Coutesy of
www.IGN.com
May 12, 2004 - You've seen the Raider Nation. Chances are, if you've walked through the Oakland parking lot, you've been scared by the Raider Nation. God forbid, you dress yourself like the Raider Nation, complete with face paint, hoods, and spikes.
Either way, now you'll get the chance to join the virtual Raider Nation, as Madden NFL 2005 allows gamers for the first time to create their own fans, complete with face and body paint, armor, spikes, mullets and all. You can get as detailed as you like, as Seahawk lovers can equip their fans with fish to wave in the air after a touchdown or pound against their heads after an interception.
The fans are shown through the game's variety of cut scenes, over 300 total, including not only the fans acting a fool, but coaches and players talking to each other on the sidelines, and even players dumping the water cooler over their coach's head after a big win.
To compliment the cut scenes will be additional presentation advances to the Super Bowl (finally!). Fireworks, confetti, inflatables, not to mention the announcer actually talking about the significance of the game. Sounds like they've added everything but Janet's bare breast, but we've all seen that already anyway.
In addition, Jill Arrington has been added as the crew's sideline reporter to talk about the weather, injuries, and various other game-day updates.
Added to Franchise mode are restricted free agents and the ability to tag players with your team's franchise tag. There is in-season player progression, and if you're not able to get a player in at a certain spot, but you know he's a good athlete, you'll finally be able to change his position. The more reps he gets, the more he will progress over time at his new position.
To help getting accustomed to your squad, you'll also finally be able to practice with your franchise teams. This includes trying players out at their new positions to even seeing how some of our new created plays work with a particular lineup.
Madden will feature online play for both the PS2 and Xbox, offering tournaments (including quick tournaments with 4-8 teams), leader boards, and the ability to play the Rushing Attack mini-game against other gamers for a quick Madden fix. A representative from EA Sports also said that more online features will be announced in the near future, but for now, are keeping any additional highlights a secret.
On the E3 floor, Madden's playing and looking smooth, drawing some of the biggest lines of any game at the show. The defensive additions really help even out the playing field, especially the ability to individually reassign any player on the field. You want to blitz the whole team? Go ahead and see what happens. You want to blitz the linebackers and drop the defensive lineman back in coverage? The choice is yours. Watching the replay you can see the corners and wideouts fighting for position when the ball is snapped, and the corners play much more aggressive all the way down the field. The defenders also appear to pursue running quarterbacks a lot better, taking more accurate angles, while not leaving their blindside open to backdoor screens.
The more I play, the more I want to play, and that's always a good sign, especially with a game this early in development. Madden actually has a surprising amount of polish considering the amount of additions, from the storylines to the defense, and looks like another winner for the team at Tiburon and EA Sports.
With the improvements made to ESPN NFL 2005 as well, this really could be the best year of video game football console owners have ever seen.
Let the games begin.
-- Jon Robinson
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