Finally! A good Madden game! Is it perfect? No. But its fun and plays much smoother. The best Madden on PS3 to date.
Presentation: A major overhaul in this game. The creators went for a more realistic TV presentation in this years version. No longer do you see the fans outside before a game but instead the game starts at the player introductions. All 32 teams have thier authentic pre game entrances, Philadelphia's Swoop, Baltimore's Poe and many other mascots come out of the tunnel with the team. The camer has a shakey feel to emulate the camera man running alongside the team and cheerleaders also make an appearance in this game. Now, one problem is the fram rate, there is a slight stutter or lag between camera transitions during the intros. There is also a problem with the Announcer announcing the players. For instance, Steelers fan may be mad when they hear the announcer say " Fans, welcome your starting wide reciever, and your starting quarterback) Instead of actually saying Ben Rothelisberger and Hines Ward. The funny thing is that these two players are very well known yet lesser stars on other teams are announced fine. The Steelers are not the only team to have this happen, I have seen it about 3 times.
Commentary: Awful! Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth DO NOT make a good commentary team. Cris Collinsworth babbles on for a time limit that can span 2-3 plays, not to mention most of his lines are from the last 3 games with very few added lines. Gus Johnson tries too ahrd to sound intense and exciting. It gets annoying. Some of the lines he says tries to be original but just sound stupid like "he's got run away from the cops speed!" Sometimes the commentary makes no sense. I played as the Eagles against the Colts and Peyton Manning connected with Reggie Wayne for a 30 yard touchdown pass. Collinsworth than started to comment how REGGIE WAYNE has great am strength and can make that throw. Seriously, this commentary is horrible in this game, I turn the sound down and play music, and it shouldnt be that way. You hear the same few lines every game, there is no variety to help keep the commentary fresh or let it survive passed 3 games. As for music, for the most part I hate alot of it but Rise Against, Foo Fighters and the Beastie Boys make thier way into this game and I liek thier songs, also Chiddy Bang is in the game and being from Philly and being a big fan its great to see him get more exposure.
Gameplay: Much better than previous versions. This is due to the lack of sliding and morphing to make tackles. Consecutive and double tackles make the gameplay much better as well. For the most part every tackle looks good and they actually have to make contact to trigger the animation. The running game feels very smooth in this game and the blocking seems good, although sweeps and tosses rarely work. Playaction is as worthless as ever, often getting you sacked because the handoff animation does not end until its too late. The gameplay is much more solid in this game and you would have to actually play it to see how much smoother it feels.
Superstar: Sucks as always. What a dissapointment. No interviews, movie roles etc ( that were in the PS2/Xbox games), no climbing the depth chart, and limited customization keep this mode from being great. You can import an NCAA campus legend and resume his career in the NFL like always or you can make a new player from scratch. One problem I noticed is that I made a new player on Madden to take into superstar mode and I got drafted 1st round as a quarterback, but my NCAA campus legend, who I won the Heisman with and won 2 BCS Bowl games with, got drafted by the Redskins in the 3rd round and I had an 80 overall to start off. Being a diehard Eagles fan, I was dissapointed to an extent that I was drafted by Washington but in a way I was happy because my player wouldnt be starting over Phillip Rivers, Mike Vick or any pro bowl caliber Quarterback. This is the sole reason why this mode is garbage. A rookie with a 80 overall or lower should not start over any player with a higher overall, especially if that player is an elite player at that position. You should have to earn your starting job. As for player progression, you earn XP points to improve your player's attributes. This liek in NCAA is too generous and you could easily make your guy great within a few weeks in the season. You now have the option to demand a trade to ANY team you want as well as go undrafted and sign anywhere you want too. I can see that some people would want to play for thier favorite team but I enjoy the uncertainty of which team I will be playing for or getting traded to. All in all this mode is a huge dissapointment.
Franchise: Some major improvements involve rookie scouting, cut days, realistic injured reserve. realtime free agent bidding, and a reason to play preseason games. Your rookies' ratings are unknown when you first start off, but the more you play them. the more thier ratings and potential unlock, helping you decide who to cut and who to keep. This is fun and I actually had trouble letting go of players that I wanted because I had to get the roster trimmed down before the deadline. These actually feel liek tough decisions. Dynamic Player Performance makes its way into this game and it adds to the realness of a football game. Players have confidence and consistancy, as that player performs this can change. Throw 3 interceptions with Eli Manning and he will lose confidence. Sack Sam Bradford a few times and he will get trigger happy or get happy feet in the pocket. Player roles make thier way back to this game as well, such roles as offensive/defensive playmakers, future stars, clutch, fumble prone, injury prone etc all help add character to each player. Franchise mode is my favorite part of this game and it seems to never getold to me, and if you want you cant change teams in the offseason.
Madden Ultimate Team: This mode was never appealing to me. You get a pack of cards, each pack has players. The players you get in the pack are yours to play as for a certain ammount of games. As you play with your team you earn coins. You use these coins to buy more packs, some more expensive than others. The more expensive packs have better players but they take forever to earn enough coins to get. I believe they are so expensive to encourage you to actually use real money to buy coins to improve your team. I didnt like this mode in the last 2 games, I still dont like it.
Online: There are now online communities. You can join one or start one and set your rules and decide who can join it. This is cool because Madden online is only fun when you play someone who doesnt cheat or cheese. This allows you to add only the people you trust taht will play fair and reasonably. As for just quick ranked matches, prepare to play the Eagles ALOT due to the fact that people play with the sole purpose of exploiting Mike Vick. It feels like Madden 04 all over again. So basically online is as fun as the people you play allow it to be. There is also the online franchise and team play games but I never really play them so I dont feel I can give a decent review of them.
All in all this is the best Madden on the current gen. It has depth, enough gameplay improvements and definatley has taken a step in the right direction. Is it ironic that Ian Cummings wasnt there to make this game this year?