Madden NFL 09 (Playstation 3, 2008)

This is a good game, but this is supposed to be Madden on the next gen system. They have a lot of great new features, but they removed a lot of little things that start to add up.
THE BAD
-There is no QB vision, but you can still highlight receivers...why?
-There is no way to customize music during practice or in the main menu except when you go into the music section.
-Can only use preset hot routes. Cannot choose which hot routes you want available in the game...I really miss the post route audible and the out and up route.
-Cannot "shade" defenders anymore.
-Cannot customize the buttons and their actions to your liking.
THE GOOD
-Chris Collinsworths' breakdown of plays is one of the best features EVER. You haven't experienced Madden until you watched this presentation. It's like watching Ron Jaworski break down a play on NFL Match-Up!
-Madden IQ is great as far as seeing where you are potentially weaker...as long as you don't cheat to make your stats better.
-The "Rewind" feature...a must for anytime you get "Maddened". Too bad this can't be used if the computer is in hurry-up mode. This feature also saves you from resetting out of frustration (just don't run the same play twice...cpu will adjusts when you rewind).
-Stats for each player are now useful. It's nice to now know which player should try and "truck" people, versus using a stiff arm, versus trying to juke. It all depends on the stats and who's good at what. Owens is only good on important downs and plays...just like in real life. He drops quite a bit of passes otherwise.

In all, Madden is a good game but I wish they hadn't removed some of the features. The level of detail that you could go into in past Madden games is now gone...I am willing to bet everything that this is because they no longer have competition from other football game companies. It's really sad that on a next gen system, you have less features than the previous system. I don't understand why they couldn't leave the detailed level of customization from previous games AND add all of these great new features (I WANT to audible into a post route, and I WANT to shade my defenders to guard against the slant route. I WANT to protect the ball with the triangle button, not R1). Oh well, if you buy this game, it's still a good game. These things can be overlooked, but for $59.99, they should pay more attention to the little detail. Worth buying once it becomes cheaper.