G-pinions

The problem with my frequent rants about the unholy evil that is Electronic Arts is that, when I do play an EA published game and feel the need to express my opinion, any negative thing I say about it will be passed off as just senseless EA bashing. I’d like to think I am a rational enough person to put my preferences aside and judge a game on its own merit. Whether or not you feel you can trust a negative write up of an EA game is up to you. Moving on…

I played Madden 2005 last night. For those that read the comments, this will come as no surprise to you. I was really looking forward to playing this game. With all the amazing reviews, some of which saying it’s better than NFK2K5, I had to see for myself just how far video football has come.

Going in, my assumption was that both NFL2K and Madden were great titles and it was only a preference which game you should buy. The general consensus was that Madden played better while NFL2K had more features and better presentation. Since NFL2K5 plays so well (more on that later), I was curious what Madden did that made the game so much better.

Now here’s the tricky part. I need to say Madden plays as poorly as Gameday ’98 without sounding like a raving lunatic. Let’s just say upon watching my friend finish the rest of his already in progress game, I was shocked at just how primitive the game looked. Not just graphically but in every other regard. The game has this zippy squirrel feel to it. I have no problem with a fast title, but Madden has an unrealistic sense of speed. For instance, it is possible for safeties to run 20 or more yards in the time it takes a bullet pass to reach a WR. I understand Baltimore has the best defense in the league, but no human being can move 60 feet in less than a second.

Just chronicling my various problems with Madden would not be worthwhile for me or you. Let me just explain the experience like this: NCAA ’05, an EA product that I love, is still in the hybrid football genre. It has a ton of features to make the game realistic, but the gameplay itself is pure video game fun. It is nothing like real life, but it doesn’t try to be. The game just tries to capture the fun of college football and does an amazing job at it.

NFL2K5 has scrapped silly fun in favor of hard nosed, real life football. Every aspect of the gameplay tries to mimic play in real life. Quarterbacks have to throw the ball within 3 seconds or they will get sacked. RBs and WRs lose momentum when they change direction. A slick ball in the rain is more difficult to catch. Little nuances like this make the game feel just like real football. Though it is only for real fans of the sport, it succeeds in every way and is a great football title.

Madden, unfortunately, falls in between these titles. On the field, it tries to both mimic real life football and provide a fun, arcade football experience. The result is a pseudo-arcade mess. For instance, like in NFL2K5 and real life football, if you stand in the pocket too long you will get sacked. Unfortunately, unlike NFL2K5 and real football, any quarterback can run behind the line of scrimmage for as long as they want looking for an open WR. This is the way I used to play video football, dropping back 20 yards and chucking the ball. NFL2K5 does not let players do that because it is impossible in real life.

By straddling the line between realism and arcade football, Madden does not satisfy from either perspective. There are little features like the kicking game, which has both a power and accuracy meter, and option routes for WRs (letting a WR change their route on the fly depending on defense) that NFL2K5 does not have and really should. But, as a whole, this was a very sloppy football title.

Now that I have played all 3 relevant football games, I really see no reason anyone would want Madden. If you want realism get NFL2K5. If you want a more arcade experience get NCAA ’05. Both games are almost perfect at what they try to accomplish. How do I account for all the glowing reviews of Madden this year? The reviews are either written by someone who does not know what real football is supposed to play like, or by someone who only plays Madden each year and doesn't realize how far video football has really come.

Update on NFL2K5 – when I last wrote about the game, my biggest complaint was not being able to catch the ball. I didn’t realize that, as the difficulty level goes up, the computer assistance goes down. I have solved the dropped balls problem (don’t…. make…. dropped balls… joke…) by controlling the WR manually and catching the ball myself. Now, every dropped ball is either my fault or the result of good defense. The computer AI is still weird at times, but most other problems have been alleviated by just playing the game as close to real life as possible. Clearly, this is the best football game I have ever played.