Things I love and hate about M24

Love:

1. The Patch. It's fantastic. There are lots of things I like about the patch, but what I love the most is after what seems like 100 years of people using dollar as run defense, I can finally use 3 TE sets to just run the ball down their throat on every play. This is so satisfying and fun for me that I'm considering using a 5 TE formation. The need for real linebackers is real against heavy sets, regardless of if my opponents think it's real. Finally.

2. Regs. I didn't want to play regs because it wasn't part of the MCS. But I was forced to play since MUT content is extremely pay to win and doesn't provide the type of content I need to play the style offense and defense I want. Luckily regs does offer this and I'm having a lot of fun. More fun than I have ever had in Madden actually, and it's allowing me to play the game the more like football is supposed to be played. Regs is a wonderful bright spot this year.

3. I love dropped balls. I love out of reach balls. I love that if my QB doesn't set his feet perfectly then my intended pass doesn't work perfectly. I love that on any down regardless of execution, the player ratings matter. It's not me being a sim player, it's me loving the challenge to overcome these obstacles and seeing if I can have more resilience than my opponent. It's knowing that maybe throwing the ball on 4th and 36 isn't such a good idea because even if I get the ball to an open receiver, he may drop it or the defender may knock it out. It's about risk and reward being more balanced. I love that.

4. I love regs game plans. It allows me to perform just a little bit of a scheme that prevents some of the META stupidity from happening on every play. It's not perfect, it's sometimes exploitable, but it's far better than nothing. It's far better to have a tool in your toolbox that makes Tyreek Hill deep ball spam just a little less automatic, than it is to have nothing but computer AI that can't stop the same plays over and over again. Game plans have to be a thing in MUT.

5. I love the diversity of regs. Again, it's not perfect. But I see far more diversity in play styles, play calling, formations, strategy, everything in regs. It's amazing how new the game still feels in late October when I'm playing regs. It's amazing how even the META regs plays have viable counters and aren't so overpowered that they make me want to quit. Relative to previous Madden's, it's a balanced game that rewards thoughtful play calling over running the same thing over and over again.

Hate:

1. I hate MUT. It just lets me down when I play it or when I watch it. It's like EA took Regs and destroyed it with overpowered ratings, and content that only allows for one META offensive and defensive playing style. As it stands right now, I will never play MUT again unless this changes. It's too much money, it only makes me mad, and it's not fun to play.

2. The importance of speed in the ratings. It's very important in football. I get it. Speed kills. But it's not the only thing that's important, otherwise Wille Gault would've been a hall of famer. 

Speed is overly important in Madden. It's gotten much better this year, but it's still driving the entire narrative of what is and isn't a viable playing style. Speed needs to be an important component of player ratings, not the only component. The way to do that is to build up the other ratings so they matter far more than they do today. One example would be STR and IBL. Should Deion Sanders be able to play middle linebacker and not get pancaked on virtually every play? I would say no. Madden 24 would say SURE!

3. I can't stand that Nick Chubb can get the ball 40 times in a game, rush for 300 plus yards and the defense is still fresh as daisies. It's like they were newly born and ready to lurk passes out of the womb! There has to be game long fatigue in competitive play.

4. Match Coverage Rules are still broken. It's much better post patch but they're still very broken.  Cover 3, Cover 4, anywhere there's match there are formations that just completely break the defense and it's not fun to "find" those in the middle of a game.

5. The play calling experience. I have so many plays that I want to call but they're not in playbooks. It's 4th and 5 and instead of going to the plays I know I want to use Ask Madden suggests plays I would never use! It can really throw you off! I don't want to see Ask Madden plays EVER! Or how about when I'm kicking off, but all of my choices are kick to the left! Or what about the fact that I can't make my own packages up, so I have to scroll through all the pre-made ones while the play clock is ticking down. Or when I'm trying to shift into a new offensive formation, but it takes like 15 seconds just to find the formation I need? Or how about how I can't shift from a 3 TE set into an empty formation, but I can shift from an empty formation into a 3 TE set? Really frustrating experience.