New not always better when it comes to ‘Madden’
The question I hear the most from readers is, "Do I have to buy the new 'Madden' football game?" These readers still are playing last year's "Madden," and they like it, and they don't want to spend $60 for the new one.
My subjective answer this year is mixed. On the one hand, I prefer the nearly flawless "Madden NFL '09" over "Madden NFL '10." On the other hand, the new "Madden" gives you online gamers a roster of football teams that are updated to reflect real and user-generated teams, plus more online gamers to tee off against.
The mechanics of playing football remain essentially the same. The game looks, feels and moves almost as intuitive and smooth as last year's. But here are my complaints:
1. Am I crazy, or is there less time for me to pick an offensive or defensive play? I am piling up tons of "delay of game" penalties because the clock seems to move so fast.
Even if I know which play I want to choose, the game often sends my TV screen to a dumb default page of plays I don't want anything to do with. Then I have to awkwardly leaf through my giant playbook, find the play I want, then walk to the line of scrimmage and rush my receivers in motion. Tick-tock, time runs out.
2. As the quarterback, I keep trying to move wide receivers in motion during play-changing calls at the line of scrimmage, but the game often won't let me move their lazy butts. Why not?
3. The game's artificial intelligence has a keener-than-ever defensive speed among safeties -- to the point that they're sprinting so much faster than my wide receivers, they're intercepting my passes or breaking them up, even when my receiver should be wide open.
4. If I pass to an open receiver in the flat, that idiotic receiver often catches the ball but then does some kind of automatic spin-in-a-circle move that messes up his pattern and stops him from sprinting.
5. My players, at least, get hurt faster than in previous "Madden" games. Whether in preseason or regular season, I've watched star players such as Reggie Bush get hurt in the first quarter of a game. I've watched Bush get hurt merely by diving to the ground without anyone touching him. What's up with that?
What I love about the new "Madden," though, is the running game. If you break the right tackles, it's six points. If you miss tackles on defense, it's six points for your rival. Next year's "Madden" should definitely keep the running system.
None of these gripes are fatal flaws that destroy the game play altogether. I've learned to work around imperfections. But they are just annoying enough that, personally, I'll go back to playing last year's "Madden." Fortunately, I only rented "Madden NFL '10." I'm out $8. Not so bad.
("Madden NFL '10" by EA Sports retails for $60 for Xbox 360 and PS 3; $50 for Wii; $40 for PSP and PS 2 -- Plays fun, but not as fun as Madden NFL '09." Looks very good. Challenging. Rated "E." Three stars out of four.)
Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
NEW IN STORES
“Metroid Prime Trilogy” (Nintendo) is one of those things that seems too good to be true, but at least in this case, it’s true:
Nintendo is releasing all three of its recent “Metroid Prime” titles on one Wii disc. That means you get “Metroid Prime” and “Metroid Prime 2: Echoes” (those two came out originally for the Nintendo GameCube) and 2007’s Wii release, “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.”
If you’ve played through all those game and you’re sick of them, then “Trilogy” isn’t for you. But if you’re late to the “Metroid” party, it is one of the most widely acclaimed and popular series in all of games.
You play as Samus, a female bounty hunter in a spacesuit that doesn’t make her look very female, who must shoot and kill various space monsters and space pirates in sci-fi settings.
What makes “Metroid” stand out are its unusual features. You can stand and shoot, naturally. But you must also frequently click a button that turns you into a big ball, so that you can roll through tunnels and such.
And you have to solve a bunch of puzzles to get from one corridor to another.
“Metroid” was never my favorite series, because its cold luster lacks heart, and the actions (shooting, rolling into a ball, etc.) get tiresome to me at times. But that’s just me. I can recognize it objectively as a very sleek and intuitive adventure. It’s a big, sprawling thing that every real gamer might feasibly dig.
The trilogy retails for $50 for Wii. It’s rated “T” for animated blood and violence.
“BCFx — The Doug Williams Edition” (Aspyr) does something no game has ever done. It focuses exclusively on traditionally black college football teams.
You may ask yourself: Is this necessary in a supposedly post-racial America?
Answer: When “BCFx” went into preproduction several years ago, you couldn’t play as most, if any, traditionally black college football teams in Electronic Arts’ “NCAA” football franchise.
More recently, EA has integrated quite a few black college football teams into “NCAA Football ’10.” But only “BCFx,” which stands for “Black College Football Experience,” focuses on 35 such teams from around America.
The game play is built on the Unreal 3.0 engine, which is more often thought of as the computer programming that makes first-person shooters work. It’ll be interesting to see how Unreal 3.0 translates here.
Doug Williams, the first black NFL quarterback to win the Super Bowl, appears in introductory videos.
There’s a museum where you can check out black college history.
And if you prefer, you can play the halftime shows by plugging in Microsoft-compatible drum pads, and drumming along to authentic, college band versions of songs by Beyoncé, Frankie Beverly and other artists. If you drum well enough, you build up motivation for your team’s second half performance.
The Tuesday release retails for $40 for Xbox 360. It’s rated “E” for mild suggestive themes.
— By DOUG ELFMAN
