Madden NFL 2004

"ItsMillerTime's HUGE Madden 2004 review (focusing on gameplay): Best game I have played for Playstation 2."

To be quick, Madden 2004 IS the best Madden in the series FOR ITS TIME. I'm not going to go near best football game of all time, but it is damn near the top. That being said, Madden 2004 unlike 2003 is a HUGE improvement over its predecessor.
**note, my opinions are based on playing single player on All-Madden (hardest) difficulty and playing two player on Pro (2nd easiest) difficulty. I have Madden 2004 for PS2.

Gameplay - Improvement over last year: A
Gameplay is improved so much I can't even describe it (but I will). The passing game is awesome. In previous Maddens it was more about throwing to your better receivers. Not anymore. Although, your two primary receivers will be your yardage boys, you will utilize EVERYONE from the tightend, to the 4th receiver, to the halfback (especially the halfback if he can catch well). Madden's defensive AI forces you to look for the open receiver now or you will pay dearly. This doesn't only mean looking for the one man with one on one coverage. This also means looking at the safeties’ and linebackers’ movement/zones as well. Even if your man is covered one on one, make sure he has the edge on his defender because the computer WILL intercept or deflect the ball in one on one coverage if he has the inside track on you. I love it! And, try finding the open receiver with the Defensive line closing in on you (and yes, they come HARDER than ever before). Getting the pass off in time has NEVER felt better and I mean that 100%. But, let me tell you one more thing about the passing game I love. NO MORE deep bombs (on All Madden that is)! In Madden 2003, I could deep bomb to a one on one covered receiver and as long as the receiver was better than the corner I could beat him out, catch the ball and run for a possible TD (even in All-Madden). No longer is that the case. SPEED is no longer the DECIDING factor in Madden (running game/passing game, everything). I hope I drilled this into everyone's head because it was a major complaint of people who disliked Madden (and with reasonable cause to). Per game, I have only completed 1 30+yard pass (without having to get YAC by myself), AND I have Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt. In all my other tries, the cornerback has deflected or intercepted the ball (and yes, 75% of the time I threw into one on one coverage). This brings me to another point. NO LONGER will you break for huge gains after a long bomb or long running bust. What I'm saying is the the defense will actually catch up to you in most instances. I don't know how many times in Madden 2003 where after I burned my defender, I had open field ahead of me...clear sailing (and the defender never caught up, and really the only reason a corner or safety should not be able to catch you in open field is if they fall or are coming from the opposite side of the field). No longer is that the case (75% of the time).
Essentially, the running game is the most similar between 2003 and 2004 which is good because I love running the ball. On all-madden difficulty, for my first couple games I averaged 4.8 YPC with Marshall Faulk with about 90-110 yards a game (slightly lower than his real numbers, but very accurate nonetheless). You will actually be stopped for shorts losses or short gains now, and your average carry for a skilled Madden player without cheese (which I don't see a lot of) is about 4-5 yards up the gut or 3-7 yards to the side, which is exactly what it should be.
The running game is near perfect IMO, and PLAYMAKER, which I will discuss later, makes it even better. For the running and passing game, Madden excels in part due to its physics system which people give too little credit to which brings to the table acceleration, momentum, balance (more so in 2004 than in any other next gen madden), etc...).
Now, we come to the defensive gameplay improvements, which I partially described above. I love defense, and Madden is really balanced this year. Compared to NCAA 2004, the defense is much tighter in coverage which makes for a more exciting game. Sacks are hard to come by (as opposed to me racking up 44 sacks a season with one guy in NCAA). There are more defensive improvements, but I think I have covered them in my huge spiel above.
Oh, and players can actually block in Madden 2004.
In a final gameplay note let me say the pace of Madden is FAST now (I mean faster but less FLOATIER than NCAA Football 2004 - you know what I mean by floatier). It's great, you have to think fast, react fast...you'll love it.

Playmaker - Innovation rating: B+
(*Note: the NFL2K series never had ''Playmaker'' like Madden 2004 does. They had presnap adjustments and hot routes which is what Madden has had since 2001 as well. Just a note.)
Playmaker is a pretty neat innovation. Sure, it is not ''realistic'', but it adds a cool new aspect to gameplay that is half good and half bad (IMO). The thing I like about playmaker the best is not switching defensive zones, not committing to the run or pass (but it is pretty cool) on defense during the play, not adjusting a receiver’s route during a play, not adjusting a receiver’s route prior to the play (that in addition to hot routes is cool though), but switching the running play from side to side WITHOUT switching the formation. It works amazingly well on the computer AND human opponents. My gripe with playmaker is that controlling blockers is kinda useless or not worth the effort. It's too hard, and you can't pull off your moves as well while controlling your blockers (although it has helped me in 2 situations, but trust me, I don’t think I can pull those off again).

Graphics - Improvement over last year: B
Character models are improved as much as you would expect. Everything looks much sharper if you sit down and play the game for a while. New animations like in NCAA give the game a whole different feel. I am disappointed that pre-game and post game celebrations are 75% identical to Madden 2003's, but that is why the graphics grade suffers.

Presentation - Improvement over last year: A-/B+
Presentations comes together for Madden this year. Long time Madden fans get a breath of fresh air with the slick new interface. It is so stylized and it is amazing how a couple square boxes, font changes, etc... can affect the play experience. In addition, post-play actions are now shown (in one player) above of you play select screen (great addition) so you don't have to press X to skip through them (instant replays still show once in a while, but they are nice). Commentary is quite good. New lines from Madden and co., and they are more play suited this year as opposed to ''I'll just talk real generally about a play'' mumbo jumbo.

Franchise mode - innovation: B+, enjoyment: A+
So far very cool. You know the logistics: Owner mode (which only makes Madden even more addicting than ever), mini camp integrated into season, etc... All good stuff. On the clock draft is fun.

Sound - overall grade: B+
The music in this game is varied between rock and hip hop/rap. It is a good mix and for the most part the tracks are well chosen. As for sound, crowd intensity has been improved just like in NCAA 2004. Hits are hard, and the addition of trash talking pre-play (which NFL2K3 had) makes for an overall great atmosphere.

Extras - overall grade: B+
The extras in Madden 2004 are great. From Madden 101 with Melissa Starks to Create a Play, Create a Team, Madden Cards, extra stadiums, Deion Sanders in free agency, and footage of future EA games and last year’s Madden bowl, the game offers a lot. There’s more, but I think you get the idea.

Online - Improvement over last year: NA
I have no idea about online, because I'm not getting the network adapter for PS2 for about a month.

Overall Impression - 2004 over 2003 - A, 2003 over 2002 - B-, Madden 2004 over NCAA Football 2004 - A-

Overall Impression Grade - 98% (exceptional).
I would rate Madden 2003 a 88%, NFL2K3 a 87% (even though I prefer Madden's style of play better), just so you get a feel of how I grade. Definitely go out and buy Madden. If you're a fan of Gameday, 2K (now ESPN), Fever, Blitz, etc..., I still say try out Madden, because it is the next step in the Madden series. Madden 2004 is my new favorite game for the Playstation 2 topping Gran Turismo 3 (95%), Ace Combat 4 (94%), and Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution (92%) and quite possibly my new favorite game for ANY next gen system (though a couple games on DC come close).

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/03