E3 Recap from Philly Ron

It’s now Friday and I’m starting to slow down as the convention comes to a close. Guys have been hitting me up like crazy asking for info but I have been trying to play enough games to give you a real foundation to work from.

The situation that I'm in is like a person who loves classic cars and finally gets his first one. The joy of finally having it is your first wave of emotion and then you look at the work that has to go into it to make it run right. EA has done a great job in the look, feel and responsiveness of the game but it is still early and the car (Madden 07) is in the garage with 40% of work left to make it drivable.

Here are some things that you will love in this year’s game.

#1 The new run blocking features. This is going to be a monster and will drive the game for the whole year. The run feature takes advantage of the new Highlight stick. (Right analog stick)

2# The right analog stick is now known as the Highlight stick when you are using the run block feature. From a blocking standpoint you can select the person you want to use as your blocker and then fire off the ball and before you engage (right stick) up for blow up block, left for seal left, right for seal right and down for cut block. This feature is very useful. I had a few runs for TDs because of getting the timing down.

#3 The Highlight stick can also be used when you’re running the ball. This is more on the lines of how you use it in the NCAA game. Juke left or right, back juke or truck stick. All of these animations can now be controlled from the right analog stick.

#4 There is a new animation in the game that many players will love and it’s because of the Run to Daylight feature. After you have set the block that you want, you can then press the B button on the (XBOX) controller and regain control of the HB. What is sweet about this feature is that the animation goes to the clutch kick type animation and slows the game down so that you can see how important your lead block was. If you did a great job then you will see the defender blown up and the regular animation will kick in so you can run to daylight.

There are a ton of more features that are in the 360 and PS3 that I want to talk about but will have to do when I get back to Philly. It’s almost that time of year again. I can’t wait.

PS: Check out www.myspace.com/phillyron_j This is going to be another way we strengthen our Madden community. My profile is set to private so send a friend request and I’ll add you.

Later

Ron_J a.k.a Phillyron