Madden NFL 09 Review
- Posted August 16th, 2008 at 16:33 EDT by
- 11,994 views
- 37 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 9.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 6.8
Summary
Madden 09, EA Sports' 20th installment of the franchise, has proven that the series only gets better with age. The publisher has finally outdone itself by releasing the premiere football title of this generation thus far.
We like
- Casual gamers and newcomers will finally feel comfortable jumping into the Madden fray
- The graphics are incredible
- Madden Moments are perfect
We dislike
- The announcers are horrid
- Online play still features lag
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
(continued from previous page) ...field with 26 seconds to go and no timeouts. You’re faced with driving the offense 80 yards for the win. A tie or loss will result in failure. If you’re a Giants fan, you’ll probably love reliving that last drive of the Super Bowl, which just so happens to be the final Madden Moment that you’re able to complete. Madden Moments blindsided me and I never thought I’d enjoy or play them as much as I have.
All of these pretty touch-ups and additions won’t mean anything if the gameplay itself is trash. That is why I’m pleased to confirm that Madden 09 is head and shoulders above the prior installments on the next generation platforms. Not only does the gameplay seem to handle a lot tighter with a perfect touch of responsiveness, but it seems a lot of issues that plagued the title last year are no longer around. If I had to choose a negative aspect to discuss about the pure gameplay of the title, it would be that passing seems to be far easier than running the ball. Trying to get a good ground game going sometimes feels impossible, however, I occasionally found myself getting a rhythm that allowed me to destroy defenses on the ground. A great mix between passes and runs definitely allows you to utilize the rushing attack as it’s supposed to be used.
Speaking of the running attack, running and juking have been drastically improved. The fact that you can now initiate your own broken tackles after being wrapped up by a defender gives you a sense of accomplishment. When you’re wrapped up, if you press the correct face button or juke analog, your running back will break free or fight for that extra yard for the much needed first down. This doesn’t mean the wide receivers were left out of the patch up as the way they extend to catch the football is now more realistic than ever.
My biggest gripe with Madden 09 is what most hardcore fans will find their largest gripe with as well – online play. The online portion of the game is just more of the same. In this case, that's not a good thing. The games are never quite smooth, which is beyond shocking considering how EA Sports can manage to release solid online titles like their FIFA and NHL franchises. Madden 09 is still the victim of disconnects, glitch quitting, and sometimes complete freezing when trying to challenge a ridiculous call on the field. While these problems do not happen consistently, they do happen often enough to be a cause for concern. I’m still awaiting the day that the heads of EA will come together and realize that online gaming is a majorly important aspect of any title that offers it. I will admit, the online portion isn’t entirely poor, as EA Sports has added in the ability to play in online leagues with the option to actually trade players.
Back on a positive note, the game looks astounding. The new grass textures, player models and dynamic lighting make Madden 09 a thing of beauty and give users a “new feel” for the game. While the presentation is still being worked on, I can finally say that EA Sports is slowly getting it right. The excitement and action that the new camera mode brings to the table is a breath of fresh air. The only problem with the presentation though was the dreadful decision by the develop team of bringing in Cris Collinsworth and Todd Hammond to call the action on the field. These two guys are as stale as one-year-old bread. I couldn’t believe that it only took me one quarter of play to either mute my television or just mute the announcers. It was ridiculous how monotonous and boring these two guys could make the game all on their own. EA either needs to teach these guys how to call a game in an exciting fashion or bring back John Madden in order to provide us with respite from the stale announcing.
Overall, Madden 09 is a definite step (if not leap) in the right direction. With a franchise that is constantly criticized, you can only expect things ... (continued on next page)
Comments
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gamewaffle
- 5:06pm BST - August 16th, 2008
- 2
C'mon, the graphics are NOT incredible! Has the years of this genre lacking softened you, Dave? There are FREE games with better grass, Older games with better models,(albeit not football games) and still others that could manage to perform better weather effects. Look at the people in the yellow shirts, for example: R:FoMs chars looked better! The cloth textures everywhere are lackluster, and the game's AA is severely lacking; even in the screenshots you can see several well defined stages of texture deterioration. There are no real cloth physics, they are just glued to the players, just as they have been for years, and everything about the crowd is 2-D, remiscent of GRAN TURISMO 3! Look, the seats seem to only be made with 4 triangles for Pete's sake. The camera-men are, eh, repetitive, and glass textures are still last gen.
Hmm, now before you start slamming my view with the fact that there are more than a dozen full-poly characters on the field, thus upping the polygon count signifigantly, I would like to let you know that I agree. Yes, I do see that as a set-back for all team sport games. So why not make the players of higher detail, (and everything else, for that matter) then simply dial it back for the top-down, control-the-entire-game view, so that when you only have a few characters on screen (like in the replays) you can display the highest detail to take up the advantage of fewer polys on the screen. However EA probably couldn't do this, as they limit themselves to 1 year of dev-and-polish time. Seriously get some balls, spend a little more cash, and make a better game!
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NoUseMercenary |
NoUseMerk_PSU- 5:49pm BST - August 16th, 2008
- 4
I have to agree with Dave's review. This is by far the best Madden game to be released. Not only are the graphics simply the best yet, but Tiburon has the PS3 framerate up to 60fps and on par with the Xbox 360.
Furthermore, the amount of features EA has included in Madden 09 is great. Online is great, Season Mode is great, etc. Definitely worth picking up.
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NoMercy666 |
Ask me...- 6:20pm BST - August 16th, 2008
- 5
This game was better. It was still, okay. Still alot of glitches.
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Dave-The-Rave |
Dave-The-Rave- 6:50pm BST - August 16th, 2008
- 7
Boring American football games ZZZZzzzzz (Actually boring sports games in general !!)
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PrimusPrime
- 7:05pm BST - August 16th, 2008
- 8
Gamewaffle, are you insane? And your comparisons just suck - might as well complain that GTA4 character models aren't on par for SC4 - that's logical! And, top down football? I thought we moved past that during the PS1 era...
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sn-plazaskater |
NEJI64- 10:03pm BST - August 16th, 2008
- 11
actually if you saw his whole comment you would have seen the part that said..boring sports games in general
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SonyJunkie |
Bender6191- 2:04am BST - August 17th, 2008
- 13
I got it about 3 days ago, and it was the best football game that I have played since like 05 for the PS2. I hated '08 because of the framerate. '09 played smoothly all the time, oh wait, h*** no, it keeps chugging when I play now. I will back up for a pass and scramble and it just studders and never plays smoothly. I am one pi**ed customer, will be returning it hoping it was just a bad disc. None of my other games lag, just this one. And it just started to happen
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prosecondbase7 |
prosecondbase7- 3:58am BST - August 17th, 2008
- 16
LLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!! WTF this has been an issue on ps3 always I hate it. That's the only reason I play madden is for online. Its not worth playing crappy glitches and lags on every game changing play. I have the fastest internet there is to offer but I've lost more games due to connection then played. I've emailled EA and they dont do anything. Madden Online SUCKS Donkey D!(K.
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Dave-The-Rave |
Dave-The-Rave- 4:35am BST - August 17th, 2008
- 18
Yh, what I meant is that playing the sports for REAL is way more fun that playing a boring videogame of them !!
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TheCh0sen01 |
TheChosen01- 1:09pm BST - August 17th, 2008
- 20
By far the best madden game yet!! Game is amazing!
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Odium_Generis_Humani
- 2:59pm BST - August 17th, 2008
- 21
@11 Dork. * You can minimalize a sports game, but your beloved First person shooters are about as brainless as it gets. And this time I get to turn the tables on you types. Starting with GRAW and COD4, I learned how to play console shooters and got really good. YOU dorks still suck at "complicated" Madden. And I lik the way you tried to save yourself with comment #18, but I'm not buying it. Your first comment showed your true colors (or is it colours?) * "Complicated" = "I suck at it"
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ypaotroicn
- 7:32pm BST - August 17th, 2008
- 23
for those who play madden.... the superbowl game lagged like CRAZY for me. especially when it got into the second half. everything else was fine. anyone get that also?
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ypaotroicn
- 2:54am BST - August 18th, 2008
- 24
or maybe when it's the seahawks vs the colts. that's when it always seems to lag for me
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THEmanbearpig |
MANBEARPIG- 10:22am BST - August 18th, 2008
- 25
it does look a lot better, put the play of the game feels really different, im getting smoked online every game!!! maybe its cuz they give my bucs no love on the stats
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ypaotroicn
- 2:49pm BST - August 18th, 2008
- 27
stop being a pusssy and buy it
but anyone have a problem with seahawks vs colts?
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silent_assassin6
- 5:23pm BST - August 18th, 2008
- 29
this game sucks the way they pass and run is so slow and unrealistic i mean when will they come out with a player movment realistic football game?? ps. LAAggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
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bigtimelhu |
bigtimelhu- 6:07pm BST - August 18th, 2008
- 30
Overall, the game is not terrible nor is it great. If they can resolve the lag issue, i would be a happier madden game player. Online play is where it is at and EA should know that, thus making sure it is minimal.
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silent_assassin6
- 9:51pm BST - August 21st, 2008
- 34
all it is is lag, player movement like jukes are slow and unreal
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