Madden NFL 2004

"Dont believe the hype..."

Now dont get me wrong here, I think Madden 2004 is a quality game, one that deserves alot of credit. However I believe that many things about this game have been way too overhyped and may cause people to mistakenly purchase this game. As I said, it is a great game but after having had some serious playtime with it, I just cant help wishing that I would have just gotten something like KOTOR or just saved my money instead. Therefore I am making this review to clear some things up, Not from a reviewers point of view (who gets the game for free) but from a regular gamers point of view (who actually had to drop 50 on this game).

First off Ill touch on something that has caused alot of hype and confusion to some. Owners mode. Simply put Owners mode is nothing more that regular old franchise mode with tons of Spreadsheet type charts which stat things like fan attendance and fan support. You of course get to set ticket and consession prices, the flaw in this however is that after a few weeks of messing around with the prices you will eventually come to realize that if you really want to be sussessfull you should just keep the prices at the default level. Yes you can relocate your team but you will need to play a substantial amount of winning seasons (5-6) in order to even think about being able to afford the move. The stadium creator is another over-hyped feature of Madden 2004 and is basically the same exact thing we have had since as long as the create a team feature has existed in Madden. No matter what you try, your stadium will always come out looking generic due to the extremely small amount of visual options. The ability to change you coaching staff is also just a dumb idea, and has little to no affect on your team.

Graphics are noticably better in a textures sort of way. Everything looks alot more gritty and realistic. However new animations are few and far inbetween and to those who played NCAA are even more scarce. Even the opening animations are nearly identical to 2003.

Yes the game does feature Custom soundtracks but can only be listened to during Mini camp mode and during the menus. And as for commentary: IT IS IDENTICAL to 2003. Word for word every bit of commentary seems to have been copied over from 2003.

Playmaker control is also way overhyped, Its just basically a ''quick control audible'' feature. IE. instead of bringing up the audible call and then pressing a button you can basically call simple audibles with the flick of the right analog stick. Sure you can point out places the you want blockers to go, but after a while it just becomes useless Once you learn a ''money play'' or two.

I know it seems like im bashing the game but hey if I could save one fellow gamer 50 bucks on a game that they really did not need its worth it.

If you own Madden 2003, Instead of getting 2004, go out and pick up ESPN 2k3 for 9-15 bucks. And if you own ESPN 2k3 go and get Madden 2003 for 15-20. Pretend its a whole new game and that should save you some money and feed your football need untill ESPN2k4 comes out... And is HOPEFULLY better than this years Madden.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/03