The Persona Engine is a new addition for the football game, giving each playable in-game athlete their own distinct personality that will define how they play based on motivations. Through this, players will be able to transform their Franchise into a reactive league that is constantly changing depending on the player’s actions. The new Free Agency Frenzy also brings in some additional chaos thanks to simultaneous bidding that can have major impacts on the overall league. Scott Hanson will also be present in the game with enhanced weekly recaps and halftime reports to keep players up to date on the latest happenings in the league.

When it comes to gameplay, Madden NFL 27 features an all-new WR/DB interactions system that emphasizes the sport’s physicality. The feature brings in more realistic hand-fighting, jostling, and leverage that will give players more options when it comes to separation and coverage. A timing-based catching system will give players better control over 50-50 moments, and contested interactions will also now have more depth to them. Other new gameplay refinements include improved short yardage mechanics and new plays like the “Tush Push”.

The new G.O.A.T. Career Journey revolves around player performance, progression, and choice. Throughout the mode, players will get to experience a path that starts out in high school and takes them all the way to becoming an NFL Hall of Famer. The mode will feature position-based skill trees with more depth that will have additional impacts on the athlete’s on-field growth. The progression system will also lead to more choices when it comes to the athlete’s careers. Players will also be able to pick new positions to play, like TE, DL, and Safety, all while dealing with the new Sphere of Influence, which brings its own set of new decisions to make.

The football game will also bring in some refinements to its overall presentation, with a focus on the sheer spectacle that often tends to define NFL events. This means more signature stadium moments like Denver’s parachuters and Jacksonville’s zip line entrances, giving each stadium and team a more solid sense of identity. The title also brings in new primetime intros and pregame drone shows that set the atmosphere for the game to come, along with seasonal broadcast packages for events like holidays, and enhanced weekly recaps and halftime reports.

Madden NFL 27 is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on August 13th. Along with its Standard and Deluxe Editions, the title is also available as part of the MVP Bundle alongside EA Sports College Football 27. For more details on that, check out our coverage of the upcoming College Football game.

iger Woods PGA Tour is a well-known golf franchise from EA-Tiburon that is released on an annual basis. Does this year’s release go out with a bang before stepping into next-generation? As always, I’ll be covering presentation, gameplay, achievements and final verdict.

Presentation:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is a golf game, so the presentation for the most part is quite pure. The game doesn’t need to have overly stylish menus, drop dead gorgeous graphics or a phenomenal sound design. However, it does need to be somewhat elegant but most of importantly simple. EA -Tiburon did a good job at making Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 feel like a golf game. It has simple menus, good enough graphics, clean sound and overall an excellent presentation. I personally haven’t played any previous Tiger Woods games so I can’t compare it with anything else. However, I liked what I saw, heard and felt, and that is a good thing for the game.

Gameplay:

This game has a few new features that the previous games in the series didn’t such as Legends of the Majors, playoffs in tournaments (for the first time in history for the franchise), Quick Tournament mode and a bigger space for members in the online Country Clubs. The game has 20 courses, 21 officially licensed PGA Tours and LPGA Tour tournaments. I will talk about Legend of the Majors first because this is probably one of the most intriguing modes in the whole game.

Legend of the Majors allows players to play in tournaments from the 1930s and all the way through current present day. This game mode covers up an entire century of golf history, which is quite fascinating in my eyes. If you love, and truly enjoy golf then this is perfect. The game adds grainy filters and other visual effects to fit the era; also, your golf equipment and golfer outfits are changed according to the era. If your golfer has an old outdated golf club, that is made out of wood then you won’t be able to cover as much distance unless you had a modern-day golf club despite your excellent swings.

One of the biggest issues though that I have with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is that it’s not friendly for the newcomers. This due to the lack of an actual tutorial mode. The game does include somewhat of a brief tutorial, but it doesn’t do enough to help newbie players on properly playing the game. If you are new to Tiger Woods franchise then you will not be very happy about this, meanwhile veterans of the previous games wouldn’t care as much.

Achievements:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 will take you a long time to grind up all of the possible achievements in the game. They’re time-consuming, but not really difficult. Majority of them require you to play 18 hole rounds with specific conditions, winning career tournaments with a custom created golfer, beating famous golf players in Legend of the Majors mode, earning specified created golfer levels and some minor online achievements that are easy and thankfully not as time consuming as the single-player portion. If you enjoy golf games, and planning to be playing this for a while then you’ll be enjoying this achievement list.

Final Verdict:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 offers a good and varied single-player and a decent online mode that should last you a while. The presentation in the game is nice and makes the golf theme feel right at home. If you’re a perfectionist and enjoy getting all of the achievements and extra unlockables then you’re in for a long ride.

The additions of Legends of the Majors and Quick Tournaments, Country Clubs having 100 members and playoffs in tournaments are awesome for the franchise. Thanks to these new features, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 becomes a better golf game for the fans. Lack of a tutorial modes is a huge minus to the game and a big turn off for new players.

Online golfing is a ton more  social now thanks to the addition of more space for members to join in your country club. However, the tricky thing about this kind of game is that it’s a golf game, and it’s hard to recommend Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 to anyone.

In a nutshell, if you’re looking for a good lengthy golf experience than Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is the perfect solution for your golf enjoyment. If you do not like golf simulators, then stay away, because this game is not for everyone and not newbie friendly at all. This is a good golf game for the veterans of the franchise, but that’s about it.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.