Madden NFL 24's Official Gameplay Trailer dropped yesterday, and with it comes Gridiron Notes explaining all the new changes in finer detail. One of the biggest changes has been the addition or adjustments of 1,700 tackle animations within the game, as well as a QB dive pass which has the internet going crazy.

In case you missed it: here's the Official Madden NFL 24 Gameplay Trailer:

But that wasn't all, as EA Sports revealed more information that may be of interest to fans of the series.

Playbooks

Madden NFL 24 will be adding over 500 new plays across all 32 playbooks within the game. That equates to about 15-16 new plays per team, which should help add some more unpredictability to both user and AI play.

While the new additions are nice, we're also hoping many overpowered plays receive some sort of nerf, if possible. For years, plays like Four Verticals and Shotgun Bench TE have plagued Madden NFL, reducing strategies to just 5-6 plays per game.

We hope that the addition of so many new plays will inspire players to try something new. It'd be nice to play a Madden game where you had to actually think harder on which play you should use.

The question is: How many of these new plays are offensive? How many are defensive? What about special teams, running plays, play-action or shotgun passes? When all that's taken into consideration, will these new plays make a significant change, or are we just getting more plays that people won't use? We'll find out this August.

Defensive Improvements

One aspect of Madden NFL 24 that received a lot of changes has been improvements to the defense.

Defensive Backs have a new movement type called read steps. They should be able to better evaluate routes, and will have an easier time breaking up or intercepting slants or short routes. New crossover movements should still have them keeping their eyes on the ball while moving at fast speeds. However, they won't be able to break up a pass without seeing it. Additionally, zone defender break times have been tuned so they can shut down passes made into their zone.

Run Defense and Run defensive AI sees some new upgrades as well. They'll have better reactions against repeated plays. However, this adjustment won't apply to play-action runs.

How quickly they adjust to these plays all depends on the difficulty you're playing on. On Rookie, defenses will need more time to adjust, whereas on All-Madden they'll wisen up pretty quickly.

Players and ratings still play a big role. So even if a defense knows what play you're running, an offensive linemen with a high blocking rating can still help your play become successful. Inversely, A defensive player with high block shedding will not only recognize your play, but may be able to shut it down.

Fumble Recovery Types & Improvements

Didn't you just hate when you're playing Madden, a fumble occurs, and then something like this happens?

Well, according to the Gridiron notes, fumbles and fumble recoveries should be improved moving forward. According to the notes: “Fumble recoveries have been improved with hundreds of new fumble recovery animations, more realistic reaction times based and the addition of City VS Country fumble AI.”

Additionally, tip ball physics and reaction times have been improved. New special team formations and overhauled onside kicks are other examples of where these improvements can be seen.

A City fumble occurs when the crowd is piled up on the ball. A country fumble is when the ball is out in the open.

We're not sure how more animations will fix the infamous fumble glitches that plagued Madden games for years. However, perhaps adjusting the ball physics will prevent the glitch and create a more fluid experience.

Post-Play Emotion

In addition to gameplay changes comes quality of life improvements which should hopefully make player reactions more realistic and engaging.

“NFL players are coming to life between the whistles in Madden NFL 24. By overhauling our post-play engine and adding thousands of new animations, you'll notice every player on the field reacting to the play in a true-to-life manner”.

Post-play emotion isn't something new in Madden NFL 24, as it's existed in the series for quite a long time. However, it seems they will be receiving improvements in the latest installment.

One thing we do hope to see is player's not celebrating when down multiple scores. Say you're losing a game 28-3 (Sorry, Falcons fans), and you score a touchdown in the last second to make it 28-9. We don't want to see the player who scored celebrate. It's unrealistic and would never happen in the real sport.

Hopefully the improvements to post-play emotion coincide with the momentum of the game. We don't want to see a cornerback celebrating after deflecting one pass, even though he's allowed the opposing receiver to score multiple touchdowns. Perhaps EA Sports has made note of this.

Madden NFL 24 Release Date

Madden NFL 24 is set to release on August 18th, 2023. It will release for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via EA App, Steam, and Epic Games Store. It will cost $69.99 USD for all platforms, with a Deluxe edition costing $99.99.

For more information on Madden NFL 24, check out ClutchPoints Gaming.