Madden 2005

I loaded up a copy of this game on my system last night just to give it a whirl. My love of football dictates that I have at least one such game on my computer at all times, and from everything I've seen and read, this series remains the best. I've played every version since 2000 (I've had my own copy of all of them except for 2002, which I played on a friend's PS2), so I've got a fairly good background of knowledge on the subject of the Madden games.

Graphically, the game looks a lot like the 2004 edition, and that's not a bad thing. The "TV-style" graphics have some neat new features; my favorite is the "current drive" info box showing number of plays, yardage, and time that pops down between plays when you get a good one going. The helmets look more realistic than ever, and that's a nice touch. The jerseys, unfortunately, are a different story. They've gotten so well-rendered that you can see the individual meshing on each player's shirt. On the colored "home" jerseys, they look great. On the white "road" jerseys, though, my poor old Radeon 9500 Pro graphics card doesn't render the shirts correctly what with the shadow effects, and the difference is similar to the difference between HDTV versus regular TV. I'll probably end up playing with the detail settings and turning them down a bit to fix this problem. Oh, and the cheerleaders seem to get a little bit better each time. This year: realistic bouncing breast action!

As for the sound, my only complaint is that by default, the crowd is too loud and drowns out the commentary, but you can fix that (or not, as your little heart desires). Very few complaints about the audio, except that for the past few years it seems like John Madden has been recording less and less original commentary and relying on the recordings he's made in past years. This probably isn't as big of a deal for newcomers to the series, but for "oldbies" like me, it seems to make the commentary get repetitive more quickly. During franchise mode, you now have the option of playing an episode of the Tony Bruno show. He's got fictional callers and actual interviews with real NFL coaches, as well as telling you about things going on that pertain to your team. So far, I think this is a pretty innovative feature, but time will tell if it gets to be repetitive and annoying. Of course, if it does, I can always turn it off and play the music. The music is about what I've come to expect from Madden, alternapop and nuMetal mixed in with the occasional spit-words-out-so-fast-you-can't-understand-it rap song, although I enjoyed the inclusion of "retro throwback" track "From Out of Nowhere" by Faith No More (though I think "Surprise You're Dead" would have been even more atmospheric, beginning with the cowbell as it does and all--it just sounds like something they'd play at a stadium.) I wonder how many teenaged Kid Rock/Limp Bizkit/Linkin Park fans are going to say "This sucks" and fast forward right on through it without realizing how these guys paved the way for their favorite bands.

As far as gameplay goes, the on-field action is virtually identical to last year's game. Supposedly there's a "hit stick" feature that allows you to put an extra pop on ballcarriers to try and force a fumble (or to injure them, though EA doesn't explicitly say this), but it appears you have to have a control pad with an analog stick in order to use this feature. My gamepad is a really old Sidewinder from the late '90s, before analog sticks were commonplace, so I'll either have to buy a new gamepad or do without the bone-crunching hits. For franchise mode, all the fun (if sometimes annoying) owner mode stuff is there. Player attitude is introduced this year, so you have to contend with the Terrell Owenses of the world taking your locker room apart from the inside. There are position battles for starters during the preseason, you can get e-mail with key points to focus on before each game, and there are local and national newspapers to give you the scoop on the happenings with your team and around the league.

My recommendation is to pick this one up if you're a football fan. It'll probably get a whole lot more of my gaming time than Star Wars Battlefront.