Operation Sports Forums - Impression from the SF XBOX 360 Preview Event

This was posted over @ the TEAMXBOX website. It's an impression of a member who actually played & attended the Preview Show:

Quote:

After attending the San Francisco xbox360 preview event, I got some hands-on time with Madden for the 360 and here are my impressions so far... Keep in mind that this isn't the final build of Madden so I'm expecting a lot of my complaints to change when it's finally done. It was run on the final 360 hardware.

To put it bluntly, it wasn't pretty. Although the stadium and fans were superb, with details ranging from hot dog stands to each individual audience member in full polygon, the game itself was choppy, glitchy, and worse, the controls were terrible. I know it's an early build but the screen shots did not match what I was seeing on screen. The players seemed a little disproportional, but enough about the graphics and framerates, which I suspect will be worked out in the end. Did I mention I saw players fly across the screen on some missed tackles like superman?

Anyway, the thing that kills me about Madden is that each year the controls seem to change and it feels like I'm playing a foreign game. I've been playing the current xbox 2006 version and it feels different, with different button layouts etc. I got the hang of it after a while but the controls still felt sloppy and the passes were frustrating (no thanks to the QB vision). Either the pass was perfect for an easy touchdown run or I threw into the crowd or an easy INT. The menu system is different as reported by other sites, where you can choose plays based on different formations or by player etc.

Overall IMO it was the least impressive game of the show (and I'm not even talking graphics and glitches) and I was really hoping for something great, being a Madden fan. All I gotta say for those of you pumped up for this game: don't get your expectations too high. I'm hoping EA can pull it together soon because there's a lot of potential but it's the whacky controls and just overall feel that left a bad impression. I'm not trying to bash on EA since Need for Speed Most Wanted was great.

I personally will be attending DIGITALIFE in NYC this weekend, I will post impressions if MADDEN is playable @ the EXPO..