Dear John Madden,

In the days of Sega Genesis and Super NES, your game was the ****. Tons of fun at every level. I owned it every year. I'd usually put together 16-0 Super Bowl seasons, with most of those being "close calls". I had a fun time, w/o it being too much of a pushover.

I bought your XBOX version of 2004 this week. You are a fat, cheating, SOB.

Lets take some examples

1) Franchise - Washington

Made some much needed changes to the O, including signing rookie McGahee from the Bills to run the ball. Signed some wideouts, and left Ramsey at the helm, as I feel he has what it takes.

Game 1 Vs Jets

Lost 45-17. Thi swasn't even a contest. They stompled all over me. The 17 points were a field goal and 2 lucky turnover conversions. Pennington had 300 yards in the air, and Martin had over 200 on the ground. Despite calling a solid defense, and forcing you to punt quite a few times, you felt everytime I Had you past 3rd and 10(ie 3rd and 15 or whatever), you had to break out a 70+ yard play. Witness Curtis Martin break 10 tackles and run a 83 yard TD in on the FIRST ****ING PLAY OF THE GAME!!! Witness Chrebet catch a ball while surrounded by Bailey and Smoot, and break BOTH their tackles and run downfieled for the score. Witness Rod Gardner being WIDE OPEN and throwing towards him, and some DB comes out of nowhere, leaps onto a trampoline and picks me off.
**** you John, **** You.

Game 2 Vs Falcons

Result : none, turne game off in 3rd quarter when they were up 50 pts.

Michael Vick had 317 yards in the air and 45 rushing.
Warrick Dunn had 200 yards on the ground.

Everytime they had the ball they scored.
Vick had 4 TDs with over 60 yards each on them.
Dunn ran the ball all the way in almost everytime.

They forced a turnover 3 times.

John, you and your ****ing game can kiss my ass.

You suck at this game

Oh!!!

God damn. I forgot.

I can't even beat NFL Europe teams.

I play on Pro. I play with the sliders.

When did football games get so hard?

What happened to the days of just having fun? Why do I have to learn how to read a defense, and why do I have to worry about which leg my HB favors in order to push him to the right side of the field?

I just want to have fun. Something EA has apparently forgotten about.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

Reading defenses and all that good stuff IS fun.

Well if this post doesn't speak volumes about Thunderball, I don't know what does.

I hate Madden as well.

No, that's too harsh. It's my masochistic pasttime. I want to love this game, as it's so deep and so damn pretty ... but I will never, ever master it. There is simply too much to the game. It is a football simulation, and it's about as easy to play as it is to fire up flight simulator and fly a plane from San Fransisco to New York. Add in the fact that you are usually competing against someone who knows how to play, or the computer which assumes that you do, and it's nearly impossible for a neophyte to pick up the game.

I miss games like Super Tecmo Bowl for the NES. It was deep enough that you could actually pick sorry teams like the Colts or Buccaneers and still lead them to a Super Bowl victory if you were skilled at the game. Still, it didn't take long to pick up, and with a good team like San Fransisco, there wasn't much challenge in beating opposing teams -- as it should be. I could give someone five minutes worth of instruction, and if we picked our teams right, we could still have a competitive game.

That doesn't happen in Madden. If you don't understand football from an X's and O's perspective, or if you don't know what your selected player is supposed to do during the play, or if you can't control your player perfectly (and remember, buttons are different for offense and defense), then there's no way you can win. It doesn't matter who you pick, or who you are playing, or even if you can get two of the three above down pat, you're still going to get your ass handed to you. Madden has an absolutely brutal and painful learning curve. And, since the people who play it have generally been playing this style of Madden since about 1999, it's nearly impossible to claw your way out of the hole.

Madden 2004 rules.

. You=TEH SUCK.

i dont even have fun beating the cpu by 60+ points on the pro level...get a ps2 and play the game online the way its meant to be played.


but from what youve said about having difficulty on the pro level...try a new game cause you do suck and you suck really bad.

Yeah, sorry to state the obvious but you just suck. Personally, the Pro difficulty didn't require much strategy or knowledge of such to be successful. After a few games of getting accustomed to the game (defenses are slightly harder then 2003) i was rolling through the rest of the season. Playing on All Pro and its rather difficult, but i'm getting better. Blame John all you want, but i guess its the game's fault that you don't want to spend more than an hour playing a game to get better.

I played Super Tecmo Bowl to death on my NES and it was so ridiculously easy that the only fun was trying to set personal records. Madden = best... footballl game... ever. =)

At least it helped you make it into my sig. Stompled is my new favorite word.

NFL Blitz is down the hall and to your right. I don't think you've mentioned what sort of "fun" you want out of the game other than winning and not losing:
Personally, I think it's tons of fun to "fool" the computer into committing the wrong way on defense and breaking for a big play.

Are you mixing up your offense? Are you hitting receivers as they or right after they make their cuts? Are you just diving like crazy to tackle, or do you tackle more conservatively but solidly?

Ok Thunderball, why dont you just trim the AI down a bit on Pro until its at a level where its challenging but not too impossible for you. Thats what i did, and i have challenging but fun and engaging games.

If you're looking to dump the game off Tball, hit me up on AIM or email.

-k
###

Maybe he should give up on sports games. The Madden series while competitive is easily learned each year. The AI is beatable but there is the chance to lose which is what makes the game great!!!!

I'm not gonna threadcrap, so I'll just say this--I haven't even played Madden in about 3 years. The last Madden game I played was Madden 2001. I didn't like it because it seemed too much like an arcade game than a sim. I tried NFL2K1 for Dreamcast and I've been a Sega Sports fan ever since. Every year I hear the same thing from friends of mine who are long-time football gamers: Madden is just ok. I was told the same thing this year so I'm gonna trust them again and go with Espn NFL Football when it comes out.

As for you Thunderball, the only thing I would suggest is maybe playing on Rookie level instead of Pro, or adjusting the AI sliders on Pro level.

I have a pretty good grasp of X's and O's. In practice mode, I got the hang of the offense. I was hitting receivers as they made their cuts, reading the safeties, etc.

It plays a lot different than 2003 IMO. I guess that's a good thing. It just doesn't feel "real" to me. When I get into a game it feels too fast and arcadey. The spin moves and breaking tackle animations don't look right. The physics seem to be a bit off too. I don't get the feeling that the back broke two tackles by lowering his shoulder, instead it feels more like "it was 3rd and long, there's no stopping the computer". The punt return coverage seems like chaos. What looks like a punt with good coverage turns into gaping holes resulting in big returns.

I don't think the game sucks. It obviously appeals to a lot of people. I've just determined that I prefer NCAA 2004 and I really didn't need 2 football games in the first place. For the most part, I'm just not used to it, but I prefer to shelve it and focus on NCAA.

playmaker learn it, use it, love it. The single greatest addition to any game simply from the defensive standpoint. When the opposing team snaps the ball, right stick up for pass, right stick down for run, it really helps. I do agree that madden is much more difficult this year. In years past, I could beat everyone considerably and go 16-0 and win the superbowl In my first season this year, I lost five games and lost in the AFC championship game. The only real complaint I have is that there are way too many fumbles. I've never seen Eddie George fumble five times in a game, but apparently Madden has. I enjoy NCAA much more as well.

I love Madden 2004. I would rather have a challenging game (tough computer) than a game where I can go 16-0 with the Bengals like on Super Tecmo. Plus can't you tweak the settings to make the computer weaker?

I don't know if the other football games are better. Heck, this is the first football game I have bought since Bill Walsh College Football '93 for Genesis. I just know that I love playing Madden 2004.

I know what your problem is! You've been playing on PRO! You should be playing on ROOKIE with all the sliders in your favor.

Geez, where do I start?

Madden 2004 rocks, to say the least. I don't really understand X's and O's, nor do I read plays or all that technical crapola. I pretty much use the same 2-3 plays on D each time, and mix up my offense. I never follow the play basically, I make my own plays up after the ball is snapped.

Like everyone else in here, I agree, you do seem to suck playing this game. You have absolutely no idea how fun the game can be because you just gave up so easily.

When I first played this years version, I chose rookie (I know, what a wimp, lol) and beat the computer 82-10. So I put it on pro setting. Within the first 3 minutes of each game I played (about 4 games) I was down by 21. I kid you not. My friend who is a total Madden junkie, told me bluntly:

"Dude, you really suck at that game. Better stick to the 2k series."

I agreed with him, but I hadn't given up just yet. I messed with the sliders, and played again. I was promptly owned again. Messed with them some more, owned again, but made it a closer game. Messed with them again, and I owned the computer. I was happy, but I didn't want to dominate, I like a challenge. So I tuned them up one final time, and now any game is up for grabs. On some days I win by 35+, others I lose just barely, or lose by a TD or two. It makes for a very realistic and fun game. I don't know how you think a 16-0 season is fun. Where is the challenge? Don't even get me started on how cool owner mode is.

I am getting ready to move the difficulty level up a notch to All-Pro. I am sure I will be destroyed the first few games, but I'll get used to it, and make the appropriate changes. The better the computer is, and the worse they beat me, the better I will become and the more I will learn.

Sorry you gave up on such a great game. Have fun playing Tecmo Bowl.

Hell...for that matter...he may as well buy the first Madden which I believe was in the year 1990? It really is alot of fun beating the other team 99-0 every game.

Yeah I have found that a knowledge of X's and O's helps. For example if you pick a play where the slot receiver runs a corner pattern, you probably should not throw it to him from the opposite hash otherwise it is likely to get picked.

Maybe this is your problem?