Madden NFL 07 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, PSP, PlayStation 2, Windows, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox)

Players who have tackled a Madden game before, such as the 05 or 04 versions, will find themselves on familiar ground. As in previous years, MADDEN NFL 07 does a nice job of translating the big, complex, and messy world of professional football: real players, real stadiums, big hits, injuries, commercial sponsorships, some showboating, and plenty of play-calling strategy. Although Madden 07 has a pick-up-and-play, single game option, for serious players the heart of the game will be one of the season-spanning modes, which have only minor tweaks over previous entries in the series.

Despite some innovations and small changes that allow players a finer degree of control over maneuvers, Madden 07 still has some problems. Corporate sponsorship of things like drive summaries and player-of-the-game awards are familiar from real football, but come off as gratuitous in the game. Likewise, the EA-staple of a background soundtrack of punkish and hip-hop songs, complete with pop-ups identifying the song and artist, feels awkwardly tacked on.

Yet the biggest complaint many gamers might have is that they've seen the basic Madden football game before. This latest iteration will hold most appeal to football fans and those players eager to delve into the up-to-the-minute online community for contests against real humans.