Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

Alright, first things first. This is undoubtedly the best Madden game I have ever played (and I have played nearly every Madden dating back to Madden 98 with the exception of 03). The addition of the Infinity engine is a homerun. It finally feels like players have momentum and that the size, strength, and speed of players are all big factors in how the game plays. Hits and collisions feel fierce and seem to have serious weight to them. Players can finally be truly gang-tackled, not that garbage where only two or three guys can get in on a tackle. And I finally feel like power backs are a viable option in Madden. It used to tick me off so bad when I'd have a guy like Marshawn Lynch or Adrian Peterson who run with serious authority but then get tackled with ease but some chump cornerback. All that being said, however, the Infinity engine does at times cause some really strange hits and doesn't play a role in how blocking plays out since guys still suction block.

As for the game's presentation, it's hit and miss. The camera blur works great at times, but a lot of the time feels out of place and misused. However, Madden 13 is a gorgeous game and player models look good. Menus don't seem as clunky to navigate as they have in the past but the load times are still a bit slow and going through certain options, trying to edit players for example, still remains a pain. The soundtrack of this game, in my opinion, is much better than past iterations and gives the game a sort of NFL films vibe that I greatly enjoy. Overall, I think the sounds in this game are fantastic.

Now for Connected Careers Mode. I know a lot of people, myself included intially, were extremely critical or apprehensive of combining superstar and franchise mode into one. I know some features were dialed back a bit due to the two modes being combined, but I still think that CCM is a winner. Newsfeed and tweets really give the game a much more personal feel to the game and keep things fresh. The addition of experience is also a big win because you get to progress your player(s) attributes to your exact specifications. And overall the experience does feel somewhat streamlined.

Overall Madden 13 is a blast to play. It does a great deal of things right, mainly the Infinity engine, but still needs to fine tune a few things to really propel Madden up into the ranks of elite AAA games. In terms of looking at the future though, Madden 13 sets a pretty solid foundation with which EA can really revive what had been a declining franchise.