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I got the disc in the mail from Gamefly and played through a few games. Not
just one game, but a few. Enough to start forming an opinion on the game and not
simply a first impression. I can't put my fingers on it exactly, but it (Madden
08) just doesn't inspire me.
The graphics in many places look nice, though there is still a lot of
repetitiveness with the graphics where you see the same players, or the players
that look exactly alike, standing around after the play, or on the sidelines,
etc. Cut scenes between plays as an example. Over the course of a 'standard
game' you see the same stuff, well, a lot.
Game image linked from
Gamepro.com
The game screens also seem to be a bit too busy to me. There are many
extra symbols and items that show up on the screen denoting special abilities
for players and such that wind up just taking up room there. While the
symbols are cool, and are there for a good reason, they tend to just get in my
way and irritate me.
The announcer for the game (not Michaels, nor Madden) is the same as last
year and while the voice isn't annoying, it's not smooth either. Also pretty
repetitive.
I noticed at least one confirmed glitch where a player was injured and where
there should have been a pop-up report about the injury and instead I got a
pop-up that said: 'Text' in a heading area, then had the same thing in the
description area.
The kicking seems at least as frustrating as All Pro Football was described
as by a friend that flatly stated that that particular game 'sucked' (his
opinion, not mine). I'm functional at it (kicking in Madden and All Pro
Football), but the kick directions in Madden are never straight for me and seem
way too sensitive. It's all about the motion of bringing back the Right Stick
(RS) and then shoving it forward at just the right time.
Play efficiency on the rookie difficulty still seems to be a joke to me. I
know I'm playing rookie level to start with, but you find the same plays that
you consistently complete successfully over, and over, and over again. If you
crank up the difficulty it isn't as bad, but then again it's not really better
either. The game gets faster, and a.i. perhaps a bit more agressive, but really
not that much smarter.
Game image linked from
xbox360fanboy.com
I haven't explored all of the extra features for this years game much yet,
but I may not really get that far into the game anyway. It is ok for football,
it has the NFL logos, stadiums, players, etc., but just doesn't impress me. I'll
probably have it back to Gamefly quickly (so someone else can enjoy the rental)
and then wait for this year's NCAA football to hopefully come my way. For some
reason I seem to like that game better when compared to Madden (that happened
last year, though I had expected the reverse going into last season as I
normally don't much care for college football games). Hopefully this year will
continue that small trend and maybe there'll be some football game from EA that
I like.
