Me and My Friends Madden Impressions:

[Perfection]

*permanently retires NCAA 2005 and ESPN 2k5*

"Nice try VC and the NCAA team, but in something I didn't think I'd see for another couple of years, EA ****ing BROUGHT IT with Madden 2005.

A year ago I shelved Madden a month after buying it because of several reasons, the two main ones being lack of control over the defense and its players, and overall game speed. I silently pleaded "Please, all I ask is that you deliver me NCAA control with the Madden core and NFL teams." They did.

Before I get into it, some thoughts about the graphics and sound. On the graphic front, ESPN looks better, with bump mapped jerseys, reflective lighting and tons of other eye candy. But Madden is no slouch, as the lighting is fantastic, and the players look great. I'm not a fan of the over exaggerated shoulder pads, but they mainly come into view in replays. Sound wise, I'm near the point where me paying for a hit on Madden and Michaels is not out of the question. I'm starting to believe that in actuality, Madden is dead, and the current version you see on MNF is either advanced puppetry, or a cyborg version. There is no emotion or anything worthwhile to be gained from the commentary. But I guess as long as his name is attached to the title, we have to live with it.

Now, into the gameplay, and the most important thing first: the defense. Neither you nor the computer can throw it deep 3 plays in a row and strike gold at least once. If you throw it into double coverage, it at the very least is getting knocked down, and if a guy is facing the ball, its getting picked. In the short passing game, I've seen much less "skating in from 5 yards away to deflect the ball" and more success with touch passes over LBs. That's not to say that it still isn't there, as Chiefs MLB Mike Maslowski jumped two feet off the ground to tip a pass over the middle (in real life his vertical is -3 inches), but that was only once.

Strategy wise, its all a matter of how fast your hands are. Once I got the hang of it, I was hot routing blitzes while calling press coverage up front and a QB spy with my other LB. You can configure it nearly any way you want, even having your DEs cover the flats, or dropping back in coverage.

In one game, in one series, the Giants were either trying to hit Shockey, or dump it in the flat. I called a base 4-3, with a blitz on the strong side, so Shockey would be running free. I then had my RDE drop back in coverage, and I blitzed my MLB, basically leaving no LB near that side. Sure enough, Warner drops back, sees the blitz and fires it right to where Shockey would be, except now it was my DE Eric Hicks back in coverage. The pass was deflected and went right into my SS's hands for the INT.

Line play and holes are much better now. It seemed you used to have to resort to splitting your DEs out wide or looping linemen in order to get a hole in the line to blitz thru. And then when it happened, you had to hope that you could make it thru. Now you can get paths to the QB with straight up 4 man pressure. The lanes are now cleaner to get through, and you can blow up plays.

Now, add all that **** up, and you see the defensive side of the ball is much improved. The thing that ties it all together is the control you have over your players. I have no problem with NCAA in shutting down passes, or flowing to the run with LBs, but in Madden, I never tried to play as either safety, because it was frustrating to be in perfect position just to be jumped over, or as you switch to the safety, it slows you down just enough for the WR to get a step. You all may have not had that problem, as I don't profess to being a great Madden player, but that **** always bugged me, and that's why I was nearly NCAA only. But in Madden 05, you can pick any player on the field and cover a guy, with the only restriction being how good the player you're controlling is. As Maslowski, who is slow as ****, I couldn't cover Shockey 1 on 1 across the middle, because he's simply too slow in coverage. But as Ray Lewis, Kellen Winslow was getting his mouth ****ed slow style. Lewis was his ****ing shadow, when he wasn't busy breaking thru the line and sending Garcia back to Canada.

That's the other feature, the hit stick. Even reading reviews, I thought the **** would be a gimmick, but using it is a different story. Once you get the timing down, it can be a lethal weapon, and have realistic results. Edgerton Hartwell hitting Duce Staley dead in his mouth? Staley getting dropped instantly, but holding onto the ball. Ray Lewis hitting Tommy Maddox blindside with almost 10 yards of steam? Maddox fumbling it, and deciding to go back to sell insurance with a concussion. Sometimes you'll hit a guy and think "Why did this guy not die?" but other times, when a guy gets injured or the ball comes out, it'll make sense.

In summation, defense rocks.

Offensively, you have basically the same things you did last year, with a few improvements.

Custom packages allow you to throw together units to send out on the field. The Chiefs run whats called a Tank package in real life, with a run blocking TE on one side, Tony Gonzalez on the other, and a tall, high jumping, roughneck WR split out. Its murder and confusion, as it can be run or pass. I'd have to go into the depth chart and fix this in previous years, but now it can be done automatically.

They have the same agile running as in NCAA, slightly toned down, and catered to how your players are. With Johnnie Morton, he can't cut against the grain on a dime, but with Dante Hall, you can finesse some players right out of their shoes.

A real nice new addition are the option routes, which I'm sure you read about. It's basically a route where the receiver can decide how he wants to run the route. One in the Chiefs playbook is called the Dante Option, where Dante is split out and during the route, can slant directly after the snap, or run it out 10 yards. After that 10 yards, he can keep it as a streak, or turn it into a corner route. From what I've seen, the players are smart about it. Against the Giants, Dante ran the streak one play against loose coverage in between the CB and the safety (it ended up being deflected, as I tried threading it over the top of the CB), and in another play, did the corner route (which was perfect against the Cover 2, and ended up going for 20+ yards). I have seen a questionable move once or twice, but it was never something where I had already thrown it in an opposite direction. They always run the route very smoothly.

Sweeps and tosses are much improved, though I still think the lineman could be much faster on both sides of the ball. They toned down some of the moves, though they still have the completely unrealistic spin move.

I didn't use a team with a mobile QB, so I don't know how the cpu defense reacts against them, so that'll be left up to you guys.

Now a few random quick things that I really dig, as well as a few other important notes:

-They finally fixed the kickoff setup, in that most teams have a designated returner. It used to be 2 players were split out, and whoever the ball was near, that's who would go get it. Not realistic. Now they have it where there is your lead blocker, and the returner. Dante Hall breathed a sigh of relief as Derrick Blaylock shall never return the ball again.

-Kicking is slightly different, in that the meter is slower going up than usual (at least it seemed). Now they also have a readout of how powerful and accurate your kick is ie 87 power, 59 accuracy.

-The rushing attack mini game is THE TRUTH. Its basically the running drill and the chase and tackle drill all in one. You pick 2 teams, and you start with the rock. You get 2 minutes to get as many points as you can, with the defenders also getting points for tackles for losses, fumbles, etc. Then, you are one of 3 defenders, and you must stop them from getting more points than you. I played at least 30 games of this **** tonight.

-Something I didn't address earlier in one of these threads, team ratings are the sum of who is starting in your depth chart. If you want to make every team more even, go into their depth chart and auto reorder. Now the game will take into consideration the entire team, with the worst overall team being rated something like 82 OVR, and the best being rated around 90.

Damn, there is even more I could talk about, like All Madden being more playable and more realistic, the special teams improvements, etc but I need to go to sleep."

- My Friend


"Damn, Chewie said everything that needed to be said.

I never thought (in my wildest dreams) that Madden would bring it like this, this year, but DAMN this game is the TRUTH.

All Madden is VERY VERY tough, but NEVER cheap, which makes it extremely gratifying when you put a good drive together. I was the Rams playing against the Bucs and that damn cover 2 had me in FITS. Thius because I was used to being able to just run some flag routes (thanks ESPN) to move on them after their corners dropped off and right before the safeties came into play. NO, these mofos were everywhere. Knocking down passes, they even picked my ******* off twice in the 1st quarter until I realized that this **** ISN'T Madden 04 and ESPN.

I spent alot of time in the practice mode just trying the defensive hot bliztes/routes against the Rams, and they were buttraping me. It took me about 20 minutes to get a good game plan going against the timing routes. I ended up putting Suggs and Boulware on the slot receivers, putting McCallister on Holt and doubling Bruce. Worked great, I also pinched my DE's and which gave Edge and Ray more operating room against the run.

That's just my gamepolan against ONE TEAM, the options are endless. The took playmaker, added it to defense and now Madden is the most fun game of chess I've ever played.

The hit stick is the **** as well, takes very precise timing though, but the hits are BRUTAL and the risk/reward is perfectly balanced.

Brilliant Job EA.

Also, like Chewie said prior, I can now take Ed Reed and let my big boys up front do the damage. Actually, all the players have MUCH better control now, so everyone on the defense is playable....great job..

Finally a game that fellow smash-mouth football, and ball control fans can appreciate.

-Me

I took these from another board I post at www.soundcircuit.com. I'm the mod of the video game forum.

I'm a Ravens fan, he's a Chiefs fan.

Ask any questions you may have.

Also, sorry if there is any cursing in them, on SC we are allowed to use the naughty language over there and I scrubbed the posts quickly, but I may have missed a few

[spin16]

Feeling like a ******* yet, Jordan?

[Bacardi151]

please use the impressions thread. Thanks