#MADDEN NFL 21 SUPERSTAR EDITION UPGRADE UPGRADE#
#MADDEN NFL 21 SUPERSTAR EDITION UPGRADE SERIES#

Maybe EA will finally make some changes next year. Overall, Madden NFL 21 on the new generation of consoles suffers from the same problems and doesn’t seem like a leap in quality at all.

#MADDEN NFL 21 SUPERSTAR EDITION UPGRADE UPGRADE#

However, despite the fact that it seems to be functionally the same game, there is no cross-generational multiplayer at all (and no cross-platform play) so you’ll need to download the old version to play with friends that haven’t had a chance to upgrade systems yet.

Maybe there was a lot of hard work done behind the scenes to subtly improve things, but it hasn’t made a big impact while I’ve been playing. When you first open up the new-generation version it will automatically carry over saved data and info if you played Madden NFL 21 previously, and everything you know, love, and hate about Madden currently is still intact, just as you remembered it - for better and for worse.

Specifically, you can now select plays based on key players instead of sifting through the entire playbook, and key plays will automatically trigger fancy “Next-Gen Stats” replays that dish out fun facts like how fast the receiver was running or how many yards after the catch they racked up. The only noticeable changes in gameplay are mostly under the hood to funnel in more accurate stat tracking, animation cycles, and a better play-calling interface. Some of the marketed improvements, like overall animation quality, more realistic sideline character interactions, and higher quality fans are hard to spot at a glance or seemingly non-existent.

#MADDEN NFL 21 SUPERSTAR EDITION UPGRADE SERIES#

You’d be forgiven if, outside of the minor graphical upgrade, you can’t tell the difference between the Xbox One/PlayStation 4 versions and the Xbox Series X|S/ PlayStation 5 versions of Madden NFL 21. Madden NFL 21 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S EA has repeatedly missed opportunities to graphically polish these areas that could really use it. Once you get up close, though, player faces are often stiff and awkward and the fans in the bleachers still look like low-poly cardboard cutouts. Stadiums are true-to-life, character models are extremely detailed, animations look smooth and responsive, and overall it’s got a sharp design that feels cutting-edge and primed to make the free upgrade to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later this year.

As usual, when you’re playing a game from the typical zoomed-out camera perspective, Madden 21 looks fantastic. Changes have been noticeable but minor ever since the series moved to the Frostbite engine in 2017, so everything has stayed relatively consistent, for better and for worse. It’s easy to be dismissive of annual sports games by saying they look and play the same every year because, to some degree, that’s true.

Madden nfl 21 superstar edition upgrade