Madden NFL 2005

"Madden 2004 - 2, without the running game!"

EA's Madden NFL series has been alive and kicking for 15 years now, and every year it brings something new to the table. But is it worth your hard earned $50 this year?

Graphics - 8 / 10
Year after year, Madden is one of the top looking sports games out there, and while it isn't the best of the 2005 games, it certainly is no slouch. Stadiums look a great deal better this season, as do the weather and lighting effects. The animations are nice and fluid, and the Hit Stick animations look particularly painful. Players, however, are a mixed bag. The jersey textures are nice, as is the muscle definition on players, but they still look cartoonish. Skin tones and faces are pretty poor. Also, there are points during gameplay where the game will freeze completely for a second (I have seen this in weather changing from rain to clouds and when certain stats appear.) This slowdown has been becoming a bigger problem ever since Madden 2003. The interface is about the same as before, with video and pictures of NFL players from your favorite team this time. These are nice, except for the pictures of traded players. With these, pictures were taken of them with their old teams, and then digitally edited to show them in their new uniforms. The problem comes when teams have different number styles. See the picture of Jevon Kearse for the Eagles, with the mutated '93' on his jersey, and you'll have an idea of what I mean.

Sound - 6 / 10

On-The-Field - On the field sounds great. Everything from the hits to the player chatter is top notch.

Madden and Michaels - Same as last year, with a handful of new lines. The best commentary of a two game field this season, but wasn't this expected? This is the Monday Night Football team, while their competitor hired voice actors from video games and movies.

Music - Wretched. Not my thing, personally. This was the quickest I've shut off music in a game since the ESPN series, with the SportsCenter theme on repeat.

Gameplay - 7 / 10

Storyline Central - Very average. The Tony Bruno radio show is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it thing, and personally I hated it. Not because it's of poor quality. It is nicely put together, with trivia questions, coach and player interviews, and Tony's own little editorials. It actually does feel like a radio show. And with all radio shows, the fanbase is going to be split on this. EA has pushed this a lot, saying that it'll be a while before you hear Tony repeat himself, but I heard a repeat only a few weeks into my first franchise. The local and national newspapers are OK. Sometimes you read some odd things in there, such as potential free agents for the coming offseason that you have full intentions on resigning, but on the most part it can be interesting. One annoyance comes from player interviews. In my Lions franchise, I was 3-0, and Solomon Page was in the paper complaining about not playing, saying, "When I don't play, we lose. It's that simple."

The Hit Stick - I did not really like the Hit Stick. As I mentioned above in the Graphics section, the animations are outstanding, and slow motion replays got me to cringe a few times. Aside from this, though, it was just too easy to abuse, if you get the timing down. I caused fumbles on three kickoff returns in the first game I played with it, and vowed never to use it again.

Improved Defense - There's both good and bad to this. Defensive playmaker is especially nice when your opponent goes into a no huddle offense. You can choose a defender and assign him to press coverage, zone coverage, QB spying, and blitzing with a simple flick of the analog. The process is too slow to reassign the entire defense, but there's usually enough of a window that you could get a defender or two to change his ways. Jetpacking for the DBs is still alive and kicking, but their hands have worsened enough that they drop most of their sure interceptions. This cuts down on turnovers, but it also feels unrealistic when your star cornerback stonehands a pass right at him. It may appear that the run defense has improved considerably, but careful examination shows that the run-blocking has been killed almost to the point of non-existence. Defensive tackles consistently break through the line to end up in the backfield just as the ball is getting handed-off on inside running plays. On outside running plays, linebackers and defensive backs run great contain, making it very, very difficult to break through for any kind of gain. On top of this, the AI defense feels almost like it cheats by reading your plays at times. If I call pass after pass after pass from the same formation, and choose a run to mix it up and take advantage of a defense expecting pass, they adjust for run coverage, even though there's no visual tip-off that anything changed.

Offensive Gameplay - Almost identical to Madden 2004. The running style has change to the running style of NCAA Football 2005, dubbed 'fluid running'. The runner will make more realistic looking cuts that aren't nearly as effective as they were in previous years, often slowing your player down enough to get himself run down. Pass blocking is still pretty decent, but as I explained above, run blocking is not.Being able to create offensive and defensive packages for substituion is an excellent addition, though. With a few assignments, you can create a speed defense for pass rushing and coverage, for example, and a strong defense for run support, and swap them in and out with a push of a button. Custom hot routes are a nice addition too, letting you swap out routes you never used for routes you wish were in.

Franchise Mode Changes - The draft feels more like the draft, which is good, and dynamic player progression is a long overdue addition. Watch with excitement as your backup QB steps in and shoots up in ratings as he carves up defenses week after week. Or, watch in horror as your star receiver gets a bad case of the drops every week, and falls way down in ratings. The addition of player morale will be appreciated by the hardcore fans, but causal fans who like to build monster teams will be frustrated when their star backups start complaining and demanding trades. Speaking of the casual fan, EA for some reason has taken out the ability to turn off both the salary cap and Owner Mode (another love-it-or-hate-it addition from last season.) This wouldn't be nearly as frustrating if the ability to shut them on and off never existed, but the fact that they actively went and removed these options is a disappointment.

Purchase Value - 6 / 10

The few additions in this game, in my opinion, are too little to justify a $50 purchase if you already own Madden 2004. If you don't, then feel free to pick this up.

Replay Value - 10 / 10

The beauty of Madden's franchise mode is that you can have so much fun off the field with it that you won't have to play all of your games, and it's addictive enough to keep you coming back.

Reviewer's Tilt - 7 / 10

This was an awfully frustrating game to review. Having purchased this and ESPN NFL 2K5 this season, I can say without reservation that I had a lot more fun playing this game. However, as compared to its predecessor, I enjoyed Madden 2004 a lot more. The Hit Stick is an overpowered addition that has the potential to ruin a game between two people adept at using it. While the game looks nice overall, the performance hit it takes is a little frustrating, and the loading times are still very long. If the running game hadn't been weakened as much as it was, I would've enjoyed this game a great deal more.

Overall - (7.3) 7 / 10

Buy/Rent - Buy if you don't own Madden 2004. If you do and you're set on buying it, rent it first to make sure it's worth your money. If you don't own Madden 2004, this is the game to have this season.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/04