Small gains lead to huge score
Madden 13 really is more interactive, more intuitive and more fun
Madden football is perhaps the most tapped-out game of all time.
Despite the behemoth franchise being lauded season after season, critics point out new editions only offer cosmetic touches, roster updates, the addition of minor bells and whistles, sometimes an innovative-sounding idea like “QB vision” that just doesn’t play well.
So here we have Madden 13. Do its new features truly deliver a different experience?
Yes. Resoundingly. Aside from the Xbox 360 version, which really does offer a significant new feature with the ability to use verbal commands using the Kinect peripheral, the changes to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version may sound like small tweaks, but the changes add up to substantial new leap in video game sports play.
Let’s start with the Kinect options. You can now audible all sorts of things on offence and defence. Don’t like the play you’ve called, change it, outside run, deep pass, block left, etc. It still doesn’t change the core gameplay but makes Madden more interactive and more intuitive.
I’d love to see the voice commands expanded next year to control the players. Instead of pushing X, call out “AJ Green” or “18” for their jersey number to see a pass attempt. Telling a running back, “spin”, “cut left”, “dive” would all make the game more interactive. Right now the Kinect application is limited to pre-snap options, but if this feature grows next year it could really take sports games to a new level.
The other changes are slight but add up to a significant jump in your overall gameplay. Start with the physics engine. EA is calling it the Infinity Engine and it brings more math into the equation. Body mass and speed will play a bigger role in the tackle.
There is also a balance rating for each player, so those players who keep the legs churning and can spin, bounce and recoil off tackles will greatly benefit. It means you need to keep coming on defence.
There are also many improvements in the passing game. Real pump fakes, throwing animations and receiver awareness that will see receivers more likely to catch a pass once they reach the spot where they’re expecting a ball to arrive.
Pass trajectories have changed, too. It’s always been tap the button for a lob, hold it down for a bullet, but there are many more ranges in between now and you’ll feel the difference. A lobbed screen over a linebacker really comes off like a lob now.
One of my favourite changes is in throwing on the run. Anyone who has played Madden has been frustrated by being flushed out of the pocket, chased by a lineman when you find an open receiver and you push the button only to get sacked.
Now when you’re on the move, you don’t set your feet which lent itself to a sack. Now you throw on the run. Your pass won’t be as accurate or powerful, use of the trajectories is paramount, but it does impact your gameplay greatly if you use a mobile QB or run a lot of rollouts.
The game still looks great as it always has, and sounds great, even adding in many star QBs real voices for their cadence on the snap.
The other significant change is that of a new mode called “Connected Careers.” It’s something EA is calling the first true Sports RPG.
This is akin to Franchise Mode meets Be a Pro. You can either create a coach or a player in your image, pick up a current player or coach mid-career, or pick up a legend coach or player and bring them in as a rookie.
To use it, you are to play through in more of an RPG mode, picking your strategies, styles, working with that player on his strengths and weaknesses and hitting certain goals to gain points and level up.
In the end, you are trying to reach the end of a career and get into the Hall of Fame.
In the new game being a high draft pick will raise expectations, raise goals and make it harder to hit, so it’s not like you can just choose Barry Sanders and breeze through the mode. You need to hit your targets and build up your points.
Again, it’s not quite a revolutionary change but it is taking a basketful of previously used tools, putting them in the same box and presenting them in a fresh way.
When you combine these changes with the standard playbooks, presentation and online options and leagues, this really is enough to entice jaded veterans to get re-energized on the series.
I can only hope the Kinect is used so creatively on all sports games in the future, giving verbal commands of region of net to shoot on in FIFA or NHL or calling out the name of a teammate to pass to could really revolutionize sports gaming.
Rating: E for Everyone
What’s right: Great new physics engine, passing tools and Connected Careers mode
What’s wrong: Kinect options could have gone further, inclusion of windbag ESPN personalities
NumbThumb: Graphics A; Gameplay A; Value A; Control A. Overall an A on the Numb Thumb