John Madden Said, "I Will Make A Football Game In My Image." And John Madden Saw What He Had Made And It Was Good.

I hope that, if you are reading this, you read this blog regularly. Yet I also hope that you have developed a coping strategy for dealing with a lack of new material. I say this because I picked up Madden 11 yesterday and plan on beginning my franchise as soon as I'm done writing this post.

Ever since reading about the new play calling system in Game Informer magazine, I have been intrigued. Calling plays more like a real football team? I'm all about realism when it comes to my video games but, surprisingly, not when it comes to real life. The enhanced controls I came to love in last years edition? Awesome. Playing a full game in under half an hour? Sign me the @*#! up.

I was so excited, in fact, that I broke one of my cardinal rules of sports video games. Do not buy back to back years unless your favorite team had an absolutely kick-ass year and they will be dominant on the new version. My team had a decidedly mediocre season and is not expected to fair any better this season. Maybe I'll play as the Jets.

This lead me to think that this time saving play calling system might actually lead me to playing more. Before, I would fit a game in and arrive to my scheduled event late, frustrated it took so long to play a game. Now, I may just skip my responsibilities altogether so that I can push through the regular season and get into the playoffs already. And since I've already made it to the playoffs, why not just cruise through those and get my off season work done and out of the way? Playing Madden now may be more like playing Tecmo Bowl. I'll try to complete an entire season in a single day.

I think this is an interesting conundrum and would love to write more, exploring the issue further, but I'm actually sweating in anticipation right now, so I want to get to the console before I stain the pits on this t-shirt (it's one of my favorites).

I'll be sure to post and let you know what I think of EA Sports' revolutionary new play calling system. Expect to hear from me in a few weeks when I venture out of my bedroom and am able to face sunlight again.