That’s all cool…but it’s missing one thing. Madden 2004 on Live.
I just saw a demo of ESPN/NFL2k4. VERY NICE. They cleaned up the interface a lot, the game has more animations, things move even smoother. Though the play selection has gone Madden instead of their original scheme.
I prefer the 2k series for one main reason: defense. You don’t get to really play much defense in the MAdden games. You are pretty much better off letting the computer run everyone. But in the 2k games, you can make just as much of an impact on defense as you do on the offense. That’s what makes it more fun for me. However, I do tend to get NCAA (madden) because the gameplay is better than the 2k college (which I think they stopped making).
I played some Madden 2004 and NCAA 2003 last night coop and Madden 2004 is damned hard. A buddy and I, both Madden 2003 vets having played more than a full season in franchise mode, got stomped on Pro level by Seattle while playing the Falcons and by Arizona while playing Oakland. I am certain some of it is a new learning curve issue and we will be running up scores in no time but damn it seems this version is much harder. It was almost impossible to stop the AI while it was on offense. Last year the AI would go into unstoppable pass mode after you got out to big lead in the first half. Now it seems it is constantly unstoppable.
– Xaroc
So does that reinforce the issue of playing defense in Madden, then?
Since I only got in a couple of games and both were coop I am willing to take a wait and see approach until I get a chance to play it on my own. The one thing I did notice about defense was you could more easily get to the quarterback. We got more sacks in two games than I have seen in half a season in older Maddens. So it is not all bad.
– Xaroc