Madden NFL 07: Hall of Fame Edition (Xbox 360, 2006)

Okay, last year's Madden for the Xbox 360 was...for the most part, bad. It was rushed, missed many features and overall just lacked in almost every single area. This year, with the bumps behind them, a lot of people thought EA would be on the learning curve and significantly improve the franchise on the next generation console to set itself up as a spring board for further down the line. Well, they did a lot better, but they still have quite a ways to go.

Gameplay: 7/10
This is your typical football game, duh. The new feature is that you can control run blocking, and this takes quite a while to become useful, and even longer to master. It plays just like past Maddens and is easy to pick up, with features that require much training to become second nature and of any use (like the hit stick, run blocking, etc.). What really brings the game down, however, is the fact that yet again, there are some missing features. For me, the lack of no fantasy draft for franchise mode is really a bummer. I always love to draft the best team I can and see how I do, but, for some reason EA decided to leave it out on the 360 version. Also, I don't really care for Superstar mode. It's much better than last year, that's for sure, but at the beginning it's just a bunch of reloading to try and get the right parents to be really of any use. The 40 yard dash and bench press workout mini games are somewhat fun, but tedious as well, but keeping at it can prove to be fruitful and satisfying once you hit that sub-5 forty.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are quite good, though they're nothing special. The faces of selected players look just like them, but others just look like generic ones thrown on at the last minute. Also, the menu is quite bad. It's quite hard to navigate and there's so much going on at once that it's just annoying and aggravating, last year's was better. The fields and fans all look very much better this year, and the weather effects as well. But due to the menu, it may take you about 5 minutes when you first get there to figure out what's going on (besides Play Now, of course).

Overall, this year's Madden is a step in the right direction, which is good. However, this step is very minimal, which is bad. Maybe next year, EA will make one that goes leaps and bounds further than this one, but somehow I doubt it. I love the Madden franchise, but they're slacking as of now because of no competition and it shows in the game quality. But hey, I've been proven wrong before, maybe this will be another case next year. Until then, I'll just keep playing 07 and make it worth, like I did last year.