Madden NFL 13 First Details

[BDSooner72]

First Review

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/madden-nfl-13

Official Xbox Magazine
Aug 8, 2012
75
Overall, Madden remains quite raw. Give it another year, and Madden may at least be a true contender. [Oct 2012, p.72]

Someone at OS posted scans

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/albumpicture.php?albumid=3165&pictureid=28957

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/albumpicture.php?albumid=3165&pictureid=28956

Some really fun stuff posted at OS. 

One of those EA Game Changers is doubting the reviewer had the game (yeah magazines never get early copies of games for review)
The review was by Kat Bailey, a female game reviewer.  (Cooties)
A self proclaimed RPG Nerd (I seem to recall Bill Abner is a board gaming/RPG Nerd, does that make his reviews of football games invalid)
so one might take this review with a grain of salt. (It is just a review, some of those OS dudes need to climb off the edge)

For more fun check out the thread and thank heavens for Aholbert32 for injecting some sanity into the discussion.

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/madden-nfl-football/566447-first-review-7-5-10-a.html

[Brad Company]

  that OS thread is mentally challenged.

[Jason]

The people complaining about the low review score will be the same people ripping the game two weeks after it's out.

There's a lot of good info to be found at OS, but unfortunately, 80% of the forum posts are nothing but drama.

[Jason]

Madden demo confirmed for August 14th.

[BDSooner72]

Game Changers are the worst posters. Just a bunch of guys getting free trips to Tiburon and doing all the work covering EA's asses on forums. Not just at OS, they are everywhere.

[BDSooner72]

More demo details from Steve.

The Madden NFL 13 demo includes the New York Giants vs. San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks vs. Washington Redskins.

UPDATE #2: You can choose difficulty settings. 5 min quarters and it's an entire game. It will also have full commentary.

Pretty good stuff for a demo. Outside of having the Giants in it. 

[Jason]

Downloaded the demo this morning and played a quarter before going to work - I don't think I can go back to playing NCAA Football now.

[BDSooner72]

Thanks for reminding me about the demo, downloading it now. Is it really that much better than NCAA?

I have Sleeping Dogs coming in today also, lots to do.

[BDSooner72]

I still see myself playing plenty of NCAA. I like what I see so far from the demo but the new physics have a lot to be worked out. My RB gets tackled and half of the time it is like he is rocketed to the ground. In a few cases I am barley even touched and fall.  I think they have the start of something good but it will take some time to get used to.

I can actually SPIN in this game. I have no clue what they did to NCAA but you can't accomplish a spin move, which is my bread and butter.

[BDSooner72]

One thing that annoys me with Madden and in turn makes NCAA more enjoyable is playing defense locked into one player.  Why Madden does not offer this option is beyond be,

[BDSooner72]

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2012/08/madden-2013-demo.html

The Bill's are back in town. I agree the graphics have taken a step back and the lighting is pretty awful but this little blog really shows someone has an axe to grind.

[Jason]

I made the mistake of looking at that post yesterday and had to stop reading it halfway through. I understand that everyone's entitled to their opinion, but that doesn't mean I have to read it. Some people will never be satisfied with ANY game and should consider another hobby.

[Jason]

Madden 13 PDF manuals available for download:

Madden 13 Manuals

[Jason]

It seems Madden and NCAA Football do NOT have identical control schemes - the pre-snap controls are different in each game (line shifts, audibles). I'm not really annoyed by that since I preferred Madden's pre-snap controls and was disappointed they weren't used in NCAA Football this year.

[Jason]

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2012/08/madden-2013-demo.html

The Bill's are back in town. I agree the graphics have taken a step back and the lighting is pretty awful but this little blog really shows someone has an axe to grind.

I'm sorry, but this quote is just totally ridiculous:

How do the players move, though? Um, like they've moved for the last five years, pretty much. What about that new Infinity Engine to generate unique tackle animations? That's 99% horseshit. Seriously, I didn't see one tackle animation that looked unique or impossible with the old engine, and I played a game that consisted of probably 40 plays.

I've seen so many unique tackles and interactions EVERY time I've played, and not just with the ball carrier and tacklers. I actually had my RB trip over the foot of my offensive lineman, fall into another offensive lineman and then finally fall down. The BIG point that he's missing is that some of the animations were present in the old engine, BUT they were pre-determined. The animations in M13 play out based on real-time physics. I love how my RB can get hit, lose his balance, regain it and start running again and not have it based off a canned animation. What's even more impressive is that the cut scenes after each play also follow the same rules of real-time physics - I've seen players trip over other players laying the ground during these cut scenes.

I had some doubts about EA pulling this off, but I'm really impressed with what they've shown in the just the demo. I have no love for EA, but sometimes you have to give credit where it's due, and they certainly deserve some credit for the job they did on Madden this year.

Edit: Just wanted to mention that I'm playing the demo on "Very Slow" which feels much better to me.