NCAA 2004 vs. Madden 2004. Which is Better and Why?

[andrewd923]

As far as gameplay goes, NCAA completely blows Madden away. Defense is actually *fun* in NCAA, while Madden still feels like a chore. But owner's mode is amazing, and dynasty mode, while great, just can't compare.

So, if you want to play a lot, get NCAA, but if you want to sim a lot of games and focus on off-field stuff, get Madden. I highly reccomend NCAA though.

[brahmagoul]

NCAA is just more true to football than Madden is. Here's some reasons why:

1. The commentary of Nessler, Corso and Herbstreit blow out Madden and Michaels. The trio says more, says more entertaining things and just like in real life they have better things to say. Also, on a big play Nessler gets more emotional in his voice. Doesn't happen in Madden.

2. The sounds and in-game music. You get fight songs and all the hoopla in NCAA. In Madden after a TD you hear the game's soundtrack music, which is annoying and unrealistic. This is not the type of music you hear at real games.

3. Better animations. Granted, more of the animations are the same in both games but they just work more fluidly in the game which comes to my next point.

4. The running game is more realistic....because it's more fluid. In Madden the running back bounces around like a marble or ping pong ball. In NCAA, the blocking forms better and if the play breaks down, the tackler bringing the ball carrier down just looks better in NCAA. In Madden, the animations look more forced than free flowing.

[LetsGoPitt]

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brahmagoul said:
NCAA is just more true to football than Madden is. Here's some reasons why:

1. The commentary of Nessler, Corso and Herbstreit blow out Madden and Michaels. The trio says more, says more entertaining things and just like in real life they have better things to say. Also, on a big play Nessler gets more emotional in his voice. Doesn't happen in Madden.[/quote[
"I agree, 100% with you" The NCAA commentary is far and away the best of any sports game ever.

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2. The sounds and in-game music. You get fight songs and all the hoopla in NCAA. In Madden after a TD you hear the game's soundtrack music, which is annoying and unrealistic. This is not the type of music you hear at real games.

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Again, I agree. Madden wouldn't be so bad except that all of their EA Trax are complete garbage. Thank goodness you can turn them off in the menus.

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3. Better animations. Granted, more of the animations are the same in both games but they just work more fluidly in the game which comes to my next point.

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Plus NCAA has the heads looking back at the ball.

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4. The running game is more realistic....because it's more fluid. In Madden the running back bounces around like a marble or ping pong ball. In NCAA, the blocking forms better and if the play breaks down, the tackler bringing the ball carrier down just looks better in NCAA. In Madden, the animations look more forced than free flowing.

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I like part of each. The animations are much better in NCAA, but you have to follow your blocking in Madden, which makes it more realistic. In NCAA you can still run outside way too often even if the play is designed up the middle.

[brahmagoul]

That's true but in college, players have a lot better time of taking it to the outside on a broken play up the middle. In my opinion the difficulty of running on the outside in Madden isn't because it's realistic but because it seems like they intentionally made lead blockers dumb to make you use playmaker.

[bdunn13]

I find running outside too easy in madden. I just use I-Twins and run off tackle strong and bounce it outside if the D is in man.

BD

[LetsGoPitt]

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bdunn13 said:
I find running outside too easy in madden. I just use I-Twins and run off tackle strong and bounce it outside if the D is in man.

BD

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You DO have Tomlinson though, right?

[DXZeke]

For actual gameplay...
I'd take NCAA in a heartbeat. Like all the guys have said above, it just feels better. You feel like you've control of your defense (as stated above it's fun on D)... the DBs in my opinion are way smarter in NCAA than madden... it seems like they are always trying to make some kind of play, be it a hit or swat where as Maddens DBs will half the time watch passes fly by or not try and make a play on who ever is recieving the ball.
They dynasty mode is still pretty much the same, but it wasn't bad to begin with. The SI covers are a really neat touch to the game.

WIth Madden though... the Owner Mode is just killer. Just getting to set prices for food, tickets, parking, etc is a nice change. Player salaires now have Signing bonuses put in and that in it's self is interesting. Get a guy to sign cheap, but you might have to pay him a huge Signing bounus and take a nice hit on your earnings.
Team Relocation is awesome... being able to redesign jerseys for teams is great. Having the ablilty to run those mini-camp drills for 9 guys to up 3 pre-set abilties before pre-season starts is great.
You can play some games with madden and have fun, but that's after some major Slider tweaking, but the guys here in the message boards are doing a good job finding good Slider settings.... but it's not been as easy to do so as it was for NCAA.

If you can afford both, that's a good way to go. I myself would probably pick NCAA if I could only have one.

-Zeke

[seanmac]

I'm going to go the other way- I prefer the off-field game in NCAA, but I think Madden is probably a better on field game. Recruiting is just more fun for me than anything that the owner mode has to offer. I would also note that NCAA is more fun to play on defense with, it has better DB AI, and better run blocking AI as well, not to mention better special teams play. But Madden is the more strategic game as a result of its personnel packages and the pre-snap use of the playmaker functions, and I think the passing game is done better in Madden as well (it seems easier to float the ball over coverage, whereas the LB will jump up and make an absurd INT over and over in NCAA).

Personally, I think the ESPN demo plays a better game of football than either EA offering (not to knock them, they are both fine games). But if I was only going to grab one title, it would probably be Madden, not NCAA.