Game Overview
The best in the Madden series so far! Without a doubt! It's not often we make such conclusive statements at the start of a review but Madden 08 has set the bar so high for NFL titles it's jaw droppingly amazing!

Gameplay has been refined, in particular with the ball carrier, you'll now be able to fend off those tackles with quick sprinting, dodging, sticking an arm out and blocking them off and generally have a lot better freedom with the ball carrier. Player skills have also been introduced this year which will allow you to create mismatches around the field to enable you to stand a better chance of foiling the oppositions plots to gain yards and score that illusive touchdown. These players skills are indicated to you by a marker on particular players, for instance if a player on your team is particularly good at catching then they will have a indicator with a pair of hands, if they are super fast then they'll have a lightening bolt underneath them and so on. It really helps you identify your star performers and utilise them to their maximum.

Graphics are impecible, from start to finish you'll very rarely see a blemish in anything to do with the artistic side of Madden 08. Stadiums, fans, players and the pitch look amazing. HD graphics don't get any better in sports titles than in Madden 08 and we can guarantee you won't be dissapointed by them. In between plays the cut scenes look fantastic, players eyeballing each other, celebrating a tackle, touch down or pass even shots of the coach throwing a hissy fit. It all comes together to produce a fantastic looking game not to different to watching coverage of a match on TV.

There is enough new content and gameplay features to keep Madden fans interested in the newest edition and we think that most of them will happily put 07 on the classics shelf for the time being. One of those features is points you receive after playing a match, these points add up throughout the game and when you reach a certain level you'll receive an NFL Ring (in game of course). Give you something other than the usual Achievements to aim for which is a nice touch.

Our Conclusions
Overall we are mightly impressed with Madden 2008, for us it is definitely an improvement on last years release (2007), the biggest improvement is ease of use for newcomers, so if you have never played a Madden game before but wouldn't mind giving it a bash then get yourself a copy of 2008 as there really is no better time to be playing NFL, and what with American Footballs recent increase in popularity in the UK you won't be the only person learning the rules!

Overall Score: 9/10

Thanks to EA as usual