Madden 08 Gamespot Preview

During the NFL draft, Gamespot sneakily posted a preview of Madden 08. EA also released a few screenshots.

What did the Madden team at Tiberion add? Pretty much nothing so far. This version of madden looks like a patch release of Madden 07. This will probably be the game Madden 07 should have been.

It starts with overhauled animations, specifically tons of new branching animations. How many times in previous Madden games did you throw to a tight end or wideout near the sidelines, only to have the animation take the guy out of bounds when he clearly could have gained a few more yards by staying in bounds? According to producers, that will be a thing of the past, thanks to branching animation that was borrowed from another EA property: NBA Street Homecourt. No, you won't be watching Reggie Wayne execute triple back-flips into the end-zone, but on those crossing routes where he's heading to the sidelines, you'll likely see him plant his feet once he's hauled in the ball, and angle up-field to gain those crucial extra yards.

Should have been in years ago.

And speaking of tackling, gang-tackles, long missing from the series, debuted in the PlayStation 3 version of Madden NFL 07 and will now spread to include every version of Madden 08. As producers demonstrated in a video, tacklers can be added onto a pile at any point when trying to bring down a ball-carrier; equally important, tackles can be shed dynamically thanks to the aforementioned branching animation technology. One particularly cool video example of this showed Tomlinson, wrapped up by a defender, make a spin move, only to have an incoming defender run into the defender that first wrapped up LT, knocking him off the running back and letting Tomlinson gain a few more yards in the process.

Same.

Player fatigue has been a sore point in the past few Madden entries and the team has taken that into consideration with Madden 08, blowing out the feature this time around. As producers put it, every action on the field will count against a player's fatigue rating. You spend time scrambling around in the background with Michael Vick, and sooner or later he's going to wear out. In addition, temperature and location will make a difference to your player's performance--think of the thin frigid air at Mile High in December, or the sweltering late-summer heat in Miami. Just as in real life, those kinds of conditions will have an effect on how your team plays. This improved focus on fatigue should definitely affect how you play the game--do you go run-and-gun in order to tire out your opponent's defensive backs, or grind it out with your running backs in order to punish your foe's defensive line? Furthermore, you'll want to stay aware of your player's fatigue ratings as the game progresses? Calling a no huddle after you just sent your wideouts on streaks downfield? Bad idea. In fact, taking your time snapping the ball will actually benefit your team, as they get a chance to catch their breath before the next play.

Yes, Bug fixes. I recommend reading the entire article. Let me know if you come to the same conclusion. Madden 07 1.1