Tweet
10
Madden 2005
Platforms: Playstation 2/ Xbox/ Gamecube/ Playstation/ PC
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the top ten of my top 100 games of all time. The tenth game is of course Madden 2005. A lot of people will say Madden 04, Madden 95 or Madden 2001 as the greatest Madden of all time but the revolutionary things that were included in Madden 2005 would change the franchise forever. This was the last Madden before the Next Generation consoles as well. Madden 06 on the Playstation 2 was great but shortly after that came out most of us were switching to the Next Generation and the abomination that is this generations Madden. So sit back and enjoy the first game of the top ten greatest games of all time….at least in my opinion.
Madden is an old franchise that dates back to 1988 and through many consoles and innovations we ended up with the finest Madden I’ve ever played. The whole Playstation/Xbox generation of Madden games got better and better as the generation wore on but it peaked with Madden 05, again I am not trying to downplay Madden 06 because in my opinion it reached a plateau and Madden 06 just rode it. Anyway what Madden 05 brought to the table in August of 04 was nothing short of amazing. In Madden 05 the developers switched their sights to the other side of the ball. Madden 04 was offense but Madden 05 chose defense. The innovations to defense were numerous and game changing. Things I could not live without in my current Madden. If I were to try and go back to Madden 04 I couldn’t do it. Why? The Hit Stick changed the game. Everyone knows what the hit stick is but I’m going to explain it to you anyway. The Hit Stick is the right thumb stick on either the Xbox or Playstation and when you’re playing defense a flick of it will deliver a devastatingly brutal hit to the ball carrier. My first memories with it were when I was playing against the computer. I was the Jaguars and the computer was the Titans. I was obviously playing on defense and Derrick Mason had just caught the ball and was running across the middle. I took control of Donovan Darius and absolutely leveled him and forced a fumble. I don’t know about you guys but I remember when I popped my Hit Stick cherry. One of my favorite things about the Hit Stick is the animations you get while using it. A typical tackle is pretty bland but when you lay the lumber on the ball carrier, bodies go flying. The Hit Stick is now something I hold dearly to my heart when I play Madden or NCAA Football. If EA ever took it from me I would banish the series for the rest of my life. Another major update to the defense is the defensive hot routes. Defensive hot routes are basically changing individual defenders assignments instead of the whole group. If a quarterback has been rushing on you all day then pick a play and change a defender to spy him. If you think you can make a big sack then change one of your defenders to blitz. It really changed the strategy on both sides of the ball when defensive hot routes were introduced.
There were also some things added to offense as well namely formation subs. If you feel a player would be better suited to play in the slot instead of someone else then you could sub him out. Formation subs lead to cheesiness when you would have dual running backs and putting your absolutely fasted player in the slot but when used correctly it was a very good strategy. Finally the AI on both sides of the ball was improved and it was apparent in how the corners, safeties and linebackers played. Throwing a 50 yard bomb off your back foot into triple coverage was over. You paid for you mistakes this year. Those were the major updates to the gameplay but the developers weren’t done there. I have always been a big fan of offline franchise in my Madden games and this is probably the best year of franchise mode in Madden and this is the biggest reason why this game is number 10. First off the Newspapers were my absolute favorite part of the Franchise. Seeing my team on the USA Today or the Jacksonville paper felt like such an accomplishment; I really wish they could do something like that again. Also the Tony Bruno show playing in the background was fucking fantastic. It made my season feel real and having pro athletes and coaches calling in was just icing on the cake. During the Free Agency period you could now look at a player’s interests before signing him. If he wants a big name coach and you are small time then you’re going to have to offer him a lot more money while on the opposite side of the spectrum if you have a good location and the player is seeking that then you can get him at a discount. Everything felt so real it was crazy. This was also the first year to feature player progression during the season. If you start a rookie quarterback with low awareness and he throws a lot of touchdowns and consistent good games then his awareness will go up. If you throw a lot of picks and just play downright awful then you will go down in awareness. It was amazing how good this franchise was and carrying over a lot of the owner aspects from last year like relocating, new stadiums, setting prices for food, tickets and just everything made this feel like the absolute most polished franchise to ever touch a console. I know a lot of people give NBA 2k a lot of credit for their association but it can’t hold a candle next to this one. Another minor feature included in Madden 2005 was create a fan. Kind of a gimmick but hey I loved to see the people I created on my sidelines. It was actually pretty deep and customizable so it didn’t feel like cookie cutter fans were showing up in your stands.
Online was back for PS2 players but I think this was the first year that it was on Xbox live but I’m not sure and that doesn’t even sound right so why am I continuing to type this out? I never really dabbled in the online because I didn’t like playing random people and I wasn’t part of the sports gaming community either. But from the few games I played it was fun. Nowhere near as good as it is today but they did feature online leagues for the first time but I wasn’t in any so I can’t give a first hand experience. As far as the graphics went, they were a small improvement over Madden 2004. At this point they were pushing the limit on the capability of the engine and Xbox. Sure ESPN came out that same year and it looked better but they were running a different engine anyway. Madden 2005 did move smoother than any football game out at the time. Running animations were smooth, collision detection was spot on so you never had awkward looking tackles and from the look of the players to the view of the stadiums were well done. I’ll admit it though; I don’t think I could possibly go back to playing it though. Madden doesn’t necessarily age well and what I thought looked great back then doesn’t look great now. To me last gen Madden looks very cartoonish. But at the time I was happy. I will make a huge gripe though. The Cheerleaders on the sidelines are ugly as sin. Every time I saw them I turned away, they looked like some monster zombies with pom poms. The sound in this game was incredible. If there is one thing EA Tiburon is good at it’s sound. Sure the commentary is recycled but it was Al Michaels and John Madden. You know who we’re stuck with now? Chris Collinsworth! Madden will you please just do commentary again? I digress, the sounds of pads hitting, the roar of the crowd and the yelling of the players sounds authentic and pleasing to the ear. I honestly don’t think I have a complaint other than the sometime awkward sounding commentary and the lack of new content in the commentary but for the most part I am not paying too, too much attention to it. Last but certainly not least is the soundtrack. Madden has always had a catchy soundtrack and in Madden 2005 it was no different. A nice combination of music with bands and artists like Chevelle, Will I Am, The Mooney Suzuki and many more. I actually preferred Madden 2004’s soundtrack but at least in Madden 05 it was fresh and different.
There you have it, my tenth game and highest rated sports game on my list. This was as good as Madden has ever gotten for me and I sorely miss these days. Hopefully if 2K ever makes a game again then Madden will step it up but until then we will be left with what we have. Watch the video below to take a trip down memory lane back to a day when Madden was good.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXtuwL7K97o"]Ray Lewis Madden 2005 Commercial - YouTube[/ame]
Greatest Madden Commercial of all time.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJk9wzl6rf0"]Madden 2005 Gameplay -- Bears @ Giants, Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]
Madden 2005
Platforms: Playstation 2/ Xbox/ Gamecube/ Playstation/ PC
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the top ten of my top 100 games of all time. The tenth game is of course Madden 2005. A lot of people will say Madden 04, Madden 95 or Madden 2001 as the greatest Madden of all time but the revolutionary things that were included in Madden 2005 would change the franchise forever. This was the last Madden before the Next Generation consoles as well. Madden 06 on the Playstation 2 was great but shortly after that came out most of us were switching to the Next Generation and the abomination that is this generations Madden. So sit back and enjoy the first game of the top ten greatest games of all time….at least in my opinion.
Madden is an old franchise that dates back to 1988 and through many consoles and innovations we ended up with the finest Madden I’ve ever played. The whole Playstation/Xbox generation of Madden games got better and better as the generation wore on but it peaked with Madden 05, again I am not trying to downplay Madden 06 because in my opinion it reached a plateau and Madden 06 just rode it. Anyway what Madden 05 brought to the table in August of 04 was nothing short of amazing. In Madden 05 the developers switched their sights to the other side of the ball. Madden 04 was offense but Madden 05 chose defense. The innovations to defense were numerous and game changing. Things I could not live without in my current Madden. If I were to try and go back to Madden 04 I couldn’t do it. Why? The Hit Stick changed the game. Everyone knows what the hit stick is but I’m going to explain it to you anyway. The Hit Stick is the right thumb stick on either the Xbox or Playstation and when you’re playing defense a flick of it will deliver a devastatingly brutal hit to the ball carrier. My first memories with it were when I was playing against the computer. I was the Jaguars and the computer was the Titans. I was obviously playing on defense and Derrick Mason had just caught the ball and was running across the middle. I took control of Donovan Darius and absolutely leveled him and forced a fumble. I don’t know about you guys but I remember when I popped my Hit Stick cherry. One of my favorite things about the Hit Stick is the animations you get while using it. A typical tackle is pretty bland but when you lay the lumber on the ball carrier, bodies go flying. The Hit Stick is now something I hold dearly to my heart when I play Madden or NCAA Football. If EA ever took it from me I would banish the series for the rest of my life. Another major update to the defense is the defensive hot routes. Defensive hot routes are basically changing individual defenders assignments instead of the whole group. If a quarterback has been rushing on you all day then pick a play and change a defender to spy him. If you think you can make a big sack then change one of your defenders to blitz. It really changed the strategy on both sides of the ball when defensive hot routes were introduced.
There were also some things added to offense as well namely formation subs. If you feel a player would be better suited to play in the slot instead of someone else then you could sub him out. Formation subs lead to cheesiness when you would have dual running backs and putting your absolutely fasted player in the slot but when used correctly it was a very good strategy. Finally the AI on both sides of the ball was improved and it was apparent in how the corners, safeties and linebackers played. Throwing a 50 yard bomb off your back foot into triple coverage was over. You paid for you mistakes this year. Those were the major updates to the gameplay but the developers weren’t done there. I have always been a big fan of offline franchise in my Madden games and this is probably the best year of franchise mode in Madden and this is the biggest reason why this game is number 10. First off the Newspapers were my absolute favorite part of the Franchise. Seeing my team on the USA Today or the Jacksonville paper felt like such an accomplishment; I really wish they could do something like that again. Also the Tony Bruno show playing in the background was fucking fantastic. It made my season feel real and having pro athletes and coaches calling in was just icing on the cake. During the Free Agency period you could now look at a player’s interests before signing him. If he wants a big name coach and you are small time then you’re going to have to offer him a lot more money while on the opposite side of the spectrum if you have a good location and the player is seeking that then you can get him at a discount. Everything felt so real it was crazy. This was also the first year to feature player progression during the season. If you start a rookie quarterback with low awareness and he throws a lot of touchdowns and consistent good games then his awareness will go up. If you throw a lot of picks and just play downright awful then you will go down in awareness. It was amazing how good this franchise was and carrying over a lot of the owner aspects from last year like relocating, new stadiums, setting prices for food, tickets and just everything made this feel like the absolute most polished franchise to ever touch a console. I know a lot of people give NBA 2k a lot of credit for their association but it can’t hold a candle next to this one. Another minor feature included in Madden 2005 was create a fan. Kind of a gimmick but hey I loved to see the people I created on my sidelines. It was actually pretty deep and customizable so it didn’t feel like cookie cutter fans were showing up in your stands.
Online was back for PS2 players but I think this was the first year that it was on Xbox live but I’m not sure and that doesn’t even sound right so why am I continuing to type this out? I never really dabbled in the online because I didn’t like playing random people and I wasn’t part of the sports gaming community either. But from the few games I played it was fun. Nowhere near as good as it is today but they did feature online leagues for the first time but I wasn’t in any so I can’t give a first hand experience. As far as the graphics went, they were a small improvement over Madden 2004. At this point they were pushing the limit on the capability of the engine and Xbox. Sure ESPN came out that same year and it looked better but they were running a different engine anyway. Madden 2005 did move smoother than any football game out at the time. Running animations were smooth, collision detection was spot on so you never had awkward looking tackles and from the look of the players to the view of the stadiums were well done. I’ll admit it though; I don’t think I could possibly go back to playing it though. Madden doesn’t necessarily age well and what I thought looked great back then doesn’t look great now. To me last gen Madden looks very cartoonish. But at the time I was happy. I will make a huge gripe though. The Cheerleaders on the sidelines are ugly as sin. Every time I saw them I turned away, they looked like some monster zombies with pom poms. The sound in this game was incredible. If there is one thing EA Tiburon is good at it’s sound. Sure the commentary is recycled but it was Al Michaels and John Madden. You know who we’re stuck with now? Chris Collinsworth! Madden will you please just do commentary again? I digress, the sounds of pads hitting, the roar of the crowd and the yelling of the players sounds authentic and pleasing to the ear. I honestly don’t think I have a complaint other than the sometime awkward sounding commentary and the lack of new content in the commentary but for the most part I am not paying too, too much attention to it. Last but certainly not least is the soundtrack. Madden has always had a catchy soundtrack and in Madden 2005 it was no different. A nice combination of music with bands and artists like Chevelle, Will I Am, The Mooney Suzuki and many more. I actually preferred Madden 2004’s soundtrack but at least in Madden 05 it was fresh and different.
There you have it, my tenth game and highest rated sports game on my list. This was as good as Madden has ever gotten for me and I sorely miss these days. Hopefully if 2K ever makes a game again then Madden will step it up but until then we will be left with what we have. Watch the video below to take a trip down memory lane back to a day when Madden was good.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXtuwL7K97o"]Ray Lewis Madden 2005 Commercial - YouTube[/ame]
Greatest Madden Commercial of all time.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJk9wzl6rf0"]Madden 2005 Gameplay -- Bears @ Giants, Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]
Comment