Also new to this year’s edition is Football 101, a virtual classroom that will teach you the basics of football. In this mode, Madden will walk you through the foundations of football and will help you become a successful gamer. He’ll teach you how to read the coverage, how to read formations and most importantly, how to handle specific situations. It’s another great and fun way to teach newcomers the basis of American football.
Perhaps most importantly, this game plays and feels like a
Madden game. The controls remain virtually identical to the previous year’s, so there are no new controls to learn. Anyone who has played a previous
Madden game will no doubt have little trouble getting into this one. Even my friends who had never touched a Madden game before had no trouble getting the hang of this game. Thanks to the informative loading screens, I didn’t even have to explain the controls to them.
Many of the AI quirks that I found in last year’s edition seem to have been worked out. The AI opponents will no longer go for it on 4th and 15 during a close game in the 3rd quarter. In fact, it seems that the AI has been beefed up quite a bit. There was no true ‘money play’ that would net me yardage every time I executed it, I found myself scouring through my playbook in constant search of varied plays. Same goes for defense, if I used the same play over and over I would eventually get burned. Although the AI would eventually adapt to me in last year’s game, it didn’t come with instant results like in this year’s version. Taking a cue from the
NHL games,
Madden 2003 allows you to customize the game to your liking. Each element is represented by a slider that can be manipulated to your liking. There are a whole bevy of minor aspects that can be tailor made to your tastes.
Visually, the game remains virtually unchanged from its predessecor. Though it seems that the game has received a minor facelift, one glaring error still remains. The player’s faces still seem lifeless and doll like, this isn’t noticeable when the game is in action but it’s pretty painful on the cut scenes that occur between plays. Even more disheartening is the fact that the cheerleaders in this year’s game are more prominently featured. The problem is, their faces are horribly textured and could have been helped by a few more polygons. Though I’m happy that someone has finally decided to re-instate the half time show, I wish it would have looked a lot better.
The rest of the visuals are a pretty complete package, you won’t find graphics much better than this on the PS2. Player models are the best to appear in a sports game to date, there are so many of them and they all appear so life-like. You’ll see the stereotypical fat guy with the rolls hanging off his sides, the small and speedy receiver, and the rough and tough line-backer, all of them rendered to perfection. To put it simply, you won’t be mistaking Junior Seau for Cortez Kennedy anytime soon, if you know what I mean.
A lot of attention was paid to the minor details and it really shows in the product. Performing the Pump up Crowd manuever (R3) on defense will actually cause the fans in the stands to stand up and cheer loudly. Consequently, if the home team is getting blown out, you’ll see the stands gradually empty until only a few die-hard fans remain. Players will accumulate stains on their uniforms as signs of the battles that they’ve been through, you’ll even see the middle of the field deteriorate through the course of the game. You’ll even see AI coaches challenge plays on the field, many of them occurring in pivotal moments of the game. Often times they’ll win but there are times when they’re wrong. Nonetheless, it adds to the overall realism of the game. There are tons of small minute details that have been included in this year’s game, you might not notice them but it’s always nice to know that they’re there.
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