Farve may have a case of indecision, but you should make no mistake in buying Madden 09.

While Brett Farve waits with baited breath to make a "questionable" start with the Jets, football fans who are gamers are experiencing that same excitement for this year's Madden. While it is no mistake that the last few years for the old boy's franchise has felt lost, EA has assured fans that this year it is all about the gamer and what they want. Have they finally delivered the next generation touchdown pass, or do gamers feel like they've been picked off in the end zone once again?

Rest assured fans, this year's Madden is the most improved, touched upon, and is a huge leap forward in the franchise since its incarnation on the next generation systems. Every aspect of the game has been dramatically improved, from the visuals, audio, and even game play has been tweaked to finally deliver that "Madden" feeling gamers had from the PS2, with next gen touches to boot.

The visuals this year are striking on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, with both also finally running at the same frame rate. The first thing gamers will notice is the presentation, which now has that "look ma', I'm on TV" appearance to it. Gamers will witness enhanced menus, play calling screens, player info banners that include starting line ups, and stat progression, coach picture in picture challenges, new replays including instant reply option during the play calling screen, new and improved cameras, more players and happenings on the side lines, post play reactions, and even pre game visuals including stadium fly ins.

Gamers are introduced to new presentation features such as the EA Backtrack that shows you a mistake you made, and what adjustments you should have made. Even cooler is that in two player modes, you can see the success rate of the offense play call vs. the defense play call.

The in game visuals also get a huge boost with new and more realistic player models, new grass textures, incredible weather effects, and incredible lighting for both day and night games. I still wish players helmets would scuff up, and the fields would degenerate in real time vs. quarter to quarter, and we would have real superstar faces, but if that's all I can find in the visuals to gripe about, then so be it.

Audio has finally gotten the shot in the arm in sorely needed as well. Yes, you finally have ESPN music, a great sound track, realistic crowd excitement from end zone to end zone; great use of surround sound, and of course Madden inserting his "helpful" hints during his "Ask Madden" option. The real leap comes in the form of the play by play commentary that is thankfully NOT the EA Radio announcer. Chris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond bring you the action on the field and it's so nice to seem like you are watching a live telecast. This is compared to the radio guy whose presence felt like the audio feed was out and the TV station used the radio broadcast for the time being. Of course, if I miss anything about the radio guy, it was the cool post game wrap up with phone calls during season mode. While Collinsworth does most of the talking in the game and provides a great amount of incite, detail, and analysis during the game, Tom Hammond seems like an afterthought in comparison. So much in fact that generally after the second half, the most you'll hear him say after a big first down is, "While the players go back to the line of scrimmage we'd like to remind you that this game is brought to you by EA Sports." (Get used to that phrase folks, can you say patch EA?) While I'm being petty here, I wouldn't be fair if I ignored it either.

Gameplay, while still Madden, has gotten its share of additions to feel as evolutionary as the visuals in most respects. Yes the game plays like Madden, so love it or hate it, the game feels like the game you've played for many, many years now (20 to be exact), but that doesn't mean you aren't offered a great smash mouth game of football either, no matter how many years you've played the series. Things you will see this year that hasn't been implemented, or overlooked in the past, from the next gen versions are returned missed field goals, bobble catches, smart routes, slide protection, ball carrier combo moves, new wrap tackling, a new catch system, and of course the game's big selling point, Madden IQ.

Madden IQ's philosophy is to tailor the way the game plays to each individual player, and for the most part it works. That is once you've set the IQ that is. Setting the IQ is a little unbalanced and you are most likely to be set at a higher level than you actually play at. When you first boot up the game, you will be put through a series of offensive and defensive plays to see how good of a Madden gamer you are. It is all set up through a virtual world with no "real" teams or play books, but more like in the world of Tron. I would have to say that for the most part, the passing offense, and both running and passing defenses work fine. It's the rushing one I don't entirely agree with. During this particular drill instead of running trying to find holes, the CPU puts up an icon on which you are to react to, much like Shenmue or God of War. This completely ruins this drill and would have been made better use as a tutorial instead of a bar for your actual A.I., as it is not like that icon is on screen while I'm playing the game. Of course once you set this IQ, you can adjust if you like, or it will do it for you after every game. This is where the Madden IQ is great, as depending on your performance in the game, your A.I. will adjust according to how you played. Had a bad game passing the ball - your passing A.I. drops, rushed for 250 yards - your rush A.I. increases, etc. While it's not perfect, it is a step in the right direction of not only making the game fair for everyone against the CPU, but will make online match making great in the future as well.

Speaking of online, that is where Madden takes a hit. You are treated to ranked or quick matches and online leagues. No real frills, extensions, or innovations. As a matter of fact, it is where their NCAA title has a one up on Madden this year. With a limited amount of time to test it out, the online runs pretty smooth.

Lastly, it really seems as the folks at EA really wanted to get the Madden "experience" right this year, so it isn't totally shocking that most of the features including franchise and superstar mode are virtually untouched. With all the improvements they made on the field this year, I guess I can allow for this minor set back as the game play is vastly more important than what I can do off the field.

To say that Madden is a perfect game would be a laughable statement, but it surely is the best version to date for the next generation consoles. Everything from the visuals, audio, and presentation have been bumped up a notch to a level that would make any fan who has turned their heads for the last 3 years take notice. Sure the game plays familiar, but to die hard fans they wouldn't want it any other way. As for Brett Farve, will coming back set him up for the Madden curse too? Granted, some guys just don't know when to quit (Montana, Rice, Theisman, Jordan, etc.), but when your best year of 4 came in your supposed final season, shouldn't that be the cue to say "I'm done"? The only good thing coming out of this season for Farve is to hopefully say, "I broke the Madden curse!"