The Sanchize ruined my first game as the LA Rams

Also Broncos overall rating has dropped a lot post Peyton

While Madden 16‘s E3 build doesn’t offer final ratings — there’s still two months before the game comes out — the Broncos’ were previously announced to have an 89 overall rating. Maybe a bit low for a team coming off a Super Bowl win, but the quarterback spot helped drag things up. “Even with growing concerns about his arm strength, there are few quarterbacks better than Peyton Manning (92 OVR).”

I played against Denver as the newly rechristened Los Angeles Rams. But the Broncos weren’t rated 89. They were sitting down at an even more pedestrian 84. And they were led into Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum by the butt fumbler himself, Mark Sanchez.

I’m playing injured just like every devastated NFL player with missing ligaments and muscles torn clean off the bone (though I am surprisingly free of head injuries, contrary to what you might expect), but thankfully my run game is weak enough that I didn’t get a lot of options to pull stick moves. I kept CJ Anderson to something like 9 yards on 15 carries, but The Sanchize edged me out. I don’t know if it was personal failings or a good Rams d-line coupled with a spotty secondary and similar struggles against a good Broncos defense. Scorin zero points didn’t help.

The CPU even got me on a fake field goal and later converted to a touchdown. On the other hand, I actually got called for a roughing the kicker, as special teams has seen some overhaul, whether you’re blocking a field goal or punting.

Still: it’s Madden. You can see exactly what to expect by watching the above footage from my second game, wherein I fixed the outcome of the last Super Bowl. Or read my review from last year. Or read about the new features straight from EA. The physics/animations still make for weird collisions where players constantly ragdoll like their spines have been severed. It still seems like an incremental update, but I’ll wait until I can go in-depth with a final build to confirm.