Are you ready for some MADDENOPOLY??

Let me preface this rant by saying, I love sports. Honestly, sports is one of the only things worthwhile to watch on tv. I'm a huge Jets fan, and will watch any pro football game (and the occasional college). I bleed orange and blue for my Mets, despite getting shit on year after year. I challenge anyone to match my knowledge of MMA (best sport ever).

I run a fantasy football league, I'm in a few others, and I bet more on the NFL then I should say. You want me to join a suicide / knockout/ pick 'em league with keepers? I'm in. I even play MMA pick 'em on KOUNTERMOVE. So you guys get it, I love this shit.

You know what I'm not really into though? Sports games. For alot of gamers, we are about a week away from the most important release of the year. The next installment of Madden. Every year, I think about picking it up, and some years I do. I get home, fire it up, start a career (J-E-T-S of course), maybe even make myself the next big linebacker for gang green. I'll play for a game or two. Then, I'M BORED. For me, one the best things about sports is same thing that makes it shitty to play them virtually: it's the uniformity. Doesn't really matter what field I'm playing on, it's always the same between the lines. It's like, what if every game of COD TDM was played on the same board repeatedly, only against different teams. Sure, you need to develop different strategies, but it'd wear thin, fast.

That's sports games in a nutshell for me. I know there are tons of you that are reading this in utter shock and disbelief. I've watched Maddennation. I know the Madden community is just as hardcore as Street Fighter's, maybe more so. It's just not my bag. Well, it IS, but isn't. If I'm over a buddy's house and he wants to rock some MLB: The Show, or Madden, I'm down. It's mad fun to play against your boys. But then go home and play the computer? Or online? Not the same at all, and it gets boring quick.

BEST. MADDEN. EVER.

It wasn't always like this. I used to play Madden, or NFL Gameday, or the 2k games on the regular. Especially in high school and college. If you're crusty and old like me (33), every time you pop in the next year's Madden you want to relive those Genesis classics. I don't care how good Madden '13 is, you aint toppin '93 on the Genesis baby. With the useless yellow piece on the cartridge, word up! What did that even do anyway? Listen, the entire method in which you pick plays in Madden is basically still the same, based around the GENESIS CONTROLLER. A, B , C buttons bitches!

You know what I'd rather play? "Sports" games that use the video game medium properly. Something different. I know you don't play Madden for something "different", but I that's what I go for. MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL. What? You never heard of it? Here, let me give you a taste.

In a word: BOMB. There's a play called "Kill the Ref", are you kidding? Why has there been only one version of this? (There's a Hockey one too)

 I love NBA Street, NFL Blitz, Base Wars, fuckin Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball.

Danger Dudes '91 Champs WHAT

 It was sports, and it was innovating in ways only a video game can. But straight simulations? They get old I'm sorry. I fuckin played FIFA 2002 everyday one year and I don't play soccer, I just wanted different!

I had a roommate who would play NFL 2k5 everyday until World Series Baseball came out then he played that everyday until NBA Live came out then he played that everyday etc. etc. etc. on and on and on. He'd play me, or single. Sometimes online. Every guy on the Jets, Mets, Knicks and Rangers were perpetual first ballot hall of famers with more rings then Jordan, Brady and Shaq combined. Fuckin crazy. That's a hamster on the hamster wheel.

Don't scoff and think I don't get it. I do. I was in a dynasty league in college for NBA Live '98, before dynasty mode even existed. So I've cut my teeth on plenty of sports games. I still get an itch to go play the latest and greatest. Madden '13 in all fairness looks sick.

Let's take moment of silence for the latest victim of the Madden Curse: Megatron

But you know what killed it for me? EA. Once they bought the exclusive NFL rights, the genre took a big hit. Is Madden the best NFL franchise ever? Of course, yes. But they didn't rule the roost every year. When the Dreamcast dropped and they premiered the 2K franchise, no one played Madden. Believe it or not, there was a time when Sony exclusive NFL Gameday was considered the best option for virtual pigskin. It didn't last long but it's the truth. And you know what happened? EA strapped up. They dropped what sucked, kept what worked, stole some stuff, and created their own innovations. They owned the exclusive NFL experience because it the best, not because it was the only option. Now, we have here a Monopoly. A MADDENOPOLY. And EA has gotten lazy.

With every new generation of consoles, there's the shock and awe of graphic and sound fidelity, and when Madden premiered on PS2 or PS3 it instantly was "Teh best evah" because of that. But then you play it for awhile, and the holes show through. Broken animations. Bugs. Missing features. EA was in such a rush to get their war horse onto the latest and greatest it sacrificed the details that made Madden great. Then there's the excuses, "Sorry about Madden '09 or 10 etc. We weren't used to the hardware, we are familiar now, watch out for next year!"

Or obscure (or obvious) new features being touted as the best thing since bread itself. "GANG TACKLE ANIMATIONS, ONLINE ROSTER UPDATES. COME AND GET IT!" Is the addition of shoe string catch animations, and an updated roster worth 60 bucks? For many of you it's a simple answer.

NEW FOR MADDEN '13: TEBOWING..as a JET

Here's something to think about. Why does every Madden from this past decade add features, only to cut out other established ones? Why does online play work better on certain years? Laziness? Yea, more then likely, in a way. But there's more. EA does this to fabricate hype for a new release. For example, online seasonal play was added, but no online career dynasty (but it was offline). The next year? ONLINE CAREER MODE. Why couldn't that have been there from the start? "We didn't have time." says EA.  No, it's just without any competition to spur them on, they drip new features onto the Madden faithful throughout the console cycle.

2012 is probably last great year for this generation. Wii U is coming, PS4 and 720 will be on the horizon. So of course, this year we will finally have the "greatest" Madden ever, '13. From all accounts, it appears to be the most robust, smoothest, epic gridiron experience ever. Every question has been answered, every concern taken care of. And I'm probably gonna buy it. Didn't expect that did you?

But is it such a coincidence that the last great year of this generation will finally have the Madden experience gamers have been waiting for? Everyone will deny it, but no it isn't. I'm a conspiracy theorist at heart and I know this shit was planned in a board room. Next year's Madden will disappointing, because it will premiere on the "outdated" console. It may be a launch title for 720 / PS3, but it'll be rough. It'll look nice sure, but everything that made '13 so awesome will be gone. And the cycle will start all over again.