Customer Reviews

Madden NFL 2004

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

They finally fixed head-to-head play.

Single player is alright, but the real fun in these games is playing against your friends or legitimate players online. I was a huge fan of some of the earlier Maddens, but anyone who has played a bit against other people knows those games had gameplay glitches. Certain blitzes or passes made you have to design your entire gameplan around them, be it running out of the shotgun all day or having to always double-team a mediocre receiver because he always catches a certain pass.

For the most part, they fixed all that in Madden 2004. The game plays very well, and extremely realistically, with a few flaws that can be worked around. The deep lob is no longer unstoppable, good DBs play the pass very well now, except certain zones (Cover 3 -- DBs don't play it right and you get burnt on this). The "nano-blitz" is gone, so is the unstoppable sweeps from 2002 and the flags from 2003. They also penalize you for trying to do the "drop back 30 yards and chuck it perfect" routine from the earlier games. Madden was always a great game, but when you played people who exploited these flaws, and the internet seems to spawn these losers, it just gets frustrating. That is why I didn't bother with 2003. The removal of these bugs leave us with simply a great multiplayer game.

There are a few new features which people talk about that are really nice after-thoughts. One of the lesser talked about improvements though are to the playbooks. These are REAL plays that NFL teams actually run. I played some college ball and several of these passing plays we ran EXACTLY like that and the reads for the QB are the same.

In my experience, the people who talk about Madden not being realistic and prefer the other games, are the kids who think it would be cool if your running back could throw Hadoukens or LBs shoot be able to shoot lightning bolts. They watch some football and think the way the game works is you give the ball to your RB a lot and he gets 100 yards, then you throw it deep to your WR a couple of times and he gets 100 yards. And if you get into trouble, you go 5 wides and throw a bomb to your RB at slot. Duh. They don't understand how football strategy really works and so Madden is "unrealistic".

The single player has always had a huge problem in that when the computer gets behind, it just cheats to keep it close, as others have pointed out. It's not fun and does detract from the game. Nothing wrong with a comeback now and then, but sometimes it's just as fun to blow a team out and put your subs in. It's also annoying to have your defense's stats ruined for no other reason than your offense played a good game.

That said, playing against real people is where the real fun is at and where Madden excels. My best game purchase of the year so far.

In response to "gamer's" August 8th note about using it for the PC over PS2 -- the solution is simple. Just BUY a game controller for the PC. You need a dual analog controller to be able to use the Playmaker feature on Madden 2004 -- that feature won't work on other PC game controllers.

Anyway, here's my spin on Madden 2004 -- it's a GREAT improvement over Madden 2002, largely because of the added features. The improved franchise mode is the biggest selling point of this Madden version, and what a franchise mode this is! Great for control freaks who want to rule the world and leave no detail unturned. Graphics and gameplay are terrific as usual, but not much improved over already fabulous earlier versions. Here are my observations -- a lot of pluses, and some minuses (fyi, I've never played Madden 2003):

1. Graphics -- both front-end and gameplay -- work very well on my 64MB video RAM, 2.2MHz, and 512MB RAM computer. But having stadium detail at "highest" setting slowed things down, so I recommend to all that you only use "medium". (The only difference is the cheering, jumping crowds are eliminated, which is good because I found them very distracting.)

2. Gameplay graphics are marginally improved over the already fabulous 2002 (and I assume 2003) versions, so you can't go wrong here. A little more realism is introduced to players' movements. For example, when a defender intercepts a ball, his post-interception reaction time usually slows down as he assesses the new situation. Be careful of that jarring hit from the rather ticked-off wide receiver.

2. The accelerated clock option sped things up quite a bit in gameplay. Clock runs down quickly between plays. A big plus.

3. Playmaker feature is very neat, but takes some practice to get used to, especially on defense. As mentioned above, you need a dual analog game controller to use this feature.

4. Franchise mode went VERY DEEP in this Madden version, which is great news for those who want a very realistic NFL simulation. Training camp, preseason (yes, those useless games), overhauled NFL draft system, time-sensitive free agent period, stadium upgrades, finances, relocations, even the entire coaching staff, etc., etc. are at your beck and call. It does make for a very, very long game experience, but if you like it that way, it's for you.

Training camp is composed of several drills where you can improve the ratings of a specific player. As for the draft, you actually get to research specific prospects via scouting combine and/or individual workout, and even then it's still a [blindshot] when you draft that coveted college star because the actual ratings are hidden until you ACTUALLY sign that pick. All you can go on are scouting reports and just a few physical attributes. I drafted a really top-rated college star punter in the high 5th round, only to find out during training camp that he was a bust. I had to cut him before the start of the season and sign a free agent. There's a lot less predictability in the Madden draft, and that's as close as you can get to the real thing (think Ryan Leaf). I'd have liked college stats and especially the influence of specific colleges on player development (e.g. NCAA Div I, II, III, etc.), but that's asking for a little too much, I think.

You also now have control over the income and expenses of a team -- set ticket prices, concession prices, hire and fire coaches (and their staffs, too), upgrade or build stadiums, etc. The coaches and their staffs even come with their own ratings that have an impact on players' ratings & performances. It's fun to give Steve Spurrier the boot if he doesn't send my Redskins to the playoffs this year.

5. As for signings: signing bonuses are now part of the calculation. Use that wisely, because they hit your cap seriously if players are cut before contracts are up.

6. You can download stat reports to Excel. Great, easy way to evaluate the talent on your team, especially as they progress from year to year. Madden also downloads complete franchise reports -- rosters, stats, contracts, the shebang -- to text files.

My gripes and suggestions for improvement:
1. GET A BETTER MANUAL!!!
2. Building a new stadium to replace your stinky and muddy football field is neat, but building tools are limited. More creativity in stadium design is needed. I don't want to build some generic Three Rivers Stadium knockoff (sorry, Steeler fans).
3. Every time you play a game in franchise mode, your controller configuration annoyingly reverts to default unless you select your profile at the start of EVERY game.
4. NFL draft information is not saved. Would be neat to see how the top picks fared over the course of several seasons.
5. Draft, trade, and even Pro Bowl/award history are not part of a player's stats in future seasons. Who would know the cheap free agent I signed was a MVP three seasons ago?
6. Madden only shows your team's cap room for the current season, and doesn't show you what the cap room would be like in future seasons. It's hard to evaluate the impact of accelerating contracts, which seriously hit the cap in later years.
7. The year-by-year salary and bonus contract structure is dictated completely by the computer. You can only propose total contract value and total signing bonus, which really hampers your flexibility in negotiations.
8. No comments offered on sounds and music. I always turn the sound off when playing the game, so I can't provide any critique here. :-)

4 out of 5 stars. If you care only for playing the football game itself, it may not be for you since you may already get a kick out of 2003's version. If you want the much-improved franchise mode, and the additional bells and whistles, get this game.

I've bought and played nearly every version of Madden since 98. While it took madden a while to get up to a *good* game, I always felt it hit it's peak with the 2000 version and the subsequent releases just added style over substance. No more! in Madden 2004, while the graphics are truly stunning, gameplay has improved greatly as well. The computer opponents are challenging, sometimes it seems a bit too much.
There are a few annoyances to the game. For example, in the normal camera angle if the offense punts to you, you can't see the covering team coming for you as you catch the punt. If you don't call for a fair catch, there's a 90% chance you'll get hit and fumble the ball. For that reason, I call for a fair catch on nearly every punt return.
Another annoying feature is the number of sacks that the computer's defense can get on you. There are times when you might have half a second to get rid of the ball from the snap before you're driven into the turf. This is something you can live with but it's frustrating when the computer has the ability to get rid of the ball much faster (if you want to fire a bullet, you have to keep the button pressed down for about a second anway - by that time you're dead meat if the pass rush is blitzing).
And of course, there's Al and John's commentary. My #1 complaint about this game has been the same for years - Al and John repeat the same thing over and over. If you play 16 games, you're likely to hear the same quotes 16 times...sometimes even within the same game. That seems to have improved a bit in this version but it's still there.
On the positive side the game is challenging, seems fairly realistic. and most importantly, is a lot of fun. Unlike previous versions, an effective running game is a necessity to consistently win at Madden 2004. Clock Management is key to the game as the computer's 2-minute drill [is tough].

There are a multitude of other features besides pure gameplay. Too numerous to mention and that I haven't had a chance to dive into just yet.

All in all, this is the best Madden yet, and probably the best PC football game ever.

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!

One of the best games EVER, Madden 2004 rumbles on. 2004 is much better! The jagged edges of the players and field have been removed. The graphics are better than on PS2. Everyone else covered the basics, heres a huge pro-con list:

Pros:
Best graphics of any game next to GTAVC
Easier to do hot routes (and hot blocks!)
OWNER MODE - AWESOME! infinite power over your franchise!
Create-a-stadium
Create-a-playbook is much easier
Easy 2 learn controls
Micro-Manage and Micro-General Manage your team.
30 Year franshise mode
Really good draft prep
Plamaker control (if u hav a controller)

Cons:
NO MADDEN CARDS
NO MADDEN 101 (only console)
QBs fumble when they dive (more than real life)
Hard to escape the pass rush
Hard to run to the outside

Overall, the PS2 edges the cpu version out by a hair but if you dont have a PS2, it is DEFINETELY worth the money. Gamecube and XBOX versions are choppier and CPU and PS2 are better.

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.

Madden 2004 is a great game for the average EA Sports fan. There aren't many flaws and Madden is great with his commentary. The stadiums are of high detail. The gameplay is great. Sometimes it won't load. If you have run a different program before you play it, odds are it won't load either at the beginning or the end. I like the trophy presentation at the end of a victory in the Championship game or the Super Bowl. It's a great game with excellent commentary from Madden and Al Michaels.

Madden 2004 is a little better than 2003 with minor tweaks and updated rosters. It is a much more noticeable difference. I recommend Madden 2004, because there is more moves, owner options and the ai has improved with blitzes and other things. It is good now that it is $20, I bought it since I had Madden 2003 and bascially Madden 2003 now sucks after playing Madden 2004!!!! Do yourself a favor and upgrade to Madden 2004 while its cheap. I can only say that the instant replay went downhill, everything else went uphill.

Since the days of Madden 2000 for the PC, the games have been horrible. Last year's release of 2003 finally showed everyone that yes, EA was still capable of making quality games. This year's edition, 2004, is even better.

The most talked about feature is the playmaker feature. To be perfectly honest, I don't use it that much. I really believe it was designed to give a more "random" feel to multiplayer games. It is a wonderful feature that allows you to basically control a player and do whatever you want, but I don't really use it. Perhaps I should more often. It is a great feature though.

The owner mode is very sharp. You control everything from concession prices to how much you'll pay your assistant coaches. You can build new stadiums, renovate your current one, or move the team to another city. It isn't as exhaustive as I thought it would be, but there is still a TON you can do with it.

Where this game really shines, however, is the actual gameplay. Passing is tougher. Running is tougher. Blitzes are more common and much more successful than in 2003. The AI does remember and exploits your flaws. Something else that I really appriciate is that your receivers can actually break away from defenders. In 2003, it seemed as though your receivers were always being covered, and even if you completed the pass, forget about RAC. The key to 2004 is actually short, quick, accurate passes. But watch out for that up and out lob to the corner; the AI will pick that pass off more than before.

Most everything else is also very well done and put together. The only gripe (again, same as last year) is the challenges and the obvious errors it makes. The AI "completed" a pass where the receiver was all by himself along the sideline. He was in the air, and came down with both feed at least two feet out of bounds. It was challenged and reversed. I'm wondering if this is a bug because I tried it as well for my team and it did the same thing. Almost all of the challenges that I've seen have been incorrect; either the play was upheld or over-turned incorrectly. Now I know it is just the computer, but this is annoying.

Other than that, this is a great game that I would recommend without reservation to any casual--not to mention football--fan.

I've been playing Madden since the Nintendo days and while I've seen some disappointing sequels in the famous series, this year's version is probably the biggest annual upgrade ever. While the game has added brand new GM features that allow you to control ticket prices, coach hiring, stadium building and other fun stuff, if you truly want to experience Madden the way it was meant to be played, you need to play against humans. Unpredictable strategy, smart motioning and audibles, and jukes that will shake you out of your shoes are what make human opponents so much better than the CPU. Because Madden's online game matching service (EASO) is free this year, it's very easy to go online and find hundreds of random opponents ready to test your mettle. Perhaps the biggest improvement in this year's version is EASO itself. It's much more difficult for opponents to get away with cheating and quitting in this year's EASO. The eternal football sim battle rages on and everyone has their own arguments why their title is the best but I've tried all the popular titles and I still believe Madden is the most realistic football simulator out there. Just keep in mind that this game assumes you already know a lot of basic football techniques and strategy and while the game can be easily learned, it takes years to master.