Madden NFL 12 Game Guide

For the most part, when sports gamers play online, they typically prefer to play with people they know rather than pair up with complete strangers. Of course, there are those who like to be challenged by foes they have never played against, but having to deal with annoying issues like disconnections or uneven matchups does give reason to avoid certain aspects of online play. EA Tiburon understands these predicaments, and for Madden NFL 12, it is introducing online communities to give players the ability to organize groups with their friends and modify games to their liking. 

Madden is also using the new tackle animation system we talked about in last week's NCAA Football story. EA's aim with this system is to make tackles and collisions look more natural. In previous years, there were only so many points around a player in which another player could approach them for a hit, which often resulted in players magically floating to that invisible entry point to begin the tackle animation. There's a certain human element to camera control that this year's game is trying to capture with an elaborate setup of real cameramen and a motion-capture studio. A number of other visual additions and tweaks litter this year's version of Madden. These include stadium exterior shots preceding a game, new broadcast cameras that mimic the unique camera placement of every stadium in the league, 3D grass, and enhanced uniform degradation. Those certainly sound interesting, but the big question is what EA is adding in terms of gameplay features and modes to keep players' interest over the long haul.