Madden NFL 2008

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Tiburon
Genre: Sports
Release: August 14, 2007
Platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, Wireless, PC

Reviewer: Eric

The countdown is over and Madden 2008 is finally available for everyone to buy. I was a bit upset when this game didn't come out for the Super Nintendo, but I think EA got all the other consoles under their belt. Every time I look at the list I think I'm forgetting one system, but everybody cares about the PS3 and Xbox 360 really. Enough with my random bull crap, let's talk about Madden 2008.

After work I decide to rent this game, since most people own the game I figured this would not be a problem. I was right, paid my money and walked away with a fresh copy of Madden 2008 for my Xbox 360. When I first got this into my system I was enjoying the nice blend of rap and emo music. So far we are off to a bad start, but you can always turn the music off, don't worry.

All the training games are the same in this Madden. Did EA get that lazy or are they going to change these for next year? Some of these games are annoying/too damn hard. How the hell can you do that meter dash one? Why couldn't EA just change these things instead of doing a cut and paste job. I'm sure they are laughing at everyone who bought this right now, again not looking good so far.

The biggest difference in this years Madden is the little logos your players have. Some are strong so they have a brick wall, your fast people have lightning bolts, and so fourth. This was pretty cool, I will admit this, but it can get a little messy when looking at these icons and everything else the game has to offer. You can now pretty much edit anything in your plays too, you have a list of options to choose from. I had a hard time figuring out what to do in Madden 2006 and 2007, adding in all these other features was just hard for me. I pretty much just picked my throwing play and I went at it. Do normal quarterbacks get minutes to figure out what to do before a play? In ways they do, but in Madden 2008 we get a long time to figure out what to do. Sucks to be those over paid quarterbacks, they only get seconds to do anything.

Gambling and football go together so well and EA realizes this. Showcase lets you earn trophies by playing the game. This doesn't mean much to me, all I care about is achievement points for my gamer score, trophies mean nothing. Yes I get achievement points by getting trophies, but the main point to these damn things is to have gamers bet them against each other online. Bet your fresh trophy again your buddy and cry when he beats you. EA should have had the balls and used money instead of lease trophies, virtual money wagers would have been much better.

You can create your own character in the Superstar mode. Any game that is not an RPG has this mode, it is as default as the easy, medium, and hard modes. I really disliked having my own character, if you used him in your games the camera would follow him. Having the camera move back and forth to follow my game was almost like sailing in a boat. Nice feature, but I am sure my buddies over at 2KSports would have made this feature a lot better. Us true gamers know a good football game and Madden 2008 just isn't working out so far.

The graphics are the same thing here. I honestly didn't see a difference. I am not lucky enough to have a fancy plasma television so I might not be able to experience Madden 2008 to its full potential, graphically. The Madden 2008 edition for the Xbox 360 does offer the option for 1080 resolution while the PS3 one doesn't which shocked me. There are some other things the Xbox 360 version has that the PS3 one does and it mainly deals with the graphics. Looks like EA is picking sides with Madden 2008, but that doesn't upset me really.

Madden 2008 has a good amount of fumbles. I'm no pro at football games, but I had a total of six fumbles in one, default timed game. This was not the case in the past Madden games. If the fumbles aren't enough there are some nice glitches in this game too. I had my quarterback, one time only, just float to the sideline. Nobody could tackle him and he couldn't throw his ball. Did we get the beta version of Madden 2008? I did some research on this game and this has happened to other people, even on other consoles. Another glitch I read numerous times was after getting a touch down, the player with the ball just walks right into the audience. I'm sure EA could get some beta testers for free, too many people are so gay for Madden, I don't understand it.

Final Verdict

I didn't see too many new additions here, but I'm sure I missed some. Madden 2008 looks the same to me and the game play is pretty much the same, except with the new 500 new pre-play options and those special icons your players have. Tackling seems to be changed a little, but to me I didn't care too much. I'm not really a Madden fan, but Madden 2008 did make me have a few minutes of fun. Even though there are a ton of fumbles per game, it was nice to be able to get the ball from the computer after a fumble. This made me feel that I actually had some skills. Oh yeah the announce is better this year, he doesn't state the obvious much/at all.

Rating
4 out of 10 (I rented it for one day, I think this helped me rate it a little higher.)