The NFL has been a passing league for years, but the Madden series has had trouble keeping pace. Take Madden 15, for example. With Richard Sherman acting as the coverboy, Madden 15 empowered the secondary. Cornerbacks smothered No. 1 receivers, safeties eliminated tight ends, and if you schemed it right pre-snap, you could ensure QBs had absolutely no shot downfield. For fans of defense, it was a welcome feature. For fans of high-flying offense, it was frustrating, to say the least. Luckily, Madden 16 brings the power back to the passers. It starts with revamped passing controls. In addition to the staples (bullet pass, lob), you have a touch pass (which you can use to drop in a ball against a soft zone), a low throw (which is useful in tight spaces) and a high throw. This last addition may be the most important. A staple of NFL offenses, the back-shoulder throw was nearly impossible to execute in previous versions of Madden. The high throw changes that.

 

The most obvious change comes in the aerial game. Because the NFL is now a passing league, EA Tiburon revamped how the quarterback throws the ball and how receivers snatch it from the air. Now, gamers can hurl the ball high for tall wideouts or they can aim it low to avoid an interception. The other part of that equation is the wideout position, which also gets a new mechanic letting players make three kinds of moves: an aggressive leaping grab, a secure possession reception and run after the catch. The feature adds a new dimension to passing. Players have to not only find the open man but also deliver the right kind of pass and catch. It's a simple change that makes this part of "Madden NFL 16" feel like less of a crapshoot.

 

On the next play, Aqib Talib jumps a hitch route and tracking back as the ball is thrown, I’m prompted to mash the Y button. Talib launches himself forward and just as the ball reaches the receiver, Talib knocks it down. These examples happened organically, and illustrate just how far along Madden has come this year. Touch passes in particular are a revelation, with it possible to drop passes in over the heads of Linebackers and Safeties in Zone coverage. It happens all the time in the NFL, but this is the first time you’ve been able to do it in a Madden, and it’s awesome. These new passes and the improved pass catching are the clear highlight of Madden 16, allowing it to move above other recent entries in the series to become the new standard for NFL games from EA.

 

I’ve always been a play calling Madden player, selecting the best play for the best moment and then surveying the field as my minions ran about in ever increasingly complicated route’s. If and when someone got free, I’d pass the ball and then just watch and wait for the DB’s to jump the route or for my AI controlled player to get to the ball and either drop it or haul it in. I was a spectator for the most part, and this year I’m most definitely not. There isn’t really a part of having the ball on offence that allows sitting back and simply enjoying the spectacle of it all. Madden’s drive to give you more control over where and how you move the ball, it’s getting to the point where sim overtakes arcade.

 

EA took Madden NFL 15 and did quite a bit more than just add a roster update for Madden NFL 16. While the graphics for ’15 were already top notch, adding in a bunch of new HD scans improved on the appearances of just about every player in the game for ’16. This is a gorgeous game with lifelike animations for everything from diving for a touchdown to a spectacular catch. Stadiums are true to life with crowds that look alive and are varied enough that they don’t look like cardboard cut outs filling the stands, with time and weather variations that add to the overall look and feel of the game.

 

Madden NFL 16 truly is more than just a roster update as EA added enough new features to kick the game up a notch to another level. The question now is: what can they do for Madden 17?