"Madden NFL 16" is already available for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC. However, the new patch is currently available only for Xbox One and PS4 and there is no confirmed date yet for the release of the update for the PC version and old generation consoles. The game is trying to add some art to the art of quarterbacking, implementing touch passes, high passes for jump balls and throwing low to avoid some safety or linebacker smashing your receiver into infinity when he comes over the middle (unless you don't like your receiver, then by all means, hang 'em high). All this is explained in the opening tutorial, which simulates a Super Bowl matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, who was my team until they signed a dog killer.

 

It's a pretty solid tutorial if you can get past the horrendous voice work involved from players on both sides. Truly, their passion is football, and not the performing arts. In fact, one of the first short challenges that becomes available to you is replaying that exact moment. It’s in the Ultimate Team mode, which has been the favored way to play EA’s sport games for me and most other people for a good few years now. It’s the mode where you build up your own team using players from around the league. However this year, UT has been usurped in my heart by the all new Draft Champions mode. If you’ve played Hearthstone, imagine its drafting mode, but replace the murlocs and spells with muscular dudes wearing helmets and armour.

 

The only real mechanical change in this year’s Madden is to the receiver/defensive back game play. When a player’s QB launches the pass, the option is there now to tell the receiver to catch the ball with an eye toward maintaining possession (meaning he’ll probably fall down), toward running with the ball after the catch (be prepared for some drops here) or with an all out effort in tight situations (the leaping, awesome one handed catch attempt). The same control applied to the defense, who can either concentrate on making the tackle or making a play on the ball. I found myself using the offensive controls frequently (it solves some issues Madden has had with receiver behavior for years).

 

The defensive option, however, I shied away from, as it often led to me accidentally pulling my defender away from the play and causing some rather embarrassing long touchdowns. Plenty of reasons, but it comes down to one that will rile some readers: rugby just isn’t made for video games. Perhaps it’s too complex to fit the mould. Translating those kicks, rucks and mauls into a genuinely fun video game is a balancing act, between accuracy to appease die-hard fans and arcade-friendly thrills for casual players. Developer HB Games already dropped the ball badly last year with Rugby 15. With its latest in World Cup, available for the PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, timed to cash in on unsuspecting fans who might be caught up in this season’s hype, we were hoping for some kind of an improvement. But the game is just a shoddy rehash of the terrible earlier effort.

 

The big new feature in Madden NFL 16 is the “Draft Champions” mode. This feature blends fantasy football and EA’s much-beloved EA Ultimate Team. You begin the mode by entering a fifteen round draft. As each round goes by, you choose a player in hopes of shaping your team around your strongest play style. The players you choose from are some of the best in NFL, as well as legends of the game. This means you could easily end up with a team consisting of Randall Cunningham, Julio Jones, and LeSean McCoy, a very eclectic but effective lineup. Once you have a team built, you can take on a computer AI for three straight games, which nets you a bonus in Ultimate Team. Unless, of course, you lose, which forces you to draft a whole new team again. The more enjoyable (and challenging) option is to hop online and take on players from across the world. This presents some of the more enjoyable matchups to be had, such as how would a legend like Jason Taylor contend with the speed of Cam Newton?