Fav '04 Football game?

[oneiron05]

Now that you all have probably had a chance to play all the PS2 football games for the season, which of them do you like the best and why??

I've played both Madden and Gameday so far, I still need to play the ESPN title.

I do the bulk of my playing online and I have to say that the Gameday online mode blows the Madden counterpart out of the water, it definitely has a lot more features for the online player.

The graphics and gameplay are up to par with the other football titles this year as well.

And to be honest, it sounded like Madden was reading the same script from last year's game, they need a third personality in the booth.

[Fragmastar]

Definately Madden NFL 2004

[TwiztidFreakMike]

1. Fever - XSN for online, i like the actual gameplay (im a huge football fan here in tampa) although it lacks those features madden has.. i dont really care. i only get a football game to play football..not price hotdogs :)

2 ESPN - i've only played a little bit..not much but i like it

3 Madden - i don't really like the actual football gameplay...really sloppy

4 Gameday - what can i say, its 989 :)

[ApprovedStingray]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Now that you all have probably had a chance to play all the PS2 football games for the season, which of them do you like the best and why??

I've played both Madden and Gameday so far, I still need to play the ESPN title.

I do the bulk of my playing online and I have to say that the Gameday online mode blows the Madden counterpart out of the water, it definitely has a lot more features for the online player.

The graphics and gameplay are up to par with the other football titles this year as well.

And to be honest, it sounded like Madden was reading the same script from last year's game, they need a third personality in the booth.</div>

Madden knows what to keep and what to mix up and change for each new edition, and I think Madden 2004 is definitely the best game of this season for that. The graphics and gameplay might come down to personal opinion, but I really think the Franchise mode in Madden just goes to show how far they went to make this game fresh. Gameday was a good effort this year but can't hold a candle to Madden in the end.

[ShotgunShy]

Winning Eleven 7 all the way baby! :D

[oneiron05]

Oh I'm willing to give the edge in gameplay and franchise mode to Madden, I've played all the football games. Gameday does have a franchise mode, but it's more like the GM mode of Maddens past where you control the roster and salary cap and such.

And to the guy that rated ESPN above gameday.... not even ESPN.com rated ESPN football above Gameday, and that says a LOT. I do like the first person camera though, way fun.

Here's the Espn ratings, i'm not making it up....

http://sports.espn.go.com/espngamer/ourReviews

I do the vast majority of my football gaming online and that's why I perfer Gameday. It has all the features that come with Madden along with lots of other stuff like mesasge boards and a dynamic lobby to keep in touch with peope you play against, realtime weather so you can play in the weathe conditions in that city at that exact moment, and best of all the online mode has multiplayer support so you can have 2 on 2 games and such.

[ApprovedStingray]

Well yeah, so since Gameday's franchise mode is like MAdden's franchise mode of last year (and before), you have to admit that Gameday is pretty much a year behind Madden in most respects.

ESPN also rated Madden higher than Gameday, like everyone else..

And I don't do much gaming online for football games. I'll play FPS games or Socom or whatever, but football games just don't appeal to me much online yet. The features for Gameday sound cool but what happens if your internet goes down? You're stuck with a game that's not as cool as Madden offline. Madden has sharper control, graphics, everything except those few online features. I'm not saying Madden won't take alook at Gameday's online modes when it wants to go to that effort for its own online side, but that at this time it's not as important as quality gameplay and graphics.

[oneiron05]

Well if you have DSL it rarely if ever goes down, mine hasn't gone down once in two years. Although I do know a couple of people that dial up and have no problems.

And the franchise mode of Gameday is a year behind Madden, I'm not even trying to argue that at all.

I'm just saying that if you do play online, Gameday is clearly the way to go. And in general I'm happy that there are finally options in the market.

And there are quite a few people playing online, I've never had a problem getting a game when i wasn't playing someone I know. And isn't it nice to see how you stack up against people other than your friends?

[ApprovedStingray]

It all depends on your area and your ISP really, I don't doubt your DSL hasn't gone down in 2 yrs but it's not a perfected technology at all.

Yeah, I know Gameday's got the b est online features but I really prefer the Madden control so I'll probably just wait until next year (and hopefully a more online-friendly Madden) to get into it.

It's cool to see how you stack up against random people but Madden is more of an all-around game. Gameday should be like 20 bux and online-only. At least that's how I see it when I try to look at the whole picture.

[Eski33]

I own both the Xbox and PS2 but only purchase sports games for the Box. Here is my list of fave football titles.

1) NCAA Football 2004--The best football game ever.
2) ESPN Football--Presentation and gameplay nips Madden.
3) Madden 2004--The best Madden since 1993.

I haven't tried NFL Gameday or Fever. Fever sucked the past two years and it probably sucks again this year. Gameday looks like it is much improved over the past few years.

[olyeller01]

I haven't played Gameday or Fever. After playing some of the recent renditions I swore that it would take an act of Congress to get me to play them again (bleh!) I wouldn't use them for online play anyway, because there's no way to get High-speed where I live. To hell with trying to play games over dialup.

Madden 2004 is still a good game, but EA spent too much time giving it new modes and not nearly enough updating it. Madden and Michaels suck as video game commentators. I'd rather listen to ESPN's no name guys. Madden's gameplay is almost exactly the same. There are only 2 changes: 1. playmaker control, which is only good for switching the play direction without tipping off the D. Every time I've tried to use it in the open field I get killed. 2. To cut down on money plays, the CPU now plays cheaper, not smarter, with sacks and interceptions much more rampant.

ESPN has The Crib, the most innovative sports-game reward system I've seen yet. The gameplay, though not perfect, is quite fun. The stadiums, fans, and weather effects look great. The franchise mode is quite deep (just a little behind Madden), and the ESPN presentation blows Madden's joke of a presentation out of the water. The no-name announcers are repetitive but not too annoying. I only request a few fixes, Sega Sports:

1. Fix that damned goofy running! Why do the guys run straight up like they have something in their butts when in the open field? Did the mo-cap guy have to take a crap or something?
2. Update the AI just a little bit to cut down on missed blocks and to make players go after tipped balls instead of just standing there.
3. Give Franchise mode a disable-salary cap option. Creating a few guys and ending up, oh, $40 mil over the cap sucks.
4. Get Dan Patrick to do all the highlights instead of Chris Berman.
5. Get momentum physics down so players don't turn and stop on a dime.

I agree with the guy above that said that NCAA was the top game, followed by ESPN and then Madden. ESPN is the better NFL franchise, but NCAA is easily the best football game. Give NCAA the stadiums and weather effects of ESPN and you'd have perfection.

[Rocketship-XM]

Madden 2004 for PC by far. It's awesome!!