It is time to put up or shut up!

Ok Maddenites, the time has finally come for you. The midnight sale of “the most highly anticipated football game of the year”, Madden NFL 08, is tonight. This midnight sale will take place at many local Gamestop’s and EB Games stores throughout the world. Check gamestop.com, and ebgames.com for more information.

Now if you are a fan of this franchise like I am, you should not be ashamed to admit that we have not been getting our money’s worth out of the next gen versions of the game since the debut of Madden NFL 06 for the Xbox 360. The 06′ version was completely barren, with only season and play now modes to choose from. EA’s attempt at making the 07′ version better with adding the superstar mode, franchise mode, and the lead blocking control was a good improvement. It did still fall way short of expectations, however, leaving the madden fans wanting more out of this year’s installment.

So what have the folks done at EA Tiburon to give us the complete experience out of the Madden franchise this year? Well, after watching a five part series on Gametrailers.com entitled “Monday night Madden”, I found out that are plenty of new additions to this years game to hopefully make it the best next-gen sports game ever. Here is a short list of some of the new additions coming to this year’s game:

1. The Debut of owner mode: This allows you to fully manage every aspect of the team that you play for. From draft day, to hiring coaches and staff, and managing your rosters, everything you could want to do with your team is now at your fingertips.

2. Player Weapons: This is a new system that shows your key players on the team, and what areas that they are most effective in. This also changes the gameplay, forcing you to better think what play you are going to do, and who you are going to use to execute the play.

3. Championship ring : Instead of having gamer levels this time around, you now have a ring that you can build up and show off online to your friends. You build up the bling to your ring by accomplishing tasks during games, and to also earn trophies that you can put on the line against your friends in online play.

4. Player animations: The players look more realistic than superhuman this time around, looking more proportional to their human counterparts than ever before. Gang tackling has been improved, making it harder to move around defenders. Wide receivers will actually stay in bounds after making a sideline catch, and intercepting the ball is now easier than ever before.

With all of the new features that are being added to the game this year, the final question is “How does it, or how will it all come together”? I personally hope that the final product is well worth the 60 dollars that I spent on it, and if it is not worth it then I will have to take my money elsewhere.

Here is a link to the review Gametrailers.com did on the game, check it out, and see if you agree:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/23439.html

Until next time gamers, this is Mr B4 signing off.

Take care,

B4

Links to midnight sales locations:

http://www.gamestop.com/gs/ncaamadden/midnight_stores.html

http://www.ebgames.com/gs/ncaamadden/midnight_stores.html

Posted by: Mr B4 on August 13th, 2007