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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So you want to coach in the NFL..., August 23, 2002
Madden NFL 2003 is a definite improvement over last year's offering but a few minor flaws will keep the game from earning five stars.I'll discuss what I don't like about the game first. There are three main problems: the music, the graphics, and your profile manager. For some reason EA has decided to drop standard menu music and use a host of tracks all straight from the latest beer comercials. Non-standard menu music is potentially a good thing, but a poor selection of songs is not. Don't get me wrong, not all of the music is terrible and you can skip over songs you don't like, but the feature is screaming out for the ability to play songs from the hard drive. Graphically speaking, 2003 is sharper and clearer than 2002 with much better and more varied player animations. The crowd looks much better as well (before it was so bad it was distracting). Unfortunately though, the graphics engine is optimized to the lowest common denominator of the multiplatform world and doesn't take advantage of the immense power of the Xbox. A final complaint is that in last year's edition of the game you could save your playbook choice to your profile. Now you can't and have to choose your playbooks before every game. Of course, what makes that such a problem is the absolutely fantastic new playbook editing features. You can completely customize your playbooks for offense and defense, drawing from any of the playbooks in the game and you can create your own plays and even entirely new formations. Of course you can also edit any existing play or formation. I believe it is this feature and its astounding depth that will keep fans of franchise style simulation football playing this game until the 2004 edition is released. There is so much room for creativity on the offensive side of the ball that is just unbelievable. It is much harder to design a new defensive formation that really works well against the computer beyond the standard 4-3, 3-4, 46, Nickel, Dime, and Quarter formations, but trying to do so will teach you why those formations work and help you to design new plays for them. Overall, the editable playbooks will really reward you for understanding your team on its deepest levels. You will need to change it constantly as your team changes and you face different opponents with different styles. On offense, if you have a multi-dimensional talent like Marshall Faulk, you can design formations that exploit the mismatches he creates. On defense you can design plays that optimize the talents of your different players. So, for example, if you have a great coverage linebacker who tackles poorly and a fast, hard-hitting safety who covers poorly, you can design a few plays that allow them to switch responsibilites and catch an unwary offense off guard. Of course, where the editable playbooks will really shine is in head to head confrontation with a friend as the better prepared will have a huge advantage. I really can't say enough about how cool this feature is and how much it adds to the simulator experience. Another new feature to the game is the Minicamp. There are 30 camps (although only about ten or so totally different drills) that try and teach basic football skills through drills and applied game situations. The feature is nice and finally provides a good way to learn how to play defense effectively. The franchise mode is where a Madden fan will likely spend most of his or her time and it has been improved as well. You now get four preseason games that you can use to evaluate and even improve your players. So if you've got a hot new rookie you can actually make him a lot better if you're willing to risk injury by exposing him in all the games. The only annoying part of the preseason is that the computer will keep starters in for unrealistically long periods early in the preseason. Another new feature to the franchise mode is the Scouting Combine which goes a long way towards making the draft more of a game within the game. However, they still haven't quite gotten the true feel of a draft...you will basically never find sixth or seventh round gems. The talent is mostly gone by the end of the third round. Finally, the gameplay in 2003 is much improved. It is fairly obvious the folks at EA listened to our complaints because the defenses are, overall, much tougher and smarter. You can no longer rush for 200 yards and throw for 400 yards on any difficulty in every game at will anymore. You have to work for your yards. Fifty yard field goals are not automatic. The end result of this is a much more realistic game of football, with more realistic scores, stats, 3rd down percentages, and so on. The audio commentary is definitely improved even though they recycled way to many lines from last year. Al Michaels is a nice change of pace and does a fine job in his debut here. So, in the final analysis, if you liked last year's Madden, you're going to love this one.
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