The success of a franchise begins in the boardroom on draft day and carries on through the hot days of summer workout programs. The ability to win is achieved by building on hard fought effort. Madden NFL '13 has had one hell of an offseason and may finally be on the cusp of a championship.
Madden NFL 13's demo looks great at first glance, but a deep evaluation is necessary before we handout a bronze bust in Canton. The Kinect feature on Xbox 360 can be a truly engaging and reality-bending feature. But at times it can also be a disorderly mess of frustration, and delay of game penalties.
The new voice command doesn't fully execute on its idea of on the fly adjustments, but it isn't a necessary feature to enjoy the game. Sometimes the Kinect just wouldn't pick up my commands and I would have to go back to the old school way of adjusting my formations and personal. I also think the pre-snap menu could use some adjusting as well. I rarely had enough time to read the offensive formation and adjust all facets of my coverage.
The presentation is awesome. Madden NFL '13 is visually a winner with cool shaky cams and unique angles. Everything is more realistic looking than in previous titles. Pile-ups and collisions are more natural and intense, but I did see the occasional arm going through another player's abdomen.
CBS broadcasters Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are mostly spot-on while calling the action. Thank god the developers got rid of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth, they were just atrocious last season. If there was one problem with the announcing, it was that there were too many moments of silence. At time they just didn't say anything. The real Phil Simms loves to talk about anything football related during an actual broadcast.
The game's halftime show was just underwhelming and is in need of a complete overhaul. I can't believe that NFL 2K5 still has the best virtual halftime in videogame football history.
There are still some minor gameplay problems like linebackers jumping too high to pick-off passes on higher levels of difficulty. The defensive backs finally play the ball as much as they play the receiver, but seem to have superhuman speed when jumping a pass. It is minor problem that just needs to be tweaked. The defensive side of the ball finally shows some aggression when making tackles and hitting running backs in the backfield. True gang tackles actually happen. Most of my gripes with the game are pretty minor and by my second or third play through of the demo, I was just enjoying football.
Although I have only played the demo, I can't help but feel like Madden NFL '13 is contender. EA Sports has finally gotten off their collective butts and put some time in at the weight room. The demo gets a 9-out-of-10, but keep in mind this is not the full product. I have no idea what the franchise mode or online mode will be like. But if this is any indication of what is to come, football fans should be very happy in two weeks.
Are you planning to buy Madden NFL '13? Answer our poll question below...