Every year, Madden has just gotten worse and less skill based. In no way is this year's game fun or skill based. EA needs to make changes and I mean NEED because Madden 24 was just flat out disgraceful and an unacceptable use of $100. Here is what Madden 25 needs to fix Madden's reputation, if that is even possible.
1. Removal of x-factors. Lemme just cut to the chase here, in no way is playing Bo Jackson with angry runs at all fun or skill based. You need to commit 8 guys to it just to give up 15 yards, so remove these unskillful ways for your opponent to get bailed out every play. Now I win the majority of my games against these players, but it isn't fun either way. Abilities I will touch on later.
2. Make all throws perfect. If I have a guy open, I want my quarterback to throw it right to where he is going to be. In a competitive game mode, there is no reason for inaccurate passes. Reward good reads and punish bad reads EA. If every throw is perfect and you throw it to a guy that is covered, make it picked off and if your guy is open, he will catch it. Why must I lose a game or nearly lose a game because I made a good read? Now you shouldn't be able to throw the ball 90 yards downfield with perfect accuracy, it should be short and have the receiver need to come back to it but you get the point.
3. Make offense the skill. We all know defense in Madden 24 is the worst it has ever been. It is out of control and we should need to earn every yard on offense. The only part of defense that needs to be worse is glitch blitzes which I will touch on later.
4. Abilities. This will be the longest segment so bear with me. Abilities should be preference based rather than players feeling the need to run a certain ability just to have a chance to win. I don't want to run zone KO's but that is the only chance I have at defense. Zone KO's are the biggest example of the issue with abilities. For one, I make a good read and my receiver catches it. He then takes a few steps and Pat Surtain or whoever comes out of nowhere and knocks it out. I had a defensive drive yesterday where my opponent made 3 good reads and each time it got KO'd. Nonsense. Abilities need a nerf. Make them feel like slightly increased odds of getting a knock out rather than almost a guaranteed thing. For abilities like HRM, that is fine the way it is, because it gives a user more options rather than making the player better. (QB abilities are pretty much the only exception here). Furthermore, make AP costs consistent with every player. I'm fine with certain archetypes getting discounts (like in Madden 21 when Strong Arms got Gunslinger for 2 rather than 3, stuff like that), but abilities were meant to make certain players feel like a star compared to his peers, and accessing everybody to have abilities removes that aspect. Make AP caps lower, like 5 AP on defense for like acrobat and preference abilities that a player doesn't feel obligated to use.
5. Glitch blitzes. They need to be removed. I'm not talking about a blitz where you send 6 and risk a receiver getting open, but like Madden 21 1-4-6 where you can send 4 and casually sit back as your Jalen Ramsey gets 7 sacks by half time. Make offensive lines be able to block well and if you wait too long, the defense sheds. Now there should be plays the defensive line wins, but there needs to be a balance between offense and defense.
What else do you all think needs to be changed. Would these changes make Madden better or worse? I may have missed some stuff and I am sure I did. I just want to win and lose Madden games fairly. Like one time I won off of a Hail Mary on the final play. Yeah it is nice to win but to my opponent, he played the whole game just to lose because I got lucky (now my opponent probably got lucky up until that point but still not a good thing I won off of that). Comment your thoughts.
