Madden 08 Community Day has concluded here in Orlando, and I have to say I've never played 12 straight hours of Madden football before.  We went from 9am till 9pm today, playing against other Community Leaders and with the Madden development team themselves.

 

The first thing that struck me at my first EA Sports Madden Community Day is just how much "like us" the Madden design team members are.   I'm talking about David Ortiz, Rob Moye, Ian Cummings, Yuri Bialoskursky, and Daniel Castorani (DCas). 

 

These guys know the wish lists.  They know what the community has been requesting.  They want the same thing.  Every issue that we compiled in the forums was brought up by the developers themselves without me having to tell them.. (with the exception of Big Mean Bunny's question about Wembley Stadium being included in the game or not... although when I asked that question, D-Cas said he thinks they included Wembley in current-gen, but not next gen.)

 

I was extremely impressed with both the current & next gen team members.

 

Now... as for Madden 08 itself...

I can say without reservation that its going to be a huge hit, and it plays a very good game of football.  The frame-rate is incredible, and the controls allow for "twitch" movement.  Guys who are good "on the sticks" are going to have an advantage this year more than any other year.  Sure, the same was said of NCAA 08, but Madden's controls- in my opinion- are much more responsive and far more sensitive.  You can influence your share of missed tackles if you are good with the reflexes.  The same is true of great "manual catching" control.  There's also a ton of practice modes where you can hone you skills...which you'll need to do because of the enhanced level of control.

It's also the best looking football game I've ever seen.  The graphics are top notch in all ways this year.  Madden, or any other football game, has never looked better at all view disdances than Madden NFL 08 next gen.

 

I'm also elated to report that many of my gripes with NCAA 08 next gen seem to have been remedied with Madden 08 NG.  The menus seem to move MUCH faster- which is a big thing. (And can be an even BIGGER thing online.)  So that's improved. 

 

Also, I know I've been seriously frustrated with NCAA 08's crazy jumping INTs by LBs & DBs.  For one thing, Madden 08 seems to have better pass trajectories (and not as low as NCAA 08's passes).. and more importantly, the players generally play within a more realistic physics parameter by comparison to NCAA 08.  Thats pretty big.  Passes in general seem to give you much more control than NCAA 08.  Precision passing and the lob/bullet controls seem dead-on.   I really needed to see that after being somewhat disappointed with passing in NCAA, so finding out that Madden's passing controls were better 

 

I also find myself really liking the weapons system in Madden.  This is probably no surpise, because I liked what was essentially the same system in All Pro Football 2K8.  It really differentiates the special players in the league, and I know myself and others were glad to have those weapon icons shown- especially on offense, so we could see immediately which star defenders where lined up where.  Plus, motioning your own weapons often causes your opponent (be they AI or human) to react with a defensive shift in fear of that player, causing something you might want to exploit in your playcalling. 

 

I think you are all going to like how the weapons are handled.  I know many of you have been seriously afraid of the "Smart QB" ability where the QB can see the defenses play.  Its far less "exploitable" than you might think, and in an odd way, it actually encourages more realism.  Of course, you are probably saying "What the HELL is Quietcool talking about?"

Here's how it works- the "Smart QB" icon meter is slow to "fill up" to begin with.  The only way it fills up is after repeated use of the same defensive play(s).  So lets say you have Tom Brady, and your opponent calls a dime cover 2 man under at least twice per defensive series.  Repeated use of that same play will eventually fill up the "lightbulb" icon that signifies a smart QB.  At that moment, the QB can choose to hit the R trigger and left bumper to reveal a defensive play.   You don't have to use it the second it fills up.  You can save it for later in the game when you might want to use it.  Once you use it, the play are for ONE PLAY is revealed, and the smart QB icon loses all its charge, and can only be charged again by repeated use of the same defensive plays (again) by the defense.  It sounds cheesier than it really is, trust me on that, but it also encourages full use of a defensive playbook and less utilization of the same plays & blitzes.  You gotta mix it up.  If you mix up your defensive playcalling, the smart QB's icon won't fill at all.  Its that simple.    What's more, the QB gets to the line and if he does use the ability, the user might not have the right play called for that D.  Sure, they might audible to something else, but it can also lead to the offense calling a time-out because they don't have a play called that might work against the defensive call that was revealed to them.  So it can actually benefit the defense at times too.  I saw many successful players in the tourney today simply not care if the smart QB they were playing against used the ability. 

 

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