BRING ON THE TURDUCKEN!!

Every year, right around the middle of August, the sounds of shoulder pads clashing, helmets cracking, and buttons clicking can be heard nationwide. That’s right! Football season is back and, with it, EA punts out yet another installment of the most successful franchise in gaming history, Madden.

For as many gamers that are out there that go out and get it every year like it’s a migration pattern, there are just as many who have grown tired of the series and of dropping $50-$60 on updated rosters. And for as much as John Madden gets mocked for his football commentary, he is a smart business man and knew his series needed a facelift.

So what exactly did they add or change to revitalize a series that has gone 20 games deep? Well, for starters, they created what they call a “revolutionary” A.I. system that conforms to your style of play. Before you’re even allowed to play a game, you are thrust into a series of mini-games to test your running game, passing game, run defense, and pass defense. Depending on how you do in each of these games, the game will change the level at which the computer will react to the plays you call.

This had a lot of people excited because one of the problems that many people faced, myself included, is that you would find the glitches, the handful of plays that would always work and allow you to run up the score and shut down the opponent even on the hardest difficulty level.

Unfortunately, this new A.I. is nothing to be excited about. Even if you should struggle with the mini-games, it would only take you a season or two for all you Madden veterans to max out the A.I. and get it back to the same exact point that you were at with all the other games. The glitches are gone for the most part, and it is nice that it forces you to mix up your plays a little more, but anyone who knows football, or specifically football games, should not end up too stressed over it.

Speaking of the mini-games, why are they hologram outlines? I was happy with the mini-games showing the actual players on the field. The neon hologram field is hard to see and makes it difficult to tell where exactly you are in relation to the ball, making the mini-games much harder than the actual game itself.

Speaking about hard to see, how about almost everything that is smaller than the players’ heads? When looking for the right play in the playbook, the button that corresponds to the appropriate receiver is too small to decipher because the playbook itself has been shrunk to ¼ the size of the screen when it used to be twice as big. What did they do with the extra space? They gave you a stat tracker. Now, if Madden had any affect on my fantasy team, then I would love to know all my stats up to the second, but otherwise, it is unnecessary, especially when the sacrifice is being able to see what play I am selecting. On more than one occasion I have selected the wrong play just because I could not read if it was a run or pass. In the game’s defense, I do not have a HD TV. But my TV is 36”; not small by any standards and I still couldn’t see and since the majority of people do not have an HD TV yet, we should not need one to read what play we are picking.

Aside from this, all the favorite modes are back. Franchise, Exhibition, a revamped Superstar mode, and they even threw in the Coach only mode instead of making it a completely separate game.

With all systems being online capable now, the Online Play mode is a big feature. This was something that needed to be fixed and wasn’t. What needs to be fixed? Simply that every time I start pummeling an opponent online, they jack out and I do not get the win, even if I still select that they get the loss (I show no mercy when it comes to that!). There should be a rule where if the game gets through the 1st half, it should still count as a win for the player who was winning at the time. If the player who was winning jacks out after a half, the game does not count for anyone. No losses or wins given. Play with honor or do not play at all!

In conclusion, it was a valiant effort, John, but maybe you should stick to just making up animals and riding on your bus because it failed. You even listened to your harshest critics and cut out your commentary and Al Michaels play-by-play and replaced it with Cris Collinsworth and some guy named Tom. Cris does a great job. Random guy needs some work. The game needed a facelift, John, and it looks like I’m going to have to sue you for malpractice because you botched it up.

Rankings are based on a score of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 6.0: The graphics on the field are solid. Everything you would expect from a game for this console generation. The graphics on the menus and the mini-games are something that look like last generation and that barely gets this an average rating. Very disappointing.

Audio: 9.0: The sound is great. The hits are crisp and loud and make you feel in the game. The commentary from Collinsworth is priceless. The random Tom dude bothers me a little and that keeps it from getting a perfect score. John Madden’s voice helping you navigate the menus to keep him in the game was a nice touch.

Plot/Plot Development: N/A: It is a sports sim. There is no storyline or plot beyond the one you create by how you play.

Gameplay: 7.5: The game is great until you max out the A.I. and find the ways around the system. If you are a diehard football fan (or a sore loser) then you have no problem winning all the time with no challenge at all. I can’t give that a perfect score though.

Replay Value: 10.0: Until the next installment comes out, this is football fans’ number one fix Monday – Saturday.

Overall (not an average): 7.0: With the downgrade in graphics, difficult to navigate menus and an overhyped new A.I. system that is almost as bad as the last one, this game is passable at best. Add in the lack of people who like to play fair online and I can’t give this a great overall gaming experience. This is a great reminder why most of us do not buy the game every single year.

-Ray Carsillo