{"id":1010,"date":"2007-08-18T09:57:13","date_gmt":"2007-08-18T13:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2007\/08\/18\/madden-2008-randomness\/"},"modified":"2007-08-18T09:57:13","modified_gmt":"2007-08-18T13:57:13","slug":"madden-2008-randomness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2007\/08\/18\/madden-2008-randomness\/","title":{"rendered":"Madden 2008 Randomness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All random impressions are based on default settings.  Still early days, but figured I would share some thoughts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lots of interceptions.  The good news is that most of mine are fairly obvious; throwing into double coverage or miss reading zone coverage.  The bad news is that a couple appear to be some sort of super human (well computer AI) feats of wonder.<\/li>\n<li>Playing as the Falcons results in most kickoffs ending in non-returns; clear out of the endzone or downing the kick.  Michael Koenen has a hell of a leg in this game.<\/li>\n<li>Punt return coverage appears to be a little better than past games.  Blocking is still suspect, but there is a chance to get a return.  Still too many fumbles on the first hit.<\/li>\n<li>The new symbols that show different player\u2019s characteristics are interesting.  On one hand, I think it is nice look for match-ups (throw away from that great coverage DB), but on the other hand, the symbols sort of take away from the \u201crealistic\u201d experience, reminding me that I am playing game.  If there is not a way to turn this off, the super sim crowd should be going nuts by now.<\/li>\n<li>In one game managed to tackle a CPU HB in the endzone for a safety.  I have not seen that in a while.<\/li>\n<li>I have not given up many big plays.  The only long TD reception against me came when I tried to jump in front of the ball, missed, resulting in an easy 50+ yard TD for the CPU.<\/li>\n<li>Averaging about 1 penalty per game; usually holding.  Par for the course for EA.<\/li>\n<li>The CPU tends to not manage the clock.  They break the huddle, line up, and run a play.  I would guess that only 5-7 seconds run off the clock.  This means more plays, but so far this is my biggest beef with the game.  Not sure if there is a setting to accelerate the clock.<\/li>\n<li>In one game, I was up 14-0 at the two minute warning before the end of the second quarter.  The CPU had the ball on third down, did not convert a running play, and called for a punt.  Instead of trying to run time of the clock, they simply punted.  Very poor clock management.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So far I am really enjoying the game.  The last Madden I owned more than a couple of weeks was Madden 2004 (collector\u2019s version with that SOB Vick on the cover), so maybe my Madden break had something to do with a \u201cfresh\u201d experience.<\/p>\n<p>More impressions later.  The good news for me is that I do not think the game is nearly as bad as a lot of reviews are claiming.  One man\u2019s trash I suppose.<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nif(wpa2a)wpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All random impressions are based on default settings. Still early days, but figured I would share some thoughts: Lots of interceptions. The good news is that most of mine are fairly obvious; throwing into double coverage or miss reading zone coverage. The bad news is that a couple appear to be some sort of super &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2007\/08\/18\/madden-2008-randomness\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Madden 2008 Randomness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}