The focus of this year Madden are both its namesake and the “FieldSense” technology, which, however, only creates it on the current generation of consoles. The iconic trainer and commentator John Madden (quasi the US counterpart to Franz Beckenbauer) is honored with a legends game, sentimental short video and two incarnations as a trainer (young and old). “FieldSense” is much more important for gamers. Behind this is a series of new, non-fixed animations for hits as well as more freedom in duels between receivers and blockers, more dynamic evasive maneuvers and more. What sounds great and sometimes looks spectacular in the repetitions has hardly any effect on the game.
On the contrary, Madden NFL 23 suffers from some strange AI dropouts and bugs: It is not uncommon for fellow players to get in the way stupidly on the offensive and block running routes. Opposing quarterbacks, on the other hand, sometimes just don’t run, even though the way to the first-down mark is clear. In addition, there were frequent disconnections during our test – which is not bad in franchise mode, here you can continue an interrupted match. However, this does not work in the face-of-the-franchise career mode, here the game has to be repeated. It’s very annoying when your alter ego (if you want to, you can start as a cornerback) actually did a good job. Speaking of good performance: If quarterbacks want to refine their passing game, they can use a new optional throwing mechanism with crosshairs and slow motion (in offline games).
