Madden is here again, rejoice all ye football faithful!
So I’ll admit that I’m a little bit biased when it comes to Madden. I’ve been playing the game since 1996 when it was on the Sega Genesis. That was a glorious time when I could play my father and he would actually stand a chance against me. He would use the play “All Streaks” about 90 percent of the time, and it would work about 50 percent of the time. As much as I would hate how easy the game was, it was nice being able to play against him and not have the game be a complete blowout.
Much has changed in the years since Madden on the Genesis, the game became much more a sim, making it almost completely impossible for someone like my dad to keep up. While I prefer a game that strives to be as close to its real life counterpart as possible, Madden has left many casual fans in the dust over the last decade. That all changes with Madden 09. Now the artificial intelligence has become smart enough to be able to adjust to the player. So, for instance, if my dad is having a hard time stopping my precision passing attack, the computer will adjust and make his defensive players more aware, thus making the game more fair.
This change in AI became glaringly apparent when I played my dad the day I bought the game. In the first half I was taking care of business and was up by 14 points, but as the game progressed I found it hard to move the ball down the field and my dad made an epic comeback in the second half and beat me. While it’s a tough pill to swallow for someone as competitive as myself, it was kind of awesome to watch my dad have fun with a Madden game again.
While the AI may be the biggest jump for Madden this year, what I find most impressive are the little things they’ve done to this years game to make it a better, more streamlined, experience. To begin with, the controls are on point. EA has done a great job balancing out getting the speed of the game right, and encountering for things like inertia field conditions. No longer can you spin on a time with guys like Brandon Jacobs or make lightning fast cuts in snowy conditions. The only real problem I found in the games controls is when you switch to a defensive player when he’s trying to defend a pass. For some reason there is a bit of lag in the switching process, and if you are trying to chase down a fast receiver like Randy Moss, you are probably going to end up toast.
There are a few other additions that really make this game stand out. For the first time in years you can play a local multiplayer game without having to worry about your buddy sneaking a peak at your play. In years past the bluff feature did a piss poor job of disguising a players play, but now you can hit the left trigger on your controller and you’ll get the old, choose one of four buttons that corresponds to your play to select it. It may seem like a small improvement, but if you play a lost of local matches, it’s pretty big deal. Another addition that makes the game better is the ability to slide your line protection. Again, it’s a small change, but when you are trying to run a play-action pass off of a stretch play, it is almost imperative that you move your line to the direction of your roll-out.
This is the first year that I’ve really dived into the online portion of Madden and the experience has been a good one. I’ve played about 15 online matches (on the Xbox 360) and only one or two of them have been laggy. There was a bug that was disconnecting people during the match for no reason, but from what I’ve seen, they’ve released a patch that fixes that problem. Trust me, if it continues to be a big deal I’ll let you know. The interesting thing about playing Madden online is seeing just how many different strategies people employ to get a win. Some people like to run-and-gun using a no huddle offense, others try to run the ball and manage the clock, and others still mix it up about 50/50. The only problem I have online are people who insist on pausing the game every five minutes in an attempt to frustrate the other player. If you do that, you are a dick, and don’t deserve to play Madden, may I suggest Halo 3, I think you’ll find it to be more your style.
Another cool feature that Madden 09 has added is the ability to create and save highlights of your game and post them online. If you have ever done this on the previously mentioned Halo 3, you have a good idea of what I’m talking about. Say I’m playing with the Cowboys and I’m down 17 against the Colt’s in the second half. The ball is on the 18 yard-line and I’m facing a 3rd and long situation. I’m really left with no other out than to bomb the ball deep to TO in hopes that he makes a play. Then, what do you know, my opponent decides to leave his safety one-on-one with Owens, and TO takes the ball 83 yards to the house, on what becomes the turning point of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever had. In the past all I would have was a nice story to tell, but now, with the new Highlight feature, I can save the clip of the TO touchdown, edit it to look like a classic highlight and post it on the web. Not only will you be able to watch the play, it will tell you the down, yardage, quarter and score of the game when the highlight took place.
Here is an example of how it works:
I could go on and on about this game; about how Collinsworth does a decent job as the color analyst, or how the game looks great in HD (It really does!), but anyone who has seen the commercials knows how good this game looks. When you get down to the nuts and bolts Madden 09 is just a better, faster, “prettier” game of football than what we’ve seen from it in the last four years or so. It’s the first Madden of this generation of consoles that’s really hooked me, and that’s saying something. Last Saturday I played about five or six games with Chad and we had a blast. Just don’t ask Chad what will happen if you run TO on a fly route against Bob Sanders, he may be liable to punch you in your face. Chad is probably the harshest critic of the Madden games of this console generation and even he was impressed by the game.
So there you have it, Madden is awesome. If you are in anyway a fan of the series I highly recommend you rush out and get it, but then again, if you are a big fan of the series you probably already know how awesome it is. So to wrap things up, I’d give Madden a 9/10 on the Turdukken scale.
Mmm Mmm
