Madden is no longer a franchise worth supporting because EA has ceased to deliver an experience worth the price tag.
I am beginning to understand that the shining feature of the Xbox 360 is going to be the live functionality. For the record I did not test that function on Madden 07. Normally I play a co-op franchise with friends where we create a bunch of players, a play-book and all play on the same to team to try and reach the Superbowl year after year. This only became possible because years ago Madden introduced franchise mode. You could build a franchise from the ground up, make all the decisions and play all of the games. It was a huge leap forward in re-playability and depth in football games and I switched from the (at that time) 2K series and moved back into Madden.
While EA dropped functions and tweaked the franchise mode year after year, the playability remained the same. I could address the little changes one by one but for the sake of getting to the point I will say that as time went on and EA clipped the player options slowly causing the game to become less fun. Features or tricks you had last year would disapear bit by bit the next year. Why would a game designer want to limit the play experience of the gamer? Are we fighting with EA? I thought we were paying them for an entertainment experience. They should be expanding options instead of limiting them.
The last straw nearly came last year when they removed the players ability to use created play-books in a franchise. That coupled with the poor special teams blocking programs made Madden 2006 the weakest version since the Franchise mode was introduced. The co-op gameplay controls had not been fully tweaked for Madden 06 and would occasionally result in switching one player to the other team or the inability to snap the ball. Overall a disappointment but not an unplayable experience.
Finally we get back to the current edition. Beside the menu change, player creation has been changed from the old method of point distribution to a series of mini games that are supposedly designed to define your character's attributes. In theory this is a great idea. In execution it is a nightmare. The mini games are a one shot experience. Any mistake and that's it, you're character is going to be miserable in whatever category they are supposed to define (this is not known to the player). There are 3 of them for each character - the 40 yard dash, the bench press and the positional drill. With the notable exception of the Coverage drill (for safeties or cornerbacks) the mini games are serviceable. The problem is that when you are finished and your created character has earned a rating of 12 you'll have to abandon the character (are you sure?), name him, set his appearance again and do all of the drills again. There are no other choices. This execution of this idea is just broken. Why not give players a best of three on the drills, the ability to restart them, progression information or the option to do it the old way? Is EA mad at gamers for making superstars for their own enjoyment? Moronic.
There is no capability create plays whatsoever. No play creation at all. In any mode or any format. Why are we limiting the play experience on a next generation platform? Lazy.
Superstar mode offers a unique way to play through one players career from just their perspective. The player plays only one position that they choose at the beginning (through a very flavorless and apparently useless parent selection process.) The catch to this mode are the role playing elements (answering interview questions, demanding a trade etc.) and that the player plays ONLY ONE POSITION. If you are the running back you will only control the ball when the plays that the computer selects have the computer controlled quarterback giving you the ball. In preseason games you will only control any aspect of your team while you are in the game. That's maybe two or three series, four or five snaps. If you're a quarterback (unfortunately the best choice) you'll get all 12 snaps but might just be handing off for 6 of them. Then you get to watch the computer play itself for the rest of the game. The players move faster giving you the illusion of the computer controlled game moving in fast forward but the game clock runs at the same speed. This is just plain broken. You can switch the options to user controlled games but you still have no control over play calling and when your character is in the game will only see the game from his perspective. Again this is an intriguing idea that is simply broken in it's execution.
The last break that I will address in this already lengthy review is that EA has removed the option of co-operative play. This makes the game completely unacceptable to me because it is how my friends and I play it to begin with. EA has stripped this game of all the elements they have collected through the years that made it good, sometimes great and replaced them with half-baked ideas and sloppy, fractured execution. The menus are needlessly complex for what they ultimately deliver and the presentation is dull. When you score a touchdown during a game, the camera zooms up to a rendering of a stadium big screen with crappy graphics reading TOUCHDOWN! What? What is EA doing with the power of a system like the 360? Emulating crappy stadium graphics? This game is infuriatingly bad and does not deserve anyones hard earned cash.