It’s in the Game (or is it?)

Earlier today, I was flicking through the channels and found myself watching a commercial for the latest EA Sports release : Madden 07. I’ve got to say, it’s looks pretty darn amazing - the graphics are spectacular and they’ve added back the superstar mode and some other minor features. But then I found myself asking the same question I think about every year: What the heck is REALLY different about Madden this year than last year???

 Taking a step back, I was one of THOSE people that paid above retail price to get the XBox 360 early and Madden 06 was the first game I copped. Talk about jaw dropping, I couldn’t believe how crisp that graphics were on my 52″ Toshiba HDTV. However, that gameplay was reminiscent of Madden 2005…as a matter of fact, it was the same game with some makeup applied and minus some very important features found in the XBox 1 and PS2 versions. It’s one thing for game makers to up the price of games by 20%, but it’s another to keep releasing the same game with only marginal upgrades and a change to the athlete gracing the cover. When we were all snug with our PS2s and Xboxes, we were promised “Next Gen” innovation with the release of the XBox360 and the PS3 - but I’m really starting to believe that we’re still years away from true reinvention of gameplay as we know it. It really is a shame to invest in another game with the hopes of it having Halo 2 longevity…only to retire it to your bookshelf after 1-2 weeks of unsatisfying play. Are we all suckers for these media companies that continue to recycle the same stuff and just package it differently???