Madden 22 welcomes new and old players back to the virtual gridiron. As the real NFL is constantly changing, so is Madden. Gone are the days of the conventional pocket-passers like Tom Brady. The era of Patrick Mahomes and the scrambling magic-maker QB is here to stay. However, the concern with real-life scrambling QBs is the potential for injury. Keeping the face of your franchise safe is more important than that early-game TD or first down. Sliding is the key to safety, so here’s how to slide in Madden 22 and why it’s so important.
To slide in Madden 22, quickly tap Square (on PlayStation) or X (on Xbox) while running forward. Do not hold the button for too long, as you’ll accidentally dive instead. You can slide whenever you’re carrying the football, whether as a QB, running back, or wide receiver. However, the sliding animation takes a second to kick in. Make sure to initiate your slide before defenders get too close, or they’ll tackle you outright. So, when do the pros slide in the real-life NFL?
It’s third-and-long, and Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are down late in the third quarter. While there’s a good chance Mahomes can bring his team back by the end of the game, picking up this first down will increase his chances of scoring on this drive. Nothing’s open, and his check-down throw isn’t anywhere near the first down. Mahomes must do what Mahomes does best — run for it.
But there’s one tiny problem — a 240-pound linebacker is barreling down on Mahomes as he nears the first-down marker. Should he dive for the extra yard or slide to make a more manageable fourth-and-short? In this situation, he slides down to avoid the big hit, living to run or throw again on the next play.
Madden players can be reckless at times, especially with their running QBs. Not only will diving or taking a hit risk injury, but it also risks a fumble. As sure-handed as QBs like Mahomes and Russell Wilson are, getting blown up in the open field is almost a guaranteed fumble. So, when and why should you slide in Madden 22?
We’ve already gone over why sliding is the best way to protect your QB, so let’s look at some other situations where sliding might be the better option.
In the 2020 NFC Championship Game, Tom Brady hit WR Chris Godwin on a short route near the first-down marker. If Godwin ran or was tackled out of bounds, the clock would have stopped, and the Bucs would be forced to run another play. Instead, Godwin slid in-bounds after crossing the first-down line to keep the clock running, thus winning the game and sending the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl.
If you find yourself in a Godwin situation, with first-down yardage all you need to seal the deal, slide down once you’ve crossed the line to keep the clock running and avoid a big hit.
While the Godwin slide is an example of heads-up football, let’s look at a time when a player should have slid but cost his team the game instead. The Atlanta Falcons were down by 2 points against the Detroit Lions. The Falcons were in easy field-goal range, and the Lions were unable to stop the clock. All they had to do was run the clock down and kick a game-winning field goal. QB Matt Ryan told Running Back Todd Gurly, “Don’t score!” Then, Gurly was handed the ball on a simple running play and ran toward the goal line. He scored, putting the Falcons up by 5. The Lions then drove down the field and won the game.
If he were playing Madden 22, Gurly should have slid at the 2- or 3-yard line to keep the clock running after picking up the first down. Then, all Ryan had to do was spike the ball with a second or two left and send out the field goal unit. Football is a mental sport, and sometimes giving yourself up with a slide is the smartest play you can make.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.