(continued from previous page) ...but they can affect your income. Sponsorships are back, though all offers come from advertisers that are already over Madden 08.

The idea with the weapons system is that while there are many talented players in the NFL, there are some who excel in very specific areas. Quick Receivers are great at running routes and shaking coverage Left Side Running-backs are more likely to heave through the offense; and Smart QBs can make a strategy accordingly to the defenses structure. The weapons distinction is linked to specific ratings. Anyone over a 90 rating in one of the categories earns the weapon tag. Basically, the weapon tag coincides with a sort of “secret weapon” the team has, just that in this case there are more than one.

In previous iterations, there was a move to counter move priority, clearly seen in Madden 08. On offense you have strong route options and on the other side, you have more defensive coursework. If you see a hole in the defense, expect to dive in. You can order a player to leave his zone assignment and instead blitz for the hole. You can adjust the entire D-line, linebackers, or corners in one play, but the flexibility in improvised plays is impressive.

The weapons become a key component to this system. Holding L2, you can search for a weapons mismatch. It's then up to the defender to try and compensate quickly before the ball is snapped. At the same time, the player can call a strong route, or put a receiver in motion to try and create a mismatch situation.

This flexibility strap plays better against in online, though. The computer AI, while enhanced, is still unimpressive. There will be idiotic calls on both offense and defense that really open things up for a skilled player. On the default Pro difficulty, the AI does catch up quickly, making the perfect call against your defense and performing some extraordinary plays in the game. The AI still screws up, but it is a slight and minor improvement. For anyone, Madden 08 will still remain a challenge in some form.

Another area Tiburon neglected is special teams. You still can't do a reverse, your blockers don't know many terms and every kicker has to ability to boot a kickoff out of the end zone, which happens too much---even for a skilled player. There are only three aspects to football: Offense, defense, and special teams. Coaches will tell you that special teams often decide the game. In Madden 08, special teams are completely and utterly pointless. If anyone has a tremendous effect, it's purely you.

As usual, the announcer presentations remain bland, and dull. As with all years, we are forced to suffer through a radio broadcast. Despite having the ESPN license, Madden 08 is sour in delivering a broader variety of announcers to truly make our game come alive. We want an uproar when we make a touchdown from center field. We don't want a mark by mark "at the 30, the 20" count. We want the announcers to exclaim realistic emotion---like on TV football games with extraordinary plays.

Finance Mode serves one function: the ability to relocate your team. There are dozens of locations for your NFL franchise to move. You'll have to propose a new stadium and find funding. Your proposal will be approved, with luck, and you can move elsewhere for more money. You can even change names and uniforms later on. The best thing, to me about the change, is you can play any unlocked Hall of Famer.

Superstar Mode is similar to Madden 07’, but with a couple of key changes. You can choose to take the role of any member of the 2007 rookie class. You can now, most importantly, import your superstar from NCAA 08 and play them in Madden. The training elements (which are used to boost your Weapons ratings) are almost all identical to 07’. The camera is a bit better this time around. !

Despite the negatives, Madden 08 is a decent game for any football fan. With the certain improved AI factors, the animations, and the texture details, this Madden video game definitely is more impressive than the previous iterations. The PlayStation 3 version of Madden 08, however, just suffers from ... (continued on next page)