A Review Of Madden '08
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by JasonComack
Ok EA Sports What the Hell V 2.0
From http://3rdstringsafety.blogspot.com/
Consider this a grand reopening. Vacations and other matters have consumed our time for the past week but never fear your two favorite bloggers are back and better than ever. I can’t think of a more appropriate column to kick off our grand reopening than a review of Madden ’08.
“Ok EA Sports What The Hell?”
Remember back on May 7 th when Anthony wrote that. He was writing in reference to Jared Zabransky being on the cover of NCAA football. However in retrospect the lack of a respectable cover athlete should be excused. NCAA is in fact a very fun game. One of the highlights of the game is a deep franchise, or in this case dynasty mode. You scout, you call prospects, you change your coaching playbook and scheme, players get suspended ect. It’s fun to do, especially to simulate. Want to challenge yourself? Start out at a one or two prestige team and rise through the coaching ranks till you get to the top.
So why is any of this relevant?
Because in many ways Madden 08 is a homerun and in many ways its a piece of crap. Before I start to rant let’s start with the good.
The game play feels like a brand new game. In fact after playing All-Pro football for an extended time I can confidently say madden plays better. The new tackling animations are a revelation. Players no long bounce around the field and due to gang tackling and the physics of the engine you won’t see the same five preset tackling animations all the time. It runs really fast and smooths (more on this in a moment.) The graphics are great, and it looks superb in all it’s HD Glory. The weapons system adds a lot. It makes pre-snap a chess match. You can exploit mismatches, try to create mismatches, on defense you can double team wide outs, blitz ect. In fact on most plays you’re going to end up looking like Peyton Manning on offense barking out orders until the play clock is almost all the way down. In fact, in my first few games there were several play clock violations. I don’t think I’ve had a delay of game flag in video football since 1998. Having the Xbox 360 game profile is cool. It keeps records and with the new trophy and ring creation system it adds something to head to head play.
Now the bad and unfortunately there’s a lot of bad
For whatever reason there are a ton of turnovers in the game. Interceptions are cake after your play the game for a little bit. Not only that but fumbles are a dime a dozen. It’s frustrating to play the perfect game and have it ruined by poor A.I.
Now most of this review is centered on the Xbox360 version. However I can’t speak for myself but every review has bashed the PS3 version. Apparently the PS30 version only runs 30 frames per second, while the 360 version runs at a smooth 60. This is a huge difference and from all the videos I have scene makes the PS3 version look almost unbearable to play.
Presentation while better is still lacking. The ESPN license is still barely used. The radio announcer is a travesty. Who would have thought I’d be clamoring for the days of Pat Summeral. After playing All Pro 2k8 the way this game is presented is such garbage.
Now for my biggest problem with Madden ’08 the Franchise Mode. Everyone loves the franchise modes. Who doesn’t dream of being an Arm Chair GM? The Franchise mode at least to me is the sole reason to keep playing Madden (besides online play.) It’s a shame that the franchise mode is atrociously awful. It’s such a giant step back it’s unbelievable.
Where do I start?
Ok well let’s start with fantasy draft mode. It’s back, thank god. I’ve read reviews talking about all the new additions and when everyone says the new fantasy draft mode I cringe. New? Please, fantasy drafts have been in Madden for what the past 10 years? The fact that the next gen system didn’t have a fantasy draft last year was a tragedy.
Instantly there’s a problem with fantasy draft though. For whatever reason the computer decided to not include players not on a current roster in the draft (i.e. Al Wilson.) If your MLB isn’t great don’t fret, 90 rated Al Wilson is only click away. In fact you could almost build a whole team just from the free agency pool.
In general the menus are very unintuitive and are well clunky. It’s unnecessarily difficult and in fact slow to move from one thing to another like depth chart for example. The menus on PS2 move faster. The new scouting system is a perfect example, while cool in theory it’s very frustrating to spend your 20 scouting hours. You have to click in each player to find out anything about him before you get to scout him. Since it doesn’t move seamlessly it’s cumbersome. It would have been so much better if you could at least see the players raw stats, like height, weight, and 40 time on the initial screen.
In general the franchise mode falls short even of last year’s incarnation. Restricted free agency is mysteriously gone. You can’t switch player’s positions, I am sure Patriots fans are thrilled than Adalius Thomas is stuck as there MLB. In fact speaking of Mr. Thomas you can’t sub players in certain packages. So if you want Thomas playing end in Nickel, MLB in 4-3 and OLB in 3-4 you can’t. Also I’m sure Saints fans are thrilled about the lack of options with Reggie Bush.
My biggest gripe with the Franchise Mode is the slimmed statistics. Scores are outrageous for the most part, 50-37 anyone? Bizarrely enough in these high scoring shootouts offense isn’t total dominant. In fact the problem seems to be that there’s a ton of turnovers even in a slimmed game and thus the inflated scoring. Also sim a year and you’re going to laugh at the ridiculous statistics at years end. Marc Bulger 4,000 yards and a 45 to 4 TD to INT ratio. Come on. In fact Matt Leinart led the league in interceptions with 12. Speaking of interceptions or the lack there off they seem to count twice for defensive backs. Player of the game Omar Stoutmire had 4 picks but Peyton Manning only through two and no other QB played. The rushing statistics are just as outrageous. Eight 2,000 yard backs when I slimmed c’mon. 16 rushers over 1,500 yards. Gimme a break.
The thing that bothers me most is that the designer of the franchise mode had a blog on ign.com about the mode and how he was going to redo it, make it great and an accurate sim. Well either two things happened this guy is mentally challenged or EA decided eff it we are a monopoly we don’t need to perfect franchise mode.
EA are master marketers. I mean there advertising the “new” finance mode? New? Finance mode is just owner mode removed and now you can’t control it. How is that new? Owner mode was dumb but how the hell can you claim removing something is new?
I find myself frustrated. I just don’t see Maddens replay value. The games are fun vs cpu and human opponents yet frustrating cause of fumblitis. The franchise mode is completely unrewarding. The exclusive NFL license was the worst thing that ever happened to videogame football.
Ok EA Sports, What The Hell?
read more at: http://3rdstringsafety.blogspot.com/
