Madden NFL 09
- Published by Electronic Arts
- Game Genre: Sports, Game Sub-Genre: Football
- John Madden Theme
- For 1 to 4 players
Customer Reviews
| 41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:  So unrealistic it may make you angry., By Dov Charney "creeper" (creepin) - See all my reviews = Fun:  This review is from: Madden NFL 09 (Video Game) It truly is a sad day for NFL video game fans. Way back in the day we used to have options. Tecmo and Super Tecmo Bowl for a quick and fun arcade experience, and games like Madden on the Sega Genesis for a more realistic approach. With Madden 09 the only licensed NFL game in the world, you no longer have those options. For someone looking for a realistic and fun experience, over the years Madden has mostly satisfied that itch. The problem is, in 09 EA focused almost exclusively in it's new animation system (that started w/ FIFA). The producers and developers will often be seen online congratulating themselves on how amazing their animation system works. While it is true that the animations are better than ever, the problem is how this affects gameplay. This "branching animation system" means that players are no longer "cylinders" that you move around on the field with animations attached to them. In the words of EA, now when you press a direction on the controller you input a command to the player and the dynamic animation will decide what happens next in order to be more natural looking and have less of that "floating" feel of the former maddens. They are correct, it does indeed look more natural. Unfortunately all players share the same system. This will result in Peyton Manning shucking players to the ground in the same fashion that Lawrence Maroney stiff arms. (Despite Manning having a stiff arm rating that is 70 points lower than Maroney) The problem is another player comes in to tackle, you press the stiff arm button, the new animation system decides on the fly which stiff arm animation is suitable for the interaction, and boom. Peyton Manning is doing hip throws like Reggie White tossing around weak offensive lineman. This problem affects not just stiff arms but every animation in the game, tackling, passing, running. Every player animates the same way, negating their stats and turning Brett Farve into the next Marshall Faulk. Inside linebackers will leap 42" into the air and intercept passes with their backs turned. Essentially the only stat that matters is as usual the speed rating. To make matters worse there are dozens of freezing issues, crash bugs, franchise bugs, clipping issues etc... Once I had to watch a replay 10x over because I was amazed that the football had literally passed right through the chest of my TE to appear on the other side, and get intercepted. A condescending Chris Collinsworth can not wait to do an "EA BACTRAX" on that play and explain what I did wrong. The problem is I didn't do anything wrong, the football phased through the TE like Martian Manhunter. Clearly EA recognized that the game is cheap and broken, so they included the ability to "rewind" and erase any play. You can of course turn this feature off but you have to wonder why would they make a feature that allows you to reverse time in a realistic sports game? Clearly the answer is people realized that Madden 09 is no longer a fun game, its frustrating and cheap. The Offensive line can not block the CPU pass rush and even an All Pro Left Tackle will get beat for 3+ sacks per game on All pro or All madden. There is nothing you can do about it either. If you hold in running backs or TEs to block, they will simply miss the blocking assignment about 60% of the time. in the real NFL if you miss a blocking assignment even 2 times a game, chances are you will get cut. In madden 09 the best blocking RBs in the game will miss 2x PER DRIVE! ---------------- Update one of the main producers of Madden has left the series. The new producers have OWNED UP to the myriad of flaws in the animation system and admitted that the reason it's broken is because they would speed up or slow down specific animations like the full back hand off, and after time everything became out of sync. FB hand off became an exploit because it was so fast the defensive lineman would still be getting out of their stance and the FB would be 2 yards into his run. That is just one of the examples, QB drop back was broken as well, the Olineman did not have enough time to start a pocket. So at least EA has admitted they had a broken pile of code that they had to throw away and start over with. Even tho 09 sold MILLIONS 77 of 90 people found the following review helpful:  Pretty bad for 20 years, By = Fun: This review is from: Madden NFL 09 (Video Game) I'm reviewing this game knowing that they've been making Madden for 20 years. With that about of time and experience, some of what is on display here is inexcusable. Graphics: I'm not sure what everyone's talking about, but this is the same engine we've seen for the last several years. (A)The new weather effects are decent but nothing spectacular. You will not see field degredation beyond footprints, and the snow still seems fake to me. (B) The grass is much different. On replays, though, it doesn't look nearly as good as it does from the default isometric angle. But if you buy games based on grass improvements, by all means spring for this one. It's certainly better looking than its competition like NFL blitz or All-pro 2k8. Audio: (A) The commentary is almost as awful as it has ever been in Madden in the last 10 years. Hammond, the play by play guy, sounds so fake it is hilarious. You will laugh at his comments, especially when he feigns emotion at a big tackle or says WHAT A HIT. Collinsworth, god bless him, tries his heart out to be natural, and he definitely puts in a great performance. The problem is that the designers didn't properly do the commentary system. Here, Collinsworth's comments -- I think every single one of them, actually -- is removed from the specifics of your game. He issues way too many general comments, such as, "That's really why the d-line is important" or whatever. It SOUNDS natural but it's so hollow and disconnected from your game. Also, there are prolonged periods (like 20 seconds) where Collinsworth won't say anything. He'll miss entire plays. The commentators will even not notice if you've kicked a dramatic OT winning field goal. They will simply say "The kick is up and good. And that's the end of our game." They then send you to John Madden to literally say "Well that was close! Thanks for joining us!"This kind of commentary does not belong in a next gen game with 20 years of experience. (B) The backtrack feature, where Collinsworth uses a telestrator to point out play problems, is a bit broken. Sometimes on the PS3 it simply does not work (Collinsworth says nothing). Other times, he will recommend you do something worse than you did [e.g. throw into quadruple coverage instead of double coverage??]. However, usually, he's spot on. The most common backtracks will involve showing a defensive mismatch (e.g. playing the run when the offense is in passing formation) or showing a mistake by the QB in the event of sack or interception (involves pointing out an open receiver that should have been thrown to). I wish he could do more, but generally most backtracks will involve one of these two things. Still very cool. Gameplay: (A)Glaring issues: Why exactly do play actions still not work against the PC? Why are QB sneaks still money yards? Why is bootlegging so effective? Why are slant patterns so effective? Playing against another human makes most of these non issues and is a lot more fun. (B) At least tackling is more fluid. Fewer canned animations. More freedom. (C)Replay challenges are broken. Sometimes you cannot challenge plays. Sometimes the booth or you will review something, clearly it will be incomplete, but they will rule it a catch. It is remarkable, considering NFL 2k5 did this right three years ago on a smaller budget with less than 20 years of experience. (D) No changes to superstar or franchise. gets you new grass but no improvement to these critical modes? (E) The much vaunted game that adapts to you is fundamentally a bad idea. People don't play games so that all their games are always close and hard to win. This is why Oblivion failed -- the player loses incentive to get better if all it does is make the AI cheat more to counter him. Problem #1 - Madden test is broken. Pass defense drill is much harder than the others, which are very very easy. Problem #2 - you can't use sliders to adjust the difficulty with it. Big problem for those who like to customize the difficulty. Problem #3 - the game just cheats to 'adapt.' If you pass well, expect your wide outs to just drop balls for no reason. If you run well, expect your all star back to suddenly fumble a ton. It's not a feature, it's a problem, and it's comical that EA is advertising it as a big improvement. (F) Online leagues are not good. It's more like an online round robin, not organized well at all. And there's even some lag to boot. (G) Madden moments lets you relive key moments from last season...with 2008-2009 rosters and no special presentation. Snore. (H) In multiplayer, on the couch, when you're trash talking and having fun, you can still have a really, really good time. But then again, you can do that with Madden 08. Or 07. Or 06. Or 05. I'd say pass on this one unless you're gunning for multiplayer, in which case you'll enjoy it -- but realize this is nowhere near... Read more 14 of 16 people found the following review helpful: It's Still The Same Game - More EA Gimmicks, By = Fun: This review is from: Madden NFL 09 (Video Game) I wrote a review of Madden 08 on here last year so I'd thought I'd follow it up with a review of this years edition. Or should I say Madden 2000.9? Now before you pass this off as a Madden-bashing review let me give you my qualifications. I bought every version of Madden from the Genesis all the way to Madden 05 on the PS2 (which I happen to believe is still the best version of Madden ever made) and then Madden 08 last year on the PS3. I have been a Madden fan since the first day I could get my hands on a three button Genesis controller and threw a pass to an open receiver in the window based passing back then. So first lets start off with some nitpicking and EA's famous saying, "If it's in the game, it's in the game." Here is what is not in the game: *Once again, EA bought up the ESPN license a few years ago and they have yet to implement any ESPN presentation into the game like 2KSports did so well before EA got the exclusive license. The absence of any ESPN presentation in EA's flagship game certainly solidifies that EA's agreement with ESPN was an anti-competitive move. *No on-field referees or chain gang on the sidelines. Two staples of football once again ommitted from the game. Sure they added unnecessary security guards and even more players and non-player personell on the sidelines, but the most important staples of the game are not there, even though they were there in versions prior to the current gen systems. *Instant Replay challenges of sideline catches are still ridiculous. Every year whenever I challenge a sideline catch and a receiver has one foot clearly out, the call goes against me. *Sideline animations - Yes there is a two feet in animation when you throw to a receiver near the sideline but if a WR's route takes him towards the sideline and you throw towards that receiver his animation more often than not will take him out of bounds and result in an incompletion. Unacceptable. *Clock stopping on defensive penalties within 2 minutes of the half or 5 minutes at the end of game. I drove to my opponents 20 yard line with 20 seconds left, got an encroachment call on the defense, accepted the penalty and figuring the clock was stopped, I took my time selecting the next play, only to have the clock run out as I broke the huddle. Unless there is some new NFL rule regarding clock stoppage, this is a severe oversight. *Stable playing surface. Where did EA get the playing surface model from? The old Veterans stadium? When viewing replays from the game, you can clearly see players feet sink below the playing surface on a dry gameday. *NFL ice-capades. This is definitely still in the game, even with today's precision controllers. If you jump just a little with a DE pre-snap without encroaching, good luck getting him back even close to his original starting point. This is frustrating to say the least. This so far might sound like petty griping but here is the thing, this Madden franchise has been around for 20 years now, it is the #1 selling football game and the only game on the market. These little details should have been long since addressed, yet they continue to resurface with every version of Madden. EA is great at repackaging Madden every year with a new gimmick to make it look fresh. Anyone remember QB vision a few years ago? This year Madden IQ is the latest and greatest invention. What this IQ system does is evaluate your skill level and adjust the AI sliders accordingly to tailor the game for your set skill level. However this system completely replaces all the specific AI sliders that were available to players to adjust freely. There are some very general sliders that can still be adjusted but nothing like in years past. I would be all for this IQ system if there was a way to turn it off and adjust multiple sliders to the specific way a player wants the game to run. Look, anyone who has played Madden for any extended amount of time knows exactly where they stand as far as skills in the game they don't need the game to tell them where they stand. Other human players will be sure to remind you of that. What is the most irritating of this new system is you cannot adjust any sliders for an overcompensated AI. In the past I was able to tune down the AI QB accuracy and AI WR catching, especially when the AI's second string QB would complete 20 straight passes on me. The ability to adjust the sliders allowed for a more realistic simulation of the game. Not anymore, unless you dumb down the generic sliders all the way, be prepared for the opposing AI QB to march down the field with Joe Montanaesque accuracy against every nickel and dime coverage you have in the playbook. Now for the good: The graphics are a nice improvement from last year. The stadium models are clean and the... Read more |
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› See all 98 customer reviews... NCAA Football 09
- Wide Open and Authentic College Style Gameplay
- College Atmosphere & Pageantry
- Home Field Advantage with new mini-game components
- All-new Mascot Mode
- Improved recruiting system in Dynasty mode
Customer Reviews
| 27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:  A clear improvement over NCAA 08 in features/PS3 quirks, = Fun:  This review is from: NCAA Football 09 (Video Game) I picked this game up to replace last year's version, and as a huge fan of college football I was pleased to see some neat additions (such as icing the kicker) that became a big part of the lexicon during last year's crazy season. If you've played any of the games in the NCAA series, you know what to expect. Some new features for this year's version include "celebrating with the mascot" where you can run over to the mascot after running a touchdown and perform an animated celebration (mascot worshiping you/dancing around/etc.). The sideline players/cheerleaders/coaches actually exist this year, unlike in NCAA 08 when they mysteriously weren't on the sidelines during a game. You'll see cheerleaders dancing, players on the sidelines getting out of your way, etc. so the stadium atmosphere is much more alive than it was in last year's version. Some new gameplay options are tweaks to the way running plays work. No longer can you just click 'go' and push forward, you can now find and exploit holes in the defense, you can get your offensive line to shift to one side to cover your option play, you can basically fine-tune your plays a bit more (as well as bluff your play art when playing side-by-side with a friend, something you couldn't do before). On passing plays, you no longer have to worry about the AI intercepting the ball constantly. If they aren't facing it, they won't catch it. If you throw it directly into coverage though, do expect to be picked off. Tackling has been upgraded, as has evasion. You can evade tackles if you know what you are doing, and you can also one-arm tackle, hit the player so hard they bust a flip and fall flat on their back, and basically do much more than just dive and pray like in NCAA 08. Other neat features such as online dynasty mode, the ability to set up songs from playlists to play when certain things happen, downloading rosters, etc. give you much more in terms of having customization over your game. Basically, each particular area in the game has been tweaked in just the right areas, and this is much more of a transition than 07 was to 08. Bottom line: If they take what they have here and improve it for NCAA 10 then you can expect me to be a happy gamer for a while to come. My only caveat with the PS3 version (I have both 360 and PS3) is that the controls are not quite as fluid. More often than not I was passing to the wrong guy, or lobbing the football like a girl. This is probably just due to the sixaxis way of handling the game, but maybe also because I was leaned back when playing and it probably didn't like that orientation. Otherwise - excellent choice for your system. 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: EA Sports Does It Again, = Fun: This review is from: NCAA Football 09 (Video Game) NCAA Football 2009 is by far the BEST yet. Sure, there are still some areas that can be improved upon or fixed. But, the game play, crowd interaction, icing kicker option, and many many other things make this an impressive and incredible game. I have been playing this nightly and can't seem to get enough. This WILL have you screaming from your couch just like watching real NCAA football. COOL ITEMS: - Icing the kicker: Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but it's a cool and welcomed addition to the reality of football. - Turnovers aren't quite that easy: In 2007-08, picks and fumbles were all over the field. Now, having to be more aligned with the ball and needing a bit more skill, it's not a turnover free for all. NOT SO COOL ITEMS: - Celebrate with the Mascot: It's cool for the first few times but gets a bit repetitive or boring. Would be great if you could use select buttons to execute a celebration (or unlock celebrations with 'user' points - The graphics can be a bit "choppy". Someimes the ball magically moves out of the QBs hands or receptions go through a players head/arms. These glitches should have been fixed by now considering the technological & graphical improvements already made. - Guessing the defense when you turn the ball over? What does this really get you other than an intermission? And added feature would be gaining coaching experience points when getting it right in order to unlock hidden playbooks or even plays of the other team (game film for future games). RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE (IF EA EVER LOOKS AT AMAZON): User tackles and such don't do much for you: Would recommend making 'user points' like you get with Madden. Maybe then you can earn points toward player improvements, coaching improvements, or even buy things for your campus (a new library, new uniforms). Just would make it even more fun to knock around people and have interaction! Include this and a celebration addition and it'll be even greater! Overall - I give this 5 STARS and recommend it to anyone that LOVES football. It's as real as it gets! 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: An improvement over last year, By Aging gamer "SH" (Northern Indiana) - See all my reviews = Fun: This review is from: NCAA Football 09 (Video Game) I was hesitant about buying this game after being disappointed in the last several years versions, but I will say this year is an improvement. I like the improvements made with the recruiting assistance, the player graphics and animations are better, I like the way the pre-snap routes will be squiqqly when playing on the road in a hostile environment, the re-addition of the cheerleaders is a good thing, and just playing the game is funner than last years. I am disappointed in the way the crowd looks though, and there are a few glitches that bug me as well, such as when you throw passes near the sidelines your player will tip-toe and stretch to make the catch and fall down, even if they're not right next to the sideline, and have plenty of open field ahead of them. There are still some things that they can be improved upon to make it an even more enjoyable game playing experience, but I still like it. |
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