Madden NFL 08

"A Touchdown! I know, that is the best I can come up with though."

Madden NFL 2008 for the Xbox 360 marks the first time that I ventured into the new era of next generation gridiron game play. Man, was it worth the wait because Madden 2008, is one of the best football games ever made, period. It is a very good simulation of hardcore football and belongs in every football fans collection. Madden is so good this year that it will silence some of its critics.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are absolutely the best I have ever seen for a football game. The player models are all very well done. Each player in the game looks like the actual player, and for me that was a pleasant surprise. The biggest surprise though for me, was that the head coaches on the sidelines actually also look true to form. I played a game against the Bengals and was treated to a furious Marvin Lewis screaming at the referees. It looked so very real, and his face moved with a scary realism.

The animations in this game are very fluid and run at a high speed. There is however, some lag in the frame rate when there is a close up shot of a player, and then a bunch of players run by him. This is the only time that the frame rate suffers any problems and is not really a hindrence. This only occurs maybe once or twice a game at most. The animations that are present in the game are part of a branching animation system. This system allows for the animations to not become static, and have a real dynamic effect. You can even shove a player into an oncoming player and watch with glee as his head snaps back, as he gets hit like a truck.

SOUND

The music in this version of Madden is decent. There is a decent mixture of rock and rap tunes in this version, that previous versions of Madden did not have. There is really no annoying songs on the soundtrack, and they did a really good job after last years disaster of a sound track.

The commentary for the game is done by a single guy, and done in the way of a radio broadcast. This is actually a nice change of pace for me, because the last few years while playing the Playstation 2 versions of Madden, I noticed that he had nothing new to say. I found this to be refreshing this year, and hopefully they can get Madden in there and do some new voice over work for next years installment. Marshall Faulk is also in this game and predicts the scores at the beginning and other things. The only sound bites of John Madden are in the ask Madden section. This area of the game still feels familiar with the old versions and is still very well done.

The sound effects for this game are very good as well. You will hear the cracks of helmets hitting other helmets, and the grunts and groans of the players as they struggle for position. The players even talk on the field, and you can even hear them say stuff such as; "Where was that going?". This all helps immerse yourself into the game that much more and get lost in the experience of playing football for countless hours.

CONTROLS

The controls in this game were a little hard to learn I must say. I have played the Playstation 2 version of this game for around the last six years, and I had to teach myself the new buttons to press. However, this process is not that long, and it is easy to learn the controls. They are the typical Madden controls that we have all come to know and love. Everything is mapped out on the Xbox 360's controller beautifully, and everything just feel like it should be where it is.

The controls are also very responsive except for a few area. In the kicking game the controls have a habit of not registering the kick. This leads to you messing up the kick and kicking a lame duck. This has already led to a loss for me, and this problem is even more annoying if you are playing on the All-Madden difficulty setting. The other area is the hit stick. The hit stick is very unresponsive, and while being a good feature to hit high and low, the game does not register this sometimes. I have hit players low when I wanted to hit them high, and high when I wanted to hit low. It also sort of goes slow. The thing finally responds when you do not want it to respond. This leads to you player falling to the ground for no apparent reason. Otherwise, the controls respond very well in all areas of the game.

GAME PLAY

This is where the meat and potatoes of the game is and this is the best part of the game. Firstly, in Franchise mode you can fantasy draft players. This is a huge bonus and one of the many factors that led me to buy this version, whereas, the older versions on the 360 did not have this mode. However, this is not all, you get the option of also fantasy drafting hall of fame players onto to your roster. This is the best because it finally allows me to un-retire Barry Sanders and have him start out his career again. They begin playing at the age of 25 in the game. There are over 150 hall of famers in the game, and it is funny just to play as the old timers again.

The game also allows you to move your team. This is nothing new to the Madden series, however, it is dramatically better in this game. You must make the proposed deal to the city that you choose to move to actually work. It is fully detailed, and allows you to play a business simulator in the same game with your football. You can turn on or off the salary cap, which in my opinion, is a good move. We as gamers should be given the option to turn that stuff on or off, which allows for a fully customizable experience while you play your game.

The on field game play is all the same. Picking plays is done easily and fast and the computer A.I. is just freaking insane. They will adjust to patterns of play calling, and call a play to counter attack that tendency. You also have a new system for the players called the weapons system. The weapons system allows for you to match up your lock down corner to the play makers on the other side of the ball. This system is highly developed and is tuned in. You have tons of different weapons for each position on the field, and allows the great players to be great, while the mediocre players are just that mediocre.
The only part of the on field game play is that there are a few to many turn overs in the game. In one game the sure handed Barry Sanders fumbled three times! There are a lot of fumbles in this game and can be aggravating. That will be how you feel as you are nearing the goal line only to see Barry Sanders fumble and lose the fumble to the opposite team.

BUY/RENT

This game is a must buy for any football fan. This game has great graphics and is a step in the right direction for the franchise in the next generation arena.

THE RUNDOWN- fumble here, fumble there, fumble to, fumble fro, fumbles yo!

GRAPHICS 8/10 Are so sweet they should be illegal!
SOUND 8/10 Radio announcers are so 1930's.
CONTROLS 7/10 Kicking a lame duck that was supposed to be a 39 yard FG.
GAME PLAY 8/10 The players must be allergic to the ball, they fumble so much.
BUY/RENT; BUY

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/07