Madden 23 Beta Impressions: Improvements & Gameplay
The Madden 23 Beta finally had franchise mode added to it. I spent a few hours playing and taking notes on things I liked, didn’t like, or just didn’t understand. The beta gave an insight into franchise mode and gameplay. Here are the impressions it made on me.
Gameplay:
- Defense plays better— old cheese plays don’t work, and I haven’t found new ones (and hopefully never will)
- The new presentation is fresh and exciting
- Gang tackles look better & make sense
- The second defender for gang tackles will actively try to strip the ball (I love it)
- Field sense is basically pass leading, but visualized
- Nearby defenders will try to make a play on the ball
- If a ball is near the wide receiver (even if not thrown to) they will try to catch it
- Quarterbacks have their own, different color practice jerseys
- Missing a hit stick will cause friendly fire
Franchise:
- Mid-season free agents can only be signed to a one-year deal, with a fixed amount.
- Motivations are external factors that influence where a player wants to play, and how likely they are to resign with you or sign in free agency.
- Tags are basically player roles from old Maddens. I love how they’re returning.
- If players do not live up to tags, they will lose them (Tua lost QB of the future after not playing at all in 2022).
- Scouts have multiple positions of expertise, and are now represented in stars.
- OLB, IOL, OT, S, and DE are all one bucket instead of having to individually focus on right or left outside linebackers, tackles, guards, etc.
- Important Skills are shown without having to click into a player’s card.
- Scenario press conferences are largely the same.
- Cloud was unplayable.
- There are four present contract options, with pros and cons shown before offering.
- A player can sign for less than market value if a team really fits what he wants.
- Free agency is more waves, in each stage, there are three “eval offers” where players look at their offers and might sign.
- There are active negotiation limits for the first (five per eval period) and second (ten per eval period) stages of free agency, while stage three (final stage) has no limit.
- Teams double-dipped quite a bit, and it seemed like previous moves did not matter much (Eagles went big on wide receivers in free agency despite the prior AJ Brown trade).
- Development trait regression is fair.
- Free agency has a lot of big names.
- Players cannot see how their offer ranks against another team’s in free agency.
- A rollover cap was added — this is massive.
- No 5th-year option scenarios.
In conclusion, these were the biggest things I noticed. Some of them are due to the fact that the game is still unfinished, and I hope they get addressed. The rollover cap is massive, and greatly adds to how teams handle off seasons. I need to see the full game before I can make a true determination on whether Madden 23 will be good.
