EA Sports will frequently release popular special packs and bundles for sale in the store. When this happens, the MUT 16 community reacts by spending heavily which causes a flood of new items to enter the market. Increasing the supply with an unchanged demand leads to prices dropping as a whole for items included in the special packs. This is a great time to buy players you've been considering adding to your team and items you plan to resell later. When the special packs and bundles are removed, item prices generally rebound a bit. This is what you can take advantage of. If you grabbed a few popular items while they were cheaper, you can now sell for a decent margin. Remember, all you have to do is beat the 10% auction house fee to come out ahead.

 

On this late afternoon in Week 7, the key play for the replay center-it's not a game-decider, but the biggest decision of the three-hour block-comes from the Cowboys-Giants game in Arlington, Texas, where Jerome Boger’s crew is officiating. Now, here in Replay Central, replay technician Sean McKee announces to the room: “Ball’s loose in Dallas.” On the screen in front of McKee, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett holds the challenge flag in his right hand, considering whether to use it. "It's probably the biggest 'wow' moment generator we've put in the game in 20 years," said Dickson. The revamped interactions between receivers and defenders also mean that Madden NFL 16 can deliver other pieces of the passing offense that make the game more realistic, like tipped balls and pass interference penalties.

 

Just about all MUT 16 players have a decent idea as to how valuable their elite/gold player items are. One mistake rookies often make is thinking that silver/bronze player items aren't valuable. Most of you likely have a few valuable players sitting in your binder without even realizing it, likely because they are used in a set. You can use the Muthead database and filters to help identify these valuable silver/bronze cards that you might not be aware of. From the Muthead players database, select bronze and silver from the tiers section. Then in the "Additional Filters" section, select the price for your console and search for items that are selling for more than a specified amount.

 

The vanilla Play Now and online Head-to-Head modes are there for the exploring, and they’re the best way to go if you just some want to throw on some pads and take to the field. But Connected Franchise is quickly becoming a feature attraction, and it’s been given a bit of a facelift this year. Here, you choose between becoming a player, owner, or coach of your favorite franchise, which gives you the power to either affect the flow of individual games or get deeply involved in the team’s upkeep. The newest additions are a “Game Prep” feature and a statistic for individual player confidence. Game Prep provides different activities during a given week that give you more experience to sharpen your skills, while confidence takes into account the ups and downs even veterans feel from week to week.

 

It’s good stuff, bringing the thrill of a well-executed sack that Madden previously left to chance and discouraging you from simulating to the next time you have the ball. Still, offense is still where you’ll have most of your fun and the improved play-calling and interpretation help things along. There’s a fine art to the way the camera sweeps, pass options stand out and play diagrams are projected onto the field. The visual feedback brings a strange rush, like you are in the head of your quarterback and picking out the right pass, or then skipping through the field with your receiver is a real thrill. On the flip-side, Madden isn’t the most stringent of simulations and there are irritations that come from its focus on speed and brawn. Quarterbacks, in particular, do not have the manoeuvrability of their real-life counterparts. Watch the best NFL playmakers and you’ll see them skipping tackles and dipping out of the pocket to find the space to pass, whereas here they are more leaden-footed than you’d like. This is exacerbated somewhat by the fact that tackles hardly ever miss. Taken as a whole, this often ends with games being rather low-scoring affairs in comparison to reality.

 

There are a plethora of other additions worth mentioning quickly, like Pass Innaccuracy. It's not as finicky as Precision Passing first was back in the day, which is great. Still, if your timing is off or you try to zip the ball in there when you should have lofted it (or vice versa) your accuracy will suffer. Even with great quarterbacks this holds true, as I was playing with Aaron Rodgers and managed a few off-target passes. The popular Connected Franchise mode has been revamped and sounds great as has Ultimate Team, however, I didn't have time for a deep dive into either of these before delivering this review. Rest assured, I'll be getting into both soon.