Madden 2002

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Madden 2002

Madden Football 2002 returns for a second season on the PlayStation 2. This years game boasts some great new additions including the NFL's newest team the Houston Texans. Other new features include an expansion draft, create-a-team option, and a training mode where John Madden guides you through set plays to better prepare you for the season.

The game play has improved tremendously over Madden 2001. Instead of being able to run the same play over and over to accumulate well over 400 yards passing and 200 yards rushing, now you have to mix it up a lot. This game is very strategy based, you can't run over and over again or the AI will makes adjustments and will blitz the linebackers and totally shut you down. Also the cornerbacks actually cover the receivers instead of running along side of them and then missing the tackle letting the receiver run all the way to the end zone like in last years edition. Last years game also featured a lot of one handed catches, which infuriated a lot of Madden gamers, this year simple two handed catches replace them and makes the game seem more realistic. One thing that is a little annoying is receivers tend to drop easy passes an awful lot, this can be corrected with the AI settings option, but it still gets a little frustrating. The instant replays are amazing, when they come up it looks like something from the "Matrix." The camera follows the ball and then switches angles several times, then shows the big hit three or four times in a row, really nice.

The graphics are improved slightly. The jerseys look a little more detailed as well as the helmets, and player faces. This time a majority of the players look like they do in real life which is a major improvement over last years game, where every player looked the same. Every aspect of the game is added from the players, coaches, line officials, and the players who ride the bench. The stadiums look awesome and if you start an afternoon game by the time the fourth quarter rolls around you can see that its starts to get darker. It's the small details like this that let you know the people that put this together have worked pretty hard on this game. The only thing that I couldn't figure out is why the camera men and crowd look horrible, they look like digitalized pictures that someone just pasted into the game and at times it takes away from it, why didn't the game developers just leave the camera men out?

There are several new features that this game adds. The usual suspects are there exhibition, season, and a much improved franchise mode, but now there are also a create-a-team mode, training, and two-minute drill mode. The create-a-team mode is fun to mess around with. You can make your own team and choose everything from the uniform colors, what city they play in, you even get to design the football stadium they will call home. The two-minute drill mode gives you the ball on your own twenty yard line and you have to score as many points as you can in two-minutes to accumulate points to buy Madden Cards, it's an interesting feature that adds a little to the replay ability of the game. The franchise mode is probably what sets this game apart from all others. You can take over a team and guide it through 30 years of football, you control every aspect of the team to singing free agents, to waiving players, and trying to stay under the salary cap. After playing the 2001 season, during the off season the expansion Texans (or one of your own created teams say the Lake Charles Land Sharks?) are added to the league, the league is then re-aligned just like it will be for the real 2002 NFL season. Also if you own NCAA Football 2002, you can export the graduating seniors, along with other players that leave early, to Madden and draft them onto your teams, another nice touch that really adds to the overall realism of the game.

One place this game seems to be sorely lacking in is the commentary department. Madden and Pat Summerdale just seem to talk about everything except for what is happening on the field. EA should borrow the commentating that they used for their NCAA football game and incorporate it into Madden. Then this game would truly be perfect. The sounds on the field are great from the bone crunching tackles, to the crowd going nuts when your linebacker urges them too.

Overall the best football game out there, although NCAA 2002 isn't far behind, if you are a huge NFL junkie, and like realistic football games, this is the only game you will ever need. However if you're not that into "realism" and just want to throw and run all over the place maybe one of the arcade games like "NFL Blitz" is better suited for you.


	Steamer Trunk \| home NCAA Final Four 2002 \| Grand Theft Auto \| EA NHL 2002 \| Dave Mirra BMX \| Nascar Heat 2002 \| Crazy Taxi \| Madden 2002 \| NCAA Football 2002 \| Madden 2001 \| Triple Play \| Knockout Kings \| NBA Live 2001 \| ESPN Hockey Night \| NCAA Final Four Madden 2002 Madden Football 2002 returns for a second season on the PlayStation 2. This years game boasts some great new additions including the NFL's newest team the Houston Texans. Other new features include an expansion draft, create-a-team option, and a training mode where John Madden guides you through set plays to better prepare you for the season. The game play has improved tremendously over Madden 2001. Instead of being able to run the same play over and over to accumulate well over 400 yards passing and 200 yards rushing, now you have to mix it up a lot. This game is very strategy based, you can't run over and over again or the AI will makes adjustments and will blitz the linebackers and totally shut you down. Also the cornerbacks actually cover the receivers instead of running along side of them and then missing the tackle letting the receiver run all the way to the end zone like in last years edition. Last years game also featured a lot of one handed catches, which infuriated a lot of Madden gamers, this year simple two handed catches replace them and makes the game seem more realistic. One thing that is a little annoying is receivers tend to drop easy passes an awful lot, this can be corrected with the AI settings option, but it still gets a little frustrating. The instant replays are amazing, when they come up it looks like something from the "Matrix." The camera follows the ball and then switches angles several times, then shows the big hit three or four times in a row, really nice. The graphics are improved slightly. The jerseys look a little more detailed as well as the helmets, and player faces. This time a majority of the players look like they do in real life which is a major improvement over last years game, where every player looked the same. Every aspect of the game is added from the players, coaches, line officials, and the players who ride the bench. The stadiums look awesome and if you start an afternoon game by the time the fourth quarter rolls around you can see that its starts to get darker. It's the small details like this that let you know the people that put this together have worked pretty hard on this game. The only thing that I couldn't figure out is why the camera men and crowd look horrible, they look like digitalized pictures that someone just pasted into the game and at times it takes away from it, why didn't the game developers just leave the camera men out? There are several new features that this game adds. The usual suspects are there exhibition, season, and a much improved franchise mode, but now there are also a create-a-team mode, training, and two-minute drill mode. The create-a-team mode is fun to mess around with. You can make your own team and choose everything from the uniform colors, what city they play in, you even get to design the football stadium they will call home. The two-minute drill mode gives you the ball on your own twenty yard line and you have to score as many points as you can in two-minutes to accumulate points to buy Madden Cards, it's an interesting feature that adds a little to the replay ability of the game. The franchise mode is probably what sets this game apart from all others. You can take over a team and guide it through 30 years of football, you control every aspect of the team to singing free agents, to waiving players, and trying to stay under the salary cap. After playing the 2001 season, during the off season the expansion Texans (or one of your own created teams say the Lake Charles Land Sharks?) are added to the league, the league is then re-aligned just like it will be for the real 2002 NFL season. Also if you own NCAA Football 2002, you can export the graduating seniors, along with other players that leave early, to Madden and draft them onto your teams, another nice touch that really adds to the overall realism of the game. One place this game seems to be sorely lacking in is the commentary department. Madden and Pat Summerdale just seem to talk about everything except for what is happening on the field. EA should borrow the commentating that they used for their NCAA football game and incorporate it into Madden. Then this game would truly be perfect. The sounds on the field are great from the bone crunching tackles, to the crowd going nuts when your linebacker urges them too. Overall the best football game out there, although NCAA 2002 isn't far behind, if you are a huge NFL junkie, and like realistic football games, this is the only game you will ever need. However if you're not that into "realism" and just want to throw and run all over the place maybe one of the arcade games like "NFL Blitz" is better suited for you.