Madden NFL 09 (PlayStation 3)

Reviewed by David from Auckland, NZ on September 23rd, 2008

I can't believe this is getting 5 stars from people. The gameplay here is terrible. One of EA's big gimmick's was the adjusting difficulty, but it doesn't adjust the difficulty - it just makes the game ridiculous. For example, if your passing game improves: the defenders don't get tougher, the recievers start dropping the ball in the wide open with no one anywhere near them. Even better- when you have a good running game, expect that the next week your blockers will not block, and you will struggle to get back to the line.

The commentary is the worst I can ever remember for a Madden game: it is choppy, and unnatural - at least with the old "EA Radio" the commentary related to the game and it sounded like the commentator was watching, and he knew about your team. There is the EA Sports backtrack which, when you make a mistake (like an intercept) shows you where you went wrong...sounds good but the trouble is it will tell you should have thrown to the reciever with 3 defenders on him, instead the one with one. AS an aside it would have been good if it good show you when you do things right - like nice blitz etc

Sure there are some nice player animations in between plays but they can't hide the flaws. The graphics are OK compared to recent years - the grass looks good - if you buy games based on grass. The truth is EA are lazy, they have all the tools and all the money to make a great NFL game, but they have no competition (in licensed games) so they continue to essentially churn out the same game (with updated rosters) year after year. If you have Madden 08 I wouldn't bother.