During the EA Play session one of the games they focused on was Madden NFL 18. They didn’t talk much about the actual game, gameplay mechanics or anything new that’s taking place under the hood. Instead the focus of the EA Play session and the subsequent interviews focused entirely on a mode called “Longshot”, which is the story mode in Madden NFL 18 designed to take players on a cinematic journey.

The Longshot mode is designed similar to that of The Journey from FIFA 17. It’s story-oriented where players will follow Devin Wade and Colt “Cruise Missile” Cruise through their journey of taking on the long-shot possibility of getting drafted into the NFL, hence the name “Longshot”.

The story mode will have players making choices that affect the lives and outcomes of both Devin and Colt, played respectively by J.R. Lemon and Scott Porter, both of whom have a pedigree of actual football under their belts and the latter having starred in Friday Night Lights.

Porter in particular had been begging a producer at EA for a gig to work on the Madden NFL games since he and the producer went to high school together. He explained during the interview that he was ecstatic to finally get the gig, and that it was a lengthy wait between the time of getting the call and agreeing to being in the game and actually putting on the mo-cap suit and filming scenes with Lemon.

Lemon and Porter will be accompanied by Dan Marino and Mahershala Ali. Ali, for those of you who don’t know, is coming off a recent Oscar win for best supporting role in the liberal film Moonlight.

You can get a quick glimpse of the Longshot mode and some of the cinematics, powered by DICE’s Frostbite, with the EA Play E3 2017 trailer below.

Supposedly players will have both dialogue, event, and gameplay choices that will each shape and alter the direction of Wade and Cruise’s life. Not everyone will make it to the finish line and get drafted into the NFL.

Tech wise they didn’t talk much (or at all) about how the Frostbite affects the actual gameplay of Madden NFL 18 or whether or not they’ll be making any big changes to the way the animation, physics, passing, catching, receiving, or tackling works.

EA was 100% focused on talking about the Longshot story mode for Madden NFL 18, which leads me to believe that that’s likely going to be the biggest feature of the game.

EA Sports have been working on the game for the past four years, so we’ll see if they’ve refined and improved the gameplay experience alongside the “cinematic” story mode when it launches on August 25th, 2017 for the Xbox One and PS4. Sadly there’s still no PC release for the game for whatever reason.

EA’s also selling a bunch of pre-orders over on the official website as they celebrate Tom Brady as the greatest football player of all time. But if you value quality over quantity, it might be best not to pre-order.