LVradio
08-18-2007, 03:03 PM
Alright, so I've had a few days to play this game and I would have to say right off it is probably the most different Madden I have played. It seems to have its own unique feel to it and whoever I ask they always say the game is "different." However change always has its pros and cons and I'm going to break them down from my perspective.
First Thoughts:
*The showcase- It's kind of cool to have the showcase that is similar to the "My Shrine" in NCAA 08. However, what the hell is the purpose of the rings? I really don't feel that accomplished to have a floating ring in the middle of my main menu. Also, it doesn't seem customized like the past with a tiny team banner in the top of the showcase and two giant screens that plays one at a time a couple highlights of your favorite team. It kind of takes away from the personal feeling I got from when I fired up the game and had the Browns-themed menu instead of some bland dark blue/gray menu.
*Graphics- The graphics in the game don't seem to be as great as 07's. I'm happy they managed to fix the grass so it didn't deteriorate by halftime, but at the same time it seems that they compromised some of the detail that I enjoyed in 07 for the 60 fps. At times the field seems blurry and the players are hard to identify and the sidelines look bland as they always have. The player motions seem to really be improved so I am happy with that as finally the "Mario" running is gone and some of the lame animations where you're defensive end would dive 3 yards away from the quarterback and he would still sack him somehow. This is kind of a pro/con issue, because although the animations are very smooth, the actual imagery seems to lack some of the substance it had in 07.
Features:
Weapons- This new weapons system may be one of the most interesting innovations in a while...if you can call it that. It's cool to see who are the playmakers on the team and what advantage they have that makes them a unique and successful player in the league. However, the only real innovation it seems there is with the weapons is the smart players. The other weapons to be activated are just like the always have been (i.e. RT for the sprint burst for speed guys, LB for the finesse move, RB for the power move).
The smart weapon could be one of the nicest additions to Madden in a while, though. A lot of players come out in the same base defense over and over again or the offense runs the same 5 plays through the entire game. With this you are finally able to read and react to what's coming and force them to either switch up their play calling or they will get burned on a consistent basis. I remember reading about how most of the top Madden ballers run the same base defense and then playmaker their defenders to where they want them to go. Well this tool could force them to actually switch it up or else even the lesser players will become threats to shred their once-dominating defenses.
Suggestion to improve this area: Although the smart weapon is a great tool, it's only a real factor when you are playing against a team with this weapon. So, if you don't have that weapon, then that opponent can still call the same play over and over with no consequence if it is a so-called "money play" and you can't do much about it. My suggestion is that since the light bulb fills the smart players everytime the player calls a play multiple times, why not have either a team bulb or have every QB or defense have a light bulb so they are able to read plays and make it consequental to run the same play constantly. However, it wouldn't be an equal playing field, the amount of time it takes for the bulb to be filled would be different, based on your QB's or defense's average awareness rating.
So, for example, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning it would only take 4 or 5 times in order to be able to read the play, where it would take someone like Phillip Rivers or Alex Smith 7 times to read the play and then rookies like JaMarcus Russell or Brady Quinn 10 times to read the play. This way it still rewards those with high awareness to read the play more often and gives them a weapon advantage but keeps it level so that the weapon is useless if you aren't using a superstar QB or defensive player.
Gameplay- The gameplay in this 08 is the most unique I have ever seen, however the unique style has its drawbacks along with its advantages.
Pros-
*Defensive hot route- This was one of my favorite features on past gen Madden and I'm am elated it is back in the game. In 07 it frustrated me to no end that the offense could easily adjust to your defense where all you could do was move your players and hope they took coverage (most of the time they didn't). By bringing this back, it evens the playing field a bit so the defensive team can adjust just as easily and it really cuts down on the ridiculous ease of the deep bomb and corner routes like years past. I kind of wish I could use the analog stick so I could make the changes a lot quicker, but it's not that big of a deal.
*Stupidity has its price- When I chose the title of this as a pro, I had to choose it carefully (you'll see why shortly). I love how you can't be an idiot and throw it into triple coverage as you are getting hit and expect the ball to be a perfect pass to your receiver. It's most likely going to go nowhere near that player and either picked off or knocked down. I've always been frustrated by people being complete idiots and doing things like that and getting rewarded for it by some garbage receiver making a godly catch over a shutdown corner. It really makes me happy to finally be able to make people think about what they are going to do instead of expecting the same thing to happen like it used to be on past gen and the first two next gen Maddens.
*The 3-4 defense actually works- This is music to my ears that the 3-4 defense is actually effective in this years Madden. In the past even if your personnel was set for a 3-4 defense, you were forced to use a 3-3-5, 4-6 or 4-3 because using the 3-4 was just asking to be passed over and run over. The pass rush is fantastic with the 3-4 if you have good OLBs and runs up the middle can be stopped to minimal gain, contrary to the past. Although runs to the outside are quite effective against a normal 3-4 defense, if you run it enough the Linebackers will shut it down as the game progresses, so you better switch up your gameplan.
Cons-
*Fumbles- The fumble count is ridiculously high in this game. I have not had a game with less than 3 fumbles yet and the people that fumble are usually people that never would or rarely would in real life. I would understand if it occurred in games with sloppy conditions, but it also happens in the perfect sunny and 70º weather games that are online. The cover ball option is ineffective in this game which is a huge advantage to elusive backs, because if a power back fumbles as often as a scat back, then the back with the better speed is the one that can get down the field and avoid the crazy men trying to strip the ball. The fumbles really bother me, because it takes away some of the control of the game that the user has and makes people rely on luck a little more than strategy when the ball squirts out of the carrier's hands 5 times a game.
*Injuries- Injuries are unbelievably overkilled. I have not had a single game so far where Jamal Lewis has not been injured and it's always on the first drive. I would understand if he got hurt once in a while, but every single game I can count on him getting hurt and it completely kills my playcalling. It's not just him though, there's at least 4 injuries on my team every game and the vast majority of them are starters and playmakers on the team. When was the last time a star QB, RB, LB and CB got injured for the same team in the same game? Probably never. However, I have begun to realize that the player with the lower rated team gets the injuries. It does not seem to make much sense at all if just because their team rating is lower that they get injured but it seems to happen more often than not. I think it's good that there are injuries in the game because it adds to the strategy, but not to this extreme.
*User control is lost- User control is one of the things that seperates the decent players from the great ones. However, with the emphasis on ratings being the determinant of the animations, it has become almost worthless. This at first did not seem like a big deal when I first got to playing but the more I've played the bigger an issue it is. I've played TerrorBlaze a few times so far, and he's always been on of the best Madden players I've known. He's always been able to use the Raiders and be successful with them no matter how sucky the were because of his user skills. However, the ratings have effected the game so much that he's getting dominated by scrub players that use highly ranked teams.
This issue is probably the biggest one for me because it's a game killer for people that are fans of cruddy rated teams. If you use them, you cannot make a single mistake or expect to lose by two touchdowns. The receivers are very unresponsive in this game; you have to hit Y for the user catch about 3 seconds before you intend to catch it or your receiver is going to stand and watch the ball go over his head and get intercepted. Also the AI on the higher rated players completely supercedes any user skills that a person using a lower rated team may have.
For example, I played a guy online that bombed to Moss on every play. I would highlight Moss so I could get double coverage on him as he lobbed it into the end zone for him to catch. I get into perfect position and am underneath the ball and time the jump perfectly, yet the computer controlled Moss comes down with it, in double coverage even though I'm in a perfect position to swat it down.
That is not an uncommon case though, the game seems completely out of your control when you use a lower rated team, I've played about 10 games where the opponent never took control of their defenders or linebackers yet still managed to come down with the catch, fumble or interception when I'm in the perfect position to do the same. There seems to be no reward for user control, the timing of it is off and unless you have the ratings advantage, even if it is User vs. CPU, the CPU almost always wins, taking the control of the game completely away from you. To me this makes me want to return the game, because it makes me feel like no matter how much skill I have, or how crappy my opponent is, I still have to use a team such as the Broncos, Colts or Patriots to have any chance of winning.
*Prompts are hard to read- Some of the littlest things make a huge difference, and this is one of them. From the coin toss you can barely tell who won the toss unless you read the print that's almost blended into the screen at the bottom saying who's choosing what. Even worse is that the timeouts and challenge list is hidden on your play calling screen in the top left corner and took me 3 days to find. I also had to tell about 5 people where it was or else they never would have known it was there and were having to keep track of their timeouts by writing them down. It affected the strategy of the game too, because I had to run a hurry up thinking I was out of timeouts when I still had one.
You also can't see your opponents, so at the end of a game, instead of kneeling, I ran the ball thinking he had a timeout, and fumbled it and he got it back (luckily I was winning and I tackled him instantly), but still it's something that would never be an issue in a real game and is ridiculous.
Other things:
*Live opponent- Where is it? I don't get why they would take out a feature after one year of experimenting it, and it was a tool I used a lot. It's ridiculous that I had to search for 5 hours to realize there was a way to use custom rosters online, and even still then it feels like I'm playing friggin APF, not Madden.
*EA Trax- Worst soundtrack ever, I understand they are trying to reach all demographics, but I mean, I'd think they'd put a little more consideration to put good songs into their top selling game, but I guess I'm asking for too much. All it's missing is "Ay Bay Bay" and I'd probably snap my disc in half...thank god for Sam Spence and the NFL Films tracks.
There is so much more I want to cover but I don't have time right now, so look for part two covering online and franchise and such sometime in the next day or so. Thank you for reading it.
First Thoughts:
*The showcase- It's kind of cool to have the showcase that is similar to the "My Shrine" in NCAA 08. However, what the hell is the purpose of the rings? I really don't feel that accomplished to have a floating ring in the middle of my main menu. Also, it doesn't seem customized like the past with a tiny team banner in the top of the showcase and two giant screens that plays one at a time a couple highlights of your favorite team. It kind of takes away from the personal feeling I got from when I fired up the game and had the Browns-themed menu instead of some bland dark blue/gray menu.
*Graphics- The graphics in the game don't seem to be as great as 07's. I'm happy they managed to fix the grass so it didn't deteriorate by halftime, but at the same time it seems that they compromised some of the detail that I enjoyed in 07 for the 60 fps. At times the field seems blurry and the players are hard to identify and the sidelines look bland as they always have. The player motions seem to really be improved so I am happy with that as finally the "Mario" running is gone and some of the lame animations where you're defensive end would dive 3 yards away from the quarterback and he would still sack him somehow. This is kind of a pro/con issue, because although the animations are very smooth, the actual imagery seems to lack some of the substance it had in 07.
Features:
Weapons- This new weapons system may be one of the most interesting innovations in a while...if you can call it that. It's cool to see who are the playmakers on the team and what advantage they have that makes them a unique and successful player in the league. However, the only real innovation it seems there is with the weapons is the smart players. The other weapons to be activated are just like the always have been (i.e. RT for the sprint burst for speed guys, LB for the finesse move, RB for the power move).
The smart weapon could be one of the nicest additions to Madden in a while, though. A lot of players come out in the same base defense over and over again or the offense runs the same 5 plays through the entire game. With this you are finally able to read and react to what's coming and force them to either switch up their play calling or they will get burned on a consistent basis. I remember reading about how most of the top Madden ballers run the same base defense and then playmaker their defenders to where they want them to go. Well this tool could force them to actually switch it up or else even the lesser players will become threats to shred their once-dominating defenses.
Suggestion to improve this area: Although the smart weapon is a great tool, it's only a real factor when you are playing against a team with this weapon. So, if you don't have that weapon, then that opponent can still call the same play over and over with no consequence if it is a so-called "money play" and you can't do much about it. My suggestion is that since the light bulb fills the smart players everytime the player calls a play multiple times, why not have either a team bulb or have every QB or defense have a light bulb so they are able to read plays and make it consequental to run the same play constantly. However, it wouldn't be an equal playing field, the amount of time it takes for the bulb to be filled would be different, based on your QB's or defense's average awareness rating.
So, for example, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning it would only take 4 or 5 times in order to be able to read the play, where it would take someone like Phillip Rivers or Alex Smith 7 times to read the play and then rookies like JaMarcus Russell or Brady Quinn 10 times to read the play. This way it still rewards those with high awareness to read the play more often and gives them a weapon advantage but keeps it level so that the weapon is useless if you aren't using a superstar QB or defensive player.
Gameplay- The gameplay in this 08 is the most unique I have ever seen, however the unique style has its drawbacks along with its advantages.
Pros-
*Defensive hot route- This was one of my favorite features on past gen Madden and I'm am elated it is back in the game. In 07 it frustrated me to no end that the offense could easily adjust to your defense where all you could do was move your players and hope they took coverage (most of the time they didn't). By bringing this back, it evens the playing field a bit so the defensive team can adjust just as easily and it really cuts down on the ridiculous ease of the deep bomb and corner routes like years past. I kind of wish I could use the analog stick so I could make the changes a lot quicker, but it's not that big of a deal.
*Stupidity has its price- When I chose the title of this as a pro, I had to choose it carefully (you'll see why shortly). I love how you can't be an idiot and throw it into triple coverage as you are getting hit and expect the ball to be a perfect pass to your receiver. It's most likely going to go nowhere near that player and either picked off or knocked down. I've always been frustrated by people being complete idiots and doing things like that and getting rewarded for it by some garbage receiver making a godly catch over a shutdown corner. It really makes me happy to finally be able to make people think about what they are going to do instead of expecting the same thing to happen like it used to be on past gen and the first two next gen Maddens.
*The 3-4 defense actually works- This is music to my ears that the 3-4 defense is actually effective in this years Madden. In the past even if your personnel was set for a 3-4 defense, you were forced to use a 3-3-5, 4-6 or 4-3 because using the 3-4 was just asking to be passed over and run over. The pass rush is fantastic with the 3-4 if you have good OLBs and runs up the middle can be stopped to minimal gain, contrary to the past. Although runs to the outside are quite effective against a normal 3-4 defense, if you run it enough the Linebackers will shut it down as the game progresses, so you better switch up your gameplan.
Cons-
*Fumbles- The fumble count is ridiculously high in this game. I have not had a game with less than 3 fumbles yet and the people that fumble are usually people that never would or rarely would in real life. I would understand if it occurred in games with sloppy conditions, but it also happens in the perfect sunny and 70º weather games that are online. The cover ball option is ineffective in this game which is a huge advantage to elusive backs, because if a power back fumbles as often as a scat back, then the back with the better speed is the one that can get down the field and avoid the crazy men trying to strip the ball. The fumbles really bother me, because it takes away some of the control of the game that the user has and makes people rely on luck a little more than strategy when the ball squirts out of the carrier's hands 5 times a game.
*Injuries- Injuries are unbelievably overkilled. I have not had a single game so far where Jamal Lewis has not been injured and it's always on the first drive. I would understand if he got hurt once in a while, but every single game I can count on him getting hurt and it completely kills my playcalling. It's not just him though, there's at least 4 injuries on my team every game and the vast majority of them are starters and playmakers on the team. When was the last time a star QB, RB, LB and CB got injured for the same team in the same game? Probably never. However, I have begun to realize that the player with the lower rated team gets the injuries. It does not seem to make much sense at all if just because their team rating is lower that they get injured but it seems to happen more often than not. I think it's good that there are injuries in the game because it adds to the strategy, but not to this extreme.
*User control is lost- User control is one of the things that seperates the decent players from the great ones. However, with the emphasis on ratings being the determinant of the animations, it has become almost worthless. This at first did not seem like a big deal when I first got to playing but the more I've played the bigger an issue it is. I've played TerrorBlaze a few times so far, and he's always been on of the best Madden players I've known. He's always been able to use the Raiders and be successful with them no matter how sucky the were because of his user skills. However, the ratings have effected the game so much that he's getting dominated by scrub players that use highly ranked teams.
This issue is probably the biggest one for me because it's a game killer for people that are fans of cruddy rated teams. If you use them, you cannot make a single mistake or expect to lose by two touchdowns. The receivers are very unresponsive in this game; you have to hit Y for the user catch about 3 seconds before you intend to catch it or your receiver is going to stand and watch the ball go over his head and get intercepted. Also the AI on the higher rated players completely supercedes any user skills that a person using a lower rated team may have.
For example, I played a guy online that bombed to Moss on every play. I would highlight Moss so I could get double coverage on him as he lobbed it into the end zone for him to catch. I get into perfect position and am underneath the ball and time the jump perfectly, yet the computer controlled Moss comes down with it, in double coverage even though I'm in a perfect position to swat it down.
That is not an uncommon case though, the game seems completely out of your control when you use a lower rated team, I've played about 10 games where the opponent never took control of their defenders or linebackers yet still managed to come down with the catch, fumble or interception when I'm in the perfect position to do the same. There seems to be no reward for user control, the timing of it is off and unless you have the ratings advantage, even if it is User vs. CPU, the CPU almost always wins, taking the control of the game completely away from you. To me this makes me want to return the game, because it makes me feel like no matter how much skill I have, or how crappy my opponent is, I still have to use a team such as the Broncos, Colts or Patriots to have any chance of winning.
*Prompts are hard to read- Some of the littlest things make a huge difference, and this is one of them. From the coin toss you can barely tell who won the toss unless you read the print that's almost blended into the screen at the bottom saying who's choosing what. Even worse is that the timeouts and challenge list is hidden on your play calling screen in the top left corner and took me 3 days to find. I also had to tell about 5 people where it was or else they never would have known it was there and were having to keep track of their timeouts by writing them down. It affected the strategy of the game too, because I had to run a hurry up thinking I was out of timeouts when I still had one.
You also can't see your opponents, so at the end of a game, instead of kneeling, I ran the ball thinking he had a timeout, and fumbled it and he got it back (luckily I was winning and I tackled him instantly), but still it's something that would never be an issue in a real game and is ridiculous.
Other things:
*Live opponent- Where is it? I don't get why they would take out a feature after one year of experimenting it, and it was a tool I used a lot. It's ridiculous that I had to search for 5 hours to realize there was a way to use custom rosters online, and even still then it feels like I'm playing friggin APF, not Madden.
*EA Trax- Worst soundtrack ever, I understand they are trying to reach all demographics, but I mean, I'd think they'd put a little more consideration to put good songs into their top selling game, but I guess I'm asking for too much. All it's missing is "Ay Bay Bay" and I'd probably snap my disc in half...thank god for Sam Spence and the NFL Films tracks.
There is so much more I want to cover but I don't have time right now, so look for part two covering online and franchise and such sometime in the next day or so. Thank you for reading it.