Madden Fans' Take On ESPN

[wildcatchild]

Madden's gameplay is the best I've ever seen in any football game. End of story...and the player models aren't as bad as everybody says they are.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by wildcatchild

Madden's gameplay is the best I've ever seen in any football game. End of story...and the player models aren't as bad as everybody says they are.

LMAO. End of Story. Classic.

[dave360]

Well as intelligent a response as I can muster. I prefer Madden's franchise mode to ESPN's. There are no trades except on draft day, much like in the real NFL. In ESPN, I had about 30 trades in preseason, completely unrealistic. The gameplay itself in ESPN is fantastic except for the DB play. I could never get my DB's to cover a receiver, and the long ball was impossible to cover, and I tried most every slider setting I could to get it better. Granted Madden's DB AI is not much better (DB's are acrobatic). Franchise mode to me is the best feature in any sports game, and ESPN messed it up with trades and draft day AI. I love ESPN hockey and ESPN NBA, and as I've said a million times before, ESPN college hoops was my favorite game last year, and I hope it comes close to Halo 2 this year. The only EA games I play are football and baseball, and the college game was hosed from the start with the slowdown problems.

[Jon22]

People complain the Db is too stupid , but then again they complain that there are to many ints. hmmmm

[Dondadda]

All you have to do is turn on EQ on ESPN, and the entire game, including the DB play, is incredibly realistic. Agreed on ESPN's flawed franchise mode, though. I rememdy that by running the "next level" of a franchise mode - online leagues with dependable players, trades, injuries, etc.

[VanillaGorilla]

I bought Madden 2005 in August, traded it in for ESPN in September, and now I'm trading in ESPN for Madden again. I honestly can't see why ANYONE would think ESPN is a fun game of football.

[eaglesfan17]

I have liked Madden over ESPN every year except this year. ESPN absolutely blew my mind in terms of realism and presentation. The ONLY aspect of the game that I honestly believe Madden has the upper hand in is franchise mode. ESPN's franchise mode is fun, but the offseason and such is not as fun as Madden's. As for on the field, ESPN blows Madden away. The game feels so much more like an actual NFL game than Madden. I still play Madden because I am the commissioner of an online league, but if ESPN was on PC, I really don't think I would have bought Madden.
Just my opinion.

[slickdtc]

For me, I have been playing tons and tons of Madden recently. But I also own ESPN NFL 2k5 and, although it's been shelved for a while now, it'll eventually get it's due time in.

However, I sometimes hesitate to play ESPN NFL 2k5 because of the gameplay, which, I believe, is it's strongest and weakest point. Some parts of it, the animations on tackling to be specific, just blow me away. But when my corner gets beat deep and he's still in that backpedalling animation as the receiver trots to the endzone frustrates me to no end, as does the RB's diving when they shouldn't at balls thrown when they come out of the backfield.

It's a love-hate relationship. But it's a damn good one.

For me, I'm not going to say one game is better then another. It's practically impossible, because the thing that nags me in one game excites me in another and vice versa.