Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

[schnaidt1]

i have been loving this game. not since madden 04 have i been so into a football game. last few years i buy madden, play it a week. then im either too pissed off, or too bored with franchise mode. this year, although there are some annoyances. im loving how every game feels fresh.

this game isnt deserving of all the 9 ratings it has got this year or last. and i think 7.5 is a great rating for this game cuz in the past the 8.5 and 9 ratings madden got should really have been cut in 1/2!!

if u consider that, then this madden really is worth buying. im getting it after my season ticket expires

[Whaaaazuuuuup]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

i have been loving this game. not since madden 04 have i been so into a football game. last few years i buy madden, play it a week. then im either too pissed off, or too bored with franchise mode. this year, although there are some annoyances. im loving how every game feels fresh.

this game isnt deserving of all the 9 ratings it has got this year or last. and i think 7.5 is a great rating for this game cuz in the past the 8.5 and 9 ratings madden got should really have been cut in 1/2!!

if u consider that, then this madden really is worth buying. im getting it after my season ticket expires

i agree with you bro. there comes a tinme where you need to stop nit picking a game to death. MADDEN will NEVER be NFL2k5, which in my opinion is the MJ of football video games. we all knew what to expect when EA got this license and unfortunately we'll have to endure it til 2014 since they signed an extended year.

that being said, MADDEN does a fair job and is better than last yrs, which i played regularly up until 2 weeks ago. til a new development team starts making MADDEN just expect minor tweaks as improvements...

[tril]

Too many negative reviews. Man we need another football developer badly.

[rich7sena]

Its perplexing to me how this game got a 7.5 as opposed to last years 9. All that Madden 11 added from Madden 10 was Gameflow, strategy pad and a broken difficulty system (all of which were negatively received). I suppose the ambition that Madden 12 undertook didn't deliver on all accounts but it still laid out a foundation for future games. I didn't agree with the score Madden 11 got last year and while I don't believe this is the same reviewer from last year, there needs to be some consistency with the scores on the same site.

[mellamoaaron]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

I still don't get how a game that is substantially better and a big jump in the series got rated lower than a game that was basically 10.5.

I loved NFL 2K5, I might have had franchises with EVERY team on the game, yet Madden 12 surpasses it, in my opinion. I've never had so much fun playing against the CPU in a game since then, and this has surpassed it. I've lost games and I didn't get mad, I knew I lost because I wasn't executing correctly. WR/DB interactions are something they can work for next year, but as it is now I'm happy that I bought this game.

[scottyp180]

I miss the days when it was worth being excited for the release of a new NFL title. Back when you didn't have to question if it was worth buying or if it was better than the previous years game. Now you need to hold off at least a year inbetween games just to get your moneys worth.

I remember when the EA/Madden hate mostly came from loyal 2K fans but each year it seems that more and more people are noticing the lack of effort that is put into to this game year after year and it's reflected in the games review. Its like EA doesn't care that Madden, which use to consistently get review scores of 9 and above, hasn't reviewed that high since the 360 came out.

[Steven123]

I'm glad that this review was not biased, I agree 100% with the score

[Segagendude]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

I had high hopes (still do) for this year's title, with Adembroski on board. "He's one of us"------a fan, not an EA honk.

But I see even he's limited on what he can and can't do, based on his response in the "raining" thread. I blame upper management combined with the code.

[lofeazy]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

Damn I am actually shock that OS give madden a 7.5.(Where was this the last 4 years.)

[bkrich83]

Review was as expected. Not sure how the kicking meter is a step back though.

[Vikes1]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

IMO something has gone on with upper management that's hindering these EA sports titles.

I wouldn't be surprised if your right, OG.

Kinda like back in the 70's, when many tried to lay the blame for the crappy American cars, at the feet of the average auto worker. They couldn't built solid dependable cars from substandard parts. Could very well be, that the devs have taken a lot of heat for things that may have been out of their control.

[truintellectplaya]

I agree with the poster that said that a football sim may be the toughest sports game to make. You can look at something as simple as the pick and roll in basketball, you expect for it to work at a high level because it does in real life. There have been teams that made a living off of pick and rolls, like 75% or more of there points came from it. On the other hand, football is not the type of sport in which you would think a play would work 75% of the time unless one team was totally superior to another and that is rarely the case in the NFL. Also, the lack of a real focus on defense long ago killed the Madden experience and it is getting no better. As tough as it may be to make a football sim, Backbreaker and NFL 2K got it more correct than Madden has. With every new Madden and MLB 2K I find myself wishing EA could get back into making MVP baseball and 2K or someone else could get back into football. Sad, but what can you do other than not purchase it?

[budsticky]

Shouldn't a series that has been around for over 20 years be beyond "a step in the right direction," as the reviewer put it?

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Review (360/PS3)

Shouldn't a series that has been around for over 20 years be beyond "a step in the right direction," as the reviewer put it?

Depends if the game has been consistent for 20 yrs.

The easy answer to that is no.

[DJ]

Chris, thanks for the very detailed review. I'm going to wait for the patches to be released before buying the game this year.