I think you would need some defense to be considered the greatest game ever.

61-58 is exactly why I have given up on Madden. It always seems to come down to who scores last. I heard about all the smarter defense this year but I am not seeing it, at least in multi-player. Secondary still sucks. Have you noticed the way the quaterback scans the field looking backwards then pivots to face upfield while cocking his arm? Screwy. I really love Maddens mini-camps though. They are the only reason I play Madden anymore at all.

Well it has to do that we had the default setting on Pro and we were the All Time teams. We had another game (regular Steelers vs. regular Vikings) with the settings on All Pro and he beat me 20-6, a much more realistic score. The defense is much better this year, the linebackers are much more important than they used to be.

One complaint - the all time teams...the numbers are not accurate! WHY NOT??? Terry Bradshaw isn't #5!

in the xbox version, does the game seem overly bright and kinda washed out to anyone?

seems to me like that

I've given madden 15 hours. this game is the best sports game ever made.

every single play works. establish your run by hitting the right holes and using playmaker to set your blocks, then burst into the open as the reward for your patience. they say y covers the ball, but with enough momentun, it does so many more moves to beat the head to head tackle. you see someone setting up for a hitstick tackle...just throw a stiff arm in his face and make him look like a clown as he falls on his ass. start using play action and fool the person controlling the stick. play action in madden is like lemon juice in a paper cut. you're opponent will always scream when you catch him. watch as your linemen protect you and set up blocks and evade as the d comes close. can't find the open man? use playmaker and tell your reciever where to run. throw him the ball as the blitzing dback dives towards you. I've even fooled people with draw plays. these are just a few of the offensive plays I've done today. thank you hurricane charley.

I'll write up a bit on the defense and special teams tomorrow.

THIS GAME RULES

IIRC, Madden never had the right numbers for the all-time teams. I never understood why. Possibly because there could be a number conflict on the teams. For example there might be two WR's with the number 81 that are all time greats. I really wish they could use the actual names of the players instead of numbers anyway.

Didn't he (Bradshaw) wear No. 5 his rookie season??

Who knows, but all of the numbers are wrong. Barry Sanders? No. 24. Franco Harris? No. 26. Lynn Swann? No. 10.

It's really annoying. I know the older Madden games used to have the correct numbers.

What is with the overly muscled, cartoony player models in the game? It's as if you're playing some secret mode (like the big heads mode) instead of the real game. What it looks like is a modern polygonal representation of the old Genesis/SNES Madden games, which had cartoony graphics because that's all they could do back then. Are they trying to make the game more appealing to kids or something?

Also, is there any way to turn off the annoying "drama" that happens when you kick a field goal? They put the camera on the ground, right behind the kicker (I don't know how the defense is supposed to see what it's doing here), and then when the ball is kicked, you hear a heartbeat, the game goes into slow motion, and the screen gets letterboxed as the ball makes its way through the uprights.

Other than those two things, the game is just fine, but I wonder why they changed those two things.

As for SpacemanSpiff's question about the washed-out look, that's the lighting. They've increased the effects of the sun and the lights inside of domes this year. I think it looks good, but they may have gone a little too far with it.

Huh? I've NEVER seen that and I've kicked a lot of field goals...

It only happens when its a field goal in a clutch situation. It happened to me when I was kicking a game tieing field goal in the 4th quarter.