Well I finally got my hands on a Madden game, and it's the latest one at that. As far as I know, Madden is the best in the NFL video game business, and has been since the old days of 16-bit graphics. So I was pretty excited about getting this game.

And with good reason. Almost everything is done so well. Graphics are nice, plays are pretty good, and when you're playing you really have to pay attention to the smallest things, which makes American football the great game that it is (unlike in some other games where you only have to pay attention to whoever has the ball). You get points for being a good blocker, or if you're on defense, even putting pressure on the quarterback even if you don't get a sack or anything. That's awesome because it makes you really feel the gravity of all your hard work fighting through the offensive linesmen so you could put a hand in that quarterback's face or make him pass just a split second earlier than he wanted to. These things are priceless in real games, but you never really felt it much in video games, until now.

I only have two major things that I didn't like too much about it and that's it. My first complaint is that, considering it's John Madden, he's not very talkative at all. What he does have is a lot of repetitive lines, especially if the same things happen over and over. And honestly, in a football game you probably want to stick with like 8-10 plays on offense and only a few kinds of plays on defense, like 2 plays for each type of cover/blitz, so that means Madden says the same things a lot. I was actually expecting to hear more exciting commentary, even if it's just the trademarked Madden pointing-out-obvious-stuff. Additionally there are long stretches at times when he doesn't say anything at all. It feels empty really.

The other concern I have is that the game didn't translate too well into keyboard/keyboard+mouse control. The game probably plays extremely well when using controllers (especially PS2 style, with the non-analog sticks and stuff). But when you're using a keyboard+mouse set-up, for example, there are some things you just can't do. For example, I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to perform a juke move in keyboard/keyboard+mouse control. If you're using a controller with a stick, you simply flick the stick to the direction and that's it. When you're using keyboard+mouse, it's supposed to be hold left mouse button + move it left, but nothing happens. I feel like I need to buy a controller now, as a result.

Otherwise it's an awesome game. Lots of fun modes including setting up situations, for practice etc.

My rating: 90/100 (one of the best sports games I've ever played)