Madden 13: A beginner’s retrospective

Before we start, let’s get things straight: this was originally intended to be a review. However, it would be unfair to judge an American Football game given that our grasp on the rules are about as strong as our ability wake up in time for work in the morning. Pretty weak.

With that in mind, here’s some observations from an NFL newbie, of the latest iteration of EA’s Madden series...

It looks incredible: If you’ve seen this year’s FIFA, you’ll know that EA Sports are working tirelessly to make their menus, in-game graphics and player and stadium models as accurate and sleek as possible and it shows in Madden 13. The word 'polished' doesn't do it justice.

The teams have got awesome names: Flick through the team select  screen and you’ll find the New England Patriots, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tampa Bay Bucaneers and, our favourites, the Seattle Seahawks. They’re all just so fun to say.

The attention to detail is incredible: One tap of the X button on our Xbox 360 controller and your screen is filled with a vast array of tactical plays, various throwing and running techniques and a whole load of other stuff we have no idea how to use anywhere near as effectively as we probably need to. All the different colours and lines look really pretty, too.

American Football is a very rough game: After getting driven to the ground time and time again by some overweight jocks and eventually having to give them the ball back as a thank you for hurting our poor quarter-back so badly, we realised one thing: we don’t ever want to play this game in real life. Ever.

The learning curve is OK: Fair enough, it took almost an hour of having the rules explained to us and we certainly don’t profess to being on John Madden’s level just yet, but after  a couple of sessions with Madden 13, we can now put on a semi-competent display against one of the mid-tier NFL sides. On ‘Amateur’, obviously.

Multiplayer’s actually pretty fun: Spending more than half of your playing time devising tactics and plays when  taking on a friend or playing someone online shouldn’t, in theory, be fun, but it is. It’s amazing how rewarding blindly devising a play that completely bypasses your mate’s defensive line can be.

So there you go, if we, as complete NFL n00bs can find a way of enjoying Madden 13, we know you can, too. The sheer amount of game modes, tactics and teams make this one of the biggest and best looking sports sims around.