There's something funny about an old football player standing in the middle of a huddle at a team practice and trying to understand a conversation about current pop culture. His beard is graying, his hairline is receding and he is telling that same joke he told 10-years ago.
It's the NFL and it is mid summer, and he was one of the greatest men ever to put on a helmet. But now Johnny Marino Montana is getting old and no matter how much weight he loses, spray tan he cakes on, or hairpieces he buys, there is still some rust on the old engine.
Madden NFL '13 runs out on to the field this season boasting several dramatic changes to the franchise.But the problem is that most of them are decorative.
Lets begin with what is the biggest innovation to actual game play, the new infinity engine has varied tackling animations and real-time physics that can produce a fantastic array of hits you haven't seen in Madden before. Great right? Not really, because these awesome effects are very inconsistent. After plays you will see linemen flopping around worst than Lebron James in the NBA playoffs.
Players sometimes feel as if they are giant magnets that are set off by positive and negative charges. Sometimes your running back is drawn right into the clutches of the opposing team's linebacker. Other times your player gets pushed back by this mysterious negative charge. The game has no understanding of forward progress.
Many times I would rush past the first-down marker only to be tackled and pushed 3-yards back and have the in-game officials mark me down at the spot of the tackle rather than at the spot where my forward progress was stopped. Football is a game of inches and when I am losing yards based on the game's engine, I can't help but to feel slighted. And I became downright angry when I was brought to the ground by simply brushing against another player's arm. When it rained or snowed, my receiver slipped on routes like they were trying to run across black ice.
The new system isn't all bad and shows some promises for the future. The engine makes you have to think like you are really on the field surrounded by other players. You have to avoid bouncing into teammates and opponents alike, which is very realistic in the game of football. The new engine gives player some weight and running backs and quarterback feel like different animals, as they should. I also felt like the animation was improved from the Madden NFL '13 demo that was released two weeks ago.
The passing game has been rebuilt this year and takes some practice to truly master. The game has an improved play action passes, and the all-new read and react defensive AI system, which should in theory fix the super linebackers of the past. But I still saw a linebacker make an occasional Spider-Man like leap to intercept a pass. I also noticed an increase in offensive holding penalties during the game, My team actually had about 15 in one game and 9 in another. The opposing teams I played also had lots of holding calls.
What I like about the new passing system and react defense is that it makes gamers work for their passing yards. Every passing play feels like a chess game and gamers have to be weary of DBs, who read and react to the backfield in order to make plays for the ball. In my first few games, I tossed quite a few interceptions and also picked off a high number of passes on the defensive side of the ball. The other thing is I never felt like I could hit my receivers in stride due to the infinity engine, which made their bodies turn to spaghetti at the slightest contact from a cornerback or safety. I think all of these new game mechanics would really have shined If EA had a longer development time.
The commentary has improved greatly thanks to Phil Simms and Jim Nantz, but the duo still get repetitive and boring at times. I think 2K Sports had the right idea back when they hired voice actors to do the commentary for their NFL 2K series. Actors cost a lot less and provide a lot more commentary. If you are going to have real announcers in the game make sure you get them to provided a lot of dialogue.
Many people have said that Madden's franchise mode was getting old and boring, but I actually liked it and the superstar mode too. Connected Careers is supposed to be some monstrous hybrid of superstar and franchise mode. You can follow the career of a player or a coach and level them up by completing goals. I always felt like I was the team president in the old franchise mode. The new mode makes me feel like I am being forced to play a cheesy role playing game. I wish EA would have kept the old Franchise mode in as a third option.
The overhauled scouting and free agency, is a welcomed addition and worked much better than last season's edition. When you are scouting a college player the ability to choose which attributes and traits to scout is a helpful feature for building your future team. The entire draft process feels more realistic with things like potential draft picks going back to school or finding out a player has character issue that would make Dez Bryant blush. The one thing that I was upset about, was that I could no longer sign or cut players on my team before starting a new career mode. If I want to start a season with Cam Newton on the Steelers, I should be able to do that.
The NFL is driven by story-lines and the career mode's hub is filled with them. The fake Twitter accounts of Mark Schlereth, LaVar Arrington and Skip Bayless really make Madden feel like a living breathing world. Hearing about players around the league also adds to that illusion.
I feel like Madden NFL '13 truly set out to do something great, but fell tragically short. The game introduces many ideas this season that will make the franchise a lot better on the next generations of consoles. I give the game an 8/10, despite all the issue I had with the game it is still fun to play and challenging, plus it is the only NFL licensed football game in town. I have not had enough time to truly play the online version of the career mode as of now, so that could possibly bring the score up in the near future.
I reviewed the game on Xbox 360 and I must say that the Kinect pre-snap commands barely worked and were very inconvenient. By the time I played my fifth or sixth game I just shut the kinect off. I just kept getting delay of game penalties.
