Madden 18’s big feature this year is ‘Longshot’ a self-described interactive movie that tasks you with taking Texas native Devin Wade from high school, to college, to the pros – and looks to focus on all the drama that comes with it.
In an article detailing how “The Night Shift” star JR Lemon came to play would-be superstar Wade, we learned a few details about the man, and what to expect from Longshot.
First, Mr. Lemon played football back in the day at Stamford and briefly as an Oakland Radier, prior to being cast as Wade. He’s also been doing a lot of MoCap work for Madden for several years.
He was eventually approached about the ‘Longshot’ role, and took it: “We shot some prototype scenes. They worked out and we just kind of went along from there. It was really organic how it happened.” He said.
Lemon confirmed the mode would feature choices; so my personal fears about a retread of the painfully linear NBA2k16’s MyCareer mode are alleviated.
Per Lemon speaking to EA sports, “This game will be different than other Madden games in the past, because Madden has never had a story mode before,” Lemon said. “This is the first year that you’ll actually get to track a story and make decisions.”
That said, as we approach release in a little over a month, details remain fairly scant for Madden. We haven’t seen a lot of gameplay, and even Longshot is being kept under wraps save for the incredible trailer.
Additionally, Madden makes the transfer to the frostbite engine this year, which proved…problematic for other EA titles, specifically Mass Effect: Andromeda – so fans are a bit on edge.
Regardless, we’ll see Lemon, Longshot, Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and the Frostbite engine on August 25th for the 28th edition of the long running franchise.