Madden 08 Hands On

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:17 pm

bkrich83 wrote:Is anyone else planning to get the PC version? I thought it was by far the best of the bunch last year, and I think I might give it a shot again this year.

Yes. I'm getting the PC version only. Madden 07 is very fun -- both in terms of entertainment and realism, at least to me -- on the PC. Plus when you add in the constant roster updates and the mod community ... ding-ding!

Take care,
PK

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:38 pm

pk500 wrote: Yes. I'm getting the PC version only. Madden 07 is very fun -- both in terms of entertainment and realism, at least to me -- on the PC. Plus when you add in the constant roster updates and the mod community ... ding-ding!

Take care,
PK

It's tough to beat the price too.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:49 pm

tealboy03 wrote:Every stinkin' sports game, it seems, MUST be absolute sim to some of you, and I just don't understand it. I personally don't LIKE getting my ass handed to me by the CPU, and some of you aren't happy until it can. Okay. We just see things WAY differently.

Personally, I can only in good conscience hold EA accountable for their promises. On the Madden website, EA claims to "provide the most realistic NFL gaming experience ever." That's not me talking. It's EA. That's not my standard. It's theirs. I don't need perfection. They aren't promising perfection. But if I can get 3-5 interceptions a game in Madden it's not a "realistic NFL gaming experience." If I can't use their sliders (not MY idea. I haven't needed to touch sliders or they don't exist in my favorite sports games MLB 07 and Winning Eleven) and set them to *zero* to diminish this problem then I'm going to b*tch. I'm going to b*tch because maybe someone else has the same problem and maybe they can tell me how to fix it.

Plus, I visit this board and spend a lot of time here because I thought this was a place for the "hardcore sports videogame enthusiasts." I mean, if this is not the place for people analyzing sports games, discussing the annoyances, how they could get better, how to fix what is broken, then were is that place anymore? Isn't that what made this place and SR great in the past? Honest opinions and discussions. Praise when it is earned and criticism when it is warranted, according to the standards of the "hardcore" sports gaming. I'd hate to see this place the site that gives every game a "C" or better so we don't hurt anyone's feelings.

And I'm a little surprised at all the concern and pity for EA. For goodness sakes even the folks bashing (and I use that term loosely because you can criticize and want something better and it can not be bashing in most cases) them probably buy 3-6 games a year from EA or would if they didn't get them for free.

And I'm the last person that wants their ass handed to them in a videogame. I just want to *earn* my victories and losses. I want to experience my big plays in a game that is marketed as a sim and not have them handed to me.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:28 pm

After reading the following, tell me why I shouldn't wait until next year....very interesting indeed.

http://forums.operationsports.com/vBull ... p?t=216371

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:09 pm

sportdan30 wrote:After reading the following, tell me why I shouldn't wait until next year....very interesting indeed.

http://forums.operationsports.com/vBull ... p?t=216371

Because you want to play a game this year?

Nozzleman_216 · Post by **Nozzleman_216** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:32 pm

NO KIDDING!! That was an interesting read and it seems that next year is THE year for Madden. I do not have this game reserved and I have been back and forth as to whether or not to buy it. I mean, I love college football and I am loving NCAA 08, but I love my Browns (laugh away if you like) and I am so excited for this year (as for just about everyone before this LOL) but when you love a shitty team every year there is always something that seems like it MIGHT be that glimmer of hope to get you to the playoffs. And every year I think about playing as my Browns in Madden and this year is no different. BUT with all the games coming out in the coming months I am going to try and pass on this one. I will devote a lot of time to NCAA (sometimes it would get lost in Madden or another game) and I am really looking forward to Tiger also.

So next year sounds like the year, although we have heard it before. If the tone of this game changes around here I may pick it up but I doubt it. I will be holding out for one more year.

Zlax45 · Post by **Zlax45** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:41 pm

IGN gives it a 8.7

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/812/812241p1.html

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:41 pm

We're talking about next year already? Oh my....

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:46 am

Well OS turned into a Madden wasteland fast.

People that only had the game for an hour but already claiming it to be the best ever.

I'll wait for some of you guys and DSP's impressions tomorrow.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:00 am

JRod wrote:I'll wait for some of you guys and DSP's impressions tomorrow.

Why? If you don't buy it, we won't get to see the cookie cutter 'hardass on sports games' response. Oh how we'll miss that.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:08 am

From OS:

Toysrus.com has a 20% off in-store coupon for just about every item. They didn't say anything about video games being excluded.

Good til the 18th.

Or you can order Madden from their online site and get 50% off another game.

Of course, at the end of September, they have usually have the buy 2 get 1 free sale.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:27 am

My Last Midnight Madden

Disclaimer: This is not an impression just a story.

So last night I figured I go join in the annual geek fest known as Midnight Madden. Being a 41 year old geek myself I figured it would be fun. It was a nice night here in Chicagoland, 63 degrees and just a perfect sky.

I pre-ordered from a new store this year, my old store usually had 125-150 people for Madden night and I never ended up getting home til after 1am. this new store only had about 30 people and I would say half of them were just there to hang out. There were a number of girlfriends hanging around and most dressed like they just came from a club.

So I settled in my chair about 11:15 with a cooler of Corona after getting number 11. They did a better system then my old store having you pay if you got there early and giving you a number to go in the store in pairs of 2 at midnight to pick it up. A bunch of people showed up a few minutes after midnight and even though they had pre-paid had to wait.

So a group of college kids were set up next to me, they had a little grill going and also had some beverages. They had a nice wiffleball game going on and after talking to them a bit I got a nice Brat off the grill.

All in all it was a different experience and it felt like a party, but one I shouldn't of been at. So here comes the kicker, once of the girls starts talking to me I am guessing she was somewhere between 21-23. Really nice girl, way overdressed to be in a Gamestop parking lot but very cute. So we are just chatting and then she goes "So are you here to pick the game up for your kid?"

Well after some laughter and s*** talking back and forth and an apology
(I think she felt bad or at least pretended to, not that I cared). I realized that it may be time for me to stop going to these things.

Anyway I was out of there and home by 12:15 and played two quick games. I'll post some impressions in a minute.

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:39 am

ouch.

snate · Post by **snate** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:50 am

Danimal wrote:My Last Midnight Madden

Disclaimer: This is not an impression just a story.

So last night I figured I go join in the annual geek fest known as Midnight Madden. Being a 41 year old geek myself I figured it would be fun. It was a nice night here in Chicagoland, 63 degrees and just a perfect sky.

I pre-ordered from a new store this year, my old store usually had 125-150 people for Madden night and I never ended up getting home til after 1am. this new store only had about 30 people and I would say half of them were just there to hang out. There were a number of girlfriends hanging around and most dressed like they just came from a club.

So I settled in my chair about 11:15 with a cooler of Corona after getting number 11. They did a better system then my old store having you pay if you got there early and giving you a number to go in the store in pairs of 2 at midnight to pick it up. A bunch of people showed up a few minutes after midnight and even though they had pre-paid had to wait.

So a group of college kids were set up next to me, they had a little grill going and also had some beverages. They had a nice wiffleball game going on and after talking to them a bit I got a nice Brat off the grill.

All in all it was a different experience and it felt like a party, but one I shouldn't of been at. So here comes the kicker, once of the girls starts talking to me I am guessing she was somewhere between 21-23. Really nice girl, way overdressed to be in a Gamestop parking lot but very cute. So we are just chatting and then she goes "So are you here to pick the game up for your kid?"

Well after some laughter and s*** talking back and forth and an apology
(I think she felt bad or at least pretended to, not that I cared). I realized that it may be time for me to stop going to these things.

Anyway I was out of there and home by 12:15 and played two quick games. I'll post some impressions in a minute.

LOL. Great story. Thanks for sharing.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:53 am

Ok so I played two quick games on All-pro defaults. Not enough time to formulate decent opinions. so these are more of the gut reaction variety, most of these will be nothing new.

General
+ Game is super smooth and fast. NCAA and APF are like slow motion compared to this game. I really like the speed, some may find it to twitchy but you really need to make decesions fast.

+ Controls are the most responsive I have ever seen in a video game, I never worry about getting caught in an animation or how long something is going to take. It just flows so nicely.

+ Game Flow is fast. This is going to be a minus to some. But it gets back to the action really wuickly from the playcalling screen, on kick offs and punts. No need to hit A a lot.

- AI calls plays too fast. Forget about setting a lot of defensive audibles. Also count on spending many game learjning the audibles there are so many. Someone like Manning will give you more time he audibles so much. But on the whole you've got time to make 1-3 adjustments depending how fast you are.

+ No mario running. I think the running game in Madden has surpassed what 2K5 and APF have done IMO. I couldn't force mario running and I tried in my first game. I like the flow of the running game. It like grind, grind and myabe bust one here and there. I felt a real difference in using Benson in game one and LT in game 2.

+ Passing game is better then NCAA, still not up to APF which has it near perfect IMO. But you can put touch on the ball and lead receivers. You also really need to work through your progeressions quickly, no sitting in the pocket forever like NCAA.

Also opposing QB's will scramble (if they are mobile) if they work through their progressions and no one is open. No mobile guys will eat the ball of through it away. I saw Manning take 3 sacks because of coverage and he threw two away. That really impressed me.

Game 1 Bears 3 vs Packers 10

I took my Bears against the packers at home for the first game. I am used to playing a game of madden on all-pro and winning off the jump, Not tonight.

Suprisingly Lanc Briggs is not a weapon, anyway I really tried to work the ground game. But the packers were shutting down Benson. He ended up with 41 yars on 11 carries. His longest rung was 11 yards on a nice move.

The game was a defensive slug fest. Favre threw no INT's and Grossman threw 2 INT's. To be fair both of them were my fault, i tried to force on to Berrian in double coverage and the other one I just didn't see the OLB in a hook zone. Neither of those felt cheap.

Passing is extremly hard which I like. But you have to work through your progressions so fast and hit the open guys fast of it closes down. It was a 3-3 game in the 4th, I must als onote I made a goal line stand when the Pack had theb all at the first and goal on the one in the 2nd quarter.

The Pack scroed with 3 minutes left on a 56 yard pass play, Bubba Franks ran and out and this is what happend. He got hit immediately by Tillman but he spon off that hit. Then I think Brown starterd to wrap him up but Briggs came in to finish him off and he was still twisting and instead he knocked of Brown. There was no one left in fton of Franks and he managed to get into the endzone after that. I didn;t do this play justice by the description, but it was freaking cool.

Game 2 San Diego 14 - Indy 28

I wanted to play a game with some other teams and see how an elite RB worked and boy waht a dfifference. LT was just elusive and a lot of the time 2 yard gains turned into 4 or 5. He ran the ball 18 times and got 63 yards, and he earned all of them because Indy was on him fast. Gates always seemed to be in double coverage and I just couldn't get much going. The good news is zero picks for me.

Manning threw one pick but he got hammered as he was throwing and the ball was a duck that my DE happened to come down with. again cool to see in action, hard to describe. Manning was a beast, his light bulb fills us if you use the same play a lot so I really had to mix up my D. In all his bulb filled up once for the whole game.

i used the receiver spot light feature a lot in this game to try and take away Mannings big guys. So he diced me up with some guy (#11 Indy fans) who had no problem going over the middle. This game was a lot of fun, but had a different feel then the first one which was more of a grinder game, while this one was more of an open speed game.

Conclusion

None really at this point. I like what little I saw and will hit it again tonight. This game at first take is definetly better then NCAA and a lot of fun to play. I won't make any claims as this being the best Madden ever etc I need to 25-30 games before having a solid opinion. But my initial thoughts are its fun, smooth and fast.

kicko · Post by **kicko** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:58 am

i know... ouch

what you could have said is your picking the game up for you 21 year old girlfriend that is just too tired to pick it up herself due to a major sexfest earlier in the evening.

i'm 31 and i could have waited but i figured i was up and it was one less thing i had to do today.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:17 am

Nice impressions Danimal. I like hearing that the game flow is fast. Too often I'm hitting the A button to speed up the game and get to the next play.

Any fumbles in your game?

How responsive is the "hit stick" in terms of hitting the ball carrier high or low?

Are you seeing more animations in Madden than NCAA or about the same?

Thanks.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:22 am

Game flow is crazy fast. One thing I like vs. APF is that the CPU's offensive formation comes up almost immediately between plays. In APF I'm just waiting for it, watching dudes run around.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:23 am

sportdan30 wrote:Nice impressions Danimal. I like hearing that the game flow is fast. Too often I'm hitting the A button to speed up the game and get to the next play.

Any fumbles in your game?

Keep in mind it was 2 games. I saw 2 fumbles, both in the Bears game. The Indy game was pretty clean except for the manning INT and again that was because he got hammered.

How responsive is the "hit stick" in terms of hitting the ball carrier high or low?

It feels a little better then NCAA in that I don't whiff as much. But one thing I have learned is that if you're not in perfect position to deliver the Hit stick your going to look silly. i see a lot of people using it as their main way of tackling, it shouldn't be. It is used for laying the wood when it is perfectly set up. As a former DB I can tell you that doesn't always happen.

Are you seeing more animations in Madden than NCAA or about the same?

Yes,

I saw a true 3 man tackle. The RB have some kick ass animations, same with the catches. Again this is not APF level but it is tons better then old madden's. the problem is some of the old ones that i hated, let me change that one of the old ones I hated is still in there. The one where they grab the guy and kind of spin and throw him to the ground. I hate that, when do you ever see that and I have seen it a handful of times.

Also I saw in the videos the piggy back tackle, I have yet to see that in a game. for the most part the tackles look a lot better, there are still the overdone wham hit you once and you go down. But honestly in the pile you don;t see that much, at least i didn't in 2 games.

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:23 am

I've played a few games and I like it.

Couple of things bother me, but not game killers. The kicking game needs to be fixed. There is absolutely no return game in the kick-off department because everything is too deep into the endzone, if not through it.

Other than that, I'm not going to nitpick. I've got all 3 football games here and I enjoy them all.

I used to be worried about getting the right settings, stats, etc etc etc. Now, I'm going back to the 5 or 6 minute, all pro and just go with it mentality. It may not be perfect, but it's good enough for me.

Of the 3 I think Madden is the best (initially), but each will get their fair share of time with me.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:27 am

PRBoom wrote: Couple of things bother me, but not game killers. The kicking game needs to be fixed. There is absolutely no return game in the kick-off department because everything is too deep into the endzone, if not through it.

Now that you say that I can't recall fielding a kick off anywehre closer then my 3 yard line. Must be a slider to cut that down.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:34 am

demonoid has the game in stock.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:39 am

I tried getting in but the doors are locked, sux.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:43 am

Danimal wrote:+ No mario running. I think the running game in Madden has surpassed what 2K5 and APF have done IMO.

Oh no....you're going to HELL for that statement...beware.

I f'n hate the running in APF...for some reason I am in the minority. Glad to see someone else actually say it.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:55 am

sportdan30 wrote: How responsive is the "hit stick" in terms of hitting the ball carrier high or low? Thanks.

It's a hit and miss for me. Like Danimal suggested you have to be in an almost perfect position to do any damage, because a quick juke here & there will make you miss most of the times. I tend to have more success using X.