![]() ![]() EA Sports claims it’s cleaned up the overall progression and interface, utilising a Battle Pass-style system to issue rewards and more closely associating Sets to your binder. And the same is true of Franchise, which is unquestionably getting better the addition of new Free Agency logic which takes into account player motivation undoubtedly adds depth and variety to the team-building aspect, but some of the peripheral features like coordinators still feel undercooked.Īnd to be honest, we’re not sure about some of the changes to Madden Ultimate Team either. Taken individually, we enjoyed Face of the Franchise this year – but it fumbles the ball when compared to established alternatives like MLB The Show 22’s Road to the Show or NBA 2K22’s M圜areer. We did find that some of the individual drive objectives didn’t always feel achievable from our position, but this is a minor gripe. For the most part, though, you’re simply playing football and earning XP, which you can then spend on increasing your statistics and becoming a better player. You get to select your weekly preparation, which includes training drills and rest days for statistical boosts, as well as your overall goals. Rather than pepper you with poorly acted cutscenes, the gameplay loop focuses on the field. ![]() We speak from experience when we say it’s all fun and games until you take one wrong step and get smoked by Tyreek Hill. You can now play as a cornerback, which we selected, and “enjoy” the unenviable responsibility of covering some of the world’s best receivers. EA Sports has cut out a lot of the crap here, allowing you to pick up the plot of a fifth year free agent looking to get their career off the ground. The same is true of Face of the Franchise, even though it has made an Odell Beckham Jr-esque leap from last year’s dismal attempt. ![]() Is it better? Yes, especially when you’re able to knock the ball out of a receiver’s hands with a last-ditch hit – but there’s still room for improvement here. But there are still occasions where you can see the game awkwardly transitioning between motions as it calculates the outcome, and some sequences feel robotic as a result. EA Sports claims that branching animations make the game less predictable overall, and you can now hammer certain buttons to break through tackles or drag DTs a few extra yards. Still, the ability to throw to a receiver’s back shoulder or chest plate is rewarding, and it makes those tough two-minute drills all the more rewarding to round out.įIELDSense has less of an impact, however. Effectively, you need to move the analogue stick to orchestrate the throw as your QB animates, but an untidy splurge of on-screen meters and crosshairs can overwhelm – especially when you’ve got a kaiju-sized pass rusher up in your grill. Unfortunately, the visual representation of this feature can get a bit messy. This, naturally, reduces the probability of the ball being batted away – or, worse, an INT. Ball placement is not just a co-commentator’s catchphrase, but a real phenomenon in the NFL: the best quarterbacks not only find their receivers, but also place the ball in positions only their teammates can catch it. The precision passing – which is introduced immediately upon starting the game – also makes sense. The ability to more precisely hit the hole means nimbly navigating between blockers feels more gratifying than ever, and we love how the thunderous thud of your running back’s cleats reverberate through the DualSense as you sprint towards the endzone. Well, yes – there’s no doubt that the ground game takes another Jonathan Taylor-sized stride forward, and to be fair it was already starting from a pretty good place. That ambition comes in the form of a few buzzwords this year, including the distinctly marketing-led FIELDSense and precision passing – but does it make a difference? The rest, of course, is history – and the Madden NFL franchise has been striving for realism ever since. The story goes that John Madden refused to sign off on EA Sports’ original football sim until it put 22 players on the field.
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![]() When the flashback to the event and the immediate aftermath finally comes, it's too late to save the movie.Ĭompeting with KyoAni again affects Toei here, though admittedly, they justify their decision to make this into a cinematic release sufficiently. In itself, the scenes are acted out well, but the odd severance of tone from the first section of the movie is a difficult stepping stone for the viewers - especially when the second half takes place five years after the important life-changing event. Without giving too much away, an event that happens offscreen changes the disposition of the main characters altogether and the depression that descends is reminiscent of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. The first half follows Okazaki's integration into a society that has abandoned him, using his growing relationship with Nagisa as the driving point - but after an amazing plot twist, the tone suddenly gets a lot darker. However, the most unerring aspect of the Clannad Movie is that it seems to be split into two completely separate halves. The dream sequences, while being artistically realised in themselves, build up to a somewhat disappointing conclusion, bordering on deus ex machina. One scene in particular jumps into the future without any warning and because of this, makes absolutely no sense with the other scenes before and after it. The first thing you notice is how disjointed the movie seems. Though, despite that, it's clear that Toei's version has major flaws in its storytelling. As it is, I'm acutely aware that even my own experience of this movie is tainted by KyoAni's superior interpretation. If this had aired a year or two before KyoAni decided to release its own version in 23-episode series form, then this would have undoubtedly had more interest than it received. Save yourself an hour and thirty minutes.The timing of the Clannad series is a bane for Toei's movie version of the popular Key game. It's inconceivably bad, and I am flabbergasted they thought it would be a good idea to make it. To top it all off, the animation budget was so low you will feel dirty if you ever watch it as it will constantly make you feel like you are watching a 2000's hentaï, and I wish I was joking.As far as I watched the movie, there are no orbs of light anymore (that alone should convince you NOT to watch it) and they are instead replaced with a generic and overdone "Tree of Life/Wishes". It becomes meaningless and all poetry and subtility it had has been cut off with a meat cleaver. Everything feels rushed (of course), the Imaginary World is a fucking joke.Nothing is what you remember it to be: Kyou and Tomoyo are friends (what?), Tomoya already knows Yoshino(apparently) and it's Sunohara that takes on the job as an electrician(let's not even talk about the fact that this job comes into the story during the AFTER ACHOOL ARC OH MY GOD I HATE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH) ![]() all relationships between characters are shuffled around to make up for the gaping plot presented to you in the movie as such, you won't recognise characters you learnt to know and appreciate, because the only thing the characters in the anime/VN and the movie have in common is their physical appearances.How do you think they can force 50 hours into a 1h30 long movie ? They can't! It's impossible, no matter how you try, and they did it anyway ! So what is the CLANNAD movie? Let's break it down to facts: Nagisa's arc is 50 hours long during school alone, and the anime did an excellent job at including almost everything the VN had in only 20-ish episodes. |