Lamoine Williams
It’s
that time of year again football fans. The best part of the year when football
makes its return and oh yeah, EA releases another Madden to the public. Year
after year football fans like me anticipate the newest Madden in hopes of a
better football game than the previous years release. I’ve been a long time
Madden fan, and to be honest, the anticipation year after year has glossed over
majorly in the past five or six years. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not all
bad.
Here and
there, EA throws its fans a bone by adding in a cool game mode or new feature. Long-time
hardcore fans of the franchise will have to look past the fact that many of
these new features that are labeled as new are actually updated features that
EA has implemented into Madden in the past and then taken away. However, accessibility
is something that we all hope that EA never takes back as it has allowed American
football fans who live with many different disabilities to play the sport they
love. Honestly, Madden soothes the long months between football seasons, which
is one of the many reasons that fans keep coming back to the franchise. Well,
that and because EA is the only game developer that currently has the license
to make NFL games.
So, how
good is Madden 22 from a blind accessible standpoint? Well, it’s really no
different than Madden 20 or Madden 21. Now of Corse that depends on the
generation of system it played on since the menu narration in the current
generation titles is a complete game changer. I would however like to point out
that as of the writing of this article and six days after its release, Madden
22 for PlayStation 5 has an issue with Playbook narration. The issue is that when
navigating the playbook using narration, the formations do not read, but the
plays do.
This
issue with the playbook narration really isn’t that big of a fix and should be
patched quickly. That is if anyone can get in contact with EA’s head of
accessibility, Karen Stevens(@ea_accessible). I have not heard from her or
heard anything about her from other accessibility advocates since shortly after
the release of Madden 21 last year when I captured footage of playbook narration
from my PlayStation 4. I was immediately told that there would be no playbook
narration on the last generation of consoles and that my video was not the way
they wanted to release the news of the upcoming playbook narration in the
franchise. Oops, my bad.
Anyway,
if you would like to see that short video, I’ll include the link below or you
can check it out on the Blind Ohio Gamer YouTube channel. The video is titled
Madden 21 Playbook Narration. The video is easy to find on YouTube as I was the
only one to capture this on video. Honestly, I’m not so sure that I believe
that playbook narration could not work on the last gen consoles because they
were not powerful enough, but that is what we were told by EA. Also, since the
PC versions of the game were done the same as the Xbox One and PS4 versions,
you got it, there was no playbook narration for that version either.
So, back
to Madden 22. If you haven’t guessed already, the newest game in the Madden
franchise is pretty much the same from an accessibility standpoint as the game two
years ago in most cases. I’m really hoping that they update the menu and
playbook narration voice because for a developer as big as EA and its budget,
it’s just sad. Another sad thing is that as both a football and accessibility
fan, I still can’t wait to see what they will do in Madden 23. It’s almost liked
every year we all have hopes and every year EA bashes them against the wall.
Now, is
Madden 22 worth the $70 price point? Well, it really depends on how much of a
football fan you are. If your like tons of disabled gamers who have very little
options when it comes to accessible video games and are playing Madden because
you have little to no choice, then you can get just as much enjoyment from
playing the older titles like Madden 20 and Madden 21. Honestly, I can’t see
how I played without playbook Narration now that I know what I was missing. The
older titles can be found for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC for dirt cheap at this
point.
Now,
back to the previous question. Is Madden 22 worth it? No, if I didn’t want to
review the game and let others know what the game is like so they don’t waste
their money hoping for something that Madden is not, then I would have passed
over Madden 22. I did say the same thing last year about Madden 21 and ended up
buying it for all those same reasons, and I will most likely buy Madden 23 when
it comes out in hopes that there will be more accessibility implemented into
the game, because there is still tons of room for improvement.
PlayStation 4 playbook narration video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9541NrO4nw
Here is the video with the current playbook narration issues
for Madden 22 on PS5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKwN3FnJtN0&t=18s
©2021 Lamoine Williams
