Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)...or watching Barry Sanders singlehandedly shred a defense for a 40-yard TD run. I've been glued to this game since I brought it home...
THE GOOD: the graphics and sound are amazing. Much better than the Madden line of games. The game is supposed to be rendered in 1080p, but comes on in 720p for some reason on my TV. I went into the PS3's display settings and turned off 720p, and that fixed the issue. Players retain dirt and scuffs on their uniforms, and celebrations after TD's and sacks are excellent. The game really gets the feel for each individual player. Gone are the ratings based on 0-100 scales. When you choose a player, it tells you exactly what this player does well. You have total control of every single player on the field in pre-snap: hot routes, blocking schemes, formation switches and audibles all before you hike the ball; zone coverage, blitzing, shifting, drop off and pinching on defense...all of this can be tailored for each player one at a time, meaning, for instance, you can blitz your weak side LB ("Will") by hitting 3 buttons. You really have to learn the button layout, though.
The gameplay is fluid and fast, but not too fast. The QB can slide in the pocket, duck under and avoid sacks with the ease of the Left control stick. RB's and WR's have a slew of moves. What's different here? Used to be, players moved on a horizontal axis, making them look and act almost like horses on a merry-go-round, with a pole running up through them. Now, player movement is very fluid, very smooth, and players you would expect to just seem to "glide"...OJ Simpson, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, etc. After years of playing both the Madden games and the 2K games, I'd have to say that this version looks the most realistic--the tackles, the moves, the blocking, players knocked off balance, the ball movement...your QB will even throw a wobbler into the ground (or worse--into the air and up for grabs) when he is hit as he throws.
Also, it's great to be able to build your own team of NFL Legends. Right now, I have 4 teams which I've built, including designing their home and away uniforms, and I compete with each of them. You'll be pleasantly surprised by many of the names included in the game--too many to name here. The CPU teams are made up of legends as well, though, so be prepared to get your butt kicked the first time you play.
Essentially, you pick 11 players from the "legend" database. This field of players is broken down into 3 tiers: Gold, Silver and Bronze. You get to choose 2 gold players, 3 silver players and 6 bronze. The game fills the rest of your roster with random players; suspiciously with familiar names (my back up QB's name is "Archuleta"). True, you don't get to pick anyone beyond the 11 legends, but the random players are pretty darn good, and you do get to choose how the roster is filled: your extra WR's can be balanced, possession or deep threats; your extra RB's can be finesse or power runners; your D-linemen can be run stoppers are pass rushers, etc. I've heard complaints be early reviewers about the uniforms, but as long as no one's in pink, who cares what they are wearing? The uniforms are OK, and you create your own when you make a team from the helmet to the shoes. Also, the stadiums are absolutely over-the-top. One has a huge shark coming through the top of the scoreboard...it's awesome.
THE BAD: there are negatives to this title. You can only play with your created teams. I would love to play with the team called "LEGENDS" as it has 11 gold tier players on it, but it is a CPU only team. The choices for gameplay are very, very thin. You can play a quick game with one of your created teams against a CPU team, or start a season, where you basically play a round-robin against the other CPU teams, then go to a playoff series. If you do win the league championship at the end, it's over. This was a real downer for me. This is also why I created 4 teams, because I really wanted to play with Ditka, Night Train Lane, Eugene Robinson, Reggie White, John Elway, Ronnie Lott, etc. etc. etc., but you can only have 11 legends on your team at a time.
It seems the developers spent way more time on the offense. As fluid as it is, the defensive backfield is still a tad shaky in it's player movement (a la NCAA Football 06 or 07), especially strafing, and potential INT's seem to bounce right off DB's chests and facemasks. Watching a sack unfold is gorgeous, though, and linemen can swim, club, spin and bullrush to gain an advantage over their blocker, which makes rushing the QB the most fun aspect of playing defense.
Kicking is a nightmare. 2K uses the right stick, much like the EA games do, but there's no kick meter. You pull the stick back to start the whole process, and right before the kicker actually makes contact with the ball, you thrust the stick forward. You won't know if you did it right until you see the flight of the ball. A text indicator comes on screen to let you know how well your timing and aiming was, but it's an after thought--if your kick was bad, you'll know as it sails out of bounds.
Online play can't really be reviewed here, as there aren't many players out there yet. I'm sure by next week, it will be jamming. There are quite a few options out there, though, like Tournament play, online seasons, custom play and quick play, and all are separated by difficulty level. I saw one profile player already had a record of 12-1 as of last night (the day the game hit the shelves) but there were only 44 others players online at the time, so wait for later reviews to discuss online play.
ALL IN ALL, I love this game, and it has exceeded my expectations in so many ways, but it falls short in a couple of small but key aspects: the anonymous "extra" players (who have no visible ratings), the thin gameplay options, the frustrating circus that is "kicking," and the dropped INT's. But nowhere else can you find this vast field of NFL Hall of Famers. I can only compare it to last year's games, so it may be unfair, but I will say that this game blows Madden 07 away in nearly every aspect of actual gameplay, but not in it's menu items.
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