Madden 18: Release Date Info and Newest Features

The Tom Brady-led Madden 18 hits store shelves on August 25 with grand ambitions. 

It's not easy for a sports game to stand out these days among high-quality offerings on an annual basis, something the team at EA Sports understands well based on the droves of improvements headlining the latest edition of its Madden franchise. 

On top of the usual roster updates, graphical improvements and gameplay refinements, Madden 18 offers a wealth of new features fans of the NFL will enjoy. Said new details have range, too, from how players can experience the game overall to updates and beloved modes such as Ultimate Team. 

Before August 25 arrives—or a bit sooner on a preorder—let's take a look at some of the notable new features. 

Target Passing

Madden players expect gameplay refinements each year, though every so often an innovative idea comes along that changes the game outright—think, the quarterback vision cone.  

This year the major exclamation point in this regard is the new target passing, a mechanic that gives more realistic control to players themselves.

On a real-game broadcast, signal-callers like Brady throw to covered receivers, with the best of the best being able to fit the ball into tight windows or throw open their targets. 

Madden players can now do this as well, as the game's blog wrote: "The better players are at utilizing the Target Passing mechanic, the more efficient and tactical they will become at picking apart coverage. The ability to visualize the placement of the ball exactly where you want offers another level of user control."

It'll take some time to get used to the new control and the overlay that appears on the screen while passing the ball, but the time invested means a more realistic experience—and gaudy offensive stats, of course. 

Play Styles 

EA Sports understands a global phenomenon like Madden has communities within the community. 

It sounds complicated, but the development team has found a way to walk the tightrope in a way that would make an expert circus act blush thanks to the introduction of play styles. 

It's a simple title for quite the innovation—three styles titled Arcade, Simulation and Competitive will dictate how the game plays for each player on an individual basis. 

Want to sit back and relax, posting huge stats along the way? Arcade is the casual-sounding mode to pick. Simulation goes the opposite direction, even weaving in some incredible real-life experiences such as injuries and flags based on actual stats and this, per the game's official site: "Expect the unexpected—even highly rated players have a slim chance of failure on occasion." 

Competitive is for the pros or those seeking out such an environment, with stats and the players' performance dictating success or failure on the virtual gridiron. 

Long shot  

Long-shot story mode is one of the biggest talking points surrounding Madden 18—and for good reason. 

The story features an NFL hopeful by the name of Devin Wade, who after a three-year hiatus wants to get back to playing football. The colorful cast surrounding him is played by notable award-winning talent and even weaves in names like Dan Marino.

EA Sports' aim here, of course, is a Hollywood-esque tale putting the story mode up there with the offerings of 2K Sports in the NBA 2K series. Here's what lead writer Adrian Todd Zuniga told Polygon's Samit Sarkar: "Our philosophy [with Long shot] was a playable movie, versus, like, a career mode with cut scenes."

For those who have wanted to see EA Sports step into such an arena, the above video and what we know so far hints at big things for this mode.  

MUT Squads 

For many, Ultimate Team has become the biggest draw in the Madden series over the years.  

It's not hard to see why, as collecting card packs, earning rewards and constructing the best possible roster before taking it online to compete with others is an incredible spin on fantasy football.  

The only thing the mode seemed to be missing was a way to team up with friends.  

Until now.  

Madden 18 introduces MUT Squads, where three friends can get together and pick from roles titled offensive captain, defensive captain and head coach. From there, the trio crafts the best roster from their collections, heads online against another trio and slots into their assigned roles. 

Fans of the Madden franchise have clamored for a way to team up with friends for a long time now. It's only fitting Ultimate Team brings this to the forefront of the experience again in an innovative way sure to make longtime Ultimate Team and new players alike happy to hop in and get to work on their collections. 

Information courtesy of EASports.com unless otherwise specified.