Donald Traill/Associated Press
August 25 is the day EA Sports raises the bar for sports video games yet again with Madden 18.
The sports-gaming realm isn't an easy one to rise above the pack in, yet EA Sports has done just that over the years through innovation such as weaving in the famous Frostbite engine for real-life physics, as seen in other games such as the Battlefield series.
This year, Madden goes even further in several areas, so it's only right the cover features a modern NFL legend like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady:
Madden 18 is much more than a simple roster and ratings update, though it never hurts to look at the player ratings, with Brady, of course, leading the way at 99 overall.
No, this year features various pepperings of innovation, ranging from a classification system spanning Arcade, Simulation and Competitive ranges to appeal to wider audiences. There's also a new story-based mode like those found in 2K Sports' NBA 2K series, one including award-winning actors and fit for a movie screen.
For many, the biggest draw in Madden these days on top of the ever-improving gameplay is Ultimate Team, the collection-based mode where players assemble teams of players and go head-to-head or against the computer.
Except Ultimate Team is a point of serious innovation for EA Sports this year thanks to the onset of MUT Squads, which is exactly what it sounds like—the chance to team up with friends and take on other assembled rosters.
Players can team up with two other friends for online play and take on one of the three different roles: offensive captain, defensive captain or head coach. Each player has different responsibilities and can pool their cards together to form the best possible team—as will the three-person opposition.
In an official in-depth breakdown of each role's responsibilities, producer Jake Stein revealed the game won't end because one of the six players drops out: "In the event that a player must leave early before the session is completed, the game will continue on and the role of the player who left will be transferred to someone else still left in the game. For example, if your offensive captain leaves early, the play call and QB responsibilities will move to the head coach and everything else stays exactly the same and the game is still able to be played to completion."
Other than MUT Squads, the single-player experience in Ultimate Team has seen some refinements. Players can still complete solo challenges and take part in auctions. There's also ranked events so players can edge past one another on official leaderboards.
Madden 18 also features MUT Champions, where players will compete in divisions in the hopes of landing in a Weekend League. Should a player qualify, a 72-hour window opens in which a player can partake in up to 25 games. The more times a player wins, the higher on the reward-tier list they'll land, which includes special Elite Tier WL Packs that permit a player to see the contents, then pick out which cards will fall under "elite" classification.
At launch, the level cap in Ultimate Team will sit at 30. As an EA Sports post explained, progressing through the levels is what unlocks things like MUT Champions: "In the early levels, you might start unlocking things like access to MUT Champions or H2H Seasons. Later on, it might mean that you’ve unlocked special offers in the store or access into new Solo Challenges."
Hitting level 30 provides exclusive benefits. The experience itself comes from the mentioned challenges, time played, margins of outcomes, yardage and much more.
Ultimate Team, of course, is one arm of the total Madden package. But it's the personification of the new features sprinkled atop one of the best sporting simulations on the market today and one fans have responded to in fanatical fashion.
The upgrades here, on top of the upgrades to the base game itself, point toward Madden 18 being the latest in a long line of successes for EA Sports—and NFL fans.
Information courtesy of EASports.com unless otherwise specified.