Is Madden ready for the competition???

[EWRMETS]

Augustus, I enjoyed ESPN last year, and will definitely purchase it this year due to its low price. All I'm saying is that it's unfair to criticize Madden as only selling because of the advertising. It's a very good game in its own right. I'm just sick and tired of hearing the "EA can do nothing right" complex. Why can't people just enjoy both games?

[augustus]

I never said EA can't do anything right. Madden has a very, very deep franchise mode and has the NCAA-Madden player transfer feature, and is now on X-Box live. I've heard that many gameplay quirks from last year were fixed too and that's always a plus. Its not that they can't do anything right; instead, it sometimes feels like they don't want to do some things right(like not fix the speed problem and the over-accurate QB's), b/c it will threaten their fan-base. EA producers even admitted to ignoring both problems because they want to keep a high "fun-factor" as they call it.

I also never said that they are selling more copies only becuase of their aggressive advertising (although it helps quite a bit). They are so successful becuase of their incredibly loyal following year after year whom trust that Madden will (by default) feature the best quality gameplay on the market, and rightfully so. They have had the most popular gameplay for some time now.

This detracts from my answering the original thread question... Yes Madden is ready to take the competition in terms of a few things:
-sales and marketing
-deeper franchise features (storyline, FA tags, etc)

however, EA still needs that they can deliver a knockout blow in terms of pure gameplay enhancements and features when stacked to ESPN. If Madden can show that it made more strides to acheive realistic footbal this year, then they are fully ready, but they have alot to prove in this dept. this year... only time will tell.

[EWRMETS]

My biggest problem with Madden is why can't they give us amazing different playbooks for each team. It seems that EA Games are always good, but don't every have different teams play differently.

[bigmark]

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katchumo said:
i used to play all the 2k games on dreamcast, all the way up to 2k3 on xbox, and i prefer madden. maybe i'll give 2k5 a chance, but the last time i heard all the hype about VC's game being the new king of the hill here at OS, i was really disappointed i payed 50 bucks for a game that price-dropped only a couple months after release.

20 bucks sounds like a good deal, but even for that price i can't see myself playing it a ton. haven't decided if i'll buy a fball game this whole year. was gonna go for ncaa, but even though it's "improved", i'm still having fun with my 2004 dynasty, and i can wait at least until march madness to experience the screen and controller shaking.

to each their own, 2k5 sounds like a great deal for the VC fans, but i doubt they'll put a major dent into madden's market-share. that's just the way it is. esp. here at opsports. every year there's a litany of posters claiming "this is the year" the 2k series defeats madden, and every year it's not even close. (based strictly on sales, not quality of the games).

in no way am i saying 2k is the worse game, but it's completely different than madden, and some people just can't get into it. i on the other hand was a huge 2k fan, going back to dreamcast, but i'm leaning toward madden as the only fball game i'll buy this year. i'm gonna wait to hear what everyone says before buying anything, though. i don't need it the very first day it comes out.

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I couldn't agree more. I like this site and everything, but this is almost Groundhoug Day all over again. I took a lot of time off from video games, and bought 2k3 when I got XBox based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews here. The following year I considered Madden for a change of pace but again chose ESPN based on a lot of the "best game ever" reviews. Other than fixing the dropped passes in 2k3, I didn't notice much of an upgrade. I mean, they take the time to implement "the crib", but then they don't fix the uniform glitch where both teams wear white jerseys?

Interesting thread though - I like these kind of discussions as long as they're civilized. Madden certainly isn't perfect and constructive criticism should be welcomed.
But why is it when a negative comment about Sega is made on the ESPN board, that person is practically lynched and labled as everything short of a terrorist?

[Bacardi151]

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bigmark said:

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katchumo said:
i used to play all the 2k games on dreamcast, all the way up to 2k3 on xbox, and i prefer madden. maybe i'll give 2k5 a chance, but the last time i heard all the hype about VC's game being the new king of the hill here at OS, i was really disappointed i payed 50 bucks for a game that price-dropped only a couple months after release.

20 bucks sounds like a good deal, but even for that price i can't see myself playing it a ton. haven't decided if i'll buy a fball game this whole year. was gonna go for ncaa, but even though it's "improved", i'm still having fun with my 2004 dynasty, and i can wait at least until march madness to experience the screen and controller shaking.

to each their own, 2k5 sounds like a great deal for the VC fans, but i doubt they'll put a major dent into madden's market-share. that's just the way it is. esp. here at opsports. every year there's a litany of posters claiming "this is the year" the 2k series defeats madden, and every year it's not even close. (based strictly on sales, not quality of the games).

in no way am i saying 2k is the worse game, but it's completely different than madden, and some people just can't get into it. i on the other hand was a huge 2k fan, going back to dreamcast, but i'm leaning toward madden as the only fball game i'll buy this year. i'm gonna wait to hear what everyone says before buying anything, though. i don't need it the very first day it comes out.

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I couldn't agree more. I like this site and everything, but this is almost Groundhoug Day all over again. I took a lot of time off from video games, and bought 2k3 when I got XBox based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews here. The following year I considered Madden for a change of pace but again chose ESPN based on a lot of the "best game ever" reviews. Other than fixing the dropped passes in 2k3, I didn't notice much of an upgrade. I mean, they take the time to implement "the crib", but then they don't fix the uniform glitch where both teams wear white jerseys?

Interesting thread though - I like these kind of discussions as long as they're civilized. Madden certainly isn't perfect and constructive criticism should be welcomed.
But why is it when a negative comment about Sega is made on the ESPN board, that person is practically lynched and labled as everything short of a terrorist?

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whether you actually beleive it or not, when a person has a criticism of a game and is able to put his thoughts down on a post without being condescending or "trollish" then all is fair game. If another person bashes you, let the staff handle them, and do not fight back. Bite your lip, and ignore the user. The reason it seems this year more people are getting shut down in the espn forum is because there is more traffic being generated in the espn forum, therefore alot more flaiming tirades erupt.

When madden is released, you can bet that neither I nor anyone else on staff will allow stupid comments with no substance to be tolerated. There are times when we dont catch things, or interpret them differently, we are all human. But rest assured we try our best at keeping constructive discussion going on in any forum.


Some people just cant grasp the concept and just create posts as pre-emptive strikes. This has to stop. But then again, we go through this every year.

[NICK5]

Most people don't want major changes. If the game is good, no major changes are needed. Everyone wanted D to be harder, NCAA made it harder and now everybody complains abou that. Plus gamers are comfortable with Madden, they are so used to the gameplay and controls. If Madden players really wanted major changes to the game, they would just go buy ESPN.