, and on kickoffs, commentary is sometimes completely drowned out by crowd noise and stadium announcements. I’ve yet to have any gameplay bugs.

Really fun looks good and ive had a blast so far

About 2 hours in and the game has felt clean except a few huge glaring issues. 1.The player cards take 5-6 seconds to load, totally killing immersion. It would be one thing if you only checked once or twice an hour but when playing franchise, it literally takes 10 minutes to upgrade your players or make roster cuts. God forbid you actually want to make a trade from the trade center. You'll be spending all day trying to read players stats. You can see the game auto saving before you even do anything. There is clearly some massive issue in their player card overlay. Franchise players are going to revolt over this. 2. In franchise the long snappers and SAM linebackers disappear from the Free Agency. Yes you can manually change players with "Edit Player" on the player card but then if they hit free agency, poof, they vanish again. The game requires you to use a Long Snapper but if yours is injured, you are no longer able to play a game because you are required to have one, yet there are none available in free agency because they POOFED out of existence. 3. When choosing uniforms before the game, you can see your opponents uniforms but not your own. Hope you've memorized your teams uniforms over the years. 4. Game just crashes randomly during the coaching events in Franchise. 5. During the draft in franchise, there is no background when selecting players. So you will be looking at white text on a white draftboard. 6. Playing games that have 0 fans in the stadium, while still hearing the roar of the crowd. 7. Playing games where all button icons were removed from the game. None presnap on either side of the ball. Hope you know the exact button layout because passing is way harder this way. Don't worry, I still "one" that game, as the achievement says. Who tested any part of this game besides MUT? That was the only thing that was addressed in the Day 1 Patch. Shows exactly where their concerns are, starting a pay to win season, not fixing their broken game.

This is the first football game I have ever actually paid full price, I may not be the biggest fan of the game, but it is still a very fun game to play. There are bugs, but it's still pre-release, and that has to be expected. Getting the audio bug, and the franchise coach not leveling are the biggest bugs I have seen, but it is a fun game, and I recommend it.

I have been playing madden since the 1st one, 89 on pc. Every one. They have officially made it an arcade game. The stats are completely unrealistic, the amount of "big plays" are ridiculous. Strategy is completely gone in place of accessibility and "fun". Sad part is, it is the same BS under the hood. Fancied up thier graphics, made it faster and more forgiving. NFL 2k whatever year can't get here fast enough. I'll play it, but ONLY bc its the ONLY football game. Your Stockholm syndrome won't work on me this year, EA! NFL2k will rise from the ashes and put you to bed once and for all solely bc you left the back door open every night for the last 20 plus years. No real halftime show, still. Can't use any greatest players, teams etc. No tourneys for online. Nothing. Same BS, built to bilk you in a pay for play scheme for classic players. NO ONE WANTS YOUR STUPID A$$ ULTIMATE TEAM!! Get it through your thick F'n heads. For those unaware, you used to get all the greatest teams of the place, make playoff brackets. No charge either. How the F$#@ in 20 years you go backward and lose features/benefits? Clowns running EA at this point and maybe AI should take over.

Same garbage as last year with the same bugs as last year. Save your money and emulate NFL2K5 which is still a far superior game 20 years later.

Ugh this game looks and FEELS so good. Franchise and Superstar have come a long way. A must play if you haven't picked it up in a while!

I only play franchise, am ok with the elderly engine still being used, have had no crashes to desktop, and it runs smoothly on my PC in 4k. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Is the big pile of garbage like many in the reviews have suggested? Not in my opinion. I've been playing Madden since the original for the Sega Genesis so I definitely understand some of the frustration, I would certainly love to see a more realistic NFL atmosphere and greatly improved commentary during games. However, I am enjoying franchise mode, there is tons to do, and its running just fine on my PC with no issues (so far). Overall, so far, I would give it a 7/10.

its pretty good and a step in the right the direction!

WHERE IS DYNAMIC LIGHTING HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE THE DAY GO BY REALISTICALLY. EA HOW DID YOU GET IT ON COLLAGE FOOTBALL BUT NOT MADDEN AGAIN PLEASE WHERE IS THE IMMERSION. anyways first ever madden ive bought, it plays well. the screen tear is real but ive made it capped at 120 fps and windowed fullscreen and its worked since. no other issue , BUT PLEASE WHERE IS DYNAMIC LIGHTING I WANT TO SEE THE SUN SET

This has to be one of the best Madden games I have ever played. I absolutely love the presentations of this game including the weekly recap and the half-time presentations the movement is a tad bit choppy but im sure it'll get better overtime, overall a very good Madden game so far.

This is the best game since M20. If it was optimised id actually say the game is above average.

Lol, Ive played 30 mins and I got a bug where Cam Heyward (A defensive Lineman for the Steelers) is taking snaps at receiver despite not being in the depth chart for that position. This was in the superstar mode which means I cant fix it. EA why bother even advertising improvements if it takes less than 30 mins to have an immersion breaking bug. Honestly if the NFL doesnt look at this game and revoke EA's license then it isnt going to happen

It clicks me out of the game to the main screen sometimes but overall a good game