The floor at E3 doesn’t open until tomorrow morning, but being a member of the press does have it’s advantages. After a slam-dunk press conference by Microsoft, the staff guided the mass group of media, like cattle, into a party across the street. At said party were a few games that were at different levels of completion and playability… one being Madden NFL 07 for the Xbox 360. Since the only other opportunity I will have to get my hands on the next-gen version of Madden this week is late Friday afternoon, I plopped my ass down in front of the playable demo and hogged the station for a good portion of the event. (Yeah, I know I’m an asshole, but you’re reading this article and that makes you just as guilty.)
Every screen during the demo was labeled, very clearly, W.I.P. – Work In Progress. Since I highly doubt the developers will be plugging away at the game this week, I can only assume this was the playable demo I would be experiencing later in the week. There were only a few aspects of Madden 07 that were complete so far. The only selectable options from the main menu were “Play Now” and “Mini-Games.” Yes, I did say mini-games for the 360 version… I’ll get into those later. We fired up a game with the only two selectable teams, the Superbowl representative Steelers and Seahawks. The pre-game sequence was very similar to Madden 06, including the graphics. In fact, I didn’t notice too much of an improvement in the graphics at all. The individual blades of grass caught my eye, but if you told me I was playing the 06 version, based on the graphics, I’d believe you. The crowd looked identical to last year’s model, and so did the players. There could have been some additional crispness in the player close-ups, but I would need a side-by-side to make sure. In other words, any upgrade was marginal at this point. Will the visuals still be tweaked between now and the release date? I should hope so, but I did not get any confirmation for that or the contrary.
The gameplay didn’t appear to get much of an upgrade either. At some points the play was choppy, but that was obviously due to the incomplete nature of the demo. Again, I felt like I was playing Madden 06. There were a few new tackle animations, like an offensive player taking a hit and flying through the air a few feet, but not too much else.
One great upgrade in the game that was immediately noticeable was the revised kicking interface. The new method is controlled entirely with the right analog stick. To start the meter, pull back on the stick. At that point the meter starts going up and down and waiting for you to push the stick forward to make the kick. Starting the meter isn’t the only thing pulling back on the thumbstick does… it also starts the play. The defense starts to barrel towards you and you haven’t even picked the strength of your kick yet. You can wait until the meter gets back up to full strength if you missed it the first time, but that second chance doesn’t come without a price… your opponent will then have a better shot at blocking your kick or punt because they are right on your ass. This was a most welcomed change and adds so much more realism to the field goal game which was becoming an automatic three points within 50 yards. It will take some getting used to, but I think you will all enjoy this upgrade.
Finally, as far as in-game additions go, I noticed something in the pause menu screen that disappeared in last year’s next-generation version. It was only one word… challenge. Yes, it appears that the replay challenge has found its way back into the world of Madden football. How does it work this year? I’ll be damned if I know. I couldn’t select this option yet. That part of the game obviously wasn’t finished, but we’ll monitor the progress of it and possibly nail down a developer to make sure this won’t be a last-minute drop from the title due to time constraints. Stay tuned.
Did I mention mini-games? That’s right, i did. This demo of Madden 07 had two mini-games to choose from: 40 yard dash and the bench press. I did see some references to Madden Points on the mini-game screens, so that is another aspect that has been thrown back into the next-gen version of this football franchise. To compete in the 40, only the two thumbsticks are used. The gamer must mimic the strokes of their players legs and get the timing down perfectly for their player to put up an acceptable time. In this demo, only coverboy Shaun Alexander could be used and the best I could do with him was 6.88″. It was a fun mini-game to play and I can see it getting even more fun with the increased time you put into mastering the timing. I got the impression there would be a leaderboard on Xbox Live for the mini-game scores, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The second mini-game, the bench press, wasn’t as fun, but it has potential. To get the player to perform as many reps as possible, you must use the right thumbstick, again, to keep a meter within the “green” range as the player pushes the bar up. If you allow the meter to go above or below the required limits, fatigue sets in and the player will not be able to do to many more reps.
I did get the impression there would be more mini-games, but that is all that was playable today for the 360. Unfortunately, franchise mode was unable to be selected so I couldn’t confirm any new additions there. According the EA Sports, the meat will be inserted back and franchise will take a step closer to what we have expected from the Madden franchise and not the bare-bones version that was rushed out last year for the Xbox 360. Again, I do not have a solid confirmation that this is the case.
The next-gen version of Madden 06 looked pretty enough, but it did come with it’s set of quirks and missing elements. Simply re-inserting those elements and cleaning up some game play should be all that is need to get this franchise back on track. I have a feeling there are more tricks hidden up EA’s sleeve, but stay tuned through the rest of this E3 week until I pin down a developer and get some of these “sketchy” facts confirmed. The 360 has yet to disappoint this E3, and I don’t believe it will start with the king of sports gaming franchises.
