Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"All flash, no substance"

My roommate and I got are refund checks this month so decided to splurge a little on games. He got the NHL 13 which even though I have yet to date to watch a real hockey game, actually love. I decided after playing NHL 12 the night before he got NHL 13 I needed to rethink sports games which I haven't played since my genesis gaming days. He got the PS3 version, so I decided I needed a good sports career game that was on xbox 360 to avoid friction for the same tv. Baseball was out since I read that The Show series was the best and not for xbox, so I went with a classic I played as a kid Madden NFL.

Much to my surprise the game minus a few new buttons was the same exact thing in a new shiny wrapper. I did some homework first and read that the mechanics were tried and true classics so it didn't phase me. What did however was the graphics.. the cut scenes and replays are incredible for the people on the field. However when actually playing the graphics remind me of old PS2 games, and the crowd looks like it was a cut and paste 2d animation from the Gensis days with a once over touch up in photo shop.

I played with old school graphics and still play a few classics but the swap from high def replays to something that makes me remember my days in high school is like a painful stick in the eye. Especially after playing NHL 12, and NHL 13, which has a 3d crowd and even smoother looking graphics then my xbox NFL. Which is alarming since I can't stand most crossovers on PS3, and felt up till now the xbox had a little bit more with graphics after playing Call of Duty on both systems and liking xbox more.

In conclusion this is just an old game with generic late features like carrier mode that starts you in the big league, spruced up with shiny instant replays for the marketing department to use to sell the game. I will be trying to return this game since frankly the only one in my house that can stand it, is my roommates 8 month old who loves staring at football games for some reason.