Rating: 
Summary: does EA make games for people who aren't professionals???
Review: this game is LAME. See... some of us don't play video games 24-7... we have this thing called a JOB and a LIFE. I think this game is designed for people who are 27, still live with their parents, and sit in the basement playing video games and eating doritos. Let me tell you, this games just stinks.The manual is the thickest manual that has come with a madden game that i can recall... First off, there are entirely too many buttons to press just to get basic functions in this game. Depending on your controller, you could have a possible 8 buttons to press to just pass the ball! On top of that, the buttons then switch to a possible 6 things you could do once you catch the ball... IF you catch the ball. More on that later... This game plays like crud. I have Pentium 4 1.8 Ghz processor, 512 Megs of ram, and 32 megs of Video ram in my laptop. I also use a controller exactly like the PS2, and this game could not be less responsive. On kick returns, you could hit one of the 6 possible buttons to try to avoid being hit, and by the time your player does whatever you're trying to do, he's being crushed by half of the opposing team. Of course, when you kick the ball to the computer, they usually return it for a TD. I've used different teams... used a superior team and played against a weaker team and always got the same results... sluggish gameplay with poor reactions. I've been playing Madden games since they were coming out for the Sega Genesis and have always loved them... but i feel that the guys who build them must be NFL Pro Bowl players because it's almost impossible to connect on a simple out route pass, much less a more complex pattern. You could throw the ball to your WR with nobody within 15 yards, and it'll be picked off by the other team! Some guys jump higher then their own height to make these miricale interceptions. I'm sorry, but i used the Madden Millenium team vs. the Carolina Panthers and was picked off 6 times in the first half alone. There's no way that's a realistic scenerio... The defense is simply awful. Again, using the same teams, on defense using nickel coverage with an under package, the panthers were still able to move the ball effortlessly to their TE on short routes... both in and out. Use of a 3-4 package had poor results as well... no defense. Changing your defensive audibles is very hard to do also. I think you'd have better luck walking to the moon then mastering this simple procedure. Again... 8 possible audibles... and you have to remember them all... easy enough right? Don't even get me started on the fumbles... it's like a fumble circus with this game! I had players with all kinds of skill ratings fumble all over the place. For a game that puts ricky williams on its commercials as a "Playmaker", he fumbled for me 4 times in one game against the Texans. Good call on your spokesperson EA! There are so many plays in this game, i gave up trying to figure out what they all do... trust me, it's overwhelming. Also, don't even think about using the "Ask Madden" feature... you're better off asking your 2 year old nephew how to get to 1st and 10 in this game. If you decide to play a franchise game, you have to do EVERYTHING. Negotiating with players is entirely to comnplicated... including deciding on signing bonuses and standard pay. When you draft players in the NFL Draft, you can't see the ratings of the players that you draft until after you SIGN THEM. You might get stuck paying a RB 5 million a year for 4 years and his rating is a 50 out of 100. This hurts if you decide to play a franchise with the salary cap turned on... but then again, you could turn it off... but then doesn't that negate the REALISTIC PLAY that EA pretends to pride itself on? Here's another great feature about this game. When you install it with the basic features and standard files, it takes up about a GIG on your hard drive. It comes with 2 CD's and takes forever to install. This game does have some sweet visuals and the graphics are very sharp, there's no denying it. The close ups and replays are a lot of fun to watch. However, i didn't pay a large chunk of cash to WATCH this game. You can create your own team, have a fantasy draft, set drink and hot dog prices at your games, decide where the entrance is for your team into the stadum, hire a coacing staff, FIRE a coaching staff, see pie charts and graphics on how your team plays vs. the 3-4 vs. the 4-3, decide what color your team numbers will be, trade draft picks for players, create your own team logos in photoshop and import them, pick your team's location, choose the weather you'll play in, decide who you're going to play in pre-season... see, there's just entirely too much crammed into this game... and most people i know usually sell or trade in their madden games at the end of the football season. If you have a PhD in slacking, and have all the time in the world to learn how to play a video game, then this is the game for you. However, if you're looking for a game that's actually FUN (like i always thought video games were supposed to be), then you should look elsewhere. It's too hard, too complicated, too many buttons, slowwwwww gameplay, too many "features"... Time for EA to hit the showers... putting Mike Vick on the box isn't going to sell this game. The actual ability for people to be able to PHYSICALLY PLAY THE GAME will make if FUN. This game is as much fun as filling in for the tackling dummy.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best Madden games I;ve ever played!!
Review: This game is really an awsome game. It has all the things you want in a football game. You can get attributes for your players. It's really a great game. I recommend this game you should get it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Game with many cool features but problems lag game
Review: This year's Madden 2004 is probably one of the best football games out there today. Some of the cool features are the Playmaker Control...Of course you will need a good gamepad, I have heard that some of those controllers may not work for this game. Another is the new owner mode, I seems as if Madden 2004 is becoming into a Madden Tycoon game. This feature lets you be the owner of the francise and set prices and own your team. Make sure you win and fan support will still be there. But if you don't want to deal with the business of football, you can turn the owner mode off and the game turns back into the orginal francise mode. Francise mode is deep, this years edition include pratice squads where you can pratice your players on the field and their ratings go up for the next game. This years edition takes a lot of space and most likely a new video card...be ready to upgrade. The problems that have lagged this game are the gameplay mechanics. Problems include late game heroics where you could have a lead and the CPU cheats to win on the Madden diffuculity. You could have a lead against the LIONS 21 to 0 and the game cheats at the end to make the lion win. Very frustrating. Configuring your controller can take days to record and memorize them all and they should simplify this because no one has time to remember these all. Graphics A-
Owner mode A
Playmaker Control A-
Francise/ Mini-Camps modes A-
Gameplay C+ Overall Madden gets a B+
I still recommend this game because on the PC resources are limited... still a terrific game
Rating: 
Summary: Close, but No Cigar (Needs Commissioner Mode)
Review: Those of you who have already played this game on the PC may be wondering what my gripe is since it really is a beautifully rendered game. The pluses of the game are obvious, so we won't discuss them here becaue they are noted in other reviews.
Here are my gripes: (1) The clock is supposed to stop on out of bounds plays. It will only stop in this game on out of bounds plays in the last two minutes of a half. That just isn't how it is in reality. It is supposed to stop after ALL out of bunds plays. (2) When you get burned on the deep pass and activate the man nearest to the ball carrier, that man slows down and you cannot catch the ball carrier. You have to let the computer completely handle that situation which rarely ends in actually stopping the ball carrier before he crosses the goal line.
(3) When you relocate franchises, you can change their nickname and logo, but you can't change their endzone decorations and fifty yard line decorations. If you moved the Chicago Bears to Portland, Oregon, and chose the Bulldog logo and gave your newly uprooted team the Bulldog nickname, your endzone decorations and fifty yard line decorations will still be that of the Chicago Bears. Has anyone else noticed that you can't change the color of the helmet of logos provided with the game? A Bulldog logo just doesn't go with baby light blue helmet. If it can be fixed, please contact me in my "About Me" profile.
(4) The game went deep in simulating the off season, but not deep enough. It left out franchise tag players. A player with the franchise tag is guaranteed a minimum one year deal with a salary averaged on the top five salaries in the league on the identical posistion. If another team signs your franchise player, it costs that team early draft picks in the next draft. There aren't any restricted free agents, either. A restricted free agent can sign an offer sheet from another team, but if the prior team matches the offer that player has to accept the prior teams offer. There are other kinds of free agents, too. I can't go over all of them here. There are trades that often are not based only on player for player or for draft picks in the real NFL. If Denver traded their punter to Seattle and that punter put of imprerssive numbers for Seattle, it could cost Seattle an early draft pick. All of that would be based on the deal Seattle and Denver made. Players should have incentives in their contracts. Let's say if Seattle's Matt Hasselback throws for over 3,000 yards this season he is eligible for a bonus of a million dollars that DOES COUNT against the salary cap. The game has players holding out for better contracts, but in reality that generally doesn't happen until a player enters the final year of a contract. This game has hold outs with multiple years left on contracts. You should be able to fine holdouts. What about roster bonuses? Roster bonuses are what mainly cause seasoned veterans taking their services elsewhere. The prior team has to waive the player due to salary cap restrictions. All of that should be in the off season mode.
(5) Are skill levels really necessary? All they have to do is make it so the computer offense/defense doesn't get burned by the same play over and over again. I've scored over seventy points on the Pro mode. If they'd just fix the AI, the other skill levels would be useless. (6) When players reach a certain age, no amount of training camp is going to help them. They shouldn't be eligible for the mode. Make the cut off at are 33. (7) What happened to being able to realign the divisions? Does Dallas really belong in the NFC EAST? No, Carolina does. Where is Carolina, they're in the NFC SOUTH. Geographically Carolina is more East than Dallas is. In reality Dallas is a profitable and traditional rival for that division, but in Madden World you should be able to fix it. (8) There are so many buttons to press for ball carrier trick moves (spin, stiff arm, etc.) that it just isn't practical to use any of them besides the sprint button. The AI should take over the trick moves and all the player has to do is hold the sprint button (maybe not even have to do that). A move would be based on the runners style. If it is Shaun Alexander he'd be a finess back (spin, juke, etc.). If it is Jerome Bettis he'd be a bruiser (stiff arm, run your ass right over, etc.). But don't limit ball carriers to a certain style. They should all be capable of all the moves despite their favorites. (9)It needs a commissioner mode on top of owner mode. The commissioner decides which teams should relocate, approving trades, contracts, expansion, which games will be on national TV, etc. You should be the owner of a team at the same time, too. You shouldn't be able to dabble into other teams money, however. But teams can ask the commissioner for advice about pricing, relocating, etc. Either a team will follow your advice or they won't. An option to obvioulsy wound a team will not appear as an option for the commissioner. (10) When you have to put a player on IR and sign someone to fill his shoes, you shouldn't have to pay that new player a whole season's salary. It should be broken down into weeks just like in the real NFL. Just a few ideas. . . .
Rating:
Summary: Honest Madden 2004 Review (PC Version)
Review: Unlike previous version of Madden (which I loved) this version is free from bugs, flows smoothly, looks great and is very customizable. I prefer to play with my own teams and players rather than NFL teams; I previous versions of Madden it took my a whole day to just setup the logos,uniforms and team data. With Madden 2004 I was able to do it in two hours. The menu transitions are very fast and the pauses that were present in previous versions are gone. This game is an asset to my computer, I am even going to order another copy for backup. If the graphics get any better I won't need to watch football on TV at all!
Rating:
Summary: The best of the best gets better
Review: When I first turned on Madden '04, it blew me away. First of all, it has a great soundtrack with the likes of AFI, Bubba Sparxx and Blink 182. The graphics are stunningly beautiful and the details are flat out impressive (Ricky Willam's hair, Kyle Turley's tatoos). The stadiums are impressivley detailed and the gameplay is flat-out amazing. Also, it has easy controls, though not as good as 03's.
The franchise is also the best ever! And this is Madden for godsakes! The revolutionary "Owner Mode" is fun and challenging, for example, you can have a good team that will attract fans, but you can't be a a-hole owner like Jerry Jones. (Tip: if you give out $1 beers, your fan support will go way up. You can also hire coaches. The only bad thing about Madden on computer is that there's no Madden Cards. NO MADDEN CARDS!!
So whether you're a first time Madden gamer, or you've been playing since '87, you'll love it.
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