Madden- Surprisingly great, surprisingly disappointing

[mark1726]

I got Madden in hopes of playing through several seasons, simming most games, to tinker with owners mode and franchise. Unfortunately the NCAA import bug and the horrid CPU roster management has tempered my hope of having a great management sim, or even a good one.

However I am really enjoying the gameplay. The more I play and get used to the faster pace than NCAA2004, the more I like it. Adjusting the sliders on All-pro is lending itself to some great gameplay, better than ever for Madden. Good outside rushers break the pocket down, good running backs can run inside, and good DB's can make plays downfield more than ever before. I find I am getting better and more realistic results with Madden than NCAA. I even feel now that I prefer Madden's gameplay.

I bought this expecting Madden's gameplay to suck and the franchise mode to be polished and enjoyable. I was planning on playing NCAA and ESPN for on the field stuff, Madden off. Now it looks like I may be playing all of them regularly, jury is still out on ESPN football.