After playing a game of Madden '98 (with 15 minute quarters), I have
come up with a few initial observations. Take these with a grain of
salt; they may change as I put im more playing time. Mostly I will
compare the game to the recently released NCAA Football '98.

The look of the game is a little cleaner than NCAA. The player
animations and uniforms are a bit sharper. The stadiums appear
to be pretty nice, but of course NCAA's are beautiful and there
are so many more. Overall I'd give the graphical edge to Madden.

The supposedly innovative "Touch Passing" is a joke. Really, it is
the same system used for many years; tap the button to lob, hold
it for a bullet pass. I noticed no significant difference from
NCAA in the way the QB leads the receiver. How EA can advertise
this as a new innovation is beyond me. And personally, neither
NCAA nor Madden lead the receiver as well as Sony's GameDay or
GameBreaker games, especially on out patterns.

The running game is much more like last years Madden than NCAA,
which is a bad thing. Running seems to be extrememly tough. Don't
even think about sweeps or tosses. You better run inside and hit
the hole FAST. My longest gain was 7 yards, and I was thrown for
losses quite often. I ended the game with 3 yards rushing on 19
carries with my HB. Granted, the Rams O-line is not very good.
But IMO, NCAA's running game blows this away.

The AI does seem tougher, which is a good thing for sure. I did not
get the feeling that the game was "cheating", but rather that it
reacted to my formations and tendencies.
Meanwhile, I played the Saints (I was the Rams) and the Saints
passed nearly every play, DESPITE the fact in the pregame preview
it said the Saints have a weak passing attack and will try to
establish the run. Weird, as others so far have had a much more
balanced attack. Maybe this was an anomoly.

Anyway, the game played tough on defense. I only scored 13 points
in the game. Unfortunately, the Saints could not move the ball at
all, so I won 13-3. Still, it was a challenge to be sure, which may
be the best part about the game. Swinging passes out to the HB's
(ala NCAA) does NOT work repeatedly.

One thing that was cool was that on the 2nd play the Saints ran,
Shuler dropped back into a play-action pass (complete with a cool-
looking fake handoff). I was playing as SS Toby Wright and I dropped 
back into coverage. He threw the ball to the right flat. I raced over,
timed my leap and picked the ball off. Very nice. I was glad I didn't
just knock the ball away.

The Saints used time-outs at the end of the half, so that bug from
NCAA is not present.

Fatigue bar can be seen over each player, which is a neat touch.

As usual, EA crammed the game with great features, including classic
teams, a fantasy draft, create player mode, etc. Pat Summerall's
speach is a bit disjointed.

So to sum up, I find the games running and passing attacks 
disappointing. The running game is a step down from NCAA, and the
passing game, supposedly renovated, feels identical. On the other
hand, the game offers a tough CPU opponent (at least on defense)
and is loaded with options. I'll be keeping it, especially since
I can get a tough game from the CPU,  but if I had to choose between
Madden and NCAA, I'd definitely go with NCAA.

Next up, Sony's NFL GameDay '98!
-- 

  Jim S.       

Serious fan of:
*St. Louis Rams        *Michigan Wolverines          *"JAWS"
   *St. Louis Cardinals          *XTC           *MST3K

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