[BabeSlayer]

Madden 08 Review by (BabeSlayer)

Well, its finally here, some of us have been waiting two years for a game of this caliber to hit our Xbox, and after last night, all doubts and distaste i had for the Madden franchise has left me completley. When I first heard the new madden was coming out I was peeked, souly due to the fact that I love football, i'd figure'd i'd get it just becaue it was madden and hey why not. Then as it got closer and closer the more i heard the more excited I was. When yesterday finally arrived and at midnight i was gonna pick it up. I started to get scared. Thinking this year would be another let down, and that it just wouldn't live up to the hype and all of those things. When i finally got my hands on the game and got it into my xbox i booted it up and the opening cinamatic was of course excellent, i thought to myself well its off to a good start. When I loaded up my first game (Denver Broncos VS Oakland Raiders) I lost the coin toss and had to kick off, thinking to myself oh man i'm gonna get rocked first play.....as my thoughts were going here and i non chalantly kicked off the ball suddenly i was ingrossed in the game the kickoffs ARE AMAZING now, Jason Elam (best kicker in the NFL bar none) launched the sucker outa the enzone but it was like i was watching a cinamatic it was pretty impressive. Needless to say the rest of the game progressed, me starting on defense and actually being able to control the defence (this is new for me in past maddens the deffence has been so sloppy feeling) long story short amazing first game which i won by 21 points in the end and had some pretty amazing game moments through it. Now there is a couple of things I wanna point out

1. The new hitstick 2.0, this new little inovation is simply down right pure fun. I was dropping quarterbacks with heavy hits to the upper body, and undercutting recievers running cross routes all night long. Nothing gets old about watching a reciever fly through the air just to be hit again.

2. Complete control Defense. You have so much you can do on defense now, no longer will one reciever just tear your team apart, you can pin two guys on that SOB, No longer will mobile Quarterbacks run rampit on you, you can call guys up for quarterback containment. There is so much depth to what you can do that quit literally you can counter anything if you know what to expect, picking up on tendancies is KEY in this one, where as before it was helpful in 08 if you don't do it you will be beaten and beaten badly.

3. Weapons of the field. Players which excel in certain areas have weapon icons (atleast thats what i'm calling them) for instance John Lynch (Free Saftey for the Denver Broncos) Is known as one of the hardest hitting players in the league he of course has a hammer under his name indicating he can deliver a punch, and he does i forced 2 fumbles with him and broke up countless passes. He also has a light bulb which means he is an intelligent player, this shows in his pass deffense ability, not the quickest but almost always is between the ball and the reciever. Another example, Cutler the QB for the Broncos has a rocket under his name indicating that he has a rocket of an arm...and he sure does very few people can gun it in there like Jay Cutler. Utilizing these weapons is key winning games, miss matching and off setting the weapons on the field is like an elborate game of chess, and is really rewarding when you pull it off.

All in all I am highly impressed with my initial exposure to Madden 08, and look forward to getting into the game more deeply. I played 3 games of single player last night and one online and even the online game first night wasn't laggy, still wasn't perfect mind you but leeps and bounds better than what i've come to expect from sports games online. I lost so the outcome wasn't what i wanted but i had a chance to win, and can't blame it on lag or anything of the sort....i wouldn't have it any other way . If anyone else is getting this game and wants to go up against my Broncos hit me up and i'll show ya how its done at Mile High!