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Home | Madden 09 Review (PS3) |
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| Written by onearmedbandit | |
| Tuesday, 19 August 2008 | |
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This is the best time of year for sports gaming. While most of my friends have outgrown playing video games with any regularity, thankfully, I have not. So I greet NCAA, Madden, and NHL with open arms.
I love my Madden as much as anybody. This year's PS3 release promised to be the best football gaming experience ever created. But last year's was supposed to be transcendent as well, and it was, well, less than good. But with the PS3 finally caught up to the 360 and running at 60 frames per second, Madden 09 had as much hype as any sports release in history. The release of NCAA 09 was met with similar fanfare, and it was a huge disappointment on several fronts, in need of major patches (as yet unreleased) to improve the game playing experience. While going undefeated is fun, winning every game by 60+ points on Heisman should be impossible. I'm good, but not that good. NCAA 09 made me temper my expectations for Madden. THE GOOD There is plenty to love about Madden this year. EA Sports claimed over 80 innovations in this year's game, and while that number includes every tiny change, it's the few big changes that make the game a must buy. For the first time in gaming history, the game's difficulty adjusts to your skill level. The feature, called My Skill, is available right at the top of the game when you will be asked to take a series of test to determine your Madden IQ, and thus the difficulty settings in the game's four main areas: pass offense, pass defense, rush offense, and rush defense. The problem with the opening test is that the drills don't really represent the gameplay at all, and can thus give a skewed rating. I would suggest skipping the tests and starting with your Madden IQ at 500.After each game, the computer automatically adjusts your ability in the four main areas, so your rush defense could be on All Madden and your pass defense could be on Pro. This would lead to much improved computer running in your next game, while they would be pretty easy on the pass game. Your overall IQ also adjusts in game. What I love about this is that it keeps the game fresh, as you will have a slightly different difficulty level in every game. Plus, the difficulty actually goes higher than All Madden. So if you are used to dominating even at the game's highest level, you will face tougher competition than ever before. This is also great for playing friends, as it evens the playing field a little bit. The person with the higher skill level can play My Skill while the other can use Pro, All Pro, or their lower My Skill ratings. For those that like the more traditional settings, you can still play on the four normal settings, ranging from Rookie to All Madden. Also, you can create custom settings for each facet of gameplay if you think you know yourself better than the game does.One of my other favorite new features is the rivalry games. Each team has three rivals. Often they are divisional opponents, though the Pats and Colts are probably my favorite rivalry outside of Cleveland/Pittsburgh. In these games, the computer AI receives a slight boost, making the games more difficult. While some might find this a bit hokey when they are the Patriots and struggle with the Bills, it adds something to those games and virtually eliminates pushovers within the division.As with any sports game, long term enjoyment is dependent on the gameplay. In that area, this is easily the best Madden ever made. From the big things already mentioned to the little ones like individual formation subs, the ability to bluff plays on the playcalling screen and in the field, and the elimination of the use for the pause button to look at stats, replays, and Madden IQ, this is a superior product. It leaves NCAA 09 in the dust. The running game is, for the first time in Madden history, extremely difficult. I love that I can't rush for 3,000 yards in a season. Even with a good running team, you will struggle to maintain a 4.0 YPC average from game to game. One of my favorite things is that great teams play like great teams while the Raiders and Falcons play like garbage. While it is frustrating to be unable to run with Darren McFadden, the game may be providing a preview for the ballyhooed rookie's season thanks to a less than stellar offensive line. Run with the Vikings and their immovable offensive line, and you'll have great success as long as you follow your blocks. For the most part, a team takes advantage of positions where it is superior and is vulnerable at weaker spots in the lineup. It sounds simple, but it's never been done so well. The great jukes and branching animations from NCAA are also included, but with a little twist. Now, once you've made contact, you can hit the truck stick, spin move, or stiff arm even when it looks like you're surely going down. Depending on the back and the tackler, it is possible to gain extra yards or even break out of tackles where it never had been before. This makes for a brilliantly fluid experience and adds more drama to every play. There is little more satisfying than hitting the truck stick with a power back when you're wrapped up and struggling for the extra yard rather than being hostage to whatever animation takes place. THE BAD While this is the best football game I've ever played, it does have flaws. A big problem from NCAA pops up in Madden, the dreaded robo QB. I just played a game against the Ravens, who had Troy Smith (76 overall) at QB, but since my pass defense rating had just spiked into the lower reaches of the All Madden level, Smith became Joe Montana. He made every correct read, threw to guys who weren't open by more than a few inches and hit them in stride, and even threw bullets against his body over the middle. Once, he did a 360 while scrambling and threw a strike downfield on one play. It was maddening. As a Buckeye fan, I love Troy Smith, but he's not Tom Brady squared.Also, if your run defense is maxed out, the opposing running back becomes a God, breaking tackles at will. I don't have a problem with giving up some rush yards against a worthy opponent, but there has to be a middle ground between allowing 2.5 YPC and 10 YPC over an entire game. From what I've experienced, there isn't.A big problem for some is the lack of true online leagues. While they exist, they aren't nearly as in depth or effective as the NCAA versions. Rather than each controlling a franchise for decades, all you can do is get in a league with friends and each play each other to win the league championship. So beware that if you're looking for an online league, NCAA is the way to go. There also appear to be a problem with progression. If you edit a player, as many do their favorite rookies, they will never progress again. It's something that a patch will hopefully take care of. THE UGLY Much like in NCAA, the pass rush is almost nonexistent. Once an offensive lineman gets his hands on you, you aren't going anywhere. Even the Vikings incredible D line struggles to get sacks unless coverage is superb or you are blitzing every play. It's almost impossible to blow by an offensive lineman with speed or a quick move. They always take the right angle and they almost always get their hands on you before you turn the corner. This turns every sack into a coverage sack, and that's just not the way football works. There is no jump the snap feature this year, which was the great equalizer in the NCAA game when playing as a D lineman.In NCAA, the sliders didn't work properly. Certain sliders didn't address what they said they did, and it made for a confusing experience and kept consumers from being able to adjust their gameplay properly. Madden doesn't have this problem...because there are no sliders. I think the My Skill innovation does a good job of challenging the user, but there have been some complaints. For those people, the absence of sliders could be a huge problem. It's nice to be able to adjust individual attributes for yourself and opponents to compensate for certain problems in the gameplay, but that option is unavailable this year.A tiny thing that helps the user but is highly unrealistic is that on throws to the flat, much like in NCAA, the receiver switches the ball from one arm to the other while running straight out of bounds. So there is usually very little penalty for not covering the flats.Something that hasn't been seen since Madden 2000 is the Rewind feature. Back then, I think they were called mulligans, but it allows the user to replay the previous play. So if you throw a costly pick on a would be game winning drive, just hit square and you can replay it. This is a useless feature to me, because true Madden gamers would never use it. Mercifully, the number of rewinds is adjustable from unlimited to zero. THE VERDICT Along with MLB 08: The Show, and NHL 08, this is among the best three sports title I've ever played. Madden has finally lived up to its next-gen promise and given the fans a product that has almost endless playability thanks to the My Skill feature. Unless you are some kind of gaming god or a cheeser of the worst kind, you will not beat the computer by huge margins with any consistency. In fact, it will happen rarely if you play on the My Skill setting with anything less than a Hall of Fame team. I was terrified that I would be wasting $60 after the defensively inept gameplay of NCAA, but Madden is a vast improvement. Though I find college football endlessly more entertaining than the NFL, Madden is almost always superior when it comes to the most important thing, gameplay. There are a few little problems that can hopefully be fixed with a patch, but nothing that is anything close to a deal breaker. If you like football, you will love this game. RATING: 9.2 out of 10
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Hey thanks for bumping this back up. I complet...DRS Gear
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