Stop what you’re doing. Thinking about buying Madden for yourself, loved on this holiday season? Amazon will have Black Friday deals on sports video games, but they’ve fired early on Madden. $35 (regularly $59.99) today only. Both PS4 and Xbox One. Get it. It’s fantastic. My review from release day.
UPDATE: It’s only $25 now!
And while you’re at it– not a flash sale, but NBA 2k16 is only $47.
Reminder: If you shop at Amazon over the holidays, use our link and we get a small kickback.
EA Sports has been slowly revealing the top players ranked at every position in this year’s Madden game. Only a couple of Eagles made those cuts, but now they’ve unveiled full ratings (overall, kick accuracy, injury, etc.). The Eagles’ team overall of 84 puts them behind the Cowboys (87), but well in front of the Giants (77) and Redskins (75). Here’s what Madden’s site had to say:
Chip Kelly made a number of high-profile offseason moves. Now it’s time to see them in action. QB Sam Bradford (79 OVR) leads the question marks into camp. HB DeMarco Murray (94 OVR) is no question at all, led by a great offensive line including LT Jason Peters (96 OVR), RT Lane Johnson (88 OVR), and C Jason Kelce (87 OVR). HB Ryan Mathews (84 OVR) can spell him when needed.
The Eagles have a revamped secondary with new arrivals CB Byron Maxwell (84 OVR), CB Walter Thurmond (75 OVR), and rookie CB Eric Lowe (72 OVR). MLB Kiko Alonso (87 OVR) could have a breakout year after coming over in the LeSean McCoy trade.
It’s Eric Rowe, but alright. They also made a downloadable spreadsheet available will full rankings for every player in the game. Of course, I went right to Sam Bradford’s injury rating – 71 – which is the ninth worst in the game. The receiving corps are, as expected, a little light, with Jordan Matthews (81) leading the way, followed by Miles Austin (78), Riley Cooper (76), Nelson Agholor (74), and Josh Huff (72). We expect those numbers to change.
But defense is where the birds start to stand out. Fletcher Cox sports a healthy 92 rating, while Connor Barwin and Kiko Alonso strengthen the linebacker group with 87s. Cody Parkey is an 80, which is ridiculous.
You can see all of the ratings after the jump.
In last year’s Madden, the Eagles boasted the best rating in the NFC East, the second-rated running back and top rated tackle. This year, Madden gives the Eagles the third-rated running back and the top-rated tackle.
DeMarco Murray’s 94 overall ties him for third with Jamaal Charles, and he and Le’Veon Bell jumped up into the top-five from outside the ranks last year. Last year’s second-rated back, LeSean McCoy (97), falls out of the top-five. And what of the tackle? Same, dude:
Jason Peters’ 96 overall is up three points from last year, keeping him in the number one tackle spot (and number three overall offensive lineman). Additionally, Evan Mathis notches a 95-overall, even as he isn’t on a roster. So far, EA Sports has also revealed the top ten rookies, and top five tight ends, wide receivers, quarterbacks, and middle linebackers. No Eagles made those lists. And also, they just had to get in that dig on Bradford didn’t they? Can’t wait to see his injury rating.
Jordan McRae, one of the 400 players the 76ers drafted in the 2nd round this year, is going to be playing pro basketball in Australia. McRae was the 58th pick of the 2014 draft and traded to the 76ers from the Spurs, and will now suit up for Melbourne United in the NBL. McRae was named to the Second Team of the Summer League’s All-NBA squad when he averaged 21 points on 50% shooting in four appearances.
One report thinks the Sixers retain the right to call McRae back to the NBA until January, but if not, he’ll spend the year playing in the same league as Josh Childress. And that is what Josh Childress is up to.
The video above, via Barstool, shows the evolution of every few years of the Madden video game franchise over the past 26 years. It’s gotten me excited to play Madden 15, but I’d also be fine pulling out Maddens 02/03/04.
Call of the parade, Eagles fans, the harbinger of Eagles success has announced that they will not win a Super Bowl this year, so let’s just pack it up. That Nostradamus of professional football is Larry Mendte, and he just knows this year is not the year:
After false prophets who came to Philadelphia and fell short of leading us to the Promised Land, Eagles fans believe they have found their Messiah. And I am now put in the unenviable position of having to yell at the Chipnotized, “Snap out of it! It’s not going to happen this year!”
That hurts to admit. There are just way too many questions. I believe Nick Foles can and will be a star in this league. But, the defense is still suspect, as is the kicker. Depth is also a problem. What happens if offensive linemen Jason Peters or running back LeSean McCoy gets hurt? Injuries at key positions are inevitable. The Eagles don’t have the depth at most positions to compensate.
The great prognosticator of the Philadelphia fan has spoken, and his will shall be done.
Well “commercial” may be a bit of a stretch since it’s nearly four minutes long: That clip above, a kind of Lonely Island-lite music video which is supposedly an advertisement for Madden 15, features Kevin Hart, James Franco’s brother, digital Richard Sherman, Damian Lillard, and a rap interlude from LeSean McCoy and Colin Kaepernick that actually doubles as a sly dig at athlete-rappers (a certain ex-Eagle comes to mind). It’s a bit much.
EA Sports released the ratings for the NFC East teams in Madden 15 yesterday, and as you can see above, Darren Sproles remains a slip-sceen stud, even as a backup. The team’s overall 85 rating puts it first in the division, in front of the Cowboys (81), the Giants (76), and the Redksins (75). As EA says of the rating:
With Chip Kelly at the helm for his second year, the Eagles look to improve on last year’s 10-6 record and NFC East title. The Eagles lost deep threat and special teams weapon Desean Jackson to the division rival Redskins, but did add Darren Sproles. Combined with the 97 OVR Lesean McCoy, Sproles will be a nice addition to the high-octane Kelly offense. Quarterback Nick Foles is coming off a stellar 2013 season, and will look to wide receivers Jeremy Maclin and Riley Cooper in the passing game.
On the defensive side, the Eagles are reliant on veteran linebacker Trent Cole, who will be a monster with the new Madden NFL 15 defensive line mechanics with his 97 Finesse Move (FMV) rating. The Eagles also have 3 CBs with an 80+ OVR.
Those three CBs, according to GoMadden, are rated 82 (Cary Williams) and 80 (Brandon Boykin, Bradley Fletcher). Additonally, LeSean McCoy’s 97 makes him the best back in the NFC East and the second best in the game, behind only Adrian Peterson. Mysteriously missing from the Eagles’ top players image above is Evan Mathis, who we already learned has a 99 run block rating and a 97 overall (tied for 2nd best OL player).
It’s good to know that even if this season somehow completely collapses and tumbles downhill and nothing good happens, this team will be an absolute monster in Madden.
I included this in the Roundup (capitalize that ish) this morning, but it’s worth calling out further as it is one of the best pieces of sports video game writing you will ever read. Owen Good of Kotaku takes a look at how Madden 2004 Michael Vick forever changed video game quarterbacks and the Madden series. Good assumes that, tomorrow, EA Sports will announce that 2004 Vick is on their All-25 Team for the upcoming Madden NFL 25 as the best quarterback in the game’s history. Because:
Michael Vick may, for the rest of his life, remain a contemptible stereotype to much of the public: A brutal or stupid man. A laughingstock. A guy who did federal time. Still, there is one aspect of his football career that cleanly escapes the wreckage of his personal scandal, that lives on almost as a separate identity, and is a mortal lock to return tomorrow.
It’s the Michael Vick of Madden NFL 2004. The incandescent, unstoppable, oh-god-don’t-let-him-run, oh-please-don’t-make-me-throw Vick, the last of sports video gaming’s otherworldly performers. He arrived—with his jaw-dropping, unheard-of 95 speed and totally unfair 97-rated acceleration—at the sunset of the dorm couch’s dominance over online multiplayer, and in the age when what you got on a disc was what you played with for a year.
Subsequent editions of Madden, Moore said, were still forced to respond to the disruption Vick caused. “If you remember, Madden 2005, that was the year of the defense,” Moore said. “We added the hit stick and quarterback spies on defense.” Vick, and the advent of mobile quarterbacks seen today, changed the game in real life, but it changed Madden more immediately. “We had to combat the real offensive year everyone had seen in Madden 2004.”
Ray Lewis took the cover after Vick, and the Hit Stick introduced in his Year-of-the-Defense edition remains one of the most spammed control inputs in video game history, sports or otherwise. “To this day it’s still probably one of our top features,” nodded Moore. Defensive formations with QB spies—linebackers who sit back and neither drop into zone coverage nor attack the runner, but read what the quarterback is doing—have likewise clamped down on a mobile quarterback’s ability to draw Family Circus cartoons all over the playbook in Madden.
For my money, Madden 2005 was the best football video game ever made, largely due to those new defensive controls that were implemented partly because of Vick’s dominance the previous year. The 2005 gaming season was also the year 2K Sports’ NFL 2K5, with T.O. on the cover, legitimately challenged Madden. But Madden’s new defensive playmaker controls and, if I recall correctly, the addition of Tony Bruno as in-franchise radio commentator sent Madden to another level of excellence. It’s been a somewhat downhill journey since.
I SEOed the shit out of that title.
I was expecting a bit more in terms of graphics when EA Sports announced and debuted a trailer for FIFA, Madden, NBA Live and UFC at the unveiling event for the new Xbox One today. What we see here is basically a well-choreographed cutscene – yes, likely from the game engine – containing no actual gameplay footage. This looks great, but is it going to look like this when you’re actually playing? We don’t know yet. And come to think of it, the Madden footage doesn’t look that different from the Madden 06 trailer that featured Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens.
The EA SPORTS IGNITE game engine delivers a new level of innovation, further blurring the line between the real-world and the virtual. Developed by EA SPORTS™, games powered by the new engine will be alive: players think, move and behave like real athletes, with environments as dynamic and ever-changing as real-world stadiums.
With Human Intelligence, True Player Motion and Living Worlds, the way sports games are played will fundamentally change. EA SPORTS IGNITE is designed to harness the potential of next-generation consoles and will power FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, EA SPORTS UFC and NBA LIVE 14 on Xbox One and PlayStation®4.
If that all sounds like the type of thing EA Sports has been promoting in every. one. of. their. games. for the last six years… well, it is. I mean, one of the selling points EA mentioned on-stage was fully dynamic crowds… but isn’t that something that sports games have had for a while now? Anyway, while that announcement may leave you a bit disappointed, this won’t: Some hot woman announced that Halo will now be a live-action show on Xbox Live produced by Steven Spielberg. Everything about the sentence was hot:
The NFL also announced a partnership with Microsoft that will include your fantasy stats on-screen while watching live games on Xbox Live. Live.
I’d recommend The Verge’s (always excellent) coverage for more on the new Xbox One.
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