Madden NFL 2003

"I mean, come on, It's Madden!"

I'm one of those people who likes to wait a while for the greatness of a game to sink in. If you only play it for a week or two, you don't really get the full experience. After nearly.....ummm......*looks at calendar*.....7 months of playing, this years Madden incarnation continues to amaze me. Long winded review to follow....

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where the Madden series absolutely radiates of excellence. The game play and features are shallow enough to allow a person to pick it up, play it once, and put it down without thinking the less of it, while still deep enough to immerse a player until their eyes start to hurt and their thumbs become sore.

The control is pretty good, some of the things you are required to do can be a little tricky, but it's one of those things that you love once you get used to it. Example: on the normal passing mode, you must press ''X'' to bring up the passing icons. It can be a little confusing at first, but after a while you can't live without it.

The game has four difficulty levels in all, ranging from the ''Blow out the computer while you sleep'' Rookie mode to the ''Why the hell can't I win against this team?!'' All-Madden difficulty level. While there are only 4 actual levels of difficulty, the A. I. sliders allow you to create the perfect difficulty setting on practically any level by giving you the ability to fine tune certain aspects of your team's and the computer team's games.

The game, once you get going, is incredibly fun (that is, if you are into the more simulation type of football video game. If you want rule less mayhem, go pick up a copy of Blitz, Madden won't keep you satisfied.)The A. I. can get a little frustrating on the harder difficulty levels (if you are trying them out for the first time), but once you get used to it, you'll have a blast.

Story: N/A
You're a football knight, and you must journey across the plains to kick a football through goalpost and rid the world of evil forever.....*end sarcasm*. Actually, there is no real ''story'' to this game. You can create your own special franchise (as dozens of people have shown us using the GameFAQs message boards) but there is no actual story given to you while you play the game.

Audio/Video: 9/10
The graphics is another area of the game that shines. The players look realistic enough and so do the stadiums. Heck, even the ref's look like they're actually talking when they call penalties. No other video game matches the quality of graphics of Madden (but NFL Fever still has awesome graphics).

The Audio department has a slight drop off in quality unfortunately. The sounds of the stadium and everything are great, but the commentary is sub par. Al Michaels is pretty good, it was hard not to improve from Pat ''I sound like I'm about to fall asleep'' Summeral. Mr. Madden is okay I guess, but he tends to get on my nerves sometimes (is it just me?)

Replayabilty: 10/10
Don't even get me started here....oh well, too late. I still have not gotten bored of Madden, I keep on finding new things to do and other bits of my game that I need to improve on. If you enjoy the game of football and enjoy playing video games, you will find a way to play Madden until doomsday comes and your hands no longer function.

Buy or rent?
If you rent this game and after the rental period is over, you find yourself wanting to play Madden again, buy it. It's worth however much they are selling it for. One word of caution: be careful not to buy this game too close to when 2004 comes out. It's just kind of pointless (that is, if you plan on buying Madden 2004 when it arrives on store shelves.

Oh Great, another biased review from a diehard Madden fan boy
Actually, no. I used to love playing the ''2k'' football series until I got Madden (I still do play the 2k series, they're great football games). If you want to buy another football game, go ahead, everyone has their cup of tea. This review is simply my opinion about what I think to be a great football game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/03, Updated 02/18/03