Madden 07 Review

By Egon Superb Published 3 October, 2006

Padding out an old game.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Look at that gloss. Great meaty beasts of men dripping in vibrant colour. Why isn't Rugby done like this? It's a much more exciting game than this padded American poppycock. Who doesn't want to see high-definition ear biting and ball stamping, or hear a giant Welsh hooker whispering scabrous dirt about his opposing number's mum across their surround sound set-up? Well, apart from the Americans.

Of course, Madden hasn't changed that much, as it never does. However, the different versions (we were playing the Xbox 360 version) have definitely changed in different ways. The Xbox 360 version is chock full of new modes if, under it all, they're all the same. Of course, it looks better than last year, though the high-def improvements are already starting to tail off and the limits of the Xbox 360's technology are already becoming apparent.

The main Madden game itself hasn't changed that much from the usual strategy-heavy NFL sim we know, but it sees the return of several elements that were cruelly dropped from last year's NFL 06 to cram it into the Christmas release schedule, including Superstar mode and online play. In terms of straightforward, in-game, differences, you've a little more control over your lead blocker, you can choose to jump start play at the risk of getting penalised if you go off too quickly, the running game has been improved slightly, with a highlight stick that makes it easier to avoid tackles, and a few other tweaks have been introduced.

Amongst them is EA's patented training session bit. It plays just like a cut-down version of track and field. So there's a running bit, where you have to bash the sticks before hitting another button to stick your neck out for the line. There's a bench press bit, which is straight out of Fight Night 3. Then there's a variety of challenges, involving simplified sections cut out of the main game (quarterback, running back, coverage and lineman challenges to be precise).

'Madden 07' Screenshot 1

All this points to there being something interesting about Madden 07, and EA's game-making policy in general; there's no redundancy, nothing is wasted. Everything is recycled over and over. So the mini-games mode reprises the track and field training mode, and it's also used in three different spots in the Superstar mode (pre-season training, the performance institute, and match practice). If you've played one EA game, you've played them all. Except, that is, if they've introduced their yearly "new mechanic", which was the character creation tool in the year of the Sims, the Tiger Woods swing a couple of years back, and the aiming mechanic of last year, carried over into the new kicking mode here.

So, look! You can kick the ball in a slightly different manner! By slightly different we mean that same mechanic EA is using in all of its many sports games this year, after it got bored of the Tiger Woods / Fight Night / Godfather right-stick swinging technique. .

That said, the new Superstar mode is a notable expansion, turning the game into something approaching an RPG. You create your superstar from a NFL-playing dad and a random sporty mom [this is American, after all] and then follow his career from his initial draft to his eventual retirement. You deal with your parents, get multiple choice interviews and IQ tests, do the aforementioned practices and workouts and play elements of games. After a while, we were getting a little bored of it though. It does seem to repeat somewhat and there's not really the flexibility of, say, Football Manager, in dealing with your other team members, your coach, and your agent, or the character-tweaking depth of an RPG. You are mostly doing training sessions or watching the computer play games while you're stuck on the sidelines (especially if you've created a very specialised player.) Also, receiving periodic emails from "Mom" isn’t immersive, it's just creepy.

'Madden 07' Screenshot 2

On the Xbox 360 side, 46 new achievements have replaced the laughable ones of last year's edition. These are more varied and tie in with the Gamer Level EA have introduced; from doing well in the different modes (Franchise, single game, superstar and the mini-games), you level up unlocking the higher value achievements and also Hall of Fame players with their own show reels and histories. In fact, in the superstar mode there's an enormous list of EA's own Gamer Achievements. Players can also gamble these EA Game points derived from playing well against each other when playing games, though only on the same console. The usual selection of 'Trax' music is in there, normally pretty good and surprisingly quirky, if you like American College rock and the like. Downloadable content is also promised for 360, including old-fashioned team strips and historic stadiums to use in your games.

Meanwhile, let's take a moment to condemn EA's tendency to cut off the Live connections for all its games on a yearly basis. Big companies like EA are protected in law over their possessions to an enormous degree, copyrights, patents, trademarks, licensed data, all of which serves to maintain them in an overly privileged, some would say monopolistic position in their particular, very popular, markets. As more people move online (65 per cent of Xbox 360 users use Live and take-up levels with the Wii and PS3 are likely to be higher), multiplayer and online modes become more important, more key to the game. Yet these are the elements of the game EA will be cutting off after a limited period. We are not renting this game, we are not licensing it from EA; we are buying it for up to fifty pounds and we expect to be able to use it as long as we like.

As always, all you're paying for here are some minor updates, a couple of simplistic new modes, and that new season / franchise data. Unless you're an absolute addict, there's no need for this game. If you are an absolute addict, there are better games out there. If you insist on buying this, just remember; if you want to play any multiplayer, in a year's time you'll probably have to buy another one.

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Egon Superb

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Comments (42) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • #1 5 years ago

    Egon Superb, that name is even better than mine :/

  • Dizzy #2 5 years ago

    Is anybody in Europe even interested in this "sport"?

    "Meanwhile, let's take a moment to condemn EA's tendency to cut off the Live connections for all its games on a yearly basis."

    Ms should have never let EA get on Live. They had to give in to EA because EA was supporting the PS2 online only.... and see where that went. MS should just have let them sweat it out.
    Edited by 1 at 03/10/06 @ 11:45

  • space_ace #3 5 years ago

    no. :)

  • kalel #4 5 years ago

    Surely as well as 'absolute addicts', people who haven't bought one in a while would equally be up for it?

  • Stickman #5 5 years ago

    I'm a complete Madden whore, I love it, buy it every year.

    I hate this game with a passion. Some of the design decisions have left me shaking my head.

    In a sport where (if you like to play properly) one game can take around 2 hours, why can't you save during the match? Why is there no accelerated game clock in the 360 version? Why do unlocked Hall of Fame players become 25 year old free agents in your franchise rosters from then on?

    Seriously, I hate it.

  • Royal Fool #6 5 years ago

    I was wondering the same as Dizzy... do Europeans actually buy this crap?

    "I'm a complete Madden whore, I love it, buy it every year."

    Oh, okay then. Nevermind.
    Edited by 1 at 03/10/06 @ 11:53

  • Huntcjna #7 5 years ago

    I haven't bought a Madden game in 3 years and I think it is fantastic easily an 8 or 9 out of 10 from me. Superstar mode is superb.

  • Yossarian #8 5 years ago

    "Of course, it looks better than last year, though the high-def improvements are already starting to tail off and the limits of the Xbox 360's technology are already becoming apparent."

    because last gen EA Sports were the best looking titles on the Xbox, right?

  • Eighthours #9 5 years ago

    (65 per cent of Xbox 360 users use Live and take-up levels with the Wii and PS3 are likely to be higher)

    Where on EARTH have you got that prediction from?

  • LOLLERS #10 5 years ago

    look at that grass tile! That's no hardware limit, thats just poor.

    EA just shit this franchise out every year, they KNOW it doesn't matter what they do in it. Even when it's rubbish people buy it just because it's new. You're a mug if you buy this. How much is it, £50?

    Edited by 1 at 03/10/06 @ 12:14

  • Huntcjna #11 5 years ago

    How about for once we don't have a comments thread full of a torrent of bullshit?

    Wouldn't that be fun.

    I paid £35 for my copy delivered and for that price its been worth all the time I have put into it so far. Never ceases to amaze me how many uniformed muppets this site seems to breed.

  • jlaakso #12 5 years ago

    I bought the 2005 instalment, being intrigued by the sport. It's AWFULLY hard to get to grips with, and the laughable manual and tutorials do not exactly ease the pain.

    However, I got a lot of enjoyment out of it once I learned how to play. Top-notch presentation, fine mechanics, depth to get buried under. I haven't played in a long time, mind, chiefly because a single game takes so long to complete.

  • Xerx3s #13 5 years ago

    I'm a complete Madden whore, I love it, buy it every year.

    This makes you a bad person. ;p

  • Darren #14 5 years ago

    This year's Madden NFL 07 on the 360 is a good game; nice graphics, more modes, improved gameplay, except that I've had a couple of issues with this game.

    One is a bug where the game stops responding to button presses during play, resulting in the camera forever panning around the stadium. If you're on offense then you get called for a penalty and then the buttons work until the next play and then it happens again until the other side get the ball and then it gets stuck in a permanent loop. I also know of one other person that has had this bug too. It's annoying when a game takes the best part of an hour to play.

    The second bug happened while I was accessing the stats in the menu during half-time which caused the game to freeze. Grrrrr.

    Oddly I played Madden NFL 06 for hours and hours with no problems whatsoever yet encountered both of those "bugs" within an hour of playing the new game. Maybe I'm unlucky (my game disc looks fine by the way and I've never had any problems running any other games either).

    Shame that I had to encounter those bugs so early really as it's marred my impression of the game and everytime I play a game I'm always waiting for that bug to happen even though it's only happened the once.

    Final gripe, why are the transitions from the play menus to ingame and back so stuttery? It really distracts from the slickness of the game in my opinion and makes me pine for the old menus from the earlier Xbox games.

    Good review by the way bar the bizarre insinuation that EA have pushed the 360 as far as it'll go. Oh and those odd online gaming predictions for the Wii and PS3... /wink

  • Zomoniac #15 5 years ago

    though the high-def improvements are already starting to tail off and the limits of the Xbox 360's technology are already becoming apparent.

    What the hell are you talking about?? EA's inability to maximise the potential of a machine does nothing of the sort. Does this look half as good as Gears Of War or Lost Planet or Assassin's Creed or Bioshock? Nope. So if it's not even close to pushing the machine to its limits, how can those limits be apparent. What's apparent is the incompetence of the developers, or the unreasonable time constraints put on them to deliver, nothing else.

  • Darren #16 5 years ago

    Exactly.

    Multfiormat games are never the best games to show off the graphical potential of a console anyway and I'm pretty sure this 360 engine has also been written with the PS3 in mind... unless by some miracle the PS3 version of Madden NFL 07 looks like that amazing pre-rendered target video that EA showed during the NFL drafts last year prior to the 360 being launched.

  • Stickman #17 5 years ago

    I should say that the game itself is top notch by the way. It's just ruined for me by the odd little things I mentioned.

    I'd like to know why 'you're a mug if you buy this'. Should I be waiting for a different NFL game to come out? Oh that's right! There aren't any. Admittedly, you're a mug if you pay £50 for any game.

    Real wanky review by the way. Not the conclusions about the game or anything, just the way it's written.

  • Aretak #18 5 years ago

    I think that 'Egon Superb' is a sock. Someone just wrote a really rubbish review and doesn't want to own up to it.

  • Caimbeul #19 5 years ago

    People who think the sport is crap are (9 times out of 10) people who do not have the mental capacity to understand it (alot more complex and tactical than any other sports) and therefore do not appreciate that it is a far more demanding and dangerous/ violent sport than rugby. there are far more serious injuries and fatalities than in rugby etc etc, i could go on but it would be falling on deaf ears.

    Maden 2007 is not perfect but far better than 2006 which was actually a pile od crap.

  • Clive_Dunn #20 5 years ago

    "If you are an absolute addict, there are better games out there."

    Although if the reviewer had done some research he'd have found out that EA paid for the exclusive license and therefore there aren't any other NFL games out there.

    As someone else said this is a really poor review, and reads like someone has read the back of back new features and decided to moan about the most superficial of them. Very professional.........

    My views are that it still isn't as good as 2k5, both in the gameplay and presentation stakes. I can accept that Madden 06 was a tech demo rushed out to make 360 street, but there is still no real commentary in this years version. Rubbish.

    In addition the much vaunted "run to daylight" feature ( you control the blocking RB ) is actually an excuse for removing the blocking AI on your fullback. Cheers then.

    In general the running game is utterly overpowered, a 220lb power back can flatten a 320 lb DT if you time it right. The defense sticks to blocks, and generally gets flattened whenever a blocker is within 5 yards of them. Online rushing stats seem to average well over 6 yards a carry, and in some games border on stupid ( I had 350 yards on 12 carries the other night ).

    Bring back 2k football !

    5/10

  • manuel_garcia #21 5 years ago

    Crikey.... This is an absolute shocker of a review, from someone who clearly doesnt understand the game. And as for 'bringing back online play', er... it was in last year? Do some research mate, or pass it to someone that actually enjoys playing the games.

    This years version is the most fun i've had with Madden in an absolute age, and i try it every year. Hell even two of my friends that have never played the series before have been sucked into it. The new animation system is superb, the game runs faster than last year, the running game is now workable and enjoyable, graphically its several notches above last year with particularly excellent weather effects, i could go on.

    Trust me, if you like Madden you'll love this version. Although i do agree with the earlier post about the accelerated game clock, bit of an omission for sure.

    I'd recommend reading the gamespot review and the accompanied video feature for a good summation of the game, please do not take the text in this review as gospel, its far off the mark.

    EDIT: i was referring to the EG review, not any of the fan-specific ones posted above :)
    Edited by 1 at 03/10/06 @ 13:50

  • Hypocee #22 5 years ago

    'We are not renting this game, we are not licensing it from EA; we are buying it for up to fifty pounds and we expect to be able to use it as long as we like.'

    Er, no. You are just licensing it from them; didn't you read the EULA, you silly bunny? That's the point of those ridiculous copyright powers.

  • Furbs #23 5 years ago

    This is a reader review right? That is really really poor. I dont even know where to begin.

    Egon, are you the sort of person who see's a game is from EA and instantly dimisses it as crap?

  • captainrentboy #24 5 years ago

    ''though the high-def improvements are already starting to tail off and the limits of the Xbox 360's technology are already becoming apparent.''

    Was that sentance just added to give the various fanboys some fuel to get into a crazy 200 reply battle again?If so,thankfully it doesn't seem to have worked :/

  • weblaus #25 5 years ago

    Wow, now that was a seriously ill-informed, half-backed and stuffed-with-factual-mistakes review.. did someone at EG notice that it's time to hand out some bad 360 scores again after they've gone all super-positive the last few months? And to also get EA with it, two strikes in one blow...

    How about better not reviewing a game at all when you've got nobody around with enough knowledge of what he's writiting about? It's not like anybody would have missed a Madden review in Europe...

  • Daikon #26 5 years ago

    Of course, Madden hasn't changed that much, as it never does.

    I remember playing the first version on the Amiga.
    We ate coal and had bundles of sticks for toys back in those days.

  • PearOfAnguish #27 5 years ago

    I think that 'Egon Superb' is a sock. Someone just wrote a really rubbish review and doesn't want to own up to it.

    Yup, I would say so. He's the 'Alan Smithee' of games reviews.

    From the Wikipedia entry for Philip K. Dick's The Simulacra:

    "Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, The Simulacra is the story of an America where the whole government is a fraud and the President is an android. Against this backdrop Dr. Egon Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist, is struggling to practice in a world full of the maladjusted."

    Edited by 1 at 03/10/06 @ 15:15

  • pjmaybe #28 5 years ago

    Well if you want Maladjustment, EG is the right place.

    Great review though. Should've stuck a bunch of 15 year old sprites in it and a hackneyed old "3D" engine, better score for stuff like that :)

    Peej

  • Fozzie_bear #29 5 years ago

    Peej said:

    Great review though

    I knew it! ;)

  • Eighthours #30 5 years ago

    Yup, I would say so. He's the 'Alan Smithee' of games reviews.

    From the Wikipedia entry for Philip K. Dick's The Simulacra:

    "Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, The Simulacra is the story of an America where the whole government is a fraud and the President is an android. Against this backdrop Dr. Egon Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist, is struggling to practice in a world full of the maladjusted."

    Perhaps EG are simply trying to save the reviewer's blushes?

  • Darren #31 5 years ago

    "Meanwhile, let's take a moment to condemn EA's tendency to cut off the Live connections for all its games on a yearly basis."

    That's incorrect. EA have recently announced that they were shutting down the servers for their 2005 range of EA Sports games (on the Xbox) which if my memory serves me correctly, came out TWO years ago. It would seem to me that EA are intending to keep the servers going for at least two years not one. As for the Xbox 360, the machine hasn't even been out a year yet so that statement is somewhat premature if it's aimed at the new machine.

  • ruckus #32 5 years ago

    After reading about all the bugs in the 360 version I got the Xbox version instead (that and the fact Amazon had the 360 version for 1-2 weeks delivery).
    EA seems to not support the 360 sport titles as well as the PS2/XBox versions yet.

  • Natas #33 5 years ago

    Yea this was a poor review, because it didn't rate it low enough; NFL 2k5 is still better, right on Clive Dunn.

    Seriously, it looks like ass, the commentary is laughably, laughably bad. I like the control scheme, but I still felt more like I was playing with 2k5. Best Football game of all time, SHAME ON EA!

  • Feanor #34 5 years ago

    I don't think too many people would have a problem with the actual score. The score for this game on Gamerankings is 82%, and we all know that EG review scores aren't as high on average.

    But the text in this review surely is someone's idea of a joke. If EuroGamer doesn't want to treat game reviews professionally, then frankly I don't think I'll ever bother clicking on another ad here again.

  • Furbs #35 5 years ago

    Exactly, I'm no Madden fan, a casual player every now and then, I think the score is to be expected (although not from the way the "review" reads), but some of the text is just preposterous.

  • asphaltcowboy #36 5 years ago

    "I don't think I'll ever bother clicking on another ad here again"

    You click on the ads? o_0

  • Feanor #37 5 years ago

    Every so often, yeah.

    Reviews like this at EuroGamer are really sad when you see how seriously the reviews of soccer games are taken at American websites like Gamespot or Gamespy.
    Edited by 1 at 03/10/06 @ 19:00

  • Kostabi #38 5 years ago

    "there are better games out there" has to be the most useless line in a review. Ever. How about actually telling people what you consider to be better American football games then? 'Egon' spends a whole paragraph complaining about EA's online server shutdowns but fails to take the oppertunity to name an alternative to Madden.

    Utterly useless. No wonder the reviewer uses a pseudonym.

  • jozz #39 5 years ago

    Gah, why did I even bother to read that o_O

  • gaselite #40 5 years ago

    "People who think the sport is crap are (9 times out of 10) people who do not have the mental capacity to understand it (alot more complex and tactical than any other sports) and therefore do not appreciate that it is a far more demanding and dangerous/ violent sport than rugby. there are far more serious injuries and fatalities than in rugby etc etc, i could go on but it would be falling on deaf ears."

    Shit, I think I missed the memo where the watermark for a good sport was how many FATALITIES it involved. Jesus.

  • SomaticSense #41 5 years ago

    There are just so many problems with this game, both minor and major. I loved it at first, but after a while once you've spent more time to get to know it, some flaws suddenly start to surface, some are quite bad. Ones off the top of my head (all of these where experience when playing a full season of Superstar mode):-

    - Just before the snap, the game sometimes (albeit rarely) refuses to acknowledge any button presses leading to the play clock going down and you conceding a penalty without you being able to do anything about it. This has happened to me about 4 times.

    - When playing Superstar mode there is no stats screen to check which trades/free agent signings have happened. Not even for your own team.

    - Option settings seem to randomly change by themselves (this is happening to me a lot). Ie, I play on Pro difficulty, when all of a sudden I'm having real trouble completing passes and end up being battered by the opponent AI. So I check the options and find that the difficulty has changed. BY ITSELF!!!

    - As above, but this time the game seems to change whether or not I control my teammates when playing Superstar mode. I have it set to CPU control, only to find the game has changed it. Again, BY ITSELF!!!!

    - Never any substitutions. Ever. Even when setting it the happen frequently in the options, they still never happen.

    - Being able to see whether you or your teammates made the Pro Bowl side without having to check the depth chart once your actually playing the Pro Bowl game would be nice. Not major but a silly little oversight that wasn't in the previous Madden game I played (2003).

    - Unlocked Hall of Fame players appearing in the Free Agents list in Franchise and Superstar mode. This would be the equivalent of playing Champ Man and all of a sudden having your opponents sign up 25 year old and at their peak versions of Pele, George Best, Garrincha, Maradona, Platini etc. There should at least be an option to switch this off as it totally destroys the game.

    There are many stupid minor little gameplay glitches as well that really should have been sorted out by the playtesters before release:-

    - Your Wide Receiver just standing there watching as you proceed to throw the ball at his face leading to an incompletion. This seems to happen a lot, the stupid idiot.

    - Your coach deciding to choose a running play despite being 3rd and 21 and a TC behind in the last quarter with 2 mins remaning, meaning you have no choice but to choose an audible passing play. Stupid coach obviously doesn't want to win.

    - Your Wide Receiver waving for you to throw him the ball, clearly not noticing that he is at least 5 yards out of bounds. Again, the stupid idiot.

    - Any running play that invloves your Running Back running wide and around (any 'Toss' play in particular) almost always results in a loss of yards, purely because the computer AI is seemingly able to defend it without fail.

    - Your defence in SS mode constantly being absolute shit compared to your CPU opponents, despite them both being controlled by the AI and regardless of any actual defensive player ratings. Have tried moving the sliders for my Defensive Awareness up to 100 for crying out loud, and it is still just as shit as before. Players diving at thin air, constantly having their tackles broken (just wish someone would break the EA staff's *ahem* tackles as well....).

    - The CPU opponents RB seems to consistently be able to absolutley tear apart my Dallas Cowboys defence, with at least two or three 50/60/70 yard rushing TDs a game, with mine never being able to do so. Again, have adjusted the sliders to balance the game out a litttle. CPU RB ability - 30, User Def Awareness - 100. User RB Ability - 74, CPU Def Awareness - 40. You'd think that would stop the CPU's rushing destroying my defence constantly and lead to me getting some 50 yard rushing TD's as well occasionally and lead to it balancing the game out a little wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. There is no difference at all, the sliders seem to do between very little and jack shit, even when changing them to extremes like that.

    All of this because EA don't feel that it is important to make a game that is actually playable being as Yanks will buy it anyway as it's the only NFL game available. Proof that lack of competition is an extremely bad thing. And because of all of these, and along with EA ridiculous decision to only allow you to update your teams rosters if you have an XBL gold subscription, that I'm done with this game. I'm just hoping I can get a good trade-in value for it.

    BTW, sorry for the long rant, it's just you get a bit annoyed when you fork out 50 notes for a game and you find that there are way too many niggles that really shouldn't be there, especially with the developer having so may years experience with American Football games, as well as next gen hardware in order to put it right. Won't be buying another EA game again if this is their attitude.
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/06 @ 22:59

  • GordonJ@work #42 5 years ago

    @Darren, that bug where the game stops responding to button presses and pans up into the stadium was in last years edition.

    After last years shoddy 360 version, I decided to stay well away from this until I heard what the reviews and other players had to say about it, looks like I'm not missing much.

  • Feanor #43 5 years ago

    So who is Egon Superb then? Don't hide behind a made-up name.