Madden NFL 08: For the non-fan!

Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA
Released on: August 14, 2007
System: If you can play games on it, you can get Madden on it!
ESRB Rating: E
Review based on: Xbox 360
Official Website: Madden NFL 08

The Scoop: The 2008 version of EA's yearly NFL football game.

Hitting Start...

• "Please pick your favorite team." Trouble already. I'm Canadian and not really a football fan.*
• The trophy room looks pretty cool. It's got a little stand in the middle for Superbowl rings with a Saints logo (my new favorite team!) in the middle.
  
• Oh here we go. I've got to hit start to bring the menus up. All looks pretty clean and simple.
• I start a game right away. I'll worry about season mode or franchise mode or what ever the hell it's called later on.
• Lots of pretty loading screens outlining the features new to this years game. None of which really mean anything to me since the last football game I played to any extent was about 3 years ago on last generations hardware.
• Finally into the action. The player models look fantastic as do the player animations. The sidelines look a little lifeless but it's a minor complaint in my opinion.
  
• I let John Madden pick my plays starting off as I expect he knows more about football than I do!
• I go though the motions getting the hang of how it all works. It's pretty standard for a beginner. Snap the ball with "A" pick a guy and throw the ball to his corresponding button. Run it and juke, jump, spin and stiff arm your way as far down the field as you can get. (I'm aware the controls can be a lot more complex than that and I'll pick it up in time)
• It's half time and I'm getting my ass handed to me! Maybe the AI John Madden doesn't know what he's doing after all!

...Time to get some Cheetoes and settle in for the second half



Am I impressed?: Yes
How come?: I'm not a football fan but I do enjoy sports video games. I'm the kind of guy who only picks up a Madden game every two or three years and still hadn't jumped onto next-gen Madden. It seems like this year with a 2K football game looming, though still not a NFL game, EA picked up the slack and worked hard to make a better Madden. If you play every year give it a rent and try it out. You may be surprised. But if you're a guy like me and only play every couple of years you should definitely check it out. I think you'll be impressed.