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. 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.
