Review by: William Abner

When I saw Madden NFL 12 at E3 in June, the first thing that was pointed out to me by the person giving the demo was how the development team went to great lengths to ensure that certain aspects of the NFL experience were modeled as accurately as possible. Items like specific “team run outs” and dynamic broadcast cameras that are set in specific places depending on the stadium (used during cut scenes, mainly) were high on the sell list. I watched the presenter do his thing, all the while thinking: do people really watch the teams run out of the tunnel in a Madden game? Don’t people just skip all that stuff and get to the kickoff? This seemed like such a frivolous thing to promote during an E3 demo.

The irony is that Madden 12’s presentation is shockingly poor. I’m not talking about the graphics and the animation, both of which are fantastic. The player models and the smoothness at which they move have never been better; the added animations are noticeable after a few plays. The field and jersey degradation—all of that is great. However, the presentation, the sound in particular, is downright awful. For a sports game junkie to lead off a review talking about the sound says a lot.

The duo of Johnson and Collinsworth is a mess – they call the wrong player names, they call many players simply by number, they have no idea that the game they are calling is a playoff game, and the level of repetitiveness is at an all time high. The final straw was after a brilliant 80 yard interception return for a touchdown, Collinsworth saw something different as he said something ridiculous about how this particular cornerback takes too many risks and he got burned going for the pick. It’s unconscionably bad. Normally, the play by play in a Madden game is bland enough to at least not get in the way of the experience – but this is grating. EA can keep its specific team run outs and authentic camera placements.

The game on the field fares a bit better. The new collision detection works as advertised. This results in a running game that feels as organic as any in the history of the series as there is barely any noticeable suction blocking and you get a real sense of a one on one matchup between linemen. You can see holes develop, tackling is significantly improved as you get a true modeling of ganging up on a ball carrier – and when you add in the new tackling animations it looks as authentic as any Madden game to date. The days of running backs running in place stuck on the back of a lineman or a fullback not pushing the pile for a few extra yards are over.

That said, when playing against the CPU you are going to have to go into the settings and tweak the gameplay sliders because even on default All-Pro level running between the tackles is a bit too easy – especially against certain teams, like Chicago, who like to spread their linebackers out. The blocking is simply too good at times, as linemen are able to consistently hold their blocks. Thankfully, after a bit of experimentation you can get the run game to work and when it clicks it’s extremely satisfying.

Although you can easily see the strides made to the run game, the pass game is still lagging behind. The physics engine is just ‘off’ and the defensive backs still have the uncanny ability to react to a pass the millisecond it leaves the quarterback’s hand—even if their back is turned. This is compounded by the fact that the CPU quarterbacks like to throw these slow moving moon balls towards the sideline which gives the secondary so much time to react that it’s like a mad fight to see which player intercepts the pass.