from
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
EA Tiberon has headed to the next-gen grid iron twice so far with less than stellar results. EA has often been criticized that once it snaked the exclusive NFL license, it would slow down the pace of adding new features or fixing issues because they didn’t have any competition. Low and behold in 2007, 2K comes back to foray with All-Pro Football, and now gamers finally have a Madden title that’s as feature rich as the last generation with a number of added features. Are the last two years of lackluster Madden forgiven after our play sessions with Madden NFL 08? Yes and no.
Upon beginning the game, and after choosing your favorite team, you’ll enter an all-new area called the Showcase. This area houses your rings, two different sets of trophies, video screens and décor themed to your favorite team. Think of a dumbed down Crib from the 2K football days, and you’ll get the gist. One set of trophies can be earned in the game for accomplishing certain stats - passing yards, total yards allowed, passing touchdowns, passing accuracy, passer ratings, defensive sacks, points allowed, interceptions, longest field goal, etc. Other trophies are earned by playing against your friends and putting one of a number of trophies on the line. Play for the Golden Chalice, The Pigskin Cup, or for The Bacon. All trophies have gameplay history attached to them, so you know who played who to win the rights to hold the trophy. Trophies can be won online and offline. Have a bunch of friends that regularly play together? Now you have something to play over for bragging rights, and the trophy will show who really had the skills. The only thing I see missing is the fact that you can’t create a trophy or rename one that’s already in the game. But if you can play for The Bacon, is there really anything else you need?
As you earn stat trophies, you earn points to build upon your ring or your level – much like a remixed version of the Madden Gamer Level. There are five different rings or levels you can earn with these points, and when you face off against a friend or someone online you’ll see their ring, and by just looking at it, you’ll know immediately how skilled they are. Once you’re past level three you’ll have options to have some ring design options, and if you really love it, you can have Jostens actually make your ring. Madden Bling! Then again, send us your money, and we’ll give you a nice pat on your back, instead.
Your standard Madden features from last-gen are now all intact, with the notable addition of the expansion of scouting. Modes include Play Now for a quick match, Mini Games, Super Star, Franchise, Practice, and Online. Super Star seems pretty much on track with what last year’s game had to offer, however, you’ll be able to bring a rookie into Super Star so if you want to determine the fate of Calvin Johnson or Jamarcus Russell you’ll also have that option. Basically this is the last-gen game filling out the next-gen game with notable bells and whistles.
The main new features of the gameplay fall into the player weapons system, which highlight exceptional players’ abilities using an icon-based system. By selecting or using a certain weapon during a play you may be able to pull off a finesse move, possession catch in traffic, press a receiver, read a play, boom a kick, or let a bullet pass fly. Prior to the snap you can pull back and see how your weapons match-up and sometimes even notice a mismatch on receivers and take advantage of it. For the casual crowd this is great because you know who you should be targeting or using. We also like it because with a quick glance you know what your team is up against, most importantly if you’re testing out a team you don’t frequently play with.
Gameplay wise EA has almost matched what they accomplished last generation, however, there’s a number of things that still need to be much tighter. One of the biggest faults we’ve noticed is how many turnovers are in a game. Granted I’m playing through my season with the Packers, and Favre’s got his issues with interceptions (going for the record this year, baby!) but when a corner can magically catch a ball that he’s not looking at when Donald Driver – a quick, possession, and hands weapons receiver – is on top of the ball and eyed it all the way, I have to argue, especially when it happens a lot. Fumbles are also quite repetitious. This could have to do with the new stripping the ball ability, and apparently the team is already aware of this and working on a patch, but if the game ships this way and someone doesn’t have internet or the proper memory capacity, it’s going to be a headache.
Visually, Tiberon has cleaned up quite a bit, and the Xbox 360 version looks quite stunning especially running at a steady 60 FPS. We haven’t seen the PS3 version, and the only known differences at this time are the fact that the game runs at 30FPS, and there are extra Hall of Fame player video bios. Player animations have been broadened, however, it’s looking like the team really needs to get to work on player likenesses and facial mapping. Some players look good, others, however not so much. Especially when it’s a highlighted player weapon and the camera pans to your favorite players and they don’t look like they should. It’s a bit disappointing. Sidelines and crowd animations are also extremely generic and repetitious.
EA has tried this radio broadcast delivery for commentary and play-by-play, and for the third year I’m going to urge them to bring back Madden and Al. I don’t care how delirious Madden sounds in real life these days, anything can be better than this drivel from this supposed home town radio announcer. It’s gotten very tired. The addition of Marshall Falk giving the intro and post game is just as bad. When you go from the ESPN Radio integration to this, it just sounds terrible. The additional player chatter on the field is great, because at least if you can hear that, you’re not listening to the corny radio home boy discussing the trials and tribulations of super generic “Team X.”
Much like the rest of the EA Sports line-up in 2007, it’s about bringing all the features found in the last generation, cleaning up the bugs, adding some frosting, and giving it a high-gloss spit shine. We like the weapons system, returning features that have a number of enhancements, especially hit stick 2.0 and the finesse stick. But we have to admit, isn’t this the game we wanted last year, or even the year prior? This may be Madden’s best effort on the next-gen tech so far, but even with having three iterations under their belts, Tiberon has quite a ways to go to make this the definitive Madden experience yet.
-------------------------------------------------------
I don't know exactly what i want to think about it until I get a chance at it myself. I will be renting before buying for sure, but this review sounds much more pecimistic that the earlier hands on posted on this same site.
Linear Mode
