John Madden 2004 Xbox

Will Madden go all the way on Xbox this year?

EA Sports have carved out a name for themselves by releasing updated versions of their sports titles year on year for many years now. Fortunately, each year the games get better and better. This year’s American Football title is no exception to this rule. John Madden games have come a long way since they started back in the early 90s. From a top down 2D title, which featured only a selection of NFL teams, we now have a fully 3D title with all the NFL teams, historic teams and a team creation facility. This is all old news though if you’ve played any recent revision of the game. All that’s of interest now is the new features and extensions from last year.

Too many rules

Too complicated? Talk to the hand.

American Football is a very disciplined sport governed by various rules. If you’re new to the sport the key things to know are that the offense (team with the ball) has four tries (downs) to cover ten yards. If they succeed then they get another four tries from where they end up until they fail to cover ten yards or score. Each attempt to move the ball involves calling either a running play or a passing play. These are drawn up as diagrams indicating what each person on the team will do for a given play. The defense use plays too to indicate who they should mark and where they should be on the field. Now that the basics are covered we’ll look at what’s new with John Madden 2004.

So what’s new?

The quarterback directs the play.

This year sees the standard slight graphical improvements, better animation and more detail in the player models, but adds some more play enhancements as well. The most noticeable difference is the playmaker facility. This addition allows you to take more control over the play before and after the snap. The right thumb stick controls the playmaker stuff. On offence you can change the direction of the running play before the snap and assign hot routes to your receivers. After the snap on a running play you can direct the blockers to take out the defensive player that you want. For the defense this allows you to cheat the safeties over to one side and after the snap you can rush the run or hang back for the pass. (Are you sure all that was in English?!? – ed.) This really adds an edge to your control over what’s happening. This is, of course, in addition to the normal control that you have such as audibles, hot routes, and line shifts.

Faking it

Being double teamed like that is going to hurt in the morning.

Playmaker isn’t the only addition to the gameplay. The playfakes have been improved graphically, to make them look more convincing. Draws and play actions now look far more realistic, especially in multiplayer where the playfakes can be used to great effect. On draw plays the quarterback looks like he’s going to pass and the passing icons appear. On run fakes the control appears to switch to the running back and the camera tightens in as though it was a running play. The gameplay has also been improved which is especially noticeable in the passing game. This has been made slightly easier than in the last few versions. Interceptions are less frequent giving you a bit more of a chance of completing and the pass defense seems more intelligent so being beaten deep is also less likely. The running game has been balanced out a little better so you can still break a big run but you have to work harder for it. Generally, the gameplay has been balanced in the same way that it is every year – passing is a little better and running is well balanced.

No Surprises

The passing game has been improved for the 2004 version.

So far the game is just what you’d expect, more of the same but slightly better balanced and better looking. A new game mode has been added to give a little more life to the title. The owner mode is a sim style owner mode. This allows you to change cities if you don’t like the residents. You can design a new stadium and set prices for tickets, merchandise and food. This allows you to control the revenue your team gets. You can examine statistics relating to the team’s perception in the city and fan support. You can also spend on advertising and fan appreciation days. Aside from this, the franchise mode also adds a training mode at the start of each season. This takes the form of mini-camp games (the same as last year’s games). You can enter one team member into each game but each team member can only do one game. The better trophy you get the more points you get to spend on increasing attributes. If you get a trophy then you can try again at a harder difficulty for more points. A training feature has been missing from Madden and 2004 puts this to rights. The feature puts you more in control of the team as you can now improve players in the areas that help with your style of playing.

The man himself

A hard hit makes the back drop the ball.

The commentary is, sadly, to the standard that we have come to expect from Madden. John and Pat have a few more lines of commentary that they can say but, as ever, it quickly repeats itself and quite often you find John talking a load of rubbish about the previous play. The soundtrack is in the same style as last year – American rock. I personally found this to be quite tedious after a while but at least it is only played during the menu screens. I think next year’s Madden should allow custom soundtracks for menu screens and as an alternative to the commentary. The commentary is fine for a little while but it does become tedious. The other sound effects are well implemented though with linemen calling out the strong side and pointing out blitzes. The hits sound hard and heavy but the potential of the Xbox’s surround sound is under exploited as the effects mix is decidedly stereo.

What, no online play?

Try and protect the ball when you take a big hit from these guys.

On the surface Madden 2004 is just what you would expect from EA. It is graphically and sonically a shade above last year’s effort. The gameplay has been improved with a couple of new features being added. The owner mode and training mode all add to the overall feel of control in the franchise but the playmaker control adds to the feeling of control in the game. Being able to direct running plays on the field is definitely a bonus and being able to easily change both the defensive and offensive plays at the line allows you to react to your opponent as you would in a real game. The lack of Internet play brings this title down a notch or two as this is a serious omission when Internet gaming is readily available on the Xbox and is provided in the PS2 version. This feature will be provided by rival American Football titles from Sega and Microsoft. We will need to see whether this feature is enough to lure Xbox owners away from an established franchise, which has produced a worthy title yet again.