Its Here!!
 

Madden is in my playstation and booting up. Ill be sure to put reviews up as soon as I get some gametime in.

Initial impression : awesome box for teh collectors edition.

Weird, you know how they have players that say 'its in the game' when you turn the game on, well it was a cheerleader!! lol.

SkinsnCanes let me know what the Gibbs playbook looks like. Is it similar to the one on 2k5?

Ramseys touchness is a 67? wtf?

how are the anims? same as '04? '03? '02....

;)

no its smoother then before. Same pregame animations basically where it introduces a player from each team. The espn presentaion is obvioulsy better

how are the tackles, cuts, stutter steps, bumping into linemen etc....

I was just watching all the cameos, the 'its in teh game' intro. Its all fans and cheerleaders this year instead of players it seems.

Nope, I take that back, its players to.

Give us a review as soon as you play some, let us know how the gameplay is.

gameplay is similar, partically because a lot of the plays are the same. I played one qtr on pro, a qtr on all pro, and am now play on all madden. Im just getting used to teh new quirks, then ill start myf ranchise on all madden. All pro didnt offer much of a challenge for me, I dominate on all madden on 04 so im just going to start on all madden on 05 and see if they relaly did make it the most realistic and hardest football game yet.

the qb just missed a fieldgoal, which is awesome becuase they never missed on 04.

This game is incredible so far. Lots of new animations.

just kicked my first punt on all madden. It was a 50+ yard punt and was straight. And if any of you tried kickign on all madden in 04 you realize that thast a big feat. I think they made the kicking easier this year. I may have just gotten lucky on my first try. Ill let you guys know, ill purposely kick a field goal next drive. It tell you your percent power adn accuracy this year, a nice touch.

the playbook is the same as last years, just with mroe stuff added to it. All the plays I used to run are still there and in teh same spot. They did add the option to have more big sets though.

man Canes, skip the intro's and the kicking, how's the GAME? well, more importantly, how's it different/BETTER?

STH, tell us more about the anims

its definitly better. The defensive adjustments you can make really do make it a lot of fun to play defsene. I used to never control a play, now i acutally use lavar and play like lavar. i run all over the field with him making plays, its so much better than last year. Havent seen or figured out anythign with the hitstick yet. Being able to change any individual players task on defense has helped out a lot in situations.

It basically plays teh same as the old maddens, there are new animations but I dont think its anythign revolutionary. I think ive done enough play now mode so ill go start a franchise and fill you guys in on that.

[QUOTE=SKINSnCANES]the playbook is the same as last years, just with mroe stuff added to it. All the plays I used to run are still there and in teh same spot. They did add the option to have more big sets though.[/QUOTE]

same playbook as Spurrier??? LAME. any counter-treys/Gibbs plays??

gameplay is infinitly more realistic on all madden then it was before. I cant just throw a deep ball and expect coles to come up with it. I had a wide open receiver and missed him because i was scrambling and threw off my back foot. Makes it more challenging and fun

[QUOTE=illdefined]same playbook as Spurrier??? LAME. any counter-treys/Gibbs plays??[/QUOTE]

theres tons of counteres, but there were tons of counters last year to. Last years playbook was more like gibbs and not spurrier, becuase there are blockers in teh playbook.

Who's the h-back? Do they even have the position?

[QUOTE=SKINSnCANES]theres tons of counteres, but there were tons of counters last year to. Last years playbook was more like gibbs and not spurrier, becuase there are blockers in teh playbook.[/QUOTE]

LOL!

cartright is an 86 fb. no h-back. Cooley is a 69 but with excellent stats for a receiving te, not a good blocker though. so if you use kowoslski (sp) as a blocker and cooley as the receiver you shoudl be able to have a great pair or tes.

they way players run is so much more natural then in espn, so much better.

FYI, TAYLOR IS A BEAST, PORTIS TOO!!

Is Gibbs on the sidelines?

Do they have the white on white uniform option?

How's the AI? Especially the defensive back AI, do they actually turn around when balls go there way? Do safeties actually help out in coverage?

yes

yes
yes
yes

lol, those are all short anwsers, but simle. you notice the ai differnce right away. Im playing on all madden so you noitce it a lot more. Taylor had 7 tackles ina qtr for me, which is good and bad. you dont want your safties to have to help, but i was trying to learn how to blitz so he had my back

simple*

do the players still glance off each other or is there more interaction/bumps/stutters etc.? run in place? did they do anything for cutbacks? (Portis...here i come...)

definitly more interaction.

what do you mean about cutbacks? other than juking?

great. hated that about Madden '04-'01.

yeah, if you make a drastic direction change while running hows the animation/feel?

[QUOTE=illdefined]great. hated that about Madden '04-'01.

yeah, if you make a drastic direction change while running hows the animation/feel?[/QUOTE]

In other words, are player movements reflective of true physics-- does a player take a moment or two to accelerate back to full speed when he cuts, jukes, spins, etc.; and conversely, does it take a moment for players to decelerate and come to a complete stop when they're running at full speed? Too often, all the players move like Barry Sanders-- instantaneous acceleration and deceleration. That's been a consistent problem with these games, though I noticed some improvement in that department on Madden 2004.

exactly. with the appropriate animation for it.

in Madden pasts, you couldn't stop/start fast ENOUGH and had an anemic little 'step' animation. with Espn it was the opposite, it was too instant and without any animation at all.

Espn finally added a realistic time penalty to drastic direction changes this year, with GREAT Barry-like cut animations, but they didn't go far enough, cuz anything less than drastic is still instant and looks weird.

i've been hoping for years that Madden would finally get to this...

no hall of fame game as i suspected. ill check about the cuts now. i was doing training camp that whole time.

damn, time limit expired to edit my post...

******

Madden elegantly handles slight direction changes by 'leaning' the player in the direction, making it very smooth, but you couldn't change directions quick without spinning or juking and that isn't really cutting.

i've been hoping for years that Madden would finally get to this one of these years, even FEVER did it!!!

here's a TREAT for you running freaks...

[url]http://www.detroitlions.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=320371[/url]

yea cuts are smooth, the player leans. It compensates for that with the juke button. Real players dont have a juke button,b ut this simulates a fast cut because it slows you down and you jump that direction, to try and avoid someone diving perhaps.
Either way its much mroe smooth the espn. I was so annoyed playing espn and you try to run at an angle and your player faces straigh left intially and you usually get it. It sucks in espn in my opinoin

Botton line, better than 2004? Best Madden to date?

ok....well as I said earlier I played teh panthers on all levels of the game. But only played a qtr of each game. Just tried the first half against carolina again in the presason, on all madden, and its definitly a ton harder and more realistic. All the things i used to do dont work anymore. you have to be set to throw with accuracy. You get picked off all the time if you throw to a guy in mulitple coverage. Its very real and very hard... time to decide if im better off doing a season on allpro to learn the new game a little more...

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]Botton line, better than 2004? Best Madden to date?[/QUOTE]

definitly better than 2004 without a doubt. Theres no reason why it shouldnt be.

Some other small changes I noticed. In training camp, you have to press the catch button now in the receiving drill. The scramling qb drill is much easier, along with trench fight. those two drills were by far the hardest in 04. The other qb drill is much harder. I used to be able to get 7 point on it easily, its much tougher now becuase its more realitic. i cant throw off my back foot and expect it to go threw the hoop anymore.

I havent finished preseason but the position battles looks like a nice feature.

another small thing, they added player of teh game back. Somethign I always like but they took out of 04 for some reason. Its shown with the stats at the end of the game.

create a fan is kinda neat. nothing special. kidna like creating a sims character. You can put a hog nose on him! And i think it has to be a him. What are they trying to say about women and football?!?1 i guess at the games we dont need them to bring us a beer

[QUOTE=SKINSnCANES]yea cuts are smooth, the player leans. It compensates for that with the juke button. Real players dont have a juke button,b ut this simulates a fast cut because it slows you down and you jump that direction, to try and avoid someone diving perhaps.
Either way its much mroe smooth the espn. I was so annoyed playing espn and you try to run at an angle and your player faces straigh left intially and you usually get it. It sucks in espn in my opinoin[/QUOTE]

yeah Madden certainly handled slight direction changes way better by having leaning, but i'm wondering about major sudden changes...

say you're on a toss, but you see an open hole inside and nothing outside... in 2K5 now, if you're running sideways and press UP suddenly, the back DIGS in for a second, plants his foot (kickass animation) then starts to accelerate in that direction. its sick. and realistic, cuz it penalizes you with time. can't do that with a juke or spin, it's just moving the stick. before in Espn they would just rotate in place 90 degrees then go with no time penalty or animation, which totally sucked. my biggest beef with it.

but like you said, 2k5 still rotates on the majority of the regular turns, when they should lean in like Madden. try totally reversing field on a toss in '05, whats the back do?