You have got to be kidding me, this game is the exact same thing as Madden 25, only with updated rosters and some fancy new menus. I bought this game thinking it would be similar to Madden 15 on the current-generation consoles (PS4, Xbox One) with some graphical compromises, boy was I wrong. No new defensive camera angles, gameplay presentation or defensive pass rushing, just a hole in my pocket and $60 I can't get back.

I have never felt compelled to review anything on Amazon, but wow this game is a joke. Don't get me wrong, if you are upgrading to Madden 15 from say Madden 12 then this might be a worthwhile investment, but if you are upgrading from Madden 13 or 25, prepare to be very, very disappointed. The fact that Amazon advertises this game for the Xbox 360 as having the same features as the current-generation version is a blatant misrepresentation of what you will actually be getting.

For example, on the Madden 15 for Xbox 360 page, Amazon states: "A New Point of View – See defense through a whole new lens with all-new camera angles that let you attack the play from the defensive’s perspective. Whether you lock in on a single defender and go for the big play or follow the action wherever the ball goes, you’ll see the play unfold through the defense’s eyes."

Well, guess what? If you have an Xbox 360 or PS3 you won't be able to use this feature. Is it because the Xbox 360 doesn't have the processing power to implement such a feature? I doubt it. Is it because the EA developers were too lazy to include it for the Xbox 360? Yeah, it is.

It would be one thing to have a separate listing for Madden 15 on Xbox 360/PS3 without advertising these features, but by doing so Amazon is (probably inadvertently) duping many customers into purchasing Madden 15 for their last-gen consoles, not realizing that they won't be able to use 90% of the "new features" in Madden 15.

It's hard to believe that EA put out a new iteration of Madden with a $60+ price tag and such lackluster improvements. Then again, it really isn't. Shame on EA and Amazon for advertising this game as having numerous features that aren't actually available to users who have last-generation consoles, had I realized that I would be receiving a re-branded copy of Madden 25 with some superficial changes, I would have saved my money, which is what I suggest you do.

Awhile back, I decided to convert from a console gamer to a PC gamer. I had a few exceptions. Sports games aren't released on the PC as often as the console, so I kept my Xbox 360 just for sports games. I wasn't impressed with what I saw of Madden 16, so I instead bought Madden 15. My last Madden was Madden 13.

My main gripe with football games is the difficulty or lack of. From the earliest days of sports licensed games (late 80s - early 90s), I've rarely found a sports game that is challenging, unless you set the difficulty very high. Then as most know, it becomes a game of frustration and patience as you watch computer AI opponents become with 12 foot jumping interceptions, being blocked by two players only to squeeze between them and get a sack ... two, three times a game. Madden was never my favorite as I preferred the NCAA football game. With no new NCAA games, Madden 15 would have to be my football gaming fix this year.

Sadly, any thought of a challenge disappeared during my first exhibition game. I'll never understand the "realism" other people find in these football games. In my first exhibition game, I used the Chicago Bears against the Detroit Lions. I didn't touch any of the sliders or settings (penalties, stamina, quarter length). It's my belief that the default settings and sliders should give the most realistic result. Sliders, to me, were there for when you had played 3-4 seasons and had gotten too good at the game to have realistic results. Settings, especially quarter length, was for stat lovers who wanted a little extra time to pick up their players stats. My first game result with default sliders and settings:
Chicago Bears 45 - Detroit Lions 10
Notable players stats:
Jay Cutler 14-16 passing, 286 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs
Matt Stafford 6-22 passing, 57 yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs
Matt Forte 13 rushes, 178 yards, 2 TDs
Jacquizz Rodgers 6 rushes, 84 yards, 2 TDs
Joique Bell 15 rushes, 12 yards
Bears defense 11 sacks, 6 turnovers (3 INTs, 3 fumbles recovered)
Total yards:
Bears 568
Lions 115
I don't think I need to explain how unrealistic these stats are. The worst part for me is the quarter length setting. If you look at the Bears QB and RB combined with the Lions QB and RB, there was only 38 passes between the two teams and 28 rushes between the two teams top RBs. To put some perspective on that, when these two teams played last year with the near exact rosters as I'm using in this game, those two QBs combined for 93 passes attempted and the two teams combined for 31 rushing attempts. That means in the real game the two teams ran right at double the plays as the same two teams ran on Madden 15. I'll agree that video game football is supposed to be a little more geared towards big, exciting plays than long drawn out drives, but to get the stats to match or even be close between Madden and real-life results, one would need to play 12 minute quarters. Just prorating the stats I had in the 6 minute quarters, that would have made the score Bears 90 Lions 20. Cutler would have had nearly 600 yards passing, Forte would have been over 300 yards. The teams would have nearly 1,500 total yards combined.

I adjusted the sliders making the game "harder". The only big difference I saw was the number of interceptions I was throwing. I was still rushing at will with any team and with any running back. Outside of turning the difficulty up to Madden level and adjusting all sliders to make the computer AI defense as good as possible, I was still carrying the ball at a 10+ yards average per rush. It's pretty sad when you have to spend the second half of the game making negative rushes just to lower your RBs yards per carry to a believable level. The pass defense AI isn't much better. I even tried making the game feel a little more challenging by intentionally throwing the ball out of bounds for an incomplete pass for my QBs stats and so my offense would have only two plays to get a first down.

It's frustrating when you have to play a game the opposite of how it should be played just so you won't feel like you're just wasting your time. If all this is a little confusing or hard to understand, I decided to play a full season with 8 minute quarters, All-Pro difficulty, all sliders adjusted to favor the computer AI opponent. This was the result:

Bears 16-0 in regular season. Won the Super Bowl.
Jay Cutler 6,008 yards - Broke all-time single season record by 600 yards.
Cutler 58 TDs passing, 7 INTs - Broke all-time single season passing TDs record.
Forte 2,673 yards rushing - Broke all-time single season rushing yards record by 500 yards.
Forte 31 rushing TDs - Broke all-time single season rushing TD record.
Jeffrey 2,217 receiving yards - Broke all-time single season receiving yards record.
To make all this even worse, the Bears also had these stats:
Rodgers the second string RB had 1,426 yards with 14 TDs, the yards ranked 3rd in the NFL and the rushing TDs also ranked 3rd.
Bennett the Bears Tight End had 1,729 yards
Royal the Bears #2 WR had 1,256 yards

As a lifelong Bears fan I can tell you those stats aren't even close to being accurate. It's more believable for me to say those are the least accurate stats possible. Needless to say, I put the game back in its case and it's not likely that I'll play it again. I would like to think it's just my general football knowledge that allows me to post these type of stats, but I do the same on all of EA's sports games including FIFA, and I've never even played soccer nor do I even understand the majority of soccer's penalties. I really believe these EA sports games aren't being tested enough.

Typical Madden game. So many software bugs, it's ridiculous. Sometimes the camera will pan into someone's skull, so all you can see is the back of the inside of the model of their face. Lags and hangs between plays occasionally, but still tracks your button presses, so if you get impatient like me and button mash when it lags, you will call a play you didn't intend. Sometimes the box score in the stats won't match the final score of the game. If a challenge or review reverses the call on the field, whatever the call was before the review will be reflected in the stats. If you fumble and recover your own fumble on offense, the commentators will say something like "this drive was made possible after the defense recovered a fumble". Inconsistent handling of accelerated play clock - it will run down the clock into the 2-minute warning instead of running it down to 2:10 or whatever your setting is set for. I've seen the accelerated play clock run down to the end of the game, instead of running down to 0:10, taking away a chance for a last-second field goal.

I'm a software engineer and perfectionist, so this stuff really gets on my nerves. I wish they put a little more effort into QA, but at least the final score is always correct, so the outcome of the game won't really be affected.