By now, I’m sure most users of the site know all about John Madden, his game, and the history of one of the most successful game series of all time.
Review or not, most football fans pre-order this game each and every year, and if you show up at midnight to your local GameStop the night it’s released (as I did), you’re likely to see 40-50 (or more) dudes hanging out, waiting to get their copy, go home, play for hours and roll into work or school on 3 hours of sleep.
I have a confession to make, before I start: My name is MTK and I’m a self ascribed EA fanboy. I’ve only ever owned two 2k Sports games and have always bought EA every year. I never owned a 2k football game, but I’ve heard a lot, since 2k fanboys are quite loud with their opinions :p. Regardless of my fanboy-dom, I’m going to try and give the most fair and honest review I can. I picked up this game at 12:16 am 8/22/06, and here is my “I’ve owned the game for 60 hours” review.
Franchise mode has been around a long time, and it’s become such a normal part of the game that it’s hard to get any changes in. This year, EA tried a few tweaks for the 360, and I’m not sure how I feel about them. The easy tweaks to describe come from a lot of the in-game play, whether it is the pre-game entrances for each team or the cool videos of your team waling up to the line for the next play.
The more interesting ones are a sliding bar for each player’s happiness and the presence of Hall of Fame players in your franchise. The easy one to discuss is the happy-scale, since it’s fairly intuitive. This is one step further from EA’s previous meters – instead of having to go to the management screen for the specific player, you can see a little bar under the player icon on your roster and in some menus you can see what he desires most: a good team, playing time, or money, etc. This helps you keep your team morale up, and we all know that a happy team is more likely to be successful.
The Hall of Famers (HoF) are a different story. EA uses a system called the “Madden Gamer Level” (which I’ll explain later) to track your progress through the game and unlock items for you, as the Madden Points did in the past. When you attain a higher Madden Gamer Level (MGL), you unlock more HoF players automatically, instead of buying those Madden Cards from previous years. Those of you who have played MVP Baseball and their HoF system will understand this system a little bit better. The problem though is that once you unlock these guys, they’re in your roster. And there is no option, like in MVP Baseball, to not allow these players into your franchise rosters. So, any crappy team could pick up Lynn Swan, for example, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Other than those items, I haven’t found anything terribly new or interesting here. They’ve definitely kicked up the realism however, since when I played the Colts in Week 1 (with my beloved Giants) Peyton Manning audibled something (or more than once) on virtually every play.
In this mode, you play as the player you create, and only as him. If you’re a RB, you run your plays and you block or roll out for passes. You can assume control of the defense, but only if you choose to. Otherwise, you sit the bench and watch.
And if you think that may be difficult, you have to realize that, unlike previous years, you cannot just adjust your create a player numerically, making your self perfect in every facet of the game. To be good, you have to master the Mini Games, which take some time.
Another side note/bug issue I noticed in this mode – don’t try and do something before it has it on your schedule. My first Superstar (whom I had to restart from the beginning) I noticed in the menu that you can go to the agent list before the calendar prompts you to get one. I did so and hired an agent two days early. When it hit the agent signing day on my calendar, I went to the Agent list form the calendar and while I could hire and fire agents as many times as I want, somehow me having one already screwed up the game and I was stuck in that menu until I went back to Dashboard and restarted the game. Very annoying.
This mode can be the most rewarding, however, since you could play yourself right into the Hall of Fame.
For a lot of us at 2o2p, the online portion makes the game. That’s why a Chromehounds is so successful versus a deeper, better Single Player game like Prey. So to test this mode and put my “elite Madden skillz” to the test, I enlisted my clanmate Stryker in an online throw down. We had both the game running and a 360 chat connection going the whole time, and there was rarely any noticeable lag, and it was all during the video sequences. I know others have had problems with lag, but I’ll let them comment on their experiences.
I’m not big on playing sporting games online, but I had a blast trash talking and analyzing plays while taking my G-Men to a 21-7 victory. If you like playing real folks, this is the mode for you. Also, beware of your friends list, as someone else who owns the game can challenge you in your franchise and ruin your perfect season.
The problem, however, is that with NCAA it works, whereas Madden is less intuitive. NCAA gave you some visual background clues as to where you are in the menus, whereas my Madden background has never changed from my team specific one. It doesn’t even rotate players; it’s just Jeremy Shockey, all the time. This system makes it very hard to find what you are looking for some times, as it’s not a very intuitive system.
Additionally, the menu skips somewhat, as if the code is too clucky for the 360 to process. It’s hard to believe that EA could screw this up to make a “next-gen” machine have menu blips like an old Xbox, but they did. I’ve seen much more intensive games not have this problem (like Chromehounds) so I’m sure this is just EA’s bad programming at work.
This is my place to vent on other items I found wrong or weird with this game that I cannot fit into other sections. I’ll avoid discussing the bugs that have already been pointed out (Fatigue) and get on to my own issues.
First off, there is no menu function to download the most recent roster update. EA apparently decides to prompt you on this whenever they feel like after you’ve signed into online mode. I was almost into my online game with Stryker before it told me (not asked me) that I had to download an online roster.
Secondly, if you’ve made a created player and saved your roster, but decide to discard it, you can delete that saved roster, but it’s hard to reset your rosters to the disc default. Stryker had a default roster saved to his 360 that he could load, mine did not. There was no “hit X to load default rosters” prompt or anything so I again had to go back to dashboard to clear everything.
Thirdly, no matter what mode you play in, the in-game announcer is not John Madden. It’s some radio guy, and he’s not nearly as good. Next year, give me Al Michaels, please.
Finally, when I went to make the rosters accurate (Ty Law to the Chiefs, Junior Seau to the Pats, etc) I found that even in roster edit mode (i.e. not signed into a franchise or superstar) it was a pain to get guys to their correct team, since some of the menu controls are clunky (hit RT to bring up the scroll bar, the hit the stick to the right while holding RT to go to the other side, etc). Yet another obstacle to getting the Madden player to a point where they are happy with the realism.
Well, if you’ve made it this far I have to give you credit, since this is longer than I expected. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d have to give this game a 7.5.
Overall, it’s the same old Madden, but with upgraded graphics. It’s still a lot of fun when you actually get into the game, which is a big chunk of how you have to evaluate this. They lose points on the announcer, but watching Peyton audible 4 million times made up for it. The bugs and glitches and menus are an issue, but it’s only between games, so it’s easily overcome.
To end this, I’ll go back to where I started and my self-determined mission to be fair and honest. I feel that, had EA not gotten the exclusive license, this game would be a lot better. I’m not saying I’d be buying NFL 2K7 right now, but competition makes everyone up their game and skills, which leads to a better end-product for consumers.
Also, I’d still have MLB players in the MVP series since 2K wouldn’t be making a crappy baseball game, but that’s a story for another day.
MTK can be hit with any comments, questions or cross-checks via the PM feature at 2o2p.
Review or not, most football fans pre-order this game each and every year, and if you show up at midnight to your local GameStop the night it’s released (as I did), you’re likely to see 40-50 (or more) dudes hanging out, waiting to get their copy, go home, play for hours and roll into work or school on 3 hours of sleep.
I have a confession to make, before I start: My name is MTK and I’m a self ascribed EA fanboy. I’ve only ever owned two 2k Sports games and have always bought EA every year. I never owned a 2k football game, but I’ve heard a lot, since 2k fanboys are quite loud with their opinions :p. Regardless of my fanboy-dom, I’m going to try and give the most fair and honest review I can. I picked up this game at 12:16 am 8/22/06, and here is my “I’ve owned the game for 60 hours” review.
Franchise Mode
Franchise mode has been around a long time, and it’s become such a normal part of the game that it’s hard to get any changes in. This year, EA tried a few tweaks for the 360, and I’m not sure how I feel about them. The easy tweaks to describe come from a lot of the in-game play, whether it is the pre-game entrances for each team or the cool videos of your team waling up to the line for the next play.
The more interesting ones are a sliding bar for each player’s happiness and the presence of Hall of Fame players in your franchise. The easy one to discuss is the happy-scale, since it’s fairly intuitive. This is one step further from EA’s previous meters – instead of having to go to the management screen for the specific player, you can see a little bar under the player icon on your roster and in some menus you can see what he desires most: a good team, playing time, or money, etc. This helps you keep your team morale up, and we all know that a happy team is more likely to be successful.
The Hall of Famers (HoF) are a different story. EA uses a system called the “Madden Gamer Level” (which I’ll explain later) to track your progress through the game and unlock items for you, as the Madden Points did in the past. When you attain a higher Madden Gamer Level (MGL), you unlock more HoF players automatically, instead of buying those Madden Cards from previous years. Those of you who have played MVP Baseball and their HoF system will understand this system a little bit better. The problem though is that once you unlock these guys, they’re in your roster. And there is no option, like in MVP Baseball, to not allow these players into your franchise rosters. So, any crappy team could pick up Lynn Swan, for example, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Other than those items, I haven’t found anything terribly new or interesting here. They’ve definitely kicked up the realism however, since when I played the Colts in Week 1 (with my beloved Giants) Peyton Manning audibled something (or more than once) on virtually every play.
Superstar Mode
Superstar mode is back this year, after being out in 06 and not on the list for this year. EA decided that they could cram this into the 360 version, and it seems to be the biggest reason for getting this game.
In this mode, you play as the player you create, and only as him. If you’re a RB, you run your plays and you block or roll out for passes. You can assume control of the defense, but only if you choose to. Otherwise, you sit the bench and watch.
And if you think that may be difficult, you have to realize that, unlike previous years, you cannot just adjust your create a player numerically, making your self perfect in every facet of the game. To be good, you have to master the Mini Games, which take some time.
Another side note/bug issue I noticed in this mode – don’t try and do something before it has it on your schedule. My first Superstar (whom I had to restart from the beginning) I noticed in the menu that you can go to the agent list before the calendar prompts you to get one. I did so and hired an agent two days early. When it hit the agent signing day on my calendar, I went to the Agent list form the calendar and while I could hire and fire agents as many times as I want, somehow me having one already screwed up the game and I was stuck in that menu until I went back to Dashboard and restarted the game. Very annoying.
This mode can be the most rewarding, however, since you could play yourself right into the Hall of Fame.
Mini Games
As I mentioned before, the mini-games are not something you can expect to excel at right out of the box. Everyone does both the 40 yard dash and the bench press, and then you get a role-specific mini game. For example, RBs and LBs get a running/run stopping game while QBs/receivers/DBs get a passing/receiving game. Practice makes perfect, so I wouldn’t try to create a player for your Franchise or Superstar mode until you’ve master these techniques.Online
For a lot of us at 2o2p, the online portion makes the game. That’s why a Chromehounds is so successful versus a deeper, better Single Player game like Prey. So to test this mode and put my “elite Madden skillz” to the test, I enlisted my clanmate Stryker in an online throw down. We had both the game running and a 360 chat connection going the whole time, and there was rarely any noticeable lag, and it was all during the video sequences. I know others have had problems with lag, but I’ll let them comment on their experiences.
I’m not big on playing sporting games online, but I had a blast trash talking and analyzing plays while taking my G-Men to a 21-7 victory. If you like playing real folks, this is the mode for you. Also, beware of your friends list, as someone else who owns the game can challenge you in your franchise and ruin your perfect season.
Madden Gamer Level
The offspring of the madden points, this is EA’s new way of letting you track your progress and skill level and keep you playing their game. The system is skin to Halo’s in the level design (for example, I’m now a 4, whereas Stryker was a 3) and also helps in getting you matches online where you won’t get pwned by some crazy Timmy. Unlike Halo, however, it’s not based on your performance online, just on how often and well you play the overall game. There are achievements associated with attaining different levels, and you also unlock the aforementioned Hall of Fame players.UI (User Interface)
This is one of my biggest bones of contention with this game, and its semi frustrating. Anyone who has played NCAA 07, the UI is very similar with scrolling menus as opposed to entering a specific mode. Additionally, if you hit “B” enough times you’ll end up back where you were before you hit “B”, not at a main menu. It’s harder to explain than it is to try.The problem, however, is that with NCAA it works, whereas Madden is less intuitive. NCAA gave you some visual background clues as to where you are in the menus, whereas my Madden background has never changed from my team specific one. It doesn’t even rotate players; it’s just Jeremy Shockey, all the time. This system makes it very hard to find what you are looking for some times, as it’s not a very intuitive system.
Additionally, the menu skips somewhat, as if the code is too clucky for the 360 to process. It’s hard to believe that EA could screw this up to make a “next-gen” machine have menu blips like an old Xbox, but they did. I’ve seen much more intensive games not have this problem (like Chromehounds) so I’m sure this is just EA’s bad programming at work.
Other Notes
This is my place to vent on other items I found wrong or weird with this game that I cannot fit into other sections. I’ll avoid discussing the bugs that have already been pointed out (Fatigue) and get on to my own issues.
First off, there is no menu function to download the most recent roster update. EA apparently decides to prompt you on this whenever they feel like after you’ve signed into online mode. I was almost into my online game with Stryker before it told me (not asked me) that I had to download an online roster.
Secondly, if you’ve made a created player and saved your roster, but decide to discard it, you can delete that saved roster, but it’s hard to reset your rosters to the disc default. Stryker had a default roster saved to his 360 that he could load, mine did not. There was no “hit X to load default rosters” prompt or anything so I again had to go back to dashboard to clear everything.
Thirdly, no matter what mode you play in, the in-game announcer is not John Madden. It’s some radio guy, and he’s not nearly as good. Next year, give me Al Michaels, please.
Finally, when I went to make the rosters accurate (Ty Law to the Chiefs, Junior Seau to the Pats, etc) I found that even in roster edit mode (i.e. not signed into a franchise or superstar) it was a pain to get guys to their correct team, since some of the menu controls are clunky (hit RT to bring up the scroll bar, the hit the stick to the right while holding RT to go to the other side, etc). Yet another obstacle to getting the Madden player to a point where they are happy with the realism.
Verdict
Well, if you’ve made it this far I have to give you credit, since this is longer than I expected. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d have to give this game a 7.5.
Overall, it’s the same old Madden, but with upgraded graphics. It’s still a lot of fun when you actually get into the game, which is a big chunk of how you have to evaluate this. They lose points on the announcer, but watching Peyton audible 4 million times made up for it. The bugs and glitches and menus are an issue, but it’s only between games, so it’s easily overcome.
To end this, I’ll go back to where I started and my self-determined mission to be fair and honest. I feel that, had EA not gotten the exclusive license, this game would be a lot better. I’m not saying I’d be buying NFL 2K7 right now, but competition makes everyone up their game and skills, which leads to a better end-product for consumers.
Also, I’d still have MLB players in the MVP series since 2K wouldn’t be making a crappy baseball game, but that’s a story for another day.
MTK can be hit with any comments, questions or cross-checks via the PM feature at 2o2p.
