Madden 13 Dev Diary Discusses Game Audio

By Mark Delaney,
Perhaps the aspect of the Madden series that has had the most glaring weaknesses for, truthfully, the entirety of the decades-spanning series is the game's commentary. Though the on-the-field chatter and music haven't ever been pressing needs, the play-by-play and color commentary is, if I may speak bluntly, horrendous. EA's system pales in comparison to 2K's, their main rival for sports games, though they hardly make games for the same sports anymore. Part of that is because of the nature of a football game, with all of its starting and stopping, it makes it hard for the AI commentators to catch up to the action live, sometimes finding themselves a play or two behind what's going on.

EA is setting out to solve that issue this year, and with the new system comes an all-new broadcast duo of CBS' Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. You may have already known that part, but you certainly haven't seen them in action like you will in these two new trailers. For the first time in the series, the commentators recorded in studio together which should make for a much more organic back and forth between the two.


You may also have been waiting to see the newly-crowned cover star Calvin Johnson on the game's official box art. Here it is.

real cover


Madden NFL 13 is due out on August 28th.

We've got the full list of Madden NFL 13 achievements - check the list for guides to unlocking them.
Mark Delaney
Written by Mark Delaney
Mark is a Boston native now living in Portland, Oregon. He has written for GameSkinny, Gamesradar and the Official Xbox Magazine. He runs the family-oriented gaming site Game Together.
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