We made it to the Madden 26 release, at least the early version of it. The good news is that all your favorite content creators are diving deep, so even if you're not picking it up until later you will still reap all the benefits. By the way, College Football 26 just dropped a couple of weeks ago and yesterday released a patch that fixed countless lingering issues.
I'm fully aware that by the middle of the season we'll probably be drowned in glitches and exploits, and cursing EA's name to the high heavens. They'll probably have earned that scorn. But let's appreciate the feeling we have now, in my case just an hour away from logging onto the Madden 26 servers. It's not unlike the feeling I had as a kid on Christmas morning. I'm up a couple of hours early because I am too excited to sleep.
Today is about the fun. Will we encounter things that don't work right? Of course we will. Will the servers be unsteady? You know they will. But at some point today, I'll throw a tight spiral, threading the needle and placing the football where only my receiver can catch it for an improbable touchdown. I may even learn enough from that play to repeat the process multiple times this year.
And yes, I know Madden's been "taking a small step forward" for years now. But I'm at least interested in some of the things they're trying to do this year. Weather is more than a slight graphical change this year. Everybody that has had the opportunity to play Madden in the snow, rain, or fog describes an entirely different experience with Mother Nature as another player on the field.
I'm going to be frustrated as hell the first time I throw a pick because I couldn't see the halfback five feet in front of me. But you know what? That's an actually realistic representation of what it is like to play in bad weather, and I'm here for that upgrade.
I'm ready to find out which Madden upgrades are for real, and which are just buzzwords. Here we go!