If there's one thing I really appreciate about EA Sports games, its that they are wonderfully presented and organized in the same general fashion, lending a sense of consistency to the brand. However, the game looks fine on the field, too. Maybe it's not as big a leap up as I expected or hoped it to be, but it's definitely competent. One issue I've always had with Madden was its failure to commit to the inherent violence of the sport. Collisions usually look pretty brutal on television (and even more so in person), but in Madden NFL 25, they usually don't. I'm not hoping for anything out of Blitz: The League, but as it is, it just doesn't look realistic, and by extension, primally satisfying like it is in real football.
I love how seriously televised NFL events take themselves. The bombastic music, whether pulled straight from action movie soundtracks or developed specifically for the events, always makes me laugh to myself, "this is for a football game." Madden NFL 25 replicates this silliness with gusto. The commentary by Jim Nantz and Phil Simms is mostly weak and offers little insight into what's going on in the game. But it smartly focuses on the past, which makes it feel more natural. I get that it must be difficult to come up with a solid commentary track for a game that changes and adapts to every single thing you do, but what's here just doesn't work at all. The licensed soundtrack covers all the bases it should, despite the inclusion of "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas.
