jase12881

Best conference is obviously the AFC as they have stronger teams, have nearly all the superbowls in the last few years, and have better overrall records. However, you clearly meant to ask what the best division is So...my opinion on that is: hmm...One of the AFC divisions It's really hard to say. Most divisions in the AFC have two strong teams, a mediocre team and then one shit team. AFC North if Baltimore is a legitimate contender. If not then AFC West.

2-0 doesn't mean they'll win the superbowl, nor does it mean they'll even make the playoffs. But it does mean a little bit more than "jack shit." It means they have 1/5th of what they need to be considered a possible playoff contender (well...in the AFC you might need 12 wins...so maybe 1/6th). But I understand your point, it's not necessarily an indication of their final standing. It's really too early to make assumptions about pretty much any team's final standings. On the Bears. Rex Grossman has indeed been impressive. If he can stay true to form, and more importantly stay healthy, the Bears will be a force this year. Sure, he beat some weak teams, but he looked damn good in those games. Also, keep in mind that with the Bears defense he doesn't really need to be spectacular. He just needs to be decent to give them a shot. As far as the Lions beating Green Bay...I really believe they can, but before we count out Green Bay we need to remember that as horrible as GB was last year, they still beat the Lions in their second game. They always manage to step up their performance against the Lions. I remember a few years ago (two?) when the Packers were doing horrible and everyone was predicting a drop to the bottom of the NFC North. I even saw a post on some forum from a fellow Lions fan about how great it was going to be when the Lions played the Packers on Thanksgiving. Game comes, Packers beat the Lions and suddenly become rejuvenated. They go on to beat the Vikings in the last game of the season to take the division. As a Lions fan, the unfortunate fact is that we can never really consider our team favored to win On the bright side, the Lions started the last two seasons with a winning record. So at least this season is different. Even if it's not in a good way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to hate on my own team or anything. It's just years of disappointments have taught me not to get my hopes too high. That said, even if the Lions lose every single game this year, I'll still watch, and I'll still be a (disappointed) fan.

Playing a QB in superstar mode isn't as easy as I first thought. Sure, I put up good numbers in the first two games with Oakland, but then I cranked up the difficulty wanting a bit more realistic numbers. The result? Throws that are miles from their intended target even when I make sure to set my feet. Most annoying pass of the whole game was on a stop and go by Randy Moss....he makes his stop....i wait...he starts streaking down the field, wide open. I throw....it goes about 15 yards forward and about half the field left, no where near my wide open receiver and right to the defense. There was no pressure at all, and my feet were set. Also the camera angle seemed to screw with me more. Changing somewhat randomly right when I needed to see the other way. Sure made playing difficult. Game vs Denver I threw 5 interceptions and two touchdowns. ouch.

Two things involving this week's game between Detroit and Chicago made me laugh as a Detroit fan. Firstly, Roy Williams guaranteed a victory over Chicago. I'll be laughing AT him (not with him) when he's wrong. Secondly, ALL the writers on cbs sportsline predicted Detroit will win the game (see http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/features/writers/expert/picks). I don't really understand any of that. Were these people watching the same games I was last week? What has Detroit really shown that means they even have a chance against the Bears (Who, by the way, are riding high after dismantling the Packers.) Defensively the Bears are better. Offensively the Bears are better. Where do people get this stuff? I mean, I'm a fan of the Lions and all...but I'm also a realist. There's a chance that they'll win in Chicago, but it's what I'd call a long shot. I know anything can happen in the NFL, and the Lions have beat the Bears before. But I really really wonder what these people are basing their predictions on. EDIT- Actually I see what the writers are basing it on somewhat now. I re-read the predictions and they are only predicting that the Lions will beat the -8 spread. I don't even see that happening...but ok...I can see that I guess.

Ah. So there was a third punter. That explains a lot. The third string punter probably put the second string punter up to it. With one punter injured and the other in hot water, he finally got the chance to start. Brilliant!

Deion Branch will give Seattle a good deep threat. He's a pretty good receiver with great speed that will certainly help pickup their offense. However, even if they have a pick in the late 20s this year, a first rounder still seems a bit much for him. He's a good receiver, but he's not an elite receiver. That said, a deep threat will help spread the defense which should in turn help Alexander in running the ball. Theoretically anyways. As far as whether the hit on Green was dirty or not, there's no question that it was a dirty hit. I don't think it was done with the intent of injuring him, some players just tend to get carried away, especially in the early part of the season. A QB slides for the purpose of protecting himself from hits. You cannot hit a QB helmet to helmet at all, let alone helmet to helmet while he's sliding down to protect himself. The fact that the refs didn't call it doesn't change the fact that it was illegal. The defender just got away with it.

I've never played the game (probably missing out ) but I know Gamespot has a guide, and I'm sure you can find walkthroughs on gamefaqs.com. I wish I could help more, but that's the best help i can offer having not played the game.

Again, I only have the ps2 version, so i can't say for others...but on PS2 you have a little option below the score when you pause the game. If you press R1 or L1 it changes it from human to CPU. If you just leave it on CPU all the time (It defaults to human the very first time you play your superstar), you will only get control of the game when your superstar is in. So I played some franchise the other day. It's ever so slightly different. The main difference that I saw was the addition of roles. However, that brings me to the most annoying point of the PS2 version at least. The assigning of roles in the post season takes -forever-. The offseason was already long from waiting for the computer to do everything, but it's even longer now because you have to spend an extra 10-15 minutes waiting for the computer to assign roles to players. I mean, it was a cool idea, but not exactly worth the extra minutes you have to wait for it to go through. The whole thing with being able to work out the draft picks is also cool in theory, but I doubt many people will use it alot other than the first few times, because it's so damn time consuming. But I guess it's nice to see how the incoming rookies will play in real game situations. And I guess if you owned the game and didn't feel any time constraints (renting, you try to pack a lot into the rental period), it might be worthwhile to take your time and make the offseason a long, drawn out affair. As for whether to rent or buy.....I personally may end up buying it... not because it's the best Madden, but because I didn't buy 2006 so it's either keep playing 2005....or continue to rent 2007 so many times that I pay nearly the purchase price with nothing to show for it at the end of the day. What it comes down to is this....how often would you play a football game? If you're like me and you'd play football like the length of the NFL season, and somewhat beyond, it's worth it to buy it. If you just want to play some football on occasion...it's better to rent it. Frankly, it's not the biggest leap in the series, but it has some interesting features. My favorite -small- change is actually the way the refs respond to replay challenges. Instead of 2006's "the call on the play stands" they say stuff such as "After reviewing the play, the player was down before the fumble occured. " on every kind of challenge except for ball spot (which they just say if the play stands or was reversed.)

Just starting superstar mode (Again, that's all I've played so far) and I noticed a couple things. Number one, you can no longer choose just any position. No more taking that burner wide receiver and turning him into a mediocre QB with speed. However, the game has a way of basically letting you copy-cat certain superstars basic stats by messages like: "Your father was the Michael Vick of his time." which gave me a QB with very high speed (95 speed) and high throwing power and actually decent accuracy (something like 91 thp 88 acc) and a total overall rating of 88 which is the same as Brett Favre (and coincidentally, I went to Green Bay). While this is cool and all....I liked the fact that in 06 you had to really get luck to have outrageous-type stats such as 90+ speed for a QB (or my 95 speed defensive end)....you had to have like a dual threat father...and a sprinter or relay running mother, which ended up being quite rare. Though I do like the fact that you can set the look of your superstar no matter what now. I hated the fact that in 06 you would find a really great combination of parents, only to find that the guy had the wrong skin color or looked stupid. meh...anyways...enough ranting..back to playing.

I started playing superstar mode, and i kind of like it, but I -really- wish they had accelerated the other side of the ball more when you're not playing it. It's supposed to be "accelerated" according to the manual that came with it, but it's still incredibly slow and boring to watch the defense on the field if you're on offense. They do come to the line right away and snap the ball though, so if you can call that accelerated...I guess it is. I had more fun when I learned how to change the view in superstar mode to a more managable normal madden view rather than the side view they had me playing from. Turns out circle changes these views in Superstar mode. I do kind of miss commentary playing superstar mode, but I can understand that it's more realistic this way. I just want to hear the announcers talk about me

Just read IGN's review. They gave it 8.3, which is ok, but I was hoping for better frankly. With the changes they made this year it sounded like it was going to be the best Madden yet, but the reviewer had more negative to say than good. Still gonna rent it and try it myself though. If I can find it in.

He'll be an average LB I would wager. He won't be a huge impact player, but he won't hurt the Pats at all.

The fact that you only play as your superstar will definitely help superstar mode feel like a different mode. But I hope they add more feedback-type stuff to the mode. It sucks to like win the superbowl or break a record and get no feedback whatsoever....or as last year "The Buccaneers have won the superbowl." when I won with my Superstar QB. The thing I don't like is that you can automatically make yourself the starter. While I support this as an option, I hope (though I doubt) they'll allow you to earn it through your play. My feeling is that the computer will probably change you to the starter automatically if you have a higher overall rating, but it would be nice if it was based on your play...especially in the preseason. I support the ability to start yourself only because it would suck to get drafted as a QB by the Colts for example, and be stuck behind Peyton Manning for years and years. The other thing I'd like to see in the game that I don't think is in it (based on previews that I've read/seen) is the ability to both negotiate (at least to some extent) your contract after being drafted, and a credible use for your salary (even if it's just accumulated for bragging rights or something). That way you really do feel some need to go to the team that pays you the most, or at least money would be a factor that way. However, I think these things will be coming in the future. I should just be happy that they're moving in the right direction with Superstar mode (which is a mode I've been hungering for since...well quite a long time before they created it). i just hope that most of the positions are fun to play.

On Randy Moss:

The game I'm looking forward to the most right now is Madden 2007. While I'm sure it will essentially be the same game with a couple upgrades, I am looking forward to the improved superstar mode which should feel a little more like being in the particular position now, and the additions to the running game. After that Smackdown vs Raw 2007, although I again, I don't think it will quite live up to the hype. They have a habit of never getting things -quite- right...but usually each new game adds a new feature or two that I like. Most of the other games I'm looking forward to are for a system I don't own yet, and probably won't own for a while (Xbox360 or PS3). Assassins Creed of course.... Mercenaries 2....only one real preview so far and it was at E3, but it sounds like it's going to be pretty damn fun. Especially with Co-Op play. Aside from that, I usually look forward to the new GTA games, although I've started to get a little bit tired of the series as of late (probably because there's no new games other than LCS which was pretty stripped down compared to SA). EDIT- Add Splinter Cell Double Agent too...though if they don't change up the gameplay enough from the previous games I'll be disappointed.