Oobgarm
08-10-2004, 08:34 AM
Two things to preface my ‘rant’ of sorts:
1. I do not consider myself to be particularly good at football games, but I don’t consider myself to be bad either. My skill is merely average.
2. I have not been a ‘fan’ of Madden. I’m personally a bit more interested in NCAA, but I will say that I played last year’s Madden more than any other NFL game before it.
In my first game of Madden 2005 last night, I played online against a friend of mine. We’re both on the same skill level, with me usually coming out ahead. I chose the Bengals and he chose the Saints. I got the opening kickoff and started my drive. First play, I call a pass up the right side. Interception. I shrugged it off, figuring I just made a bad throw. My friend had the ball, and I sacked his QB on the first 2 downs, and stuffed his runner on the third. So he punts and I get the ball back. I throw an incompleteion, lose yards on a run, and then throw ANOTHER interception. By now I’m getting frustrated. My friend isn’t controlling the players picking off my passes, either. The pointless back and forth continues throughout the first quarter. The second quarter goes by with the same results. I get intercepted a lot, he gets sacked a lot. He did manage to get off a few decent pass plays, and the score at the half was 27-0. We checked the total yards for each team, and I was shocked to see that I had 1 YARD of offense. He had barely broken 100. Many of his points were the result of intercepting me and taking the ball back close to my end zone--leaving an easy run or short pass to get the score.
Second half began, and neither of us could do much. I had a bit of luck with three complete passes and a couple of good runs, but never scored. I was, however, intercepted multiple times. My friend’s QB was eating the grass more times than I care to mention, as well. I believe the final score ended up 34-0.
I can’t count the number of sacks I had, but it had to be in double digits. The final number of interceptions? He had 8, I had 3. That’s not right. Eleven interceptions in one game? If that doesn’t show how unbalanced the game is, I don’t know what does. Only one of those picks was user controlled. And it was one of mine.
We used headset communication when we played, and we spent most of the time discussing how ESPN is a much better game this year. Kinda funny, we thought.
Definitely not a good first impression with me. I’ll get some more time in on it tonight and see if my opinion changes. Doubtful, but we'll see.
A few quick things:
The ‘hit stick’ seemed like a waste.
The online play was silky smooth and the voice communication was outstanding. I could hear the crickets at my friend’s house when it got quiet. Clear as crystal.
The soundtrack is great. It’s a good mixture of both rap and rock.
The Collector’s Edition bonus stuff is garbage. The 'classic versions' of Madden are crap, with 2 PSX versions and one older Genesis-era one (the year's aren't specified), and the interviews and other content zre lacking. Actually, one of them was on G4 a while back showcasing the history of Madden. The packaging is nice, but I wouldn’t suggest buying the CE for anything other than collector value, which is questionable anyway. It is a sports game, after all.
1. I do not consider myself to be particularly good at football games, but I don’t consider myself to be bad either. My skill is merely average.
2. I have not been a ‘fan’ of Madden. I’m personally a bit more interested in NCAA, but I will say that I played last year’s Madden more than any other NFL game before it.
In my first game of Madden 2005 last night, I played online against a friend of mine. We’re both on the same skill level, with me usually coming out ahead. I chose the Bengals and he chose the Saints. I got the opening kickoff and started my drive. First play, I call a pass up the right side. Interception. I shrugged it off, figuring I just made a bad throw. My friend had the ball, and I sacked his QB on the first 2 downs, and stuffed his runner on the third. So he punts and I get the ball back. I throw an incompleteion, lose yards on a run, and then throw ANOTHER interception. By now I’m getting frustrated. My friend isn’t controlling the players picking off my passes, either. The pointless back and forth continues throughout the first quarter. The second quarter goes by with the same results. I get intercepted a lot, he gets sacked a lot. He did manage to get off a few decent pass plays, and the score at the half was 27-0. We checked the total yards for each team, and I was shocked to see that I had 1 YARD of offense. He had barely broken 100. Many of his points were the result of intercepting me and taking the ball back close to my end zone--leaving an easy run or short pass to get the score.
Second half began, and neither of us could do much. I had a bit of luck with three complete passes and a couple of good runs, but never scored. I was, however, intercepted multiple times. My friend’s QB was eating the grass more times than I care to mention, as well. I believe the final score ended up 34-0.
I can’t count the number of sacks I had, but it had to be in double digits. The final number of interceptions? He had 8, I had 3. That’s not right. Eleven interceptions in one game? If that doesn’t show how unbalanced the game is, I don’t know what does. Only one of those picks was user controlled. And it was one of mine.
We used headset communication when we played, and we spent most of the time discussing how ESPN is a much better game this year. Kinda funny, we thought.
Definitely not a good first impression with me. I’ll get some more time in on it tonight and see if my opinion changes. Doubtful, but we'll see.
A few quick things:
The ‘hit stick’ seemed like a waste.
The online play was silky smooth and the voice communication was outstanding. I could hear the crickets at my friend’s house when it got quiet. Clear as crystal.
The soundtrack is great. It’s a good mixture of both rap and rock.
The Collector’s Edition bonus stuff is garbage. The 'classic versions' of Madden are crap, with 2 PSX versions and one older Genesis-era one (the year's aren't specified), and the interviews and other content zre lacking. Actually, one of them was on G4 a while back showcasing the history of Madden. The packaging is nice, but I wouldn’t suggest buying the CE for anything other than collector value, which is questionable anyway. It is a sports game, after all.