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From 1up.com Senior producer Phil Frazier gave us an early look at the plans for Madden NFL 09 last week, but now we've finally seen the game in action. At the EA Sports Showcase event up at EA Canada's studios, Frazier gave Madden 09 its first public demo. During the show, he emphasized that EA focused this development cycle on two key upgrades that both the gaming press and the fans have clamored for: a significantly improved presentation and online leagues. We got the scoop on those online leagues already, but now we're flowing with more details (some are good, and some aren't as good). The good: You can play up to 32 teams, flex scheduling allows you to play games in any order, you can pull off 1-for-1 trades, you can conduct a fantasy draft with every user involved, and the commissioner can allow users to choose any team they want (so there could be three players with the Dallas Cowboys, for example). The not-so good: There aren't any divisions. That means teams will be jockeying for playoff spots against everyone involved, lessening the impact of rivalry games. Even if you have all 32 teams in the league, it won't change the setup. As for the presentation, it's downright sharp. Everyone always claims living, breathing environments in their videogames, but the sidelines in Madden are abuzz, and this ratchets up the energy level in the stadiums. It's not just the players milling about; you'll see sideline cameras, cheerleaders -- even piles of snow during winter games. Beyond that, fog hangs in the air, adding depth (last season, devs achieved the same effect with blur), and the completely reworked grass looks good enough to eat, er...run around on. What's special, though, are the new presentation elements that finally make Madden feel like an NFL broadcast. Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond are in the booth (no more echoey doofus speaking through a tin cup), and the semi-robotic-looking onscreen scoreboard looks stripped straight from Fox's TV broadcast. When you're playing in single-player, the playcalling menu sits on one side of the screen while the instant replay sits opposite. Even better, for those who take their Madden more seriously, there's no longer a need to go into the pause screen for substitutions or tweaking your depth chart; the instant replay is seamlessly replaced with pop-up menus for those options; the pop-up menus for those options will now seamlessly replace the instant replay... read full story HERE.
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