I hate to open this review with the usual talk of buying slight updates and the like that tends to arise around the time of EA releasing their sports titles, but I must. You see, I am fed up of it myself. I mean, everyone rushes out and buys each successive new Coldplay album despite it sounding exactly the same as the last one, mainly because they (sadly) enjoy the type of music. People go to the shops each week and buy the same kind of cheese, mostly due to them really rather liking the taste. Jay supports Spurs every season, despite them constantly almost getting a Champion’s League spot and then falling by the wayside. People will continue to take interest in things they enjoy – it’s human nature after all.

It’s not as if the Madden games have been getting worse, either, unless you take into account the jump to the current generation of hardware which saw EA forget most of 06’s gameplay modes. This season’s version sees the usual spit-and-polish approach with a couple of new features, a new game mode and a jump to a solid 60fps all lumped in alongside the 2007 – 2008 NFL roster. For fans of the NFL it’s another worthy instalment, although a couple of issues do prevent it from being as good as perhaps it should have been.

The changes start down on the field of play itself, with a much more convincing representation of what occurs in a real line of scrimmage. Both offensive and defensive players now block and run more intelligently, giving the player the chance to put his instinct and play-reading abilities to good use. The action also seems a heck of a lot more fluid and smooth, which is something that undoubtedly is aided by the jump to 60fps. You certainly have to think on your feet to a greater degree than in previous editions, particularly during offensive possession, and learning your playbook and being able to pick defensive plays as they begin to happen now gives you a greater advantage. Running the same play over and over won’t work this time, kiddo.

What this does, of course, is increase the chance that you’ll end up getting to fourth down quicker than Jay hits the Red Bull every morning if you try to bluff your way through, which is something that will see you chucking a great deal more interceptions that you would have before. If anything these sometimes verge on being too frequent – an average match can see anywhere up to a dozen of them – so thankfully you can adjust their likelihood in the menu system should it all get a bit too frustrating.

Something that can’t be adjusted, though, is the insane frequency of fumbles that happen during the games. During one particularly gut-busting quarter my Giants team fumbled a running play to give away a return touchdown, fumbled the kick off to initiate a touchdown drive and then managed to somehow fumble a second consecutive kick off to allow a third touchdown in about as many minutes. Further play showed this to be somewhat the worst extreme of it happening, but you will have to get used to the sight of the ball dropping loose even when you’ve become used to spinning and hopping around to give yourself the maximum chance of breaking loose. As someone who particularly enjoys being a Wide Receiver in Superstar mode, all this interception and fumbling malarkey proved sufficiently frustrating to hamper my enjoyment of the game.

One big feature change for play this year are the Weapons icons, which rather than equipping your quarterback with a machete and your running backs with machine guns instead sees various stand-out players given a special icon on the field, which allows them certain special abilities during the game. Having an all-star quarterback will allow you greater passing accuracy or the chance to read opposition plays more effectively, whilst having a handy receiver will allow you to sprint away from pursuers or catch passes that most of the population of Earth would flap at and miss completely.

The main business of this addition comes when opposing teams start matching particular players up against others to counter their strengths and play on their weaknesses – for example, receivers with a Possession Receiver weapon will be able to drag in those crucial passes, but the defence will spotlight them (another new addition, enabling you to call in secondary cover should someone break through the first line), making it harder for them to gain room in the first place. Having a Power Back on the opposite team will lead you to matching them up with a Brick Wall defender, thus nullifying their advantage. It adds a lot to the strategy of the game and will make you think in more detail for sure, but on a personal level I found it somewhat superfluous and found myself wanting to concentrate simply on my plays, routes and coverage instead of individual match-ups. Still, the more dedicated NFL fans that enjoy the detail of all this will no doubt appreciate not having to dig through the stats pages to make their comparisons this season.

So, what modes have we been given to strut the strut and walk the walk in this season? Superstar mode makes a very welcome return and retains most of what made it so good in Madden 07, although this time it offers you the option of being a number of kinds of certain player, such as a receiver who can take big hits or run fast, or perhaps a quarterback who is good at rushing or an excellent thrower. In reality this doesn’t seem to make too much difference – you learn to play your roll a certain way and stick to it, so despite having a low catching stat my speedy right receiver caught over 30 consecutive throws in the preseason and, despite being low on strength, managed to pancake an average of 9 times a game. Oh, and for those interested, the Bills obviously fell in love with me after I got them to the playoffs last season, as they drafted me again.

Then we have Franchise mode, which this season comes with Front Office mode. This gives you free reign on what you want done with your favourite NFL team – sign up players, negotiate with sponsors and even, if you fancy, upgrade or completely re-locate the stadium at the end of a season should you wish. The great bit about the latter part of this is that it allows you to change uniforms and names of your team, as well as the look of your brand new stadium. Taking into account my rather disastrous first year with the Cleveland Browns I selected to move to Birmingham (no, the American one, not the home of Ozzie Osbourne and Nigel Mansell sadly), call my team the Birmingham Bunglers and deck them out in a nice little gold outfit. I then proceeded to go and have an even worse season and lose a ton of cash in the process. Still, the fans were happy enough as I had installed HDTV panels for each seat and massaging cushions along with it. Yup, upgrading your ground is possible too.

As you’d imagine, the mode can be tailored to suit just how in-depth you want it to be. Should you wish to scout individual players, tool around with your depth chart and watch or play every game during the season then go right on ahead, and while you are at it scout for new players, put others on the trade block and set about rebuilding your entire offensive team. You could theoretically inch through proceedings taking care and attention to every possible aspect should you wish, but for those who want a quicker experience there is also the option of simulating games or entire weeks, and leaving draft pickings, signings and the like to the computer. You’ll probably have a fraction of the success you would manage if you were more careful (I lucked into two consecutive playoffs with the Bunglers after a couple of seasons), but it still remains fun.

On a presentation level, EA have somewhat surprisingly dropped the ball for Madden 08. Visually everything is in check and now running smoothly at 60fps, and there’s also a new animation system that changes what players do depending on the situation they find themselves in, but the colours seem a little garish and field-side and crowd animations are simplistic and a bit of a letdown. Another bad mark against things has to be the complete lack of atmosphere you get from the pre and post match build-up due to 08 continuing to have pseudo radio commentary rather than proper television chatting, this time letting former NFL star Marshal Faulk provide previews and reviews and relying on the same commentator for play-by-play. Oh, and don’t go expecting a big showcase if you manage to get to the Superbowl in either of the game’s main modes – apart from the odd comment here and there, it’s as if you are playing a standard game.

Whilst the lack of style in the presentation stakes does surprise, the plethora of mini games, tutorials and the like should come as standard to fans of the series. I’ve always thought the Madden games were an ideal point for newcomers to the sport to learn as much as they can, and if you are an NFL virgin and don’t know your first downs from your shotguns, Madden 08 will help you learn the ropes. Also along for the ride this season is the Xbox Live mode, but once more EA seem content to prevent users from taking part in what would undoubtedly be hugely enjoyable leagues, instead leaving us folk to be happy with one-on-one matches as per usual.

At the end of the day, the improvements made to Madden 08 do just-and-just make this a worthy purchase for series veterans. The upped intelligence of the plays, the smoother, quicker framerate and the fleshing out of the Superstar and Franchise modes all bring their benefits and will keep you absorbed, and the Weapon system does add something a little different if you choose to take advantage of it. The problems – mostly down to the over-frequent fumbling, the lack of presentation and the continued lack of proper online leagues – do disappoint and do prevent the game from being worthy of a higher score, but it’s still more progress in the right direction.