[adandar]

StayPlation82, the only part of your rant that actually made sense was the part about image control. The rest was rather lacking because if anything you may have created an argument against Madden.

Madden was great back in the 90s when the alternatives had zero marketing, zero ability in compete on gameplay because of Madden's structural head start and long standing relationship with the NFL. Of course, they might have also taken another route and would try to compete by catering to a niche market by being extreme (See NFL Blitz). That being said, like an old girlfriend who was hot in her day, she got older and didn't put in the work to stay hot.

Madden isn't that MILF that we all would aspire to know in your later years, but rather she grew fat and has facial hair from living in a bus 24/7 and hanging out at ACE Hardware. Get real bro... For you to think Madden has evolved to a higher state simply because it went next gen is naive and not extremely thoughtful.

I've played all the next gen games and NFL 2K5 on the 360. 2K5's game play, not presentation, is still the closest to what I see on Sundays, and the occasional Monday night. The presentation is also more realistic to what we would expect as fans of the NFL (See ESPN license that is put to actual use).

Fact of the matter is this... We crave a sim to be realistic. Madden's goofy features that it comes up with every year may be new and in some cases even novel, but few have brought it closer to realism (see poor salary cap management, game play controls such as using speed like an accellerator in a car, etc.), thus taking it more and more into the realm of the arcade. Thus, this is why the game has not truly improved over the last half decade.

Think what you may, but the 2K5 fanatics in here, which I would include myself a member, just want a game that brings us that much closer to the real thing.

If 2K5 was called another name or made by another company, I wouldn't care. If Backbreakers comes out and has the best game play to date, I would have to check that out.

However, because EA has the exclusive license, there will always be that twinge of what-if. What if Backbreakers had the real NFL teams or a franchise mode?

Therefore, until the NFL wakes up or someone acquires EA, which seems unlikely, we are stuck in this cycle and our only choice is ESPN NFL 2K5.