Madden 04 vs Madden 03

[seanmac]

While we're on the subject of comparing EA games, I'm curious as to what the opinion is on this. I just repurchased a copy of Madden 2003, a game I remembered enjoying immensely. After sitting down and playing it again for a while, I'm pretty sure that 2004 was a step backwards for the series. Pretty much all of the improvements of 2004 need to be junked, and the relative player speeds seem to be much more accurate than in 2004.

Anyone else preferring 03 to 04?

[elicoleman]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

Where is the Madden 96 vs Madden 97 thread?


Jk, I would say that owner mode was the big thing that I enjoyed, although most of my time was spent with NCAA up until January.

[elicoleman]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

Where is the Madden 96 vs Madden 97 thread?


Jk, I would say that owner mode was the big thing that I enjoyed, although most of my time was spent with NCAA up until January.

[elicoleman]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

Where is the Madden 96 vs Madden 97 thread?


Jk, I would say that owner mode was the big thing that I enjoyed, although most of my time was spent with NCAA up until January.

[Letemburn]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

04 over 03 big time!

[Letemburn]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

04 over 03 big time!

[Letemburn]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

04 over 03 big time!

[jk5911]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

I also thought 03 was better than 04. It just seems the scoring online is too much and gameplay is too fast and arcadey.

[jk5911]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

I also thought 03 was better than 04. It just seems the scoring online is too much and gameplay is too fast and arcadey.

[jk5911]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

I also thought 03 was better than 04. It just seems the scoring online is too much and gameplay is too fast and arcadey.

[wwharton]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

speaking of strickly gameplay i still don't think it's fair to say 03 was better than 04. playing 03 may have been more enjoyable than playing 04 but the fact that you HAD played 03 has a serious impact there. i don't think enough drastic gameplay changes were made to say 04 was a step backward even if you don't like ANY of the new additions. even still, there were little tweaks that i'm sure make the overall experience better if you don't have to deal with things you may not like like cheesers abusing playmaker. that may make you ignore the fact the dbs play better for example.

as much as many of us complain about ea not doing enough from year to year, i don't think i'd ever claim that they've gone backwards.

[wwharton]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

speaking of strickly gameplay i still don't think it's fair to say 03 was better than 04. playing 03 may have been more enjoyable than playing 04 but the fact that you HAD played 03 has a serious impact there. i don't think enough drastic gameplay changes were made to say 04 was a step backward even if you don't like ANY of the new additions. even still, there were little tweaks that i'm sure make the overall experience better if you don't have to deal with things you may not like like cheesers abusing playmaker. that may make you ignore the fact the dbs play better for example.

as much as many of us complain about ea not doing enough from year to year, i don't think i'd ever claim that they've gone backwards.

[wwharton]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

speaking of strickly gameplay i still don't think it's fair to say 03 was better than 04. playing 03 may have been more enjoyable than playing 04 but the fact that you HAD played 03 has a serious impact there. i don't think enough drastic gameplay changes were made to say 04 was a step backward even if you don't like ANY of the new additions. even still, there were little tweaks that i'm sure make the overall experience better if you don't have to deal with things you may not like like cheesers abusing playmaker. that may make you ignore the fact the dbs play better for example.

as much as many of us complain about ea not doing enough from year to year, i don't think i'd ever claim that they've gone backwards.

[seanmac]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

I would disagree. Playmaker was almost without exception a bad idea, and the game got warped to accomodate it (much the same way that Fever 2004 got warped to support Read n' Lead, a much better idea). You couldn't just call the right pass defense anymore, you had to use playmaker to shift the coverage and/or anticipate pass, otherwise you were looking at a big completion. The run blocking got dumbed down so you could use the playmaker feature. The speeds of the different players got completely thrown out of whack so Michael Vick could buy the time in the pocket to use the Playmaker passing feature. Basically, the whole thing was a disaster. I liked the addition of the ability to tailor your personnel packages from the playcalling screen, but the rest of the "improvements" turned out to be disasters.

2004 highlighted a basic problem, namely that the more control you give to the player, the less likely it is that your game will end up playing like football and the more likely it will play like a video game.

[seanmac]

Re: Madden 04 vs Madden 03

I would disagree. Playmaker was almost without exception a bad idea, and the game got warped to accomodate it (much the same way that Fever 2004 got warped to support Read n' Lead, a much better idea). You couldn't just call the right pass defense anymore, you had to use playmaker to shift the coverage and/or anticipate pass, otherwise you were looking at a big completion. The run blocking got dumbed down so you could use the playmaker feature. The speeds of the different players got completely thrown out of whack so Michael Vick could buy the time in the pocket to use the Playmaker passing feature. Basically, the whole thing was a disaster. I liked the addition of the ability to tailor your personnel packages from the playcalling screen, but the rest of the "improvements" turned out to be disasters.

2004 highlighted a basic problem, namely that the more control you give to the player, the less likely it is that your game will end up playing like football and the more likely it will play like a video game.