Operation Sports Football Game of the Year: Madden NFL 09

Staff Thoughts

Matthew DiStaulo: Not that there is much competition for this category -- the only true contenders being a choice between three different EA products -- but there were some fairly good improvements made in both the Madden and NCAA games, and Head Coach was an excellent niche product as well. Madden was worthy of game of the year, and I for one voted for it, but it still felt as if something was missing -- as if a product had just not come along to put the other games in their place like MLB 08: The Show was able to do for baseball on the PS3. Every football game released this year has its own merits, and if EA could just take the best ideas from every game and infuse them into one, and then beef up the online options, we would finally have the next-generation football game we have all been waiting for.

Caley Roark: My vote was for Head Coach, which I thought did a better job at delivering an overall experience, and mixing in a tremendous amount of innovation. This most recent version of Head Coach was simply a huge leap from EA's previous attempt at a console "text" NFL simulation.

Meanwhile, Madden still lacks features that were available in past editions, and even its numerical list of innovations did not create that big of a difference, in my opinion, from 2008.

Still I found Madden fun to play, but agree that it would be great if we could just get one truly superb football package from EA.

Christian McLeod: I am at a complete loss of words as to how our staff voted for Madden 09 in this category.

Madden was a huge step in the right direction for the franchise this season, but still featured numerous franchise glitches, ratings issues, suction blocking and superhuman defenders -- all issues that have plagued the franchise since it made the move to "next gen." I did not even mention that the game's biggest innovation, Adaptive A.I., was buggy and hardly even usable.

NCAA Football 09 should have been the winner of this category, and it is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion. Not only did the game offer quality gameplay, graphics and animations, but the inclusion of Online Dynasty mode was reason alone to vote this game as football game of the year. NCAA 09 was not only the best football game released this season, but was also the best football game released in the last three years from EA.

Madden 09 had no business winning this award over NCAA 09 this season. As I said before, I am simply at a loss for words. It does not matter if we are comparing overall feature sets of both games, or the on-field gameplay, NCAA 09 was far superior to Madden this season.

Dave Branda: In my book, NCAA Football should have won this award. While Madden certainly took a step in the right direction, it was far from a great game and certainly did not hold gamers' attention for any substantial amount of time. Madden on the next-gen consoles still is not as good as the early PS2 and Xbox editions of the game, and it is hard for me to throw any praise on a game that is not as good as it was five or six years ago.

Meanwhile, tons of people are still playing NCAA Football almost six months after its release. It was the only football game this year that really brought a new and innovative feature to sports gaming, and it did a great job of capturing the pageantry of college football.

Jack Hoeffel: Well, considering not many people have defended their vote for Madden yet, I guess I will hop in.

Each year I mainly play NCAA and Madden for football, and therefore I did not get a chance to try out Head Coach. In past years, I have always had more fun playing Madden than NCAA. Maybe that is because I like being able to see exactly who my running back is, rather than just seeing a number for my star player. Also, since I have a fairly unreliable Internet connection, I do not play too many sports games online. That being said, I understand that the Online Dynasty mode in NCAA 09 was excellent and a lot of fun for many people. Seeing as how I do not play online all that much, though, I felt that I had more fun in the offline game with Madden this year, which is why it got my vote.

Patrick Williams: This one is simply by default in my mind. I cannot see what you other guys are seeing in NCAA this year. I looked forward to NCAA and it was such a letdown. Everything feels canned and just unresponsive, like I am not in control of that game. At least in Madden you can break out of tackles and animations somewhat.

The high completion percentages and the lack of a CPU running game in NCAA just killed it for me. Actually it killed Madden for me too, but still Madden was just a better game this year as I thought NCAA was just spinning its wheels.

This is the first time in a few years I actually started a franchise in Madden and made it through half a season before I got bored. I know that does not sound like much, but I did not even want to start anything on NCAA.

Regardless of what your pick was, football leaves a lot to be desired on next-gen consoles in my mind. Maybe I should have tried the online dynasties, but the gameplay was so bad I did not even want to. I think Madden will be good next year, but with no substantial competition this year, many gave Madden the award by default -- including this die-hard college fan.

Ray Delizo: I was one of the guys who voted for Madden 09. While Online Dynasty was a big feature that drew many people into playing NCAA Football 09 this year, I just felt that Madden offered me more, as I tend to play Franchise mode rather than spending time online. Plus, despite its flaws, Madden's adaptive difficulty actually helped make the game much more enjoyable. In addition, Hammonds and Collinsworth were a big improvement over the radio announcer that was in Madden 08.

That being said, I think that both Madden and NCAA Football have quite a ways to go before they can reach their former glory status. While both games are not perfect (what game is, really?), I honestly felt that Madden 09 deserved the nod over NCAA Football 09 this year because Madden has made some positive strides towards getting better. I witnessed these strides in the presentation, gameplay and the adaptive difficulty departments.

Readers' Choice

The readers voted almost the exact opposite as the staff on this topic. NCAA Football 09's Online Dynasty mode has generated a rabid following, which has led to dozens of leagues that are still going strong even as the official NCAA Football season comes to a close. Also of note was the fact that NFL Head Coach 09 garnered heavy support among a sizable portion of the voting audience. It seems like if you liked Head Coach, you really liked it.

Winner: NCAA Football 09

Voting Results: NCAA Football 09 (43.04%), Madden NFL 09 (25.09%), NFL Head Coach 09 (21.06%)

Readers' Thoughts: Goes to NCAA 09. I was really happy to play a sports game with such a rich franchise. There was so much you could do with your team in terms of recruiting and scheduling. Saving replays was really fun as well. -- hq3000

NFL Head Coach is one of the best sports games of all time. It has its flaws, but it is better than anything else on the market. -- adembroski

I guess i will be the first to say it: Madden(for me). NCAA is a really good football game, but I am more of a pro guy than college. So I really play Madden much more -- rock85

NCAA 09 AFTER THE PATCH! Before it was garbage! -- RedskinsFan#56