Madden NFL 08

"The first Madden of the generation worthy of being called Next-Gen"

Since the release of the first "Next-Gen" Madden back in November of 2005 with the release of the Xbox 360, the games have been nothing short of disappointing. Sure, there was a rebuilt engine for the game, but would that necessarily make it better? The previous generation's games had been littered with new additions that seemed only gimmicky and really changed nothing with the gameplay. You'd think that a change to the next generation would fix that... but no. Features from the previous games were missing; you couldn't edit rosters, franchises were littered with glitches galore, stats weren't kept properly, and the gameplay felt stiff and repetitive.

That finally changed with Madden 08, or for the most part at least. The number one improvement from the previous games is the new branching animation system. No longer are players stuck into an animation when they're breaking a tackle or going up to catch the ball. Thanks to a bunch of new animations the game feels much more realistic. The days of "I've got to wait to try and tackle him because he's already breaking one" are over. You can actually go in for the tackle and the animation will change to reflect that, rather than your player just bouncing off like in the old games.

Another change to gameplay is the addition of "weapons". Weapons basically signify that certain players have abilities much better than others in certain parts. Example, a QB may have a "Cannon Arm" weapon, signified by a ball with flames on it, which means that he's obviously got a really strong arm. A linebacker might have a "Big Hitter" weapon signified by a hammer, meaning that they're among the hardest hitters on the field and are more likely to force a fumble. A lot of them are somewhat pointless, but a few of them can have some big effects on the game. The ones I specifically am talking about are all of the "Smart (position)" ones. When a player has one of these his weapon icon will appear empty at the start of the game. As the game goes on and more plays are called it will fill up, and when it gets full they can use the ability with the icon to see the opponents play call prior to the snap. If a quarterback has this he will be able to see the coverage and rush of the entire defense before the play. If a linebacker uses it he will be able to see everything between the tackles, a cornerback will be able to see the routes of the receivers, and a safety will be able to see the entire play. This could obviously impact a game when it gets near the end and you are in need of a big play.

One massive improvement to the game this season is in the graphics department. The past few seasons has been plagued with players looking more juiced up than Bill Romanowski. The players actually look real this time. The blimps on the offensive line like Leonard Davis actually look like linemen. Not all receivers look like Terrell Owens now, and no longer can you not know who is who when looking at Jeff Garcia and Jared Lorenzen. Along with the graphical improvements are all of the updates to attire customization. There are more parts than ever in Madden 08. More facemasks, more arm/wrist bands, more gloves, name it and there's probably more. Along with this is the inclusion of alternate uniforms this time around. In Madden 07 teams had their default uniforms and that's it. A throwback for each team was put up on the Xbox Live Marketplace after a while, but there weren't alternates which is annoying when some teams basically wear their alternates as much as their official home uniforms. The stadiums are all highly detailed and finally the grass/turf doesn't look like carpet when your team is playing on it.

A few new additions that are incredibly important are the features from previous versions finally being in the game. In the last two instances of Madden there was no owner mode, create a team, or editing of players. Owner mode is basically the inclusion of finance management in a franchise. With this you can relocate your team if you're not making any money in your current location and create a new stadium, uniforms, and everything, all the way down to the fan zone behind the end zones. The most important though is the ability to edit players again. In the past few years it's been that you were stuck with the rosters, sure you could trade players around and stuff but you couldn't edit their ratings to reflect how they had been doing on the season. Nor could you edit their attire and number. Now you can actually get the game customized, rather than having it be EAs way or the highway as it's been for the last two years.

A few other new features are the new ring system rather than the gamer level from last year. As your level increases this year you get "better rings" so to speak. These can actually be purchased via Jostens if you really want. So if you want to show off your Madden prowess you can get a ring to show it to the world. Former NFL player Marshall Faulk also does predictions prior to the games now. While the lines are repetitive and get old after about the 3rd time you see it, it's still an alright feature, even if it's a poor first step with it.

The online is the same as ever. No real changes this year. Ranked games are still 5 minutes long on All-Pro difficulty. There is still no option for leagues or tournaments. The main improvement has been that roster updates have been much more frequent, but really it's impossible to have them almost as rare as last year's atrocious showing with that. There is still an occasional problem with lag during kickoffs and field goals, which is obviously the worst time for it, but for the most part the games are silky smooth.

The franchise mode of Madden 08 is both amazing and depressing at the same time. One of the biggest changes from last year is the scouting feature. At the beginning of the season you can choose players to scout throughout it so that you know who you're looking at getting before the NFL draft. The main reason I say its depressing is because statistics in it are still incredibly unrealistic and highly glitchy. The main problem with this is interceptions. In each game that is simmed any player that gets an interception will have it recorded as two. So when a player picks off 3 passes in a game that is simmed it will show up as 6, meaning that interception stats go off the charts. Stats are also ridiculously slanted towards the offense. It will be rare for you to find a season where there is a QB who doesn't have a QB rating over 80. Running backs also seem to be all super powered because it's very frequent to find them averaging over 100 yards per game which really should only happen to the elite backs. This affects the progression of players in the game, because by the time you're about 10 years into a franchise most of the best defensive players will be rated in the high to mid 80s overall, while offense will be off the charts. This ruins some of the fun of it because games all eventually become shootouts rather than defensive or balanced battles.

The sound... leaves something to be desired. The soundtrack to the game is average. It features a lot of popular acts (Ozzy Osbourne, Yellowcard, Sum 41, and Queens of the Stone Age to name a few) but many tracks just don't feel like tunes you would want in a football game. Very few actually get you in the mood to go out and play a game. Another huge problem is that the commentary is unchanged again. Meaning that for the third straight year of a "Next-Gen" game we're stuck with the EA Sports radio announcer guy on commentary rather than John Madden and Al Michaels. This would be fine if the announcer didn't stink. All of the announcing is slanted in the players favor because it's supposed to be a local guy, which would be fine if it weren't incredibly repetitive and bland. There's no substance or interaction at all. Just the scores, the down, and that's about it. No commentary on certain players, no input of lining up in certain formations... just bland stuff you could have a friend next to you call as you play.

The gameplay is for the most part unchanged from last year aside from the branching animations. The game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second. The defensive AI still leaves quite a bit of room to be desired, and there is a tendency to be way too many interceptions for each team, but this can be fixed with the sliders within the game. The notorious comeback AI is still there in some forms, where a team will just become unstoppable no matter what you do. Turnovers are rampant in the game unless you tinker with the AI sliders, so if you don't do that expect to be having your offense racking up the tackles with the overdose of fumbles and interceptions.

While the game is a major improvement to the franchise, it's still nowhere near what it could be. True the game is light years ahead of Madden 07 and 06, but some older football games (Going back to even the NES) made those look embarrassing. It's a great effort, and is definitely the most that EA has put into a game since 2005, but it still doesn't make it a great game. Hopefully 2K sports has another game out next year to push Madden further and make this franchise truly worthy of being the king of the virtual football world.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/19/07

Game Release: Madden NFL 08 (US, 08/14/07)