Last week, EA unveiled tons of new gameplay info about Madden NFL 27 and College Football 27 via their Gameplay Deep Dive Article and streams on YouTube and Twitch. I was fortunate to be able to get hands on both games at the event and wanted to share the top 5 changes that I think will be the most impactful!
*Please note: These are in no particular order
Timing Based Catching
This is an important feature that will take a bit of getting used to - but once mastered, it can be a very powerful mechanic. How TBC works is that once the ball is thrown, you will press and hold to RAC, Aggressive, or Possession catch and try to release the respective button when the meter is in the green. There are 3 possible windows that can be affected by defenders in the area:
•Slightly Early (Yellow) - It's a dice roll based on ratings
•Perfect (Green)- It will give you the highest chance at the catch
•Late (Red) - It will be a drop
This works on both offense and defense. One last note regarding TBC is that it can be set at different yardage thresholds, so if you want it on for medium/deep and not short passes, you can do that. It can also be turned off.
Custom Adjustments
New Custom Adjustments allow you to save up to 20x adjustments on Offense and 20x on Defense, and have 10x active/accessible on each side of the ball, saving many pre-play clicks. You can change and save basically any pre-play adjustment, including pass protection, coverage shading, stunts, and even individual player and coverage assignments, etc. There are also pre-set adjustments that can be accessed by using LB/L1 and selecting them while at the line of scrimmage. Saved adjustments can be selected similarly to how you select stunts during pre-play.
Abilities
Madden abilities this year are following more of the College Football system, where they can be different tiers. In Madden, there are now 3 Tiers of abilities:
•Bronze
•Silver
•Gold
Each tier stacks and allows you to have increased layers/power when Gold. There is also a hot and cold system that has a say in X-Factors this year. A player has to be hot in order to activate an X-Factor, and they can be deactivated if they become cold.
Formation Shifts
These allow you to filter through different formations with matching personnel at the line of scrimmage and shift into the main formation/play, giving a disguised look. Doing this makes it harder on the defense when the offense breaks the huddle and can shift into a different look.
New Pre-Play Controls and Tackle Stick
Something that is a ripple this year is the new Pre-Play controls and Tackle Stick (Formerly Hit Stick). Pre-Play controls have been updated this year to allow for fewer button clicks combined with Custom Adjustments, which we mentioned above. Pre-Play controls will take a bit of getting used to, but even in the limited time I had, it was starting to feel natural. Most Pre-Play Controls can now be brought up using LT/L2, and you can make as many adjustments as you want without letting go of it. For example, you can now Press and Shade Coverage Underneath without having to take your finger off of LT/L2.
The new Tackle Stick inputs are as follows:
•Up = Hit Stick
•Down = Cut Stick
•Left = Lunge Tackle
•Right = Wrap Tackle
Honorable Mentions
New Coverage Adjustments and Smart Zones allow for way more flexibility and control over how your defense plays. These do fall under the new Custom Adjustments mentioned above. Here are some of my favorite Smart Zones that can be set -
•Plaster: When plays extend, defenders can attach to nearby receivers instead of staying locked to empty space. This helps against scrambling quarterbacks and broken-play throws.
•Aggressive: Zone defenders prioritize shorter routes when threatened. This is better for taking away quick game, but it can open up deeper windows behind them.
•Ultra Aggressive: Defenders jump underneath routes hard. This is high-risk, high-reward. Great if you know your opponent wants a quick game, but dangerous if they hit you over the top.
There are a ton of other options when it comes to these that I am very excited to learn and figure out the best combos for my play style.
The last honorable Mention is something that PIHCAM from Huddle.GG is very excited about and that is Match Coverage Checks. These allow you to set checks in Match Coverage plays (C3 Match, C4 Quarters, etc.) such as Box: "Defenders each own a direction around a bunch set, such as deep outside, deep inside, flat, or short inside" and Zone It: "Turns off matching and lets everyone play straight zone" as well as many others that will be very fun to combine with all of the other adjustments.
You can find everything mentioned and more in the links at the top of the article.
What are your favorite changes/additions to Madden NFL 27?
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