Madden NFL 13 Review

One of the major improvements we get this year in Madden is a brand new physics engine. Gone are the days of the canned animations for tackles and in its place is a much better physics engine.The new physics in the game help to make tackles look different, and instead of seeing the same few recycled animations over and over again it makes you belive you're actually watching a real live football game. Although the physics are good, and are much better than canned animations it can lead to some weird moments in the game like during a pile-up some of the players can and probaly will trip over each other, and the player will just fall to the ground like they are dead. Moments like I mentioned with the physics engine can really take away from the realism of the game, and causes moments that will make you laugh, which isn't really a good thing for a Football sim. Putting those moments aside you do have a pretty solid physics engine that does need some tweaks next year to make it even better.

Madden NFL 13's TV presentation shouldn't go unnoticed, as it is amazingly realistic, and also manages to capture everything we see on TV during a football game. When you start a game you will get real life tv intros and also a word from the brand new commentators (Jim Nantz and Phil Simm) in the booth. While I am on the subject of the new commentators let me just say the new commentary is much better than last years. Madden 13's commentary feels realistic it doesn't feel like they are just reading some lines from a script. Although a step up from last year there is still many improvements that can be made to the commentary for next year. Another nice feature added this year is now quarterbacks have their voices in the game this year. The voices are ripped from actual game footage as well, and really does improve that TV presentation that they were looking for this year.

The brand new mode this is called connected carrers, which is a combination of both superstar and franchise mode. In this mode you can choose to be a player or a coach.You can at any time retire a player/coach and pick a new one and even choose legendary players/coaches as well as creating your own player/coach! Added to this mode is a in game twitter feed that will generate some fake tweets with NFL headlines to add even more realism to the game. I gave both player and coach a try, and I like being a coach better with the main reason being you have a lot of control and I like having control in Madden, but don't let that make you think that being a player isn't as good because being a player had its own features that I liked that you couldn't do as a coach. Connected carrers not only allows offline play it has an online feature to so you can even play connected carrers with your friends.I enjoyed connected carrers and I look forward to see what they can do to improve it next year.

Gameplay is still pretty similar to the past Madden's with nothing really major to comment on. The soundtrack like in past Madden's is gone and in its place is an original score, and on the subject of sound the crowd sounds pretty awesome and reacts very well to the game I am playing so when I am close to the touchdown they react like any crowd would in a real game. Crowds also react to many different parts of the game, and it sounds/comes off very well as well as realistic. Not only has the "soundtrack" been revamped but Madden 13 gives us a brand new menu that is very easy to use and find things. Madden 13 was reviewed on the Xbox 360 and I have a Kinect so I tried out the Kinect features and they responded very well I didn't have to shout very loud or repeat things. If you are unaware of the Kinect features here is what Kinect will bring with Madden 13, Voice commanded menus, calling audibles and call time outs. The Kinect features aren't something you are going to rush out and buy a Kinect for, but if you own a Kinect already they are pretty nice features.

The Final Verdict

Madden NFL 13 in my opinion is similar to other Madden games, but it still managed to entertian me for hours with its brand new connected carrers mode, impressed me with its awesome, realistic TV presentation and created some awesome moments with it's brand new physics engine, but there is one question on everyone's mind who is reading this "Is Madden 13 worth playing?" the answer to that question is "Yes!"

+Very realstic presentation
+/- A solid physics engine with some noticeable hicups
+/- Improved commentary that needs some tweaks next year
- Still feels similar to past Madden games

Final score

8/10