Madden NFL 09

At the forefront of EA Sport’s annual offerings, there is no bigger cash cow than the Madden NFL franchise. Now in its 20th year in existence, the Madden series has been among the best (if the only, as of the past few years) professional football games around, selling huge numbers each successive year. Therefore it should come as no surprise that the series is readying its next entry for launch in August.

Madden NFL 09 offers the token improvements that you’d expect from the franchise, with some nice graphical enhancements as well as some cool new features to keep things fresh. Needless to say, the series’ rabid fan base will find plenty of cause to drop their money when Madden NFL 09 ships.

One of the biggest themes at EA Sports’ Season Opener event held this week at EA Canada in Burnaby, BC was in-game feedback. The feedback system was present in Tiger Woods PGA 09 in the form of Hank Haney’s presence, and it also comes to the forefront in EA’s other juggernaut sports franchise, Madden NFL 09. The latest Madden entry will continue this trend, offering you support in the guise of announcer Cris Collinsworth, who will give you support from the sidelines, critiquing your last play and offering you pointers on what you could’ve done better.

Another new feature in Madden 09 that helps players tweak their game is the Virtual Trainer. In this mode, you’ll be able to perform various rushing and passing plays on both defense and offense in a simulator-type situation on a virtual field with green and red players on the field. In this mode, the game will give you cues to perform the right moves at the right times, effectively teaching you the right times to perform jukes and so on.

Graphically, the game offers up some great new elements like depth of field and more detail on the player models. Additionally, the animations have also been tweaked to look even more fluid than previously. All in all, the game is a marked improvement over last year’s entry, which was already a great looking game.

Madden NFL 09 is offering up some nice additions over its predecessors, and should be a worthy entry to the franchise. Look for it this August.