 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | EA Tiburon |
| Publisher: | EA Sports | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
The strongest element of Madden falls into the arms of the deep Franchise Mode. This mode is essentially the same Owner-style mode we’ve seen in years past with a few new improvements. Players now have impact roles which change based on performance over the years. For example, a rookie player who underperforms can get a bust rating in his second or third year. Defensive stars get appropriate roles as well. These roles effect how much you have to shell out during contract negotiations, and can act as a barometer for players trying to figure out which players aren’t living up to their deals and should be cut. Rookie scouting has been improved during the mode, and you can play in the College All-Star game to get a feel for how the rookies are performing. You also see fewer lopsided trades, as draft value actually has some bearing during negotiations. For example, you’re less likely to grab a first-round player like Reggie Bush or Vince Young for a 35 year old Defensive Tackle. This is a long-overdue change. The trading system is still not fixed completely however, as you can often chump out teams from draft picks or rip them off with the right combination.
You still have a variety of Owner controls for the behind the scenes management. While nowhere near as in depth as some of the things we’ve seen in 989’s Gameday (or really, any of their sports) series, you can still set ticket, parking, and concession prices. The one thing that seriously needs an overhaul though involves creating a new stadium. No matter how you combine the pieces, the user-created stadiums still look generic.
I think the biggest problem I have with the Franchise Mode is the same long-standing problem I’ve had across all sports title Franchise Modes: you never have down-cycles once you clear that hurdle and win a championship. Much like how NCAA Football 07’s dynasty gets repetitive and boring due to your team becoming unstoppable, Madden NFL 07 never manages to capture the realities of the post salary cap NFL. You rarely if ever have bad drafts, you rarely if ever have players that totally tank, and quite frankly never will have a problem once you get your team over the hump. There is no down-cycle, and that is quite simply unrealistic. Every team has to go through stretches where rebuilding is necessary, yet I can still create a Madden franchise that dominates the entire league hand-over-fist year after year.
The NFL Superstar mode returns with a goal: get to the Hall of Fame. This mode allows you to import your NCAA Legend character and dominate in the pros. On that note, if you really just don’t want a challenge, import your NCAA character. You retain the stats you had in NCAA Football 07 instead of getting the standard rating bump-down like you’d see in the draft. Unless you just didn’t add points to this character, he should be maxed out in every level. This translates line by line to Madden, and simply makes the mode much easier. The overall goal for this mode is to shine in the NFL Combine, get drafted, develop a personality and perform well enough over your career to get to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton.
Here’s the kicker: the camera is positioned directly behind your player for a 3rd person view. While this is fine for Quarterbacks and Running backs, it can be extremely hard to deal with for receivers or defenders. Honestly, its fun to an extent, but can get really boring over time. You don’t call your own plays, so you get a challenge in that sense (although it can limit the performance of receiving offensive players), and you can elect to play or watch an accelerated game when you aren’t on the field. Honestly, I just couldn’t see myself or anyone sticking with this mode for an entire career. The camera limitations make it boring to play, and it's even more boring when you aren’t on the field.
Madden NFL 07 brings one of the most popular online games back to both the PS2 and Xbox version. However, EA’s interface is still bulky, sloppy, and downright annoying. If you’re on the EA lithe PS2, you have to agree to get your Email address spammed with advertisements every so often to play (roughly once every few weeks). Xbox users don’t get that, but they have to log into Xbox Live to log into EA’s servers.
EA’s servers are the Internet equivalent of a torture chamber. They have one feature that I love: a sports ticker that reports real-life sports. Every other aspect of taking the game online has consisted of one of the worst online gaming experiences I’ve had in recent memory. First, the servers experience slowdown and lag due to the bulky nature, and this is clearly present on the Xbox. Using the same Xbox, I can go play a lag-free game of Halo 2, Forza, or even MLB 2K6. Madden gives me slow-down, lag-plagued games, and an awkward match-up system.
You can select a quick-match, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Instead, I used the Advanced Matchmaking controls to get into ranked matches. This allows you to match up with players of similar ranks who want the same settings. The settings are exactly the problem. The fixed clock setting for Ranked Games has four minute quarters.
Think about this, you have four minute quarters, and a 40 second playclock. What you wind up getting is an entire breed of player that forces clockball. I can respect clockball in certain respects. If I’m playing a full game with 15 minute quarters, I’d expect it. Running out a 40 second playclock in four minute quarters allows for roughly 2 or 3 possessions in a half. You’ll put up games with 90 yards of offense if you deal with this.
Don’t expect a lag-free connection either. I’ve had at least three different games on both consoles where the server will disconnect both players. In almost every other title that has ranked games, this is not considered a disconnect. This is a throwout game. In Madden NFL 07, this gives both players a disconnect and I believe (though I’m not sure due to the delay in posting records to the opposing player and the uncontrollable nature of duplicating this with friends) both players get a loss. Are you serious? The shoddy server boots us off and I get a disconnect?
Core gameplay mechanics aren’t there. In my extensive online play, I received ONE penalty (not counting delay of games, false starts, or encroachments). ONE. Think about that for a second. No holding, no pass interference, no late hits, or anything along those lines. It isn’t like they’re being committed. I’ve had players control safeties and blatantly impede the route to the point where my receiver-on-a-rail (God forbid you make receivers smart enough to not follow the play exactly) can’t even get to the ball. Oh yeah, if you get a questionable call that should be able to get overturned by instant replay, don’t bother since the feature isn’t in ranked online games. Yeah, they tried not having Instant Replay in the real NFL and brought it back. Why? Short answer is that nobody wants to win or lose because of a blown call.
The one control feature that has improved online gameplay is the improved juke controls mapped to the right stick. Since everyone loves to overuse the Hit Stick online, just tap back on the right stick while running to do a back-juke that will more often than not cause the defensive players to dive right past you.
Posted: 2006-10-07 20:48:28 PST