From improved running control to the same ol' game ruining AI - its high highs and low lows leave it feeling average.
The Good: The game is simply stunning. The graphical detail resonates EA’s passion to produce an aesthetically appealing and true-to-form game. The added control over players is also wonderful and adds more fluidity. Ultimately, the gameplay feels more realistic than ever.
The Bad: Although more fluid, the game still feels like shifting from one animation to another. Some of the “fixes” are hardly fixed. There are still too many frustrating passes to running backs in the flats that ends up going out of bounds. Although some exaggerate the prevalence of the problem, fumbles occur more frequently than they should when compared to the NFL. Finally, the game certainly seems to have a “catch up system” when you’re leading the cpu by more than 14 points, especially in the fourth quarter.
Graphics – This part of the review is simple. The game is a work of art. EA has detail down to pigment, hairdos, tattoos, stadium intracies, shiny helmets, and authentic looking grass. I have had people think a real game was on while I’ve been playing. Madden 2008 looks better than some real broadcasts I watch. EA – thank you (tear…).
Audio – First, the music offers a good variety of artists and genres. Personally, I am more into rock and found this year’s selection to be sparse. Nonetheless, you can play your own music through the 360 and no one is buying Madden for the music anyway. They did a fine job of including lots if different flavors of music.
The meat of the audio for EA revolves around the in-game action. EA did a wonderful job of matching quarterbacks with similarly sounding voices. You can really tell the difference between Peyton Manning and Brett Favre. Unfortunately, that’s where the good part of the audio ends. First of all, with a name like “Madden”, you’d expect him to make more of an appearance than the “ask madden feature” which are the same recordings from several years ago (some at least as old as Madden 2004, maybe older). The radio announcer has a decent variety in comments, but feels uninspired. He is supposedly a “home” announcer. Of course, it would have been easy for EA to go over the top and have the announcer simply degrade the opposition and sing the praises for the home team, but that’s unrealistic. Still, he’s too bland. Also, he is wildly mistaken on yards gained. I have gained 8 yards to hear him say “gain of 3 on the play.” What?! That just feels sloppy. Gameplay:
Offense: EA promised to give more controller to the player this year in the running game. They certainly delivered what they promised. I feel like I can cut back more naturally now and I’m not weighted down completely by an animation. When carrying the ball, players are more likely to respond to your controls more than ever before. They will even push the lineman forward if needed.
The next step for EA will be to take care of the blocking mechanics. Let’s be honest, football is won in the trenches. Peyton Manning would be pretty worthless if he had an awful offensive line that provided only 1.5 seconds for him to pass regularly. I want to stay objective here, but it is hard. The blocking is still a train wreck. Here are the 4 main difficulties with blocking.
1) Too many times my running back is following a blocker who should clearly block one guy, but gets distracted by someone irrelevant and leaves my back wide open to get blasted. Lead blocking helps (I’m still impressed with how clean that lead blocking works by the way – great implementation last year), but does not resolve the issue entirely. Even with lead blocking, the running back sometimes fails to follow his blockers appropriately (which is an added difficulty actually in the o-lineman mini game). Somehow offensive lineman need to learn the next most logical block, not just the nearest guy. 2) Even worse is the pass blocking. First, EA needs to find a way to eliminate the sacks occurring on handoffs. In the NFL, you can probably count on two hands the number of times a qb is sacked before he can get off a handoff. In Madden, it happens about 3 times a game. You’re taking away control and making me a spectator with stuff like that. Second, the cpu often gets a world of time even with blitzes whereas I frequently keep in extra tight ends or backs to block. Despite the added protection, I’ll bet I get ½ the time of the cpu. In fact, I am tempted to run a little experiment wherein I time the amount of time I get as the player vs what the cpu gets. I’d run the same team against itself and make sure to compare similar protection packages. I could also just do an aggregate average from game to game. I am confident that I would find the cpu gets significantly more time. I have a whole plan of how I could carry that out objectively, but then I realized that no one is paying me to do this and I know the answer anyway, the cpu gets more time in the pocket. Although, I have to admit that it’s better this year. It’s still far from realistic, though.
3) Suction blocking still exists. Let’s get past that already.
4) Blockers will often simply follow the qb when he rolls out of the pocket. Sometimes they will even run into the qb while a lineman charges and obliterates the qbs will to live. I’ve actually had occasions when my blocker seems to push me into lineman outside of the pocket. In all fairness though, I typically mock my offensive lineman for being too slow. I think they want me to get hurt.
The receiving game has not improved much in years. Overall, it’s not bad, but there is room for improvement. For example, route running is pretty much the same for all receivers. It seems to me that Marvin Harrison should find a larger gap between him and a defender more frequently than Plexico Burress. Also, the dropped passes…it’s just enough. I crank the AI all the way up and still have tons of dropped passes. I know it happens in the NFL. I love authenticity. However, if you’re not going to authentic in this regard, make too FEW dropped passes. There really is nothing more frustrating than setting up a play action pass, picking on the weak corner, finally getting the protection you need, delivering the ball, then watching it fall incomplete because the receiver forgot to put his hands up. It’s just not fun.
The quarterbacks are done beautifully. I love the player animation with the qbs as well. EA has really done a good job of making passing look real. The one complaint I have is with the buggy pass control. I can lead my receivers alright, but sometimes when I press right on my analog stick to lead a receiver, the ball ends up way out of play. It’s a good system, but needs to be tightened up a little.
Defense:
EA seems to work very hard on creating a better defense every year. It is good, but it feels like they get too bogged down in pass protection. It must be the most difficult aspect to develop for because it remains a weakness. Despite receiver spotlighting and triple-man coverage, Burress can still jump and catch most of what comes his way. You still have defenders watch balls go right over their heads. Or, in some instances, the ball will go right through their helmets into the waiting arms of a cpu controlled receiver. That has to be the most frustrating part. I realize some defenders are smarter than others. Still, even the dumbest defender in the NFL knows that if a ball is flying over his head, he should try to knock it down. I hate having called the right defense, but finding myself pushed back because a defender just watches a ball fly over (or through) his head. Also, EA – defensive backs to NOT have eyes in the back of their heads. The system is clearly set up so that when I press the button for a certain receiver, everyone swarms to that spot. It simply doesn’t work that way. For example, if I throw the ball to Vincent Jackson on a fly pattern in the gap of a cover 2 defense, the defender running across the field in man coverage on Antonio Gates (with eyes on Antonio Gates and away from the qb) does not miraculously turn around, find the ball, and intercept/knock down the ball. Or, a linebacker does not make up 10 yards to leap and knock a ball down in a ½ second. Sometimes, defense really makes me feel like a spectator. Finally, I don’t care who you are, if you’re up by 14 or more, especially in the fourth quarter, the fumbles will come in record numbers, miraculous interceptions will mount, and there is NOTHING one can do to stop the cpu sometimes. I had Brandon Jacobs break 7 tackles in one play to score on me. Those 7 broken tackles were nothing to scoff at either, each had it’s own animation on how he broke it. That just feels rigged.
Overall AI:
Sadly, this is why I have started to rent Madden games most recently before I buy. I bought the game this year because I love football and simply wanted a football game to play (2K sports won my heart over Madden in 2005, in a couple years, it just may give it another run for it’s money). Unfortunately, the AI is the biggest problem with Madden. I will put it simply – EA, I do not want to win or lose a game because my guys are dumber and the cpu guys are smarter. Balls flying over (or through) my guys heads, poor blocking, fumbling (oy, the fumbling), the inhuman defensive cpu plays, my guys watching players run right by them, poor tackling…the list goes on and on. The bottom line is that this makes me feel like a spectator – like I ultimately have no control on the outcome of the game. Small glitches that have a profound effect often play in the favor of the cpu, like the ones I listed above. Some, however, also play in the favor of the human player, such as the false start glitch (I’m sure you know what that is by now) and the fact that the cpu has never challenged a play on me (except with 2:00 or less in the half/game. I don’t want to win or lose a game based on glitches, poor AI, or animation erros – plain and simple. Next year, put a coach on the cover and work on improving the AI, please.
Overall, I give Madden 2008 a 7.0 out of 10. It’s a good game with a lot of great qualities, but some of the glitches make it frustrating and annoying as well. It averages out to an average game. I will play it because I love football, not because it’s a good video game.