It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... and this topic will have nothing to do with going back to school. Though Madden certainly could use the refresher, I wonder if they are even trying anymore. Now, I've played the game for a long time but lately I just don't get that same rush the game has given me since the 2005-2007 period. That was a section of games that I felt Madden truly was at its best. It may not have been as pretty, and the animations and physics may not have had the complexity that they do in the modern games but it was fun and I NEEDED to have it every fall.

Since Madden and gaming have moved into the "next generation" I would dare suggest that Madden has been having an identity crisis. The visuals have taken leaps and bounds every year and I dare suggest to most gamers not to be impressed by the graphical display that Madden can be. The game itself though has failed to truly innovate itself in such a long time it truly boggles my mind how the game can persist more or less unscathed due to its borderline cult of a fan base.

My favourite period of time was when the game incorporated trait elements for the players such as "hard hitter" "sure handed receiver" "rocket passer" "brick wall" "bulldozer" etc. That made them a 'step above' the other players on the field. Madden has tried more recently to show a divide in player skill by just making the skills the focal point of a players in-game prowess. It's gotten to the point that many real NFL players are intrigued to see just how good their "Madden" avatar is. I always like to see the players talk about their Madden counter-part's. It's almost like Madden has become as big a part of NFL culture as anything else. The Madden Bowl co-insides with The Super Bowl.

2005 had Rey Lewis on the cover...

9.0 on gamespot.com, editors choice. Average critic score of 9.0 from 45 reviews. It was a great game and I bought the special edition (I believe it was the 15 year anniversary edition which really didn't have much special on it. It had a shiny cover and was 10-15 bucks more than the regular rendition. They introduced the 'hit stick' which is still used in more recent renditions. I loved the game and its probably still one of my most memorable Madden's.

2006 saw Donovan McNabb grace the cover...

Ratings wise, the Xbox version received a 8.4 in 47 reviews 2006 was a 'whiff' in the Madden trend, it was also the first season that Madden jumped to the 'next generation'. It saw a 7.4 and the score was generous as it was a rather forgettable game, gorgeous, but forgettable. On the regular Xbox it was a solid game. It introduced the 'vision cone' for increased QB accuracy, a mode I never used. In their review, Gamespot called the game "a false start". It also introduced a 'precision passing' mode where you could throw your pass behind, in front of or above a receiver to try and avoid defenders. It also introduced a 'truck stick' which allowed running backs to plow through defenders.

2007 saw Shaun Alexander on the cover...

2007 is a game I still own for Xbox. It was a year that saw the divide in quality between the 360 and regular Xbox versions get smaller. I did not own a 360 yet at this point so I went with what I could get, since I didn't buy 2006 and I had to have Madden! The 360 saw a rating of 7.9 which isn't much of a ratings improvment, but it at least had some modes that Madden 2008 neglected to include. Gamespot called the Xbox version an "aging veteran" where as I'm sure Madden fans who owned a 360 were just thankful it was better than 2007. There were some cool game mechanics included in the xbox version. The franchise didn't quite have the depth the current Madden system has, but its NFL Draft was as good as it's been. The regular Xbox version got an 8.1 rating.

2008 saw Vince Young grace the cover as a rookie...

This year marked an obvious transition in focus as the 360 version was decent where as the Xbox version was pretty mediocre. I had a 360 so I got to have some solid playing time with Madden 2008, now it felt like it was the best 360 version to date, and it was, but the game felt incomplete to me. There was more work to be done. The 360 version saw a rating of 8.3 average through 55 reviews, the Xbox version was dipping into mid 7's territory. I didn't buy either version of the game and I'm glad. Vince Young I think is one of the more intriguing cover athletes. Maybe the greatest underachiever to grace the Madden Cover.

2009 saw Brett Favre grace the cover...

I bought this game and I played quite a bit of it. It introduced my favorite madden feature ever, Super-Sim which allowed you to simulate a game play-by-play, until a change of possession, by quarter or to the end of the game if you so chose. Great for garbage time if you get out to an early lead and maybe want to let it play out a bit, add some drama with a great come-from-behind victory. I loved the Super-Sim. Graphically this game was good but it wouldn't compare to more recent entries. The version of the game was solid though its rating wasn't much of an improvement over 2008's version.

During this period of time, I didn't really have many other games to play so I powered through Madden for the better part of an entire year, where typically I'd have Hockey or Baseball games to distract me keeping me fresh for Madden season. (I eventually got NHL 09 later that year but by the time I got it, I had been playing Madden 09 primarily for around a year straight... that's a lot of Madden!) I got to know Madden, I saw it for what it truly was. Game flaws in the areas of receiving the ball on the sidelines (something they didn't truly address for a couple more years) blocking flaws that made both passing AND running the ball a complete frustration from time to time. Flaws that started out as little things I would notice happening time and again grew to big flaws that would cause me to shut my game off. No wonder I grew to love the super-sim mode so much!

Madden 10 was released just before I moved across the country so I had to have it. It was the first game to feature two cover athletes. Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polomalu.I waited until I recieved my Xbox and traded in games (including Madden 09) to get it. Immediately, I liked the new menu's and I thought the game had a very slick presentation both in the menus and on the field. The game looked as good as it ever had at the time and I started out really enjoying it. That enjoyment didn't last very long though, Gamespot's general review hit the nail on the head...

"  A number of features make Madden NFL 10 a more realistic and enjoyable portrayal of football, but a few problems--both old and new--continue to trouble the series." 
After a couple months, and that's max, I grew frustrated and traded the game in. Nagging flaws that bothered me in 2009 persisted in 2010's version of the game. I grew anxious for Backbreaker, and I renounced my Madden addiction. It's still strong. I need my fix (this is essentially one big build up for my next blog entry where I review the Madden 11 for the Wii. I will also sing praise for NCAA Football 11)

(As I was saying...) I bought NCAA Football 11 and I have been enjoying that a lot. Madden uses the same "Locomotion" engine for improved physics and control so I have no doubts that Madden will be improved in many of the ways that NCAA 11 is an improvement over any Madden game I've played for the next gen consoles. Madden 11 has the highest rated critical average since the 2006 version for Xbox (11 has an 8.7 average over 23 current reviews) and is the highest rated Madden for the 360.

My end point is this: Why can't they just make one game, update it with patches periodically while developing a revolutionary NEW Madden. Something that will help re-establish Madden as THE sports simulator video game. Improve the stagnating franchise and superstar modes. Take the time to give the game play the TLC it has desperately needed for almost a decade now. All the while, overhauling the graphics to not only give the game a great send off for what is now the current gen but preparing the game for the inevitable "next-gen" that is coming so that the game doesn't have to stagnate on those consoles for 3-4 years while the developing catches up to the technology.

I want to rent Madden 11 for the 360, and I want it to be good. I want to see signs that the game is heading in a good direction so that I may want to buy it, or Madden 12 when it's released next fall. I am sick and tired of the merry-go-round that is the current Madden cycle, and more-so than that. I am sick of its borderline brainwashed fan base who cannot WAIT for the newest rendition to be released. I should know, I used to be one of them!

A dream inside a dream?

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... Having finally seen it, I am not sure where the movie stands with me. I waited, and I anxiously bothered, and I patiently waited, and I not-so-patiently waited. Finally, this past week I got to see Inception. Now, I have to say that upon re-imagining a world where Batman movies weren't just good, they were great, Christopher Nolan earned my lifetime appreciation and made a reserved spot on my very long Hero list. I have seen every movie he's made since Batman Begins. I loved The Prestige and have very anxiously been wanting to watch it again. The Dark Knight took my love of Batman to new heights, and was a very great memorial for Heath Ledger. With Inception, I wasn't sure what to expect.

When I first saw a teaser trailer, I was intrigued. It was what a teaser should be. It showed who all would be playing the cast and gave a hint at what a possible plot could be. From the teaser only more questions remained and that's how it should be. To go off on a tangent with my prime example being the upcoming movie, "The Town." The trailer started off intriguing about a girl who was in the midst of a vicious crime. She meets a character played by Ben Affleck and they start to fall in love. The movie seemed intriguing until the trailer revealed that BEN AFFLECK WAS ONE OF THE CRIMINALS IN THE HEINOUS CRIME!!! Had the trailer not gone there, had they kept that rather KEY element to the plot secret. I might have actually really wanted to see that movie. Far too many movie trailers give away TOO MUCH of the plot to the point that you don't need to even watch it. Terminator: Salvation was guilty of this as well and it's fucking infuriating!

Anyway, back to Inception. From the opening moment, I was sucked in. The movie took the time to tell its plot properly and anybody who has the gall to complain about it simply wasn't paying attention. Unlike The Prestige, Inception takes the time and establishes the rules of the story right off the bat. It establishes the expectations of surrealism right out of the gate so there is nothing left to wonder as far as limitations are concerned. To go off on another tangent, this was one of the weaknesses of The Matrix, which established NO limitations. The trilogy grew outside of itself to the point of absurdity, where as Inception sets a standard that it does not stray from and it only makes the movie stronger. Compared to Nolan's other film The Prestige, Inception is focused in its complexities and it's a far superior film because of it.

The cast was great; Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent in the lead role Cobb. I feel like he's finally starting to come into his "prime" as an actor. For so long I had a really difficult time taking him seriously but now he's one of my favorite actors after films like Body of Lies and Shutter Island and The Departed, all of which he was excellent in.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was also excellent in this movie as Arthur. He is an actor who is building himself an excellent resume and will probably be one of the biggest movie stars of the next decade should he keep himself in great films such as this. He played a rather by-the-books character, you could call him Leonardo's partner in crime so to speak. He was strong as well.

Tom Hardy played Eames, the con artist of the movie and really one of the more important characters to the plot. I thought his character was one of the most well rounded of the movie and he was the prime source of laughs in a movie which really needed none (but they were very well placed when they had them) and he's an actor who I will be keeping an eye out for in the future, he was great in this film.

Ken Watanabe plays Saito, the 'contractor' of the whole job (to give away about as much about the plot as I want to) I've loved him in all the movies I've seen him. My favorite movie of his will always be The Last Samurai but I liked that he was in the Dark Knight and he was particularly excellent in this film.

Last but not least, Ellen Page was really the show stealer (IMO, I may be a bit biased as she's Canadian and got her humble acting start on the tv show "Trailer Park Boys") she plays the architect and is really one of the more important and central characters to the plot. Honorable mention goes to Cillian Murphy who also was great in this movie as well.

Enough about the cast as really it was top notch, and gets "all-star" status from me, even though all the characters aren't A-list they put forth "A-list" performances and that helps add the element of mysticism to the plot which, without, this movie would have just came across as hokey and ridiculous and it is truly far from it.

Without a doubt, I feel this is Christopher Nolan's best film. I haven't seen Memento and I know I don't have to. For all the great things I have heard about that film, I know Inception is better. Inception doesn't miss a single beat, Christopher Nolan's expert craftsmanship of the film shows as he truly is one of the most talented directors in all of Hollywood. A lesser director would not have been able to do the subtle complexities of the plot justice. I can't think of too many others who might have been able to pull this off but the fact remains as it's Nolan's handiwork, he wrote the script and he directed the film and without Nolan, Inception would've been a hollow and empty.

The movie is obviously about dreams, and it makes you think which I love. Inception is placing in idea into somebodies mind so that when they wake from a dream, they believe in the idea you put into their head. The key however, is to go into the individuals dream and become a part of it. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? That's as much of the plot as I will give away and really I think that' saying too much. Inception is Christopher Nolan stretching his muscles after making really the most complex movie the Super Hero genre has ever been given in The Dark Knight. The result is breathtaking, I sat through most of the movie slack jawed, eagerly anticipating every consecutive moment. I could not wait to see where the movie was taking me, and I hope that everyone else who has seen this movie feels the same way.

My advise to you is do not let the hype build up this movie for you. In my experience anyway, when that happens it can cause a movie to come up as disappointing. This is what happened with Avatar. However, with Inception, the movie completely surpassed my expectations. I left the theater in a state of awe, I had no idea that the movie would be as good as it was and I have faith that anyone seeing it for the first time will have a similar experience. Just go into the movie with an open mind, be ready for anything and allow yourself to be lead through an intricate and exhilarating story. Inception is the kind of movie that Avatar wished it could be. Inception is the kind of movie that comes along once a decade, and it will stand the test of time as a truly great piece of Cinematic history.