Description In it's 15th season, Madden NFL Football remains the undisputed leader in authentic NFL football simulation. Madden NFL 2005 is the most complete, authentic sports video game ever, making it The Ultimate Judge for sports gamers.
Since the year 2000, Videogames have evolved into something that has a storyline, which gets you more involved in real life situations. The franchise mode in John Madden Football is a great example of this. Picking a NFL football team starts this process off. As you pick your team, you can either decide to keep the players that are already on the team or you can start from scratch and choose your own players. This is also known as drafting. Players are individually worked out to gain attributes in the next step of the franchise mode. Training camp is what many know it by. In this stage, you compete against other players to improve your player. There are four levels in this stage, the more levels you complete, the more attributes you gain.
As pre-season comes around, your main objective is to figure out what players you want to keep and what players that need to be discarded due to the salary cap. The salary is the maximum amount of money you may spend on your players every year. This of course rises as players are demanding more money. At this time, you might want to consider the players for a long term contract and re-sign them to a longer deal. During the pre-season period, you can choose four teams to play. This objective is to find what players will be starting and which ones that will be playing a limited role. This period is very crucial as the regular season is fast approaching.
The season has arrived, and it’s time to prove what your team is made of, to see if your franchise is worthy to take the next step. The computer decides who you will play during the regular season. There are three other teams that are in the same division as you, which you automatically play twice. You play these teams once at home and once away. There are a total of 16 games in a season, eight at home and eight away. There is a feature that is used for the home games where you put prices on parking, food, beverages, merchandise, and ticket sales. This is how you make your money on franchise mode. If you have a good enough team to make it to playoffs, then you record decides whether your playoff games will be held at home or held at your opponent’s stadium. After the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl will be held, where the best professional players at their given position are selected by the coaches. The teams are split by the conferences and the game is annually played in Honolulu, Hawaii.
There are many objectives of doing this process. Whether it is winning the heralded Super Bowl or maybe making as much money as you desire. You might want to use money on a new stadium, which will be built from scratch. Another path that you could take is relocation. Moving your franchise to a new city could give it a fresh start. There can be many objectives or goals that you want to achieve in the franchise mode, that’s why this is a process.
Franchise Mode Rating: 5.0/5.0
Summary: The biggest game developer around is back with it's NFL reprise of Madden 2005. It boasts gobs of new features to warrant a buy and most importantly for XBOX owners, this game is XBOX Live compatible. But let's hold that thought, E.A. recently released NCAA 2005 and I still stand by my thoughts on that game, it's still in beta stages an was not released, will Madden suffer the same fate? Read on.
If you don't know already and if you own the game, you know NCAA has some technical issues and there certainly was a concern that Madden might suffer the same. Most noteworthy is the "slowdown" during gameplay and bugs that occur on XBOX Live; disconnects, getting charged for losses, slow gameplay and a gob of frustration for XBOX owners. Well, now we come to Madden. Three weeks to iron things out is an eternity for E.A. because it seems like things are ironed out and I'm happy to say Madden plays much better in terms of overall bugginess, it's a finished product.
The big feature this year of course is the "XBOX Live" addition along with PS2's online capability. Both run magnificently and I only noticed a couple of times where I would get disconnected. Even better the game plays very smooth overall and does not suffer any problems that NCAA had or still has. Madden includes some nice new features, nothing massive, but keeps the game from getting stale next to 2004, and now being online, that alone is a good enough upgrade for me anyway.
Gameplay: Madden is Madden and the feel of Madden has not really changed year after year. But what E.A. does year after year is tweak the already great feel of the series. Considering the big picture, the gameplay is basically identical from last year with the exception of a few additions.. The same standard button layout is here for both offense and defense, jukes, spins, dives, stiff arms, celebrations etc. They did do away with the "hurdle" button this year which was executed with the "triangle (Ps2) and "Y" button on XBOX. Instead, this button is basically the "put your head down" and get extra yards button. It's somewhat reminiscent of the "shoulder charge" button on ESPN's game which is good for punishing the defense when you need that extra yard. On E.A's game it's more for protecting the ball from a fumble, so press this button down when you're getting swarmed by multiple tacklers to prevent a turnover..
The big hit button is the nicest new addition on defense. It really is fun to use and can take a toll on the offense if used frequently and successfully enough. It's causes the offense to incur more turnovers, especially after a big catch or handoff. Time it right a millisecond before the receiver catches the ball then slam him with the big hit button and watch the ball pop out. It takes timing, but perfect it and you'll be hard to stop on the defensive side. Speaking of defense, the A.I. is much better at reacting to a high power offense in 2005. As in 2004, Game players who rely solely on the pass will have fits of rage when the defense intercepts the quarterback on a frequent basis after figuring out your play-calling methods. The challenge, especially when you beef up the difficulty, will challenge the hardest-hitting game players out there. The control scheme is identical to last year with some minor differentials in the line audibles and play calling screen. You'll still experience the same cool juke moves, stiff-arms, spins and sprint are all back and the tighter feel is more apparent then ever. Offense still has the advantage this year, but I noticed a lot more intelligent blitzing, better play selection and a much improved computer assistance when playing on defense. Linebackers seem to react better, both in knocking down an reacting to a pass, they always seem to be there waiting for the big hit. 2004 gave up to many big plays, I didn't notice big plays nearly as much, at least not yet. Defending against the pass is a breeze if your defensive corner back is in the right place at the right time. Knocking down passes also seems much easier, with the press of the "triangle" button and with good timing on your part, defending the pass can become a breeze if you know a thing or too about calling plays. You can still call the hot routes on the fly and can change your star receivers formation (Playmaker) with a click of the right control stick.
5 of 5
0 of 5
4 of 5
