Not long ago, I gave some consideration to Madden 13 on the Vita, and I stand by that. For a first year effort on new hardware, the finished game is certainly much smoother than the demo would indicate.
However, it’s not perfect. In fact, it can be quite quirky. For one, graphics tend to break down, smear, and completely miss polygons. Images intersect with the score line at the top of the screen, or they end up looking like a bulged-eye Jay Cutler as seen above. While the visuals are not perfection, they’re not THAT awful either. Another instance had his mouth tilted to the side, much like the now infamous Church painting restoration. Sadly, the screen shot feature was a second late on that one.
Most egregious are scoring errors. On a third down play near my own 40, Cutler broke right after breaking a tackle, scanning the field. The screen blinked white, controls stopped responding, and boom. The Rams were granted a safety despite Cutler standing upright… on the 40. I can’t even fathom what the game was taking into consideration. Later, the Rams were receiving a punt and a fair catch was called – even the announcers acknowledged it – when the AI controlled Bears player steamrolled the ball recipient, resulting in a fumble turned TD. No penalty, just a clean score. Maybe that was in-game karma restoring its mistake on the safety.
I think some will still take solace in the Vita edition, mostly for its lack of connected careers. It’s more traditional like that. For instance, settings are locked to the franchise mode on consoles when you start. In other words, if you start finding the opposing teams too easy on the 360/PS3, oh well. Your settings are permanent. The Vita allows for adjustments. Also, there’s no online pass for Vita users, meaning there’s one less thing that could go wrong. That’s something in a game this glitchy.
