As I write this I’m noticing a notification from my iPhone that one of my passwords appeared in a data leak. That isn’t ideal. What is also not ideal is the amount of time between bloganovella posts. That has to be corrected. No, not tonight. I’m on the phone again fresh off my first round of madden 22 and feeling weird about the experience. Let’s start with the fact that I had to be told what buttons to push to load into the game… I’m worried about my mental health. I have gaps that shouldn’t be there and appear more often than they have in the past. It troubles me.
Madden 22 troubles me. Basically it’s a fresh paint job on a game that needed real upgrades and repairs. It didn’t get any of that at the game level for current generation. There was supposedly work done at the next gen level but I can’t find a ps5 under $800–twice the value of the thing—so no. What I’ve seen of the game so far is a weak attempt to replicate the success of 2k sports’ nba franchise by monetizing the single play story mode. They worked to integrate the single player intro story with the Yard mode and even create what resembles a MyCareer but that isn’t what people play Madden for. The stuff we want—the on field and franchise is not good. More on the franchise later as I do a real deep dive. Tonight I’m only prepared to offer a grade: C. It passes but only because it added the new players and I happen to enjoy playing… less so as the years go by and the game retreats into sadness.