Madden NFL 23officially launched this past week. It included major features to the football game’s franchise mode, as well as dramatic improvements to gameplay for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game. Whether Electronic Arts had done enough to improveMadden NFL 23compared to previous iterations of the annual franchise is another matter entirely, though. At least oneMadden NFL 23player, Mecole Hardman Jr. of the Kansas City Chiefs, has some harsh criticism to share.
Hardman Jr. is a wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs and was part of the team that wonSuper Bowl LIV in 2020. He has a close relationship with theMaddenfranchise, even hosting a promotional partnership with EA to give outMadden NFL 21codes in 2020. Yet sometimes a franchise’s biggest fans can be its harshest critics. In a recent post to Twitter, Hardman Jr. told his followers thatMadden NFL 23might be “the worst Madden ever.”
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Unfortunately, Hardman Jr. doesn’t elaborate on why he’s unhappy with the latest release in theMaddenfranchise. The replies to his Twitter post are relentless, though. There are multiple clips of strange bugs fromMadden NFL 23, specific complaints regardingMadden NFL 23’s changes to offense, and general complaints about EA not changing enough between annual releases. Hardman Jr. seems content to let his statement stand on its own, though.
While Hardman Jr. didn’t speak about the quality ofMadden NFL 23any further, he did have to laugh at a joke from formerNFL star Chad Johnson. Johnson replied to Hardman Jr.’s criticism ofMadden NFL 23, saying," Check your new rating after practice after this comment," with an emoji showing a chart with a downward trend. Hardman Jr. laughed it off, replying with, “I’ll be fine.” Hardman Jr. has an impressive 97 in Speed this year, but a 79 overall.
CallingMadden NFL 23the “worst” football game ever may have been extreme, but the newMaddengame certainly isn’t making any critical waves. ThePS5 version ofMadden NFL 23is currently sitting at a 68 score on Metacritic. That’s the same score thatMadden NFL 22received for the PS5, funnily enough.
While it’s notable that an NFL star with a Super Bowl ring is willing to publicly call out thequality ofMadden NFL 23on social media, without further context this is just one man’s opinion on the game. Perhaps Hardman Jr. just had a bad match and was feeling especially negative, or perhaps Hardman Jr. has a robust opinion on what EA needs to do to improve theMaddenfranchise going forward. Either way, EA probably won’t be giving Hardman Jr. any moreMaddencodes to give out to his followers.
Madden NFL 23is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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