FanHouse Madden08

Titans quarterback Vince Young is off to a good start this season despite appearing on the cover of Madden 08.

Maybe that means the Madden Curse has been debunked, and maybe that's why NFL players like Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney are actually campaigning to be on the cover of NFL Tour, a football video game that's going to be released in January:

There are also commercials featuring Jason Taylor and Shawne Merriman. You can see them all at the EA YouTube channel. I maintain that EA Sports has a better understanding of how to use YouTube for inexpensive and effective promotion than just about any other company in America.

Madden 08 debuts today and I got my hands on one at 12:01 am this morning/last night. There was the prequisite mad dash for the game around the city. I drove by three game stores that had a midnight madness opening for the game and seen a gathering at a 24-hours always open "mart-store". I bought mine [for PS3] at game store pictured, where there was a nice bunch of guys ... ranging in age from 25-35 ... ready to shill out $50-$60 on the game.

The one drawback immediately, I guess, is that there is no John Madden in Madden. Huh? Whatever. The play by play announcer sounds like a robot calling the action. The only life comes from former Madden cover boy Marshall Faulk who does a generic drive by before and after the game. Really, that's just one of few complaints. The highlights:

• The gaming is tight. Players actually move like players really would move.
• Tackling is a lot nicer with gang tackles, low tackles and big hits.
• One of the cool developments is the fact that warm weather teams will struggle when they visit cold stadiums. So, the Miami Dolphins will struggle with the cold elements of Chicago in a late season game at Soldier Field. However, the Bears may have a problem dealing with the heat in Miami during September.
• Players get tired during a play. So if a guy like Vince Young scrambles around, he won't just be speedy the entire time he's running. He'll wear down and get tired as any normal person would. This also works in the "Hail Mary" plays. Many people just ran a ton of hail marys ... but the receivers running back to the huddle takes a toll on them. Nice.
• There is a weapons feature that looks really cool at first, but really cheapens up the reality of the visuals of the game. I just don't like my football guys running under huge icons of a brick wall or something.
• ESPN has its name on this, which mainly is used for internet connection to send you highlights and NFL news.
• There are these cool halftime and postgame "shows" which show replays of the five best plays of the half/game.

Many of the new function are to take the "video game" out of the video game. You can't just use Michael Vick [who is in the game] to bootleg out and pick up big chunks of yards or get favorite plays you can run over and over again. The AI, so far, seems pretty tight and the fatigue factor is a great addition, although it does take time to get used to if you've been buying Madden games since you were in junior high. Check out MJD's breakdown of the game for elaboration on what I've said.

The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



As I stood in line amongst roughly one hundred people to pick up a copy of Madden at midnight last night, I thought to myself, "I'm getting too old to be doing this ... at least, with any of my dignity intact."

The midnight-buyers seemed to be separated into two groups:

Group #1: Guys who are 10 years younger than me, and will play the game with their buddies for the next 12 hours, altered by various substances, having a blast, giggling the whole time, until one game gets too serious at about 9 a.m. and two guys end up brawling over a pass interference non-call, and someone ends up in the emergency room after their head goes crashing through the living room table. I am no longer this cool.

Group #2: Guys who are a little older, and have either snuck out of the house while their wives were sleeping, or they actually have the kids with them, asleep in the car while daddy goes in to pick up Madden (yes, this happened). They will likely be calling in sick tomorrow or at least thinking to themselves, "I'd totally call in sick tomorrow if I had a job."

(Also at the bottom: The full review of Madden ... a campaign to see more of John Daly's skin ... your weekly dead wrestler story ... and Shawne Merriman mercifully retires his sack "dance" ... )