Danger Will Robinson, Danger...

This is a warning to all those who would download and play the Madden demo, DON'T DO IT!  Save your HD room for something else, anything else!  I downloaded and played it last night and was shocked that a demo of a released game could be so bad.  Aren't demos supposed to help convince players to go and get the full game after playing?  Aren't they supposed to whet your appetite with a taste of something so fun you can suddenly feel the weight of the money in your wallet and get you to immediatelly relieve yourself of that excess burden?  The Madden demo is 750MBs of a plain bologna sandwich on moldy bread.  BLAH!

Before you go and think this a completely pointless anti-EA rant let me list you some reasons:

• As with most of the playable football demos over the years you get to play the previous Superbowl rematch so you get to be either the Seattle Seahawks or the Pittsburg Steelers.  That's not a bad thing as they are both good teams but the problem is that you play in one minute increments across four quarters.  It's horrible to play like that because you constantly get interrupted by the 'End of Quarter' or 'Half Time' screen.  Why couldn't they just have allowed you to play a full four or five minute quarter?  It would have allowed you to play both offense and defense and felt the flow of the game.  The way it is now you constantly feel rushed by the one minute countdown.  Not good.
• The designers must be Steelers fans because I couldn't get a Seahawk any recognition for scoring a touchdown.  I played the demo five times as the Seahawks and everytime I scored I got the celebration picture for the position equivalent Steeler.  I score with Shawn Alexander and get the big picture of Willie Parker, Jackson runs it in after the catch and I see Hines Ward's giant mug.  WTF?!  I didn't play as the Steelers to see if I got a Seahawk picture.
• I know there has been a lot of debate over the 360 commentary change.  Instead of Madden and Al Michael's the 360 gets a nameless home-town radio announcer that most people have disliked.  Fortunately the demo won't make you listen to this new AM frequency dud because it has no commentary.  None.  Period.  Again, WTF?!  What is the last football game you played that didn't have commentary?  Tecmo Bowl?
• One of the main criticisms being leveled toward Dead Rising is that they only tested on HD sets and as a result the type is way too small to read.  I have a feeling that EA used the same testers because the play selection window is much too small for me.  In all past footbaal games the play selection window took up a majority of the screen which was nice.  I could always make out routes, blocking assignments, etc. but for some reason the play selection window this time around is about 2/3 the size of normal.  They still squeeze in six plays but they are so cramped that seeing the routes and button assignments are tough.  I'm playing on a 27" Sony CRT Flat Screen.
• When the demo does finishes you have an 'Exit Demo' button and...nothing else.  I wanted to replay the demo but seeing as how I couldn't I hit 'A' to exit and was promted by a screen asking me if I was sure I wanted to completely exit the demo.  I chose 'No' hoping that it would restart the demo or kick me to the opening window but all it did was disappear and leave me with the exit demo choice.  Essentially it forms an infinite loop of dissapointment.  When you choose to exit you really do exit, all the way back to the dashboard.  If you want to play again you have to navigate to the Madden demo download and reload it.
• You can't adjust the camera in any way.  This isn't usually a problem but for FG blocking attempts you get a camera view behind the opposing kicker that is the same view as if you were kickinf the ball.  You can't even see your players to choose one to futily charge the defensive line.  Also, when you go to use the lead blocker function it zooms the camera in to a much closer view.  That may be for effect but I don't see why I can't keep the camera zoomed out to the same level as when I'm using the running back only.  You may be able to control that in the full game but not in the demo.

Now it wasn't all bad.  The gameplay (what there was of it) ran well and was fairly fun.  I haven't played much Madden over the years as I have always been a Sega Sports fan so I wasn't used to the controls.  After I played through the demo a few times I started becoming accustomed the the controls and they proved to be responsive and well laid out.  I still couldn't get the hang of all the audible controls and hot routes but that would come with time.  Unfortunately since I felt rushed on the one minute clock I didn't have time to play around with the controls. 

I just feel that this demo is another glaring example of EA's complatency in the football market.  They have no competition and therefore no reason to really push themselves.  They know that they are going to sell a couple million copies every year because the choice is Madden or nothing.  I could almost forgive the demo if it was released three months ago as a lead in but there is zero excuse to release a demo with bugs after a game has been released.  It makes me think that the game must be filled with the same problems.  I have been on the fence about this game because I'm in such a need for a new football fix but after playing this demo I'm just going to have to deal with the DTs and find a meeting because I'm passing on Madden 07.