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Review:

EA Tiburon is back again this year with yet another iteration of the popular Madden franchise. Madden is a game that has been released every year since its inceptionin
1988, and with each yearly release of the game gamers are faced with a question they must answer: is this years game worth it? For years now Madden has been a
game that has received the label of “Milked Franchise”, or in other words; a game released frequently or repeatedly released by a company to try and get a few extra
dollars from consumers by labeling it as brand new, with brand new features. Companies such as Nintendo and Activision are guilty of this. Nintendo with its constant re-
releasing of old games on their Wii and Nintendo 3DS console, and Activision with its constant re-releasing of the now dead franchise Guitar Hero. But I’m not here to r
ramble about companies and their business tactics. I'm here to talk about Madden 2012 and the improvements that EA Tiburon have made to the game. Madden has
been one of those franchises at least to me, that I love to hate. I love sitting down every year and playing the game, but at the same time I hate the stupid mistakes
made by the games A.I. OK, well let’s go ahead and get on to the actual review shall we.

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Presentation:

Madden year over year has been a franchise trying to get as close as possible to the game on Sunday, and with this version I believe they’ve accomplished that goal. EA Tiburon have implemented a new Camera System called (“DCAM”). DCAM uses camera angles to reproduce what you would see in a football game on Sunday. You’ll see players entering the field from the tunnels, unique zooms on players after big plays, and unique camera angles during Field Goals and Kickoffs. They even have close angles just before the game when the players decide which side of the field they choose to defend. Presentation on the field is literally over the top, the only downside is it seems that’s the only place they decided to pay attention to.

The crowd seems to suffer from what I like to Cardboard Ism. They all look like cardboard cutouts jumping up and down and cheering, even before the game starts when you're hovering over the stadium the cars and ground seem like they were added at the last minute. Facial emotions are a nice detail that I actually quite enjoyed at first, until I realized that my coach was smiling after I fumbled the ball and the opposing team scored a touchdown. He shouldn't be smiling; if anything he should look pissed, and be emoting that. Cheerleaders, something that I always over looked in the madden games seem to have suffered from the jokers laughing gas; there is absolutely no reason for them to be smiling ear-to-ear all the time. I almost wanted to ask them “Why So Serious”. Other than these gripes I have, the games presentation is solid and the best it has been in years.

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Game play:

Game play, game play, game play. Madden has been known for offering good gameplay but its more so known for the way the A.I behaves, and in this version of madden the flaws are still there just not as frequent. On numerous occasions I witnessed my offensive line standing their dumbfounded when the defense used a new blitz strategy that has been added to the new play books, it was like being trapped in in front of a stampede. Offensive line issues have plague madden for a while now and you would think this would be something that would've fixed by now. On the other hand passing the ball feels relatively good; the ball tends to leave the quarterback's hands a little slower than I would like but its not a major issue. Catching the ball seems way easier than before, the players will automatically stop just before going out of bounds, although I have notice quarterbacks will over through you sometimes if your sprinting instead of just running. An issue that could be patch-able?

It also seems that madden is still playing favorites with certain players. What I mean by this is if I tackle you with I don't know say five people repeatedly, there is no way in heck you will break all five tackles ADRIAN PETERSON!!! YOU WILL GO DOWN ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE BEHIND THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE!!!! Deep breaths, deep breaths. I understand he is an amazing Half Back, but when I go and create a guy and max all his stats out and you still manage to break more tackles then me in a game, when all I’m doing is run plays, and the game is on rookie. I’m sorry, but I call shenanigans. There is just no way. Other than the occasional moments when madden is playing favorites, or when the offensive line decides to cover their eyes, there aren't any real issues.

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Audio:

The audio soundtracks in the game are phenomenal, from major artist like Eminem, and Lil Wayne, to a few rock artist I have never heard of before. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the commentators and the Coach Cam audio. Numerous times I heard recycled dialogue between the commentators and the audio coming directly from the coach was absolutely asinine. Why would he be telling me, a running back not to throw the ball away if we’re doing a running play? Or better yet, when he told me to block for the quaterback and I’m supposed to be running a short slant route. I’m sure some of you are saying “he was talking to the full back” or the “lineman”, and quite frankly you could be right. But my issue with that is, why say this to me when I’m the quaterback at this point. It’s almost as if the game loads the audio associated with that play and doesn’t factor in that I’m playing a certain position on the field. All in all it would be good audio if I was just doing a random scrimmage but I’m not. I’m an NFL superstar locked into one position so I shouldn’t be hearing what you tell the lineman or wide receivers unless it involves me doing something crucial to make that play work. Audio wise I would suggest people turn off the commentators and the coach cam feature. It’s not a slight to the people who put in countless hours to record that dialogue, it’s just often extremely repetitive and sometimes laggy.

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Overall:

Overall this years madden is relatively good but plagued with the same issues as previous iterations of the franchise. EA Tiburon added 200+ features to this years madden some of them I absolutely love, and others I just could care less about. I think EA TIburon should listen to what Garnett Lee, over at ShackNews had to say. In his podcast weekend confirmed, he managed to put together the words that I believe all madden fans feel. I’ll include a link to the podcast and give you the time in which the madden discussion begins. In closing Madden 2012 is in no way a perfect football game, but its pretty darn close. I highly recommend people go out and buy this game and prepare themselves for some heart stopping hits, and some jaw dropping catches.