Ethan Gach: Madden 23 Problems Push Fans To The Breaking Point

It’s been over a month since Madden NFL 23 launched and was promptly dragged by fans and some NFL pros alike. Unfortunately, despite some updates, it doesn’t sound like the “most polished version” of Madden in years has improved a ton, and a few players are starting to give up hope.

The Madden series has been absolutely dreadful for ages now and at this point I don't even know how they save it. The game is rotten to the core with basically no redeeming features. Every year EA says "we listened and this time we fixed it" and each year the game is worse than the last.

I still have game-breaking bugs that corrupt my franchise files.

I still hear commentary that is completely disconnected from the game on screen (recently had the commentator say I had no chance of clawing back a win even though I was winning by 10 points in the 4th quarter).

The gameplay feels vaguely different each year, but never better, just bad in a different way from the last year.

The visual presentation is incredibly stale, with menus getting new looks every year, but the actual gameplay standing still.

A few years ago they removed the animations of players running up to the line of scrimmage during hurry-up plays, which was a huge part of strategy. Now they just skip to everyone on the line and they tell you "X seconds skipped".

Tons of menu options just don't work at all (like auto-upgrading players) and there seems no indication that they'll ever work as they're supposed to.

What a miserable place this series has ended up.