Madden 2005 initial impressions.

Maybe next year they'll take the time to add gibbs' playbook and new positions for him heh...

and add at least 500 more animations

The playbook is actually really big. At first glance it seems to be almost the same as last years, but with a shotgun formation. But its not, there are a ton more big sets. When you are picking a formation, and you hit right to change it up, to add a TE or a receiver to the set, there are a lot more of those last year then in spurriers. Most of the plays i have been calling were two TE sets, because Cooley is a heck of a receiving TE, and Kowolski(sp) is a great blocking TE.

yeh, i've been using the i formation double tight end set. koz and cooley on the right hand side with the counter option, halfback gut, or playaction. i beat two friends over the weekend with those three plays alone. average margin of victory 35 points.

I will say that I don't understand why EA charges 50 (60 for the Collector's Edition) and ESPN only costs 20? I know it's a bitch to get folks to switch from EA but that just goes to show how much markup there is in Videogames. BTW, anybody else spring for the collector's edition?

Even at $50 videogames are a great entertainment value when you factor in the # of hours you'll play it. Especially with sports games that have a high replay factor.

The simple answer is marketshare. Before this year ESPN wasn't even a blip on the radar screen. Madden had a huge percentage of the market... so much so that all the other companies decided to stop competing with EA. All of a sudden, ESPN comes out with a great game with a more than reasonable price tag. They don't mind taking a loss for a year because they have Disney's capital behind them. Hear the wind coming out of EA's sails?

Madden '05 set sales records for the series, so I guess the wind isn't coming out of the sails too quickly.

I wonder if 2k will stick with the $19.99 price tag in the future?

i wonder if Madden will finally upgrade their game enough to warrant another $49.99 next year.

madden 2005 is the best sports game ive ever played. the radio show is cool, the newspapers are awesome, reminds me of ncaa football, the gameplay is awesome with the hit stick, what is the problem? it is more realistic than 2004. great game