Madden 2005 initial impressions.

[illdefined]

yeah Summo, going from 2 weeks with ESPN's 100s of super-nice animations to Madden's 5 year old ones (what are there 50?) and the 8 new ones this year is way too hard to come back to. and you're right about the players, look at their textured arms compared to ESPN's normal-mapped ones (3D textures), its a step back from last year when the lighting came from the environment, not drawn on. its too bad too, cuz the field and stadiums were really improved in this year's Madden.

the one thing that keeps me from going totally Sega Fanboy is the 'rotate and run' thing the ESPN players do on small radius turns. totally defeats the purpose of the love and care that went into all 100s of dope animations they did. love the cuts and twists on drastic moves tho. for small turns they need to lean into it like in Madden. else i think ESPN has it beat.

all the defensive hot routes/audibles Madden highlights so hard this year are in ESPN (love the on-the-fly audible setting and player swapping at the playcall screen). but playing and seeing the game in action is what does it for me. just seeing the running back take a handoff bump into his guys, squeeze between, stutter...so much more dynamic. and the tackles. lord the tackles. thats real physics. if only they didnt rotate on small turns!!!!

too bad about the franchise/draft/etc. options everyone wants too. to me its about the game on the screen and in my hands.