EA's Newest "Madden" Release Gets Mostly Positive Reviews

FINDING THE END ZONE: In St. Petersburg, Madhusmita Bora writes "Madden 08," which is being released for ten different platforms, is the “most sophisticated version” of the franchise to date (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 8/14). ESPN videogame analyst Aaron Boulding: “This is finally the Madden a lot of us have been waiting for. The previous two years, on Nex-Gen products specifically, have been pretty disappointing. This one has fluidity, its smooth, better animation. It feels like what a football game should feel like...It’s finally arrived" (ESPNews, 8/13).  GAME INFORMER’s Matthew Kato wrote, "This is a noticeably better game the moment you pick up the controller.”  The game “feels faster than last year's, and the action has no problem leaping off the screen at you.”  “Madden” fans have “lamented the drop in features” in past versions, but ’08 “pulls things back up to speed with extensive scouting/draft options and pregame training for improving players.”  There are also “financial info and stadium options”  (Mult., 8/13).  In Detroit, Ryan Huschka wrote EA “clearly spent plenty of time in the off-season polishing and tweaking this year's version, and the result is one of the most playable football games ever created.” Animations that “previously looked disjointed now flow in silky-smooth precision,” and the new player icons “let you see clearly where the game's big-name stars are on the field.”  Only a “few nits, like the lack of online leagues and somewhat sub par audio are left to gripe about” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 8/13).  In Charlotte, Langston Wertz Jr. writes the game “looks better than its predecessors, and it plays better, too.”  EA “appears to have heard complaints from some fans who kept saying not much was changing in new Madden releases except for the player rosters” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/14). 

JUST SHORT: In K.C., Doug Elfman wrote of “Madden NFL 08,” "Everyone is constantly turning the ball over.”  There were a total of eight interceptions in a 20-minute game against the computer, which Elfman called “wildly unacceptable.”  Elfman: “I’m still giving ‘Madden NFL 08’ a good three stars, because it’s a great-looking football game with amazing plays and realistic action.  In other words, these flaws aren’t fatal to the whole experience” (K.C. STAR, 8/12).  In St. Petersburg, Thomas Bassinger writes under the subhead, “More Variety In Hits, Better-Defined Moves, But Overall, 08 Is Not Overwhelming.”  Bassinger: “This year's Madden is better than last year's.  But the change is incremental.  It's more evolutionary than revolutionary.”  The game “looks the same. That's amazing considering the resources [EA] has.  It has not only an exclusive NFL license but also deals with NFL Films and ESPN” (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 8/14).  

Writers Feel "Madden" An Upgrade Over Previous Versions

KEEP IT SIMPLE: SPORTINGNEWS.com's Chris Littmann: "This is an upgrade from the past few seasons, but part of me still yearns for a more straightforward game without so many pre-snap items to check and so many things to do once the ball is in play" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 8/14). On Long Island, Monty Phan writes that to "Madden" fans, new features "likely make the game more realistic.  To novices, they just make it more complicated.”  The version for the Nintendo Wii has a new “Family Play” mode that “offers a simplified playbook and easier controls”  (NEWSDAY, 8/14).  ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons in his BS Report podcast, said EA should release "Madden" "every two years, and in that off year just release the same game with updated rosters for like $25. … You can do too much tinkering and go too far” (ESPN.com, 8/10).

THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY: CNBC’s Darren Rovell said the game's graphics have improved to a point where now “television mimics the game. ...  You see the angles that TV now gives you where you have the behind (shots), TV is now looking for these angles (that are in the game). That camera on a string when you’re at the game, that is to mimic the shots that you get in the videogame” (“Squawk Box,” CNBC, 8/14).

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