The Madden NFL 16 draft consist of 15-player rounds and will have a five-minute clock to choose a player. Every draft will be different so you will not get the same players as before. The draft will include both current players and hall of fame players. After the draft, it's time to take the new squad onto the field. Choosing a Solo Draft gives players up to three games against AI opponents. With each victory, the quality of the competition will increase until the championship game in the brand new Draft Champions Stadium.

 

When the play occurs, Blandino has just finished checking Twitter, of all things, over a hairy call at the end of the one of the early games, Seattle at St. Louis. As he checks, his cellphone rings. It’s a coach wanting to discuss a play from one of the early games. “Let me take this outside,” he says to Riveron, with the understanding that Riveron would now become the point person in the room on all replays until Blandino returns. A Coin Buyer builds a better team without earning it, and then defeats legitimate players in Head-to-Head Seasons games. The NFL Coins Buyer steals the rewards of Coins and Packs that rightfully belong to legitimate players.

 

Even now, 11 years later, disaffected football fans are still banging the drum that Madden is stagnant, that Madden still hasn't managed to eclipse NFL 16 in some ways. It's an absurd argument on its face, especially two console generations removed. But it persists anyway, and Madden's developers at EA Tiburon are tired of it. Rex Dickson, Madden 16's creative director, told me during a Madden NFL 16 demo last week that he believes the "still better than Madden" contingent hasn't even bothered to try the series in years. If those people did pick up the game, said Dickson, they'd have to stop railing against EA - at least in this respect.

 

One thing I can say is that the competition for high end players that sell for hundreds of thousands of coins is quite high. A legend listed for less than its current value will only last a few seconds before someone buys it out. Searching the same few players on the auction house over and over again looking for a steal can become monotonous when you never seem to find anything. I have had much more success targeting valuable silvers as they still sell for a decent amount but they are listed more frequently and the competition to snipe these is much lower. I encourage you to read the Valuable Bronze/Silver Players section above for how to identify these players using Muthead's tools.

 

Even if you never go beyond the Play Now mode, the mechanical improvements on offense and defense make Madden 15 worth a look--as do the impressive visuals. Muscles bulge and beads of sweat spray across the turf as you drive against the opposition, and unlike in previous games, the athletes are highly distinctive. Individual player quirks, like Johnny Manziel's slippery, sporadic rushing style, are much more pronounced, and the crowds are not nearly as static as in previous years. It’s a technically stunning game, and the increased attention to detail--such as Packers fans bellowing John Kuhn’s last name as he makes big plays--goes a long way toward making this a real NFL experience.

 

Madden 16’s most significant on-field change comes in playing defence. Or, more accurately, making defense playable. Previous years have seen defence coming down to choosing the play and largely letting the dice fall where they may. Now, perhaps inspired by the Seattle Seahawks’ Superbowl-winning Legion of Boom (a ferocious defensive line of 350lb brutes), defence is a lot more fun to play and more easy to influence. It allows you to lock yourself to one player and snap the camera to his back, making it much easier to read the offense and perform your role in the play. There are small touches to get you more involved, a quick button press at the right time to set your linebacker moving at the right speed, and context sensitive actions to shrug off your blocker.