Madden 09: Three Point Thursdays

[RaychelSnr]

In this week’s Three Point Thursday, Matt Blumenthal takes a look at the upcoming football title Madden NFL 09.

[rspencer86]

The last paragraph says it all: "This series has let us down time and time again over the last few years, so we shouldn't get too excited about these early revelations." It's time for Madden to back up all of its pre-release talk with a solid game. Until then, I'm not getting excited about promises of "revolutionary gameplay" or "innovated new features." I'm from Missouri, so show me.

[yamabushi]

"we’ll finally have new commentators this year – “some of the biggest names in the business” – suggests that at least one monumental change is in the works."

the fact that a change in the commentator is actually considered 'monumental' tells you everything you need to know about madden for the past few years.

[vick5]

wont buy this game, i will be busy playing a non EA GTA IV

[stateprop]

Oh man what the hell. What im going to do now i cant even play madden 08 on the 360. I enjoyed more on the ps2 and ncaa 08 also i enjoyed more on the ps2. "Football is Dead Football Football is Dead" Quoted by NAS

[distauma]

Am I the only one who is willing to praise EA Sports for their amazing job with creating realistic ball physics and an infinite amount of animations for tackles and catches and such...

Yes the computer AI was a little too good at jumping routes and intercepting the ball but I feel Madden 08 can be to Madden 09 what MVP 2004 was to MVP 2005. There is now a great foundation built. Next step is to take out some bugs and add in some presentation elements.

[ewto16]

Quote: Originally Posted by distauma

Am I the only one who is willing to praise EA Sports for their amazing job with creating realistic ball physics and an infinite amount of animations for tackles and catches and such... Yes the computer AI was a little too good at jumping routes and intercepting the ball but I feel Madden 08 can be to Madden 09 what MVP 2004 was to MVP 2005. There is now a great foundation built. Next step is to take out some bugs and add in some presentation elements.

Yep, you would be the only one, considering the ball physics suck and there is nowhere near an infinite amount of animations. The ball is never effected by wind for one and it certainly doesn't bounce around accurately. Ever seen the ball warp into the hands of a DB in the NFL?

Play one whole season and you will see the same animations multiple times over. Same tackles, same post play animations, same throwing motions and jukes, etc.

I'm really not sure what game you are playing if you don't notice these things.

The AI sucks and continues to stink. CPU still doesn't run the ball well at all and can't throw for crap. LBs still intercept and swat down balls that they never would in real life.

I could go on and on.....

[distauma]

Well I don't play franchise in Madden 08, because admittedly I think it's very bare bones... But I do play a lot amongst friends on local multiplayer, and I have never had so much fun playing an NFL video game before. That includes the Joe Montana games, Playstation Madden games, Blitz games, NFL 2k sports series, and even back to Tecmo Super Bowl.

Sometimes I think people complain just because it's EA Sports. I did hate '06 and '07 iterations, but are you gonna tell me 2k5 was the most realistic NFL simulation you ever played? All sports games have aggravating qualities, but human against human Madden '08 is a great game. And that's all that matters to me.