Background:
Madden NFL is one of the industry’s longest running franchises, first released in 1989. There are plenty of gamers in the U.S of A who describe their hobby as “Madden” , not “videogames”, because they simply don’t play anything else. These people along with a load of others are the gamers who felt disappointed my EA’s 07 next gen effort of madden, and looking for the “real” next gen Madden experience with 08.
“Its not about who’s the biggest…”
EA’s Madden franchise has always been known to be at the fore front when it comes to graphics in a sport title, and 9 times out of 10 will often receive the accolade of best looking sports title. However I’m going to go out on a stick here and say that this will not receive such an accolade this time round. Don’t get me wrong Madden is a good looking game but does nothing groundbreaking. It does a lot right but lacks that particular Madden flair that we are so use to. And when you consider what EA’s NBA and FIFA series are putting out, Madden lags a little behind surprisingly.
As expected Madden 08 improves upon 07’s looks but only just. Some nice touches worth mentioning is the different “finishes” been given to the teams helmets. For example some teams have that glossy PS3 like finish to it, and others have a more metallic feel to them. This also carries over the teams uniforms. The different materials used to make up the uniforms is clearly apparent, and even the stitching patterns have been long worked over to represent perfection.
But that’s enough of that nancy pancy crap I want to hear about the new tech that has gone into Madden 08. Well as par with EA they like to talk a lot of rubbish about there new features that are normally turn out very gimmicky or not even make a change at all. But I’m pleased to say we don’t have that same occurrence here. The main facet that has been given a strong work over in terms of presentation is the new “branching” animation system they have implemented into 08. Considering this has been there first effort at this new technology they have come through with some rather solid results. What this allows to happen is instead of having an animation take place and its all over, it allows for that animation to be broken and then flow on into another animation with the chance with that one breaking into another as well and so on. For a sporting game particularly something like gridiron, this is perfect as it allows the offensive player complete control rather then having to go with what the animation gives you. But unlike the old cliché “Its an offensive players game” this also works out well in some cases for the defence swell. It could look like for all money the running back is going to get the vital first down and then wham! stopped in his tracks but still pushing ford, and then double wham! Another defensive player has jumped over the top just in time to stop the players momentum. Unfortunately it works in vice versa. Its incredibly frustrating when the defensive player helps out the running back by tackling him ford over the first down line.
Other things of note is the tough guy haircuts. Yes dreads look pretty awesome in this game as they finally sway and move with what the players doing. Man I saw this implemented in NFL street 2 and three back on the PS2. The presentation looks styleliyzing brilliant. Off the field they have the user friendly side scrolling menus which makes things a lot easier when going through all these menus, and trust me, you will be as there’s so much stuff to go through. You can even personalize the background to favour your favourite teams colours. On the field they use the very same styleliyzed graphics. But I would have loved the game to show me some more important stats during the game, or even the commentator explaining what’s going on in a replay.
As mentioned earlier there are a few elements that let the game down with its looks. It isn’t all happy touchdown celebrations, there’s a few ugly linemen to be had here. These ugly bits consist of a lacklustre crowd which is perfectly synchronized to compete with the Russian synchronized gold winning swimming team, and to be honest my money would be on the Madden 08 crowd to take them out. It also doesn’t help that no matter the game, you could have the 32nd place team facing of against the 31st team at a neutral stadium and yet the stadium will be packed to the brim full of crazy fans. Now I know NFL fans are some of the most passionate supporters in the world but that’s just a joke to be fair. The weather effects are a little lame as well but just get by with a pass mark. The rain does make the field slowly deteriate into the pacific ocean but perhaps that’s half the problem as I’m sure most 5star NFL stadiums will have an state of the art draining system that will never allow for this old school mud pool type of field. But one cool thing is that the weather will affect how you approach the game as there’s an alerting chance of fumbles and players losing there footing in rain and snow.
So as you can see Madden 08 is not the prettiest amongst its EA sporting title peers, and I haven’t even made a mention to the much publicised and controversial decision to have the PS3 version running at a mediocre 30fps. However if you never play the 360 version I’m sure you will never notice much of a difference besides it getting a little slowdown when there is a spectacular catch. But you will still have that overwhelming feeling of that your not getting the real deal here. Now take your memory back to the previous Madden titles that were on the PS2. Can you remember the silly goings on after a play had completed? For those of you who don’t, the players will run back to there huddle but on there way, they would actually run through each other, have mini seizures, or just stand there and look as though they were on magic mushrooms. Well another generation of consoles has come about and we still have that same ol problem, and boy is it an ugly site on the eyes. I know most people skip the little cut scenes after every play but sometimes its unavoidable. And while we don’t see as many of the shenanigans as we did last gen, we still get players making uncharacteristic sudden movements with no fluidity at all.
“Its not about who’s the strongest…”
As norm with EA the soundtrack of this game is more devoted to the teenager audience who either love rock, rap or hip-hop. But that’s not to say it’s a bad thing as some of the Madden titles have unleashed stars through there games. I.e. Bubba Spaxxx-back in the mud, Greendays American idiot song, And Good Charlotte‘s- The Anthem. So as you can see there’s never been a lack of big names in Maddens soundtrack. But it appears we haven’t been blessed with such greatness this year with no real big name tracks, however I personally love Pharoahe Monch - Desire.
Now as you head on field the first thing you will notice about the commentary is first it’s a new guy who is not known by many and second it has a radio filter. Pretty ironic when you consider its EA’s plan in terms of it presentation to make the game look and sound like a TV broadcast. “Oh the irony” This radio filter takes a little while to get used to but it will become second nature latter on. For the most part he will keep up with the action and be spot on with his comments. There will be the odd occasion where you will notice that the commentary has in fact been recorded in a studio, stuff like being real excited to making a standard comment straight after with no emotion and just breaks the flow. Just there I said he gets excited, and let me tell you, he really gets into it, even if it does sound a little unco, its pretty nice to have a commentator with emotions for once. Surprisingly there is a very apparent absence of John Madden in the booth. All this means is that we will never get to hear about how god like Brett Favre is, or “Now that’s what that’s all about!” comments. But I just cant feel a little disappointed with no secondary commentator. The only role John Madden now plays in his game is the “Ask Madden” feature and even then most of the helpful comments have just been brought over from previous incarnations of this game. “Oh but Gazza, that’s not the only role, He also has his name on the cover and the games named after him” “Yeah thanks captain obvious.”
2003 cover boy legendary St Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk Provides pre and post match analysis, and while he’s new to the studio he does a reasonable solid job but who wouldn’t when you only have a few lines to remember and get right. I feel EA could have used Marshall Faulk a lot better and put his skills to the test by having him as the sideline reporter. I remember back on the PS2 Madden’s we had a laddie as the sideline reporter and she did a great ob, she would keep the gamer updated on injuries and report on coach interviews. All this is no were to be seen here, and I think EA missed the boat by not allowing Marshall Faulk a bigger role in the game.
“Wada He, Wada He, Wada Ha, Wada Ha, Wada Ha, Wada Ha!” This is the famous phrase used by rookie sensation Reggie Bush to hype up his team the New Orleans Saints. Why mention this man. Well you wont quite get the same intensity of this method of hyping up when the teams come out but you get something very similar and it’s the first time we are introduced to sound on the field. Crowd going crazy, players going nuts, fire works firing (no pun intended) all makes for a kick ar$e start to the game. The sound effects on the field will be instantly recognizable for veterans of the franchise. Its typical shoulder pad to shoulder pad thunder, mixed with the lightning sound of fluid footsteps. A big difference I noticed was the considerably large amount of on field banter and sledging. I’m of the opinion that this type of stuff is great in sport, and am very happy there’s plenty of it here to be had. Some of the best lines I could pick up were “Listen to me man, clean your ears”, “I don’t care what you weigh” and “Get on the jump rope son”. And don’t think that these were added last minute as all this sledging and what not has some pretty decent voice over work behind it. As long as you can put aside a few mishaps like the camera being on a white player while the voice over says “Come on let me tell you something homeboy” you will enjoy the on field banter.
“Its about something more…”
Eli Manning may never play as good as he did in the Super bowl every game, but one things for sure, Maddens gameplay has always been consistent. If this is your first time with a next gen Madden title, which will be a lot considering the dog food that was Madden 07, you will feel right at home, but the furniture has been moved a little so you not be completely comfortable. The players seem to run and move more realistically, ya see in previous incarnations you could be running full blast and then in the blink of an eye stop right there on the spot. Now you go outside run full tilt for about 50m and then tell me if you can just stop like that. Thankfully this silly business has been erased with 08. This can be thanked by #1 having more control over the player and #2 the branching animation tech which allows for greater control of the player.
Family re-unions normally suck the biggest amount of $h!t possible, but every once it a while there will be a good one were you meet up with your hot cousin who has even hotter friends and luckily Madden 08 falls into that bucket. This year we have been re-united with a few old friends that were amazingly absent from previous years. Yep this year sees the much applauded return of the “Hurdle”, the “Lateral”, “Gang tackles” and thank god for the Franchise returning back to its former glory but more on that latter. All these are all welcoming features, and it sort of begs the question of why they were left out beforehand. The hurdle is an old fav that will be liked by most, the gang tackles are pretty for the eyes but you cant really plan for one and it seems its still only two men in the tackle at any one time. Now the lateral is were all the fun and havoc begins, what this allows for is a bit of razzle dazzle fun and gives a new meaning to the saying, “a play aint over till the fat man blows.” I fondly remember a match against a mate of mine. **Wow Gazza actually has friends!!** he was up by 4 with about 10 seconds to go. He was deep in my territory and it was forth down, problem for him was that he’s notoriously crack at field goals, so he goes for a passing play on forth down only for me to go WHOOP! And nab the interception. As I’m running up field I notice there’s a team-mate of mine to my left and an angry looking bloke up ahead who actually wants my head, so just before contact I lateral it to my team mate on my left only for it to go straight to ground, team-mate then picks it up and runs for the TD to win the game. All thanks to the lateral I won a game that I never should have. The lateral feature could have gone per shaped pretty quickly for EA if they didn’t get the balance right, but I think they have made it a very risky option, so its not just whored out there.
There is plenty here to excite the real NFL buffs as well. You know the type, The guys (normally Americans) who watch every game religiously. Buy a 50inch Plasma just for the game, have TVs installed in the bathroom, so they don’t miss a second, the guys who can give you stats of any given player at the click of a finger. Yea you know the type. Playmaking, players in motion, changing routes of players, audibles, giving players extra attention on D. These are just some of the tactical options given to the more experienced Madden players, and once you get a hold of it, it will be stuff like this that will get you the W in the winning collum. And for those all Madden players, the AI is challenging however I say that with caution as there’s probably pro az Madden players out there reading this who find the AI a push over, but to the regular gamer there’s plenty of sliders to find the right balance. But still no matter what the difficulty the AI seems to without fail always touchback if given the chance. Come on man grow some balls. As I said before the much loved insanely in-depth franchise mode makes a welcome return to form. We have all the regular features back which made it unrivalled in the first place. Hiring/ firing coaches. Terminating players contracts, re signing players, dipping into the free agent pool., dealing with players egos, Training players to become better. Building a stadium, or even relocating the franchise, its all here folks besides the cool media feature that we saw in 06, now that was cool.
Is a gridiron filed made up of four 20 yard segments or two 50 yard segments? One things that 50/50 for sure is the new weapons system that EA wouldn’t shut up about before release. **Just back to that segway Gaz, it was absolute $h!t** You will either love or loath the new weapons system. I personally dint mind it at all. Makes you think before and during the match what players to play to take advantage of your weapons and try and counter what he opposition has. These weapons are like little special powers that only talented players have. They appear as little gold rings beneath the players feet on the field with a little image in the middle to correspond with the weapon they have. You have your obvious weapons like brick wall defender, or speed/power runner. But then you have the more complex ones like smart QB and smart CB. So if you are one of those guys who just sticks to a few plays to get you through a game, you are going to be caught out son, as once the player with the smart CB weapon notices this, he will be able to read the play. Same applies for the QB, being able to read what the D is going to do. If that all didn’t make sense don’t worry as there are a tone of tutorials in the game and the loading screens break it all down on what each weapon can do. Also another feature that EA wouldn’t shut there gob about was the ring builder feature. A nice little add on and gives you something to play for in the long run. Its built with player profiles in mind, so you can show off and gloat about your bling to your mates and I believe it’s a nice replacement to the “Madden Cards” that we had a few years back. The Hit stick has received a good working over, and it now gives you the option of hitting low or high. This makes for great thinking on your toes. First you got to consider is your defender a good tackler, then you got to consider, the runner, is he big or small, what weapons does he have. All these decisions have to be made on the fly and adds a great dynamic to the game. By the way the hits are as Bada$$ as ever *insert Michael Vick joke here*
“Who wants it more…”
Man those Americans are lucky pricks. They get everything before anyone else. They have guns the size of islands, they have Regis Philbin and Richard Simmons, they have hot college girls and lag free games on EA’s sport titles. Although you cant really blame them can ya when you consider the NFL doesn’t have much fan fare outside of the U.S. But seriously man, would it hurt them to help us out down here in NZ and Aus or even Europe for that matter with the lag side of things. Its still playable but the slow reaction of it all makes it frustrating at times. As par with all Ea titles now, the online component features ESPN radio, to keep you up to date on everything sport. There’s also plenty of stats, and even lifetime stats which is a nice idea so you don’t have to earn your respect every year over and over again. But other then that, its ya standard affair really.
Tight ball game.
Overall there has never been a better time to make the jump into a next gen sports title. There’s no denying the high production values, and you do have to give it to EA for finally getting it right and creating a solid base for Madden to build on in the future. The jump from Madden 07 to 08 (next gen) is quite considerable, but that’s to be expected as EA only just brought stuff back from the past. So all makes for a interesting 09 now that all the key features have been brought back out of retirement. Welcome back Madden, its been a long time.
Is their any point in asking?
I’ll chop of my d!ck off if we don’t see a Madden 09, and there’s still plenty of hard yakka for EA to do if they really want to earn the respect of the Madden gamer.
It goes without saying that they need to fix the frames per second issue with the PS3 to prevent further embarrassment. I also believe they need to make a few tweaks to their graphic system, because while it does a solid job, it lacks a little x-factor. Perhaps work on the finer points. You know improve the weather effects, like rain bouncing of helmets and dripping down helmets, puddles splashing when running, only getting muddy where your body makes contact with the ground. Or maybe have shoulder pads falling out after a bit of rumble and tumble. Or go all out and make the first game to feature fully simulated muscle tensing. The crowd and bench shouldn’t go unnoticed either. Get rid of this synchronized crap and have realistic crowd numbers. It would also add to the atmosphere if the bench reacted to what happens on field. You know you could have the bench running on the sideline as you go for the run away, or help halt the momentum of a player as it comes into the bench area. Little things like this will add so much to the atmosphere. I know they have just got this new tech with the branching animations but from what I’ve seen, I believe EA should invest in the engine that the upcoming “Backbreaker” game will be using. This will allow for every tackle to be unique literally, sounds like a broken record but this ones for real. I wouldn’t mind the quick replay feature back either. And in terms of gameplay, well I’ll leave that up to EA themselves, as I’m not a huge NFL buff so I’m not to sure on what the game could be missing.
10 Years Ago This Month: Sony's sales pitch as the powerful system took a hit when EA had to explain why Madden 08 on PS3 was noticeably worse than the Xbox 360 version.
The cpu was hard to work for 3rd party, butt the cell was really powerfull and fast. It wasnt just pr or secret sauce. Uc2 and killzone 2 were amazing. But 3rd party want money. They also problems with the ram. Only first party was able to make huge jumps from first gen games to second gen. It was an expensive console but the tech was much more powefull at launch then this gen.
Wasn't this already established in 2006? Online Sony's first party studios took advantage of the cell.
" was PS3 hard to Develop for?"
Here we go again , they been saying this since mid 2006-2007ish . of course the CPU was hard to work with but the Cell was fast and powerful .
Next year Article : " was PS4 to Easy Develop for ?" slow day in office ?
P.S . over last few years N4G been Repeating same subject matter with Slightly different title, same old subject .
I would hate to be a writer busting my brain to come up with a New lie to draw readers interest end up repeating 2006 article again .
I would not say "hard" to develope... but it went against the norm and it also threatened a well established pc archetype of which many in the pc business was against. Not with ill intent, but to try and change the way digital hardware works... it is huge mountain to climb against a well established pc design.
A lot of third party studios kind of just did not try because they did not want to support the change.
It went beyond just gaming with the backlash of sonys cell design.
Sony has always tried to push innovation and sometimes they miss or go to far against the norm and fail. Like betamax vs VHS. Betamax was the superior hardware but they lost that battle as well.
It is why Microsoft created the competition. They were getting beat in so many ways and their monopoly was getting threatened by everyone. Apple, Google, etc etc. Microsoft had to fight back to try save their dwindling sales. Lose the hardware, you lose the os.
Luke looks at the most influential features of Madden on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Since the Xbox 360 launched in November 2005, followed by the Wii and Playstation 3 in the following year, pro football video games were launched into a new area as well. Ever since the first videos of Madden 06 on Xbox 360 were launched around E3 2005, expectations have been sky high for pro football games over the last 5 years. But did they really live up to them or did things go mind numbingly wrong?
" everything was unnecessarily complicated. Nobody liked anything besides the Tackle Alley feature and the animations. There was really no depth and whether there will be a Backbreaker 2 is up in the air"
There is a lot of people that love this game and yes there is some issues as with most games that are released these days, a patch has fixed some of the issues, as for a first release of a football game that EA has tried to block anybody from doing, this is not bad and yes Backbreaker 2 will be the great.Got go and play my season game.
