Madden 07 In The House

With each new fall comes renewed hope. Cold creeps into our yards, the squirrels get busy gathering nuts, and the leaves begin to give up the fight. But the real question is, will this be the year your team finally pulls it all together and makes a good showing? Inside, sports fans crowd around the TV to eat food they know to be unhealthy and cheer on the home team. Can you feel the excitement?

The Madden franchise has been around for ages; this version of the game is actually the seventeenth. Can you imagine the many iterations it has gone through, the thousands of hours spent improving the game, and the experience and expertise that must have come out of all those previous incarnations? If so, then you have an inkling of what you can look forward to this year on your Xbox® and Xbox 360™ consoles.

It's all over but the scoring.

The Draft
A good chunk of what will affect the football season happens long before anyone takes the field. Experience this aspect of the game via the Franchise Mode. Step up to the conference table and decide which hard-working college kids will get a chance to play with the pros. Create your own roster and build your team from there.

The NFL Draft Scouting System and the College All-Star Game puts you on the sidelines with the clipboard, watching for talent. Sign them up and make them into superstars. Unsure? Don't worry. Mel Kiper's got your back. He's ready with information about every potential draftee.

He turns up field and he could go all the way!

The Play
Ultimately, it's about playing the game. The majority of the new features in Madden NFL 07 affect how the game goes down in the dirt. Madden NFL 07 gives you some great tools for directing on-field play. You guide your men on the turf, using the new Highlight Stick for direct control over runners. With this new feature, you can perform a bunch of special moves, some of which are signature moves for specific NFL players. Have your runner slash, cut-back, juke, and do power moves. It's all there for you to explore.

Before your runner can do his thing, however, he needs the blockers to open a hole for him. Using the Lead Blocker Control, send your blockers in to create a lane, then switch to your tailback to move the ball down the field. The amount of control you have over everything your team attempts is nothing short of amazing. You'll find that some things work with some teams that don't work with others, based entirely on your current team lineup. Take on the role of the quarterback, strategizing and customizing your own plays for maximum gains.

Each stadium reflects its unique personality and hometown crowds.

The Players
One of the best ways Madden contributes to a sense of realism is the way it draws on the resources of the NFL and Players, Inc. EA Sports is able to incorporate vast amounts of real world information into the game. As you play, you'll have access to the NFL Network's Playbook mode. In this mode, you'll actually be able to browse through plays taken from the teams in the game. You'll even have a personal guide, NFL veteran, now ESPN analyst, Sterling Sharpe.

Superstar mode has evolved for the better this year. When you create your own player, you choose a position for him. That will be his position for the duration of his career. He stays in that position for the duration of his career. Choose any position you want, but it will be the position you stick with. This makes for a more cohesive, realistic experience in Superstar mode. The Superstar camera puts your eyes where your player's eyes are too, so you see things exactly the way your athlete would see them from his position. All you have to do is get him into the Hall of Fame.

When you sit down to play Madden NFL 07, you take the captain's chair in the world of professional football. You can decide what aspect of the industry you want to participate in. Walk onto the grass and take your position with your teammates, or work the business side of things, digging deeper into Franchise mode, building a champion dynasty for your chosen town. Whether you want to play out each moment yourself, or call the shots and watch the results, Madden 07 will give you plenty to cheer about.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy