Screenshots :.
Madden NFL 09
PS3
Matt
19-08-2008
"Goooo Browns"
"Ahoy there!"
"Breakdancing tackles don't work"
"Awww, he's giving him a hug!"
"This might hurt a little..."
Right from the very moment Madden 09 soars into life with a typically rousing American telly intro theme, you pretty much know what you’re in for. Arguably the biggest feather in EA’s vast cap, the NFL series of games has gradually been tweaked and honed since it took a bow on the current generation of machines a couple of years back. With a smattering of new modes, moves and an up-to-date roster to coincide with the start of the new NFL season (go Browns!), 09 takes an already well-shaped ball and attempts to chuck it into the End Zone.
So, what has big ol’ John Madden bought to the table this season? Well, we’ve got all the usual modes that we have become accustomed to in recent editions, with Franchise and Superstar both returning and being pretty much identical to last year’s efforts save a bit of stat tweaking and the like. A new feature is the Madden IQ test that gives you a selection of offensive and defensive tasks, works out how adept at them you are and tailors the difficulty level to suit.
It works quite nicely too, actually. See, I am an NFL fan but by no means a tactical genius when it comes to various plays and the like, so being able to take a quick ten-minute test to see where the computer thinks I am for both running pass and offence and the passing equivalents was quite useful. It also makes you aware of where your weaknesses are and, at the end of each game you play, you are offered the chance to go to the training mode if you’ve had a bad day in the field doing a particular tactical avenue. You don’t have to do this, obviously, but it’s nice to be given the opportunity to brush up on your not-so-great areas.
Elsewhere, there’s also a neat little mode called Madden Moments, in which you fill the boots of certain teams in some of 2007’s most epic plays and try to match them. Remember Eli Manning not choking it at Super Bowl XLII? Well, you’ve now got a chance to perform the Giants’ last drive and score them the touchdown that beat the Patriots (hahahaha. Sorry). There’s 32 of them to work through in all, with pretty much every team featured somewhere along the way.
Down on the field of play, the changes and tweaks made to the nuts and bolts of the game are as apparent as ever. Ever since EA introduced their on-the-fly animation system that pretty much makes each player react to what’s happening to them on the field rather than in a set manner, the football itself has felt quicker and much more slick than in years gone by. Taking the snap and looking for your receivers or space in the defence is now something that requires quicker wits than ever, so those with a bit of tactical awareness will reap the benefits. It also allows you to break and sidestep attempted tackles with well-timed analogue stick taps or button presses, and these are most satisfying, especially when you use your skills to break out of cover and leg it all the way down the field for a touchdown.
Other little touches include each team having their own specific defensive plays, which will no doubt please the die-hard fans that pour over their franchise’s tactics and strengths. The bits in between the action have also been revamped, with the player now given the option of checking replays, stats and challenging suspect play calls on the fly rather than having to head to the pause menu to sort things out. Added to plenty of minute tweaks to the way you can catch the ball with your receivers and the like and you end up with a pretty streamlined effort, with the added bonus of not having a fumble happen every other play as it seemed to in Madden 08.
On feature that perhaps sits somewhat awkwardly amongst the others is the EA Rewind, which allows you to rewind a play much in the way GRID allowed you to go back through time if you duffed up and stuffed your car in a tyre barrier. This is okay for novice players, sure, and as a result the easier difficulty levels are given more of the things than the harder ones, but between two players of reasonable ability they’re more-than-likely to be switched off as they’re not quite cricket.
The presentation has been given a major tweak too, with new commentators, game introductions and graphical overlays chucked in for good measure. As someone who doesn’t really watch too many live games from US telly feeds I don’t really have an opinion on whether Tim Hammond and Cris Collingsworth are any better than Al Michaels and Big John Madden, but they provide insightful comments and, in the case of EA Backtrack, can actually show you where your unsuccessful moves came a cropper via a neat little replay mode with highlighted players.
The sense of occasion has also been given a boost, with each game starting with a lovely outside view of the ground and some pre-game introductions and fireworks, whilst at the side of the field you now have coaches, players and security teams who do a lot more than just repeat the same animation over and over again ad infinitum. On top of this, EA have finally seen fit to bring back weather effects such as rain and snow, with the latter being rather pleasing visually with footprints and frosted breath pretty much making you shiver even if you are sitting playing the game in the middle of what is supposed to be the English summer. Elsewhere, the training IQ mode takes place in a pretty funky VR-style environment with John Madden himself appearing as a bizarre and slightly bulky holograph to explain what you should be doing. All this runs at a silky-smooth 60fps, which is great news for PS3 owners who remember 30fps-gate from last year.
Online larks are also well catered for, with online leagues and one-off games so simple to set up that even my dead Guinea Pig could do it. The leagues can host up to 32 users all battling it out over a custom-length season, and the options also allow for teams within each league to trade and draft players from each other as they wish. The matches themselves proved to be really quite smooth and lag free. Hurray for that, then. Oh, and for those who choose to, Madden 09 acts as a really handy gateway to real NFL highlights and clips as part of EA online and other sports news. It’s really rather well done.
Really rather well done pretty much sums up the whole experience too, if I’m honest. There’s enough in there that’s new, be it the Madden IQ, the Madden Moments or the tweaked play or presentation, to justify the purchase price, and it’s still a great way for a newcomer to the sport to learn the ropes. It looks fantastic graphically, it has all the right kinds of atmosphere-building touches and offers a pretty robust online model to go along with it. Anyone, be you a keen enthusiast or someone wanting to get into the sport sooner rather than later, should pick it up as soon as.
So, what has big ol’ John Madden bought to the table this season? Well, we’ve got all the usual modes that we have become accustomed to in recent editions, with Franchise and Superstar both returning and being pretty much identical to last year’s efforts save a bit of stat tweaking and the like. A new feature is the Madden IQ test that gives you a selection of offensive and defensive tasks, works out how adept at them you are and tailors the difficulty level to suit.
It works quite nicely too, actually. See, I am an NFL fan but by no means a tactical genius when it comes to various plays and the like, so being able to take a quick ten-minute test to see where the computer thinks I am for both running pass and offence and the passing equivalents was quite useful. It also makes you aware of where your weaknesses are and, at the end of each game you play, you are offered the chance to go to the training mode if you’ve had a bad day in the field doing a particular tactical avenue. You don’t have to do this, obviously, but it’s nice to be given the opportunity to brush up on your not-so-great areas.
Elsewhere, there’s also a neat little mode called Madden Moments, in which you fill the boots of certain teams in some of 2007’s most epic plays and try to match them. Remember Eli Manning not choking it at Super Bowl XLII? Well, you’ve now got a chance to perform the Giants’ last drive and score them the touchdown that beat the Patriots (hahahaha. Sorry). There’s 32 of them to work through in all, with pretty much every team featured somewhere along the way.
Down on the field of play, the changes and tweaks made to the nuts and bolts of the game are as apparent as ever. Ever since EA introduced their on-the-fly animation system that pretty much makes each player react to what’s happening to them on the field rather than in a set manner, the football itself has felt quicker and much more slick than in years gone by. Taking the snap and looking for your receivers or space in the defence is now something that requires quicker wits than ever, so those with a bit of tactical awareness will reap the benefits. It also allows you to break and sidestep attempted tackles with well-timed analogue stick taps or button presses, and these are most satisfying, especially when you use your skills to break out of cover and leg it all the way down the field for a touchdown.
Other little touches include each team having their own specific defensive plays, which will no doubt please the die-hard fans that pour over their franchise’s tactics and strengths. The bits in between the action have also been revamped, with the player now given the option of checking replays, stats and challenging suspect play calls on the fly rather than having to head to the pause menu to sort things out. Added to plenty of minute tweaks to the way you can catch the ball with your receivers and the like and you end up with a pretty streamlined effort, with the added bonus of not having a fumble happen every other play as it seemed to in Madden 08.
On feature that perhaps sits somewhat awkwardly amongst the others is the EA Rewind, which allows you to rewind a play much in the way GRID allowed you to go back through time if you duffed up and stuffed your car in a tyre barrier. This is okay for novice players, sure, and as a result the easier difficulty levels are given more of the things than the harder ones, but between two players of reasonable ability they’re more-than-likely to be switched off as they’re not quite cricket.
The presentation has been given a major tweak too, with new commentators, game introductions and graphical overlays chucked in for good measure. As someone who doesn’t really watch too many live games from US telly feeds I don’t really have an opinion on whether Tim Hammond and Cris Collingsworth are any better than Al Michaels and Big John Madden, but they provide insightful comments and, in the case of EA Backtrack, can actually show you where your unsuccessful moves came a cropper via a neat little replay mode with highlighted players.
The sense of occasion has also been given a boost, with each game starting with a lovely outside view of the ground and some pre-game introductions and fireworks, whilst at the side of the field you now have coaches, players and security teams who do a lot more than just repeat the same animation over and over again ad infinitum. On top of this, EA have finally seen fit to bring back weather effects such as rain and snow, with the latter being rather pleasing visually with footprints and frosted breath pretty much making you shiver even if you are sitting playing the game in the middle of what is supposed to be the English summer. Elsewhere, the training IQ mode takes place in a pretty funky VR-style environment with John Madden himself appearing as a bizarre and slightly bulky holograph to explain what you should be doing. All this runs at a silky-smooth 60fps, which is great news for PS3 owners who remember 30fps-gate from last year.
Online larks are also well catered for, with online leagues and one-off games so simple to set up that even my dead Guinea Pig could do it. The leagues can host up to 32 users all battling it out over a custom-length season, and the options also allow for teams within each league to trade and draft players from each other as they wish. The matches themselves proved to be really quite smooth and lag free. Hurray for that, then. Oh, and for those who choose to, Madden 09 acts as a really handy gateway to real NFL highlights and clips as part of EA online and other sports news. It’s really rather well done.
Really rather well done pretty much sums up the whole experience too, if I’m honest. There’s enough in there that’s new, be it the Madden IQ, the Madden Moments or the tweaked play or presentation, to justify the purchase price, and it’s still a great way for a newcomer to the sport to learn the ropes. It looks fantastic graphically, it has all the right kinds of atmosphere-building touches and offers a pretty robust online model to go along with it. Anyone, be you a keen enthusiast or someone wanting to get into the sport sooner rather than later, should pick it up as soon as.
9/10