Ray Lewis is an amazing man.
Arguably the best player in the NFL today, arguably the best defensive player of all time. The main piece of arguably the best defensive unit in the NFL today. Arguably the main man behind Baltimore’s 2000 championship season. And a hardcore Madden NFL player. So when EA and Tiburon decided to pump up the defense in this year’s Madden, who better to grace the games cover than the hardest hitter and best defender alive?
Yes, this year it’s time to improve the defense. Madden 2004 was all about playmakers on offense, which resulted in a lot of high scoring shootouts and not a lot of defensive stops. Not in 2005 though. Madden NFL 2005 has a much improved defense and many other key improvements that make it the best Madden yet, and the best football title available this year. Even at a more hefty price.
Presentation
First things first--Madden pales in comparison to ESPN in terms of game presentation and realism. However that has more to do with ESPN’s license than any lack of work by Tiburon. Even so, Madden’s presentation is still very good. Particularly the menus. Gone are the stills and photos of players in the background. Now when you pick your favorite team, you are treated to videos of them in the background on the menus.
As usual, Madden’s menus strive on simplicity. In the franchise mode, there’s a new Palm Pilot/PDA style setup that works incredibly well. Other franchise improvements in the presentation are the newspapers and Tony Bruno’s radio show. Both are pulled off pretty well and add to the realism. The newspapers let you in on things you probably wouldn’t know about, such as players wanting to be traded or players who are in contract years, as well as potential free agents that would be good for your team.
Tony Bruno’s radio show is a nice touch for sports fans, but it gets a little old. In the week or so I have had Madden, I’ve heard plenty of repeats in the game already. He does have interesting discussions and trivia though. But listening to how some NFL player is skipping out on training camp to shoot a movie in Hollywood again and again, plus hearing the same responses from listeners on the subject gets old rather quickly. But at least it’s in there.
Lastly, there are even unique player celebrations, like Dante Hall’s "X Factor" or Priest Holmes’ sidestep.
Graphics
For the first time in about 3 years, Madden has received a nice graphics boost. The player models now are much better-looking, and the animations are even better. However, the rest of the game is pretty much the usual and doesn’t really look outdated or anything next to ESPN 2k5 but it obviously does not look as good.
The animations are still much better in Madden though. The overall fluidness just makes it much smoother and the tackle animations are much more realistic. Plus with the addition of the Hit Stick, the hits look much better and much harder.
Sound
The sound in 2005 seems even less of a priority for Tiburon than the graphics. It is mostly the same from 2004, with the addition of the Bruno show and some nice sound effects. With the emphasis on defense this year, the hits in the game sound great and often times brutal. You can almost hear injuries sometimes. Commentary is as boring as ever. For a game titled after a commentator you’d think they’d put more effort into it.
The EA Trax are back and still very nice. It features good stuff by popular bands like Hoobastank, New Found Glory, Green Day, and Chevelle, as well as stuff from old bands like Faith No More. It even opens you up to new stuff from bands you’ve never heard of like Alter Bridge, Earshot and Strata. There’s also some rap on there, if you’re into that stuff. It’s not as good as a custom soundtrack, but the soundtrack they give you isn’t something that will be making you hit the mute button either.
Gameplay
Everyone knows Madden 2004 was all about offense. The new Playmaker abilities enabled the offense to do things like call blockers and move WR’s around. Switch the direction of run plays and hot route your primary WR. It kind of left the defense with their hands tied trying to keep up. That, coupled with AI that was lackluster at best against certain pass routes, resulted in shootouts between good players with games usually coming down to simply who had the ball last.
2005 is entirely different. Most importantly, the AI has been given a huge boost, and relying on the same passing plays over and over won’t work. The days of everyone and their dog using the Run-N-Gun playbook online is over, because every quick slant, sideline sprint and slant in that bastard does not work wonders anymore. If you get beat by it consistently this year, it’s because you simply can’t play defense.
At its core, Madden’s gameplay has not changed. It’s still all based on realism and momentum. On offense, it’s just as good as it was in 2004. Running the ball is both a challenge and a joy, especially this year with the pumped-up defense. Blockers are very realistic in this game and unlike ESPN, you cannot simply speed burst/shoulder charge your way to easy yards every run. Passing is much harder in 2005 than it was in 2004, thanks in part to more realistic QB play and of course the defensive AI. This year your passes are even more affected by your QB’s movement and if he is being pressured. Throwing on the run isn’t nearly as effective as it was in 2004 and usually ends up in an INT. One great addition to the passing game this year are options. In the NFL, a player always as 2-3 options for routes on any given play. Say Randy Moss is going to run a hitch route. If he sees the DB watching for it and bites early, he’ll do a double move and blaze right by the defender. Now Madden has that feature too. If the AI sees the DB act a certain way, they will react with the best route. It’s kind of like hot routes except you don’t control them. But usually when you recognize the route and time the pass right, it’s always a catch.
On defense, there have been more improvements than in any Madden since 2001 to 2002. For starters, the secondary plays infinitely better against the pass. Whether they are running much better routes in man coverage or playing much better in the zone, the AI in Madden is really in a league of its own. And you can really tell a difference between a player like a Champ Bailey and someone like a Pete Hunter. The DB’s are very aggressive too, often making plays on the ball trying to swat it or pick it off as opposed to last year where they would settle trying to hit the WR and make him drop it.
Playmaker is a vital part of the defense this year. Tiburon added a load of defensive hot routes you can pull off using the right analog stick. In a way they are much like ESPN’s defensive assignments, only much much easier. For example, in ESPN you must bring up the defensive assignments ticker, select the player you want to assign something too, select their assigned button, then hit the QB spy button simply to call a QB spy. In Madden you simply put your cursor on the player and hit left on the right analog stick. Done. The analog stick is used for easy manipulation of all of your defenders, from the defensive line to the secondary. It makes the game much easier to manage. It also has a manager screen on the pause menu to assign individual players to certain players, such as putting Champ Bailey on Randy Moss. This is a huge feature as last year one of the most common cheese tactics was package substitutions that allowed things like star WRs to be the 4th WR on the depth chart and have them being covered by LBs. No more of that.
Another huge addition to the defense this year is the hit stick. While it sounds like a gimmick, it is anything but. In the real NFL, you always see players going for huge hits. Often times they connect, and often times they miss. The same can be said for the hit stick. The hit stick is a quick flick of the right analog stick on defense. Depending on the situation, your player will either quickly go into a tackle animation or if you’re chasing someone down, it might take a couple seconds to let you get set up. Timing is everything though and can be the difference between laying a huge hit on someone and breaking up a catch or forcing a fumble, or having the player casually shrug you off and be on their way for a TD. It is most effective on special teams and against running backs.
Speaking of special teams, Tiburon really improved them this year too. In 2004, punt returns were almost given touchdowns if you were good enough. Rarely were there more than 2-3 people coming at you when you caught the ball and the AI took horrible angles at you if you took it to the sideline. This year though, upon catching the punt you’ll usually find 4-5 people coming at you and they all come at you perfectly. On kickoffs, it’s much more effective this year to just follow your blockers and wait to see if a hole opens up. No more running up the middle then quickly breaking it outside, outrunning 2 people to the sidelines and then taking it to the house. Kicking/punting is also harder this year, and the meter has been improved to show your power and accuracy in numbers so you have more of an idea if the kick was good or not as soon as you are done.
The gameplay isn’t all sugar and spice though. There are problems, like AI that is sometimes a bit TOO good. Sometimes you can have a WR wide open and as soon as you throw the ball, 2 defenders magically know it was thrown and run over with superhuman speed and swat it down. This doesn’t happen often and never happens unless you’re playing against an elite defensive back, but it’s still frustrating. The WR’s also seem to break on the ball incredibly slow and often let the defender get the jump towards the ball on them, leading to a lot of deflections. Another screw up is the inability to switch controller layouts. I played so much of Sega’s NFL2k1 back in the day that I became too used to that layout and always switched configurations on Madden. In 2005 though they force you to use the default configuration which has the switch defender as X and the speed burst as circle and it’s hard to adjust to. I’m sure I’m in the minority in that complaint though.
Improvements have been made off the field too. For starters, the franchise mode has been improved and the space between Madden’s franchise mode and the competition is as big as ever. 2004’s franchise saw some great improvements like training camp and Owner mode. 2005 offers more realistic improvements, such as player morale. Looking over your roster, you’ll see players who range from completely happy, somewhat happy, in the middle... mildly unpleased on your team to flat out angry and wanting to be traded. These players might need extra special attention than other players, such as a re-worked contract, extra playing time or you might just need to get them off your team. Players also have specific interests now. So when you are in free agency, you need more than cash to get the players. Each player has a menu showing exactly what they care about, everything from coach, team needs, prestige, playing time to money and location. So if your team finished 4-12, even offering a star player loads of money might not be enough to get them to sign. At the same time even if you’re coming off a Super Bowl winning season, if you already have a good player at QB and are looking for someone to ride the bench and be insurance, Tim Couch might pass on your team and opt to go somewhere he’ll have a chance to start.
Another franchise improvement is the ability to apply the franchise tag to a player. The franchise tag is a move that allows a team to keep a player for another season and gives him a one year contract worth a set amount of money, which is the average of the top-5 players at his position. It’s nice to be able to use this feature if your player is either demanding a huge amount of money or maybe you just don’t have the money to pay him what he wants that year. So you franchise him for that year and next season maybe make some moves with other players to make room to offer him a real contract. There’s also restricted free agents this year. UFAs are players who have played three seasons and their contract is up. They can negotiate with other teams, and you can match whatever offer another team may give him. If you match it, the player stays with you. If you decide not to match it, the player is free to sign with the other team. Based on the offer he got though, the other team must compensate you with draft picks. The higher the offer, the better the pick. An example would be a couple seasons ago when the Washington Redskins pretty much raped the NY Jets RFA group, signing away star WR Laveranues Coles, star offensive guard Randy Thomas, special teams star Chad Morton and kicker John Hall. Now you can do the same in Madden. Sometimes it is very nice to know you need to maybe plug up your offensive line and you find a stud young center in restricted free agency. You know you won’t be able to draft a player as good as him so why not give up that pick and get the player? Lastly, Madden’s franchise progression is updated every 4 weeks of the season and is based on performance, position and age. That’s much better than ESPN’s, which feels completely random and is predetermined.
Rounding out the franchise improvements would be the Tony Bruno show and the Storyline Central, which I talked about above and really adds to the realism and extreme depth of Madden’s franchise mode. It puts all others to shame and the absolute only problem with it is the same problem it always has. Free agency in the real NFL occurs before the draft. In Madden, it happens after the draft. Usually it is not a big deal, but other times it is. Say you are looking for a fast RB, so you use your #1 pick on the best back available with speed. Then you go to free agency after the draft and you see there might be a veteran back who still has plenty of years left in him and is also very fast. It would have been nice to know he was there and been able to use your #1 pick on something else. Still... as usual, Madden’s franchise mode is like a sports RPG, a game inside of a game and it’s as good as ever.
Lastly we come to online play. Improvements have been made in this area as well. The interface is much smoother, much more user-friendly. The EA Sports Ticker is in Madden 2005 just as it is in NCAA 2005. There are also new modes, like the Quick Tourney and Rushing Attack. The rushing attack mode is a great addition. It’s essentially the running drill from mini camp except online and with a different scoring system that gives the defense a chance to score points as well, through things like user tackles, tackles for loss, hit stick tackles and consecutive player tackles. The quick tourney mode is a great way to get the tourneys going faster. You select from a 4 or 8 man tournament and then you are sent to a lobby where players are already waiting for the tournament to fill. It tells you who your opponent is, you can get the game going and when it is over you’re sent back to the lobby and it lets you know who won the other games and who your next opponent is.
There are also new features to keep people from quitting on you. Players can concede defeat this year. If they’re losing by more than 22, they can end the game without getting a DNF stat, and you still get your win and stats. The same applies to the other side, as you can offer mercy to someone if you are up by more than 22. You still get your win and stats and the punishment doesn’t have to keep going. There’s also friendly quit, so say you are playing and all of a sudden you have to go or maybe you are just finishing up a league game and you only needed to play 2 or 3 quarters. A friendly quit prevents a loss from being recorded.
Early this month in an announcement that suprised everyone, EA announced Madden 2005 will have leagues launching this year sometime before the NFL season kicks off. They will be like the ones that used to be on the PC versions of Madden except they won’t have customizable rosters with trades, injuries and free agency. They will have web pages, schedules and real NFL playoffs. All you have to do is sign up for the EA Premium Pass.
What’s the Premium Pass? It’s a service you sign up for with your credit card to get access to loads of features on Madden. With the name premium and a required credit card, you’d think you have to pay but you don’t. Not this year anyways, it’s all free. Think of Premium Pass as a service strictly for hardcore Madden players. Little Johnny who likes to scream into the mic while doing nothing but cheesing all game won’t be a problem with Premium Pass. EA believes if gamers are mature enough to have credit/bank cards and sign them up online, they will play good football. It’s going to create a very nice community of players online and it will be available on both consoles, PS2 and XBox. Aside from leagues, with the PP you get a reputation boost, highlighted name in the lobbies, customizable sports tickers, EA Sports calendar, access to "Madden University", exclusive Madden tournaments, and much more. My thoughts on this are you’d better get in right now while it is free because come August of 2005, it is going to cost $20 a year unless EA gets another sponsor.
Collector’s Edition
In case you missed the link art, this is a review of the Collectors Edition of Madden. It retails for $59.99, $10 more than the normal version. The collectors edition comes in a kick ass silver case that slides off like some DVDs. The boxart is also different and it is Playstation 2 exclusive. There are tons of exclusive features in the Collectors Edition; here are the biggest.
Trivia. Over 1,000 questions about Madden NFL football and the NFL. This is a great feature and is fun to play, especially in head-to-head.
Madden Moments. Think ESPN’s 25, except better. The top 20 moments of the last 15 years, with each one getting harder and harder as you progress.
Exclusive Historic Teams. Sure the players don’t have names or anything but the CE of Madden comes with over 130 historic playoff teams that aren’t in the regular version. Finally, your dream of seeing who would win between the 1995 Colts and the 2003 Colts can be achieved!
Madden Vintage/Classic/Retro. The coolest exclusive feature. Replay 3 of the older versions of Madden to see just how far the franchise has come, complete with updated rosters.
Exclusive Videos. Over 30 minutes of video documenting how Madden went from a small football dream into the most dominant videogame franchise in the country.
$60 might sound steep for a football title, but if you’ve got ten extra bucks, the Collectors Edition is more than worth it. The exclusive features are nice to have and just walking out of the game store with that awesome looking case in your hands makes you feel like your cock is about 15 inches long.
Overall
I think ign.com said it best. ESPN has the sizzle, Madden is the steak. Madden might not have the features or price of the competition, but it more than makes up for it where it counts. Gameplay and realism. The franchise mode alone is worth the $30-40 more this season. The superb AI and stable online servers are just icing on the cake. Is it the best Madden ever? Probably not. Is it the most balanced though? Yes, and the most authentic NFL game in years.
