As I once heard John Madden say, "It's time for another great season of NFL football!" And thankfully, the latest version of the game to accompany the new season does not include the Michael Vick dog fighting issue that has plagued the sport both on and off the field (just ask the Atlanta Falcons) lately. Instead, what you get is quite possibly the best and most complete Madden game yet.

Madden NFL 08 comes with quite a hefty feature set for the Xbox 360, including the welcome return of the Superstar mode in which you can guide either a player from this year's rookie class or a character of your own design to the Hall of Fame. Other features include a nice collection of mini-games and, my personal favourite, the Franchise mode. Also known as the Owner mode, this feature gives you the reigns of any NFL team, allowing complete control of everything from scouting out potential draft picks and executing the plays you've chosen on the field to building new stadiums or relocating your team to a different city altogether. Not to mention everything else in between that goes into creating a great franchise. There are some new feature additions to the franchise mode this year too, most notably the "Bust or Gem" element added to the scouting section of the game, which after one to three seasons determines whether your draftee is over or underachieving in the league.

A returning game mode and new features to older modes are not the most premium change to the Madden series in my opinion. Not by a long shot. The sublime new animation system incorporated by EA Tiburon into the game takes that accolade. It uses a new branching animation system that takes into account actual physics and, as a result, players juking, spinning and hurdling to avoid tackles, or just plain running over would-be tacklers, look a lot more realistic and fluid. You'll also notice your receiver shuffling his feet as he makes a catch along the sideline, completely eliminating your frustration of the player not even making an attempt to stay in-bounds at a crucial stage in a match that was eminent in previous versions of Madden.

Where the animation system really stands out however is in the tackles. No longer do you see the same tackle over and over. Instead what you get are some very rewarding, and a near endless variety of, bone-crunching tackles and big hits. Some are quite simply mad (yes, mad) and the tackle animations all depend on player skill, position, momentum and so on. For example, I watched as Randy Moss rose up to make a spectacular one-handed catch in the end zone and before he could even hit the ground to complete the pass, Sheldon Brown had dove in and taken his legs from under him in mid-air, with Brian Dawkins clobbering him in the midriff on the way down, leaving Moss in a crumpled heap on the ground and, more importantly, with an incomplete pass. Awesome - I watched the replay at least three times.

That last example leads me nicely onto two other new features. Firstly, the Player Skill Icons, where certain members of your team have a talent (or two or three) receive bonuses that will be useful for game situations. Consequently there are weaknesses to these talents too that can be countered. There are many different skills at all the different positions and I couldn't possibly go into all of them. To demonstrate one, Randy Moss from my previous example is a 'spectacular catch receiver' and whilst not many other receivers would have been able to pick the ball out of the air with one hand, it also leaves him exposed to tacklers who will hit him hard when performing a spectacular catch. Secondly, there's the Hit Stick 2.0. When you are in control of a defender and the ball carrier is running at you, you now have two pretty simple options - tackle high or tackle low, by pushing up or down respectively on the right thumbstick. Hit the stick down and your player goes for a tackle around the knees of your opponent, taking away his legs from under him and causing him to flip into the air. As mentioned previously, you may be lucky enough to get a teammate tackling the unfortunate player again on the way down to the turf. Pushing up on the other hand, causes your player to attempt a tackle around chest height. Obviously this isn't going to be quite as spectacular as a low tackle, it's but still pretty entertaining nonetheless and, just about more important in the grand scale of things, you have a greater chance of forcing a fumble.

Ah yes, fumbles. And interceptions. And turnovers in general. They occur rather too frequently for my liking. Whilst the AI is much improved and turnovers can occur in the blink of an eye, they don't happen as often as they do here. Even when holding the 'protect ball' button, your ball carriers frequently spill the, presumably greased, pigskin and hand the ball to your opponents once more. In the same air of irritation, what you think was a spot on pass from your quarterback is picked off for an interception by the defensive backs at quite a scary rate.

However, this does make the game considerably more challenging, even on the basic Pro level. In NFL 07 I was able to defeat most teams fairly easily, even on All-Madden (the hardest setting) and to be fair to Tiburon, I think that the gameplay this year is pretty close to spot on. You can't just throw seventy plus yard bombs to your receivers for easy scores any more. NFL 08 pushes you, quite forcefully, into having to think as if you are an actual NFL coach, anticipating the plays your opponent will call to "read and react" (to steal the game's tagline) to audibles before the snap. As already mentioned, the AI really is improved this time out. Defensive backs, especially the skilled ones, can follow your receivers' routes very well, forcing the timing of your pass to be near perfect. Offensively, it is a pleasant surprise to see a quarterback roll out of the pocket when under pressure. It will be a while before I go any higher on the difficulty level than All-Pro, I think.

Unfortunately, and you'll believe me if you play the game, NFL 08 fails on the presentation side of things. You'd think with all the licensing and exclusivity rights that EA have on the NFL then they'd be able to put it to better use. Having been listening to John Madden and Al Michaels on the PC version last year, which was pretty damn good, I was very disappointed to hear quite a stale radio commentary in its place on the 360. Considering that the game is called Madden NFL 08, I would have expected to hear him more! The only time I have is when you ask his advice on calling plays. Despite this, the sound effects, especially the tackles, are great and Madden is nice and easy on the eyes too. Whilst the difference graphically between 07 and 08 may not be huge, 08 still has new high-poly models and the outstanding animations I talked about earlier. This is coupled with the 360's biggest advantage over its rivals with this game, the frame rate of 60 fps, which makes the game exceptionally smooth to play.

The online play is just as enjoyable and challenging as ever too, facing off against real people where you never know what is going to happen. I do have one gripe about this though - there are no league tables online. Why?! Surely this should be mandatory for all sports games. Hopefully we'll see them next year!

Madden NFL 08 is not a perfect game, but it's damn close. The action on the field is both excellent to view with the new animation system and controls, as well as being very challenging to master, while the Superstar and Franchise modes will keep you busy for a months on end. Madden NFL 08 is a worthy addition to any NFL fan's collection and even if you have NFL 07, you should still make room on your shelf for this latest iteration.

Reviewed by Tom Selwyn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).