(PS2) NFL 2k3 VS Madden 2003

[Dudek]

Which one will be the better game?

[Hodgemeister]

don't have a PS2 so I'll reserve judgement, but I expect pc versions to be good

[Mork from Ork]

I would go to thier web pages, read thier abilities and look at some screenshot. I imagine they will be almost identical except for diferent eye candy :cool:

[dkkev]

id say Madden.. just cuz the previous games has ruled any sports game every year... im leechin the PC and xbox versions right now and will throw a review up asap.. ps2 should be very similar..

[Dudek]

yeah im leeching the PC verison too. Im prolly gonna get the PS2 on for my birthday in two weeks.

[DarkFudge]

btw guys...what speeds are you leeching Madden at right now??

[Kicker]

I'd tried out NFL2k2 two weeks ago, thought it was pretty phat but I don't believe it stacked up to Madden 2002 for the PS2. Narrow margin of difference but gameplay I thought was slightly weaker, although that could be because I played NFL2k2 on the Xbox and I think there controllers are kinda' awky.

[Micro]

Madden is the bedst :)

[elmalloc]

i think anything on xbox that also appears on ps2, is better on xbox other than the gamepad.

ps2 needs multitap, and often times doesnt have progressive scan/16x9 games compared to xbox (along with dolby digital sound).

[DamnIT]

I haven't played either yet, however I have read that Sega's football game is a little better, but both are quality games.

[Magic]

this pretty much sums it up. I prefer NFL2k2, never been much of a madden fan, but read this. It's very comprehensive.

After playing both, i can tell you they're both great games... no matter which one you get. NFL2k2 has lots of historical teams, and a superior draft selection process.

anyway, here you go: long read :D
========
Now for the Madden and NFL2K3 comparison. It may be hard to believe, but I hate criticizing games. I am very much a fan, and I want absolutely every game to be great, so it is always disappointing if it’s not. I’m just trying to tell you what I see when I play a game. I say that because I’m going to compare two football games tonight, one of which is probably the greatest sports game ever made.

The other game is, well, a pile. I actually shouted “Noooo!!!!” at the television when in one disastrous moment the game went from landmark to landfill.

One last note before we get started. I think it should be required that anyone who reviews or comments on a game should note how long they’ve actually played the game in question, so I’m going to start doing that tonight. These impressions are based on twelve hours with Madden (PC and X-box versions)and ten with NFL2K3.

So let’s begin. In the first quarter, let’s discuss presentation. Acquiring the ESPN license was a brilliant move on Sega’s part, and the integration of this license is just stunning. The overlays are essentially identical with the live broadcasts and are unbelievably immersive. The weekly score summary is narrated in the same manner as a Sportscenter—and the commentary is flawless.

The presentation of the college draft is nothing short of spectacular. This is probably the single most immersive framework I’ve ever seen in a sports game. The big board is in the distance at the front of the room, and as players are picked they’re added to the board. Directly in front of you is a computer monitor which shows you available players. On a monitor to your right are your pre-draft targets that you scouted at the combine, and to your left is a monitor that shows your team needs. Just to top it all off, if you look down you see a PDA and that has recommended draft picks for that round! Are you kidding me? Of course, the ESPN ticker is running at the bottom of the screen, showing you the picks for each round.

One more fantastic touch. When you’re in franchise mode, there’s a team office with a computer monitor where you select different front office functions. I was playing as the Texans, and on the wall in my office was a framed picture of Tony Boselli, the first pick of the Texans from the expansion draft. That’s genius.

The in-game presentation is also fantastic. The announcing is just tremendous—I like it almost as much as the commentary in NCAA 2003, which I think is the benchmark. Even better, someone has finally gotten the sound of the crowd right. I can’t even tell you how much of a pleasure it is to hear the crowd sound and react just like a live crowd should.

Overall, the presentation in NFL2K3 is nothing short of incredible. No game has even approached this level of immersion

The presentation in Madden, while still very strong, is not in the same league as NFL2K3. The announcing is greatly improved now that the ghost of Pat Summerall has moved on, but there are still pitch transition issues between names and comments, and sometimes they’re quite noticeable. The commentary is also inappropriate at times. I also have to mention the visual look of the crowds. Bluntly, they stink. It looks like 50,000 people at a rave bouncing up and down constantly. Fortunately, you don’t see them very often, and when you do, it’s not for long (note to EA: wise decision).

One aspect of the presentation is inspired though, and that’s the widescreen replays of big plays. They look fabulous and add greatly to the atmosphere.

At the end of the first quarter, the score is NFL2K3 20, Madden 6.

In the second quarter, let’s discuss the franchise mode. I remember when franchise modes were tacked on pieces of junk. Boy, are those days long gone. Both games have outstanding, deep franchise modes. I’ve already talked about the NFL2K3 draft, but Madden’s draft is also outstanding. You can select 15 players a week to receive detailed information on, and the more interviews you do, the more information you get. You also get the combine results—40 yard dash time, bench press, shuttle run, cone run. It makes selecting players challenging, as it should be. These two games are the first time I ever actually hoarded draft choices just because I enjoyed the process so much.

I tried to compare GM A.I. by making similar trades with players of similar ratings in each game. On this basis, NFL2K3 is superior. Madden is too willing to add third round draft choices and lower when players are of comparable skill levels. They’re also too willing to assume very large contracts. NFL2K3 is much stingier, and that’s good. Both games fall prey to an old tactic—sign a very pricey free agent, then trade them to another team for a player of slightly lesser skill but with a much smaller contract. If a team doesn’t want the player as a free agent, then they shouldn’t want him when I try to trade him.

So there are weaknesses in the GM A.I., but they’re certainly not weak overall. Compared to other games, they’re both quite good. NFL2K3’s slightly superior AI gives it a small edge this quarter, though, so the score at halftime is NFL2K3 30, Madden 13.

[Magic]

Part2:

Here comes the band. :-) And since we’re at halftime, I have to mention Madden’s mini-camp, which is a great series of mini-games that help teach you the mechanics of the game. They’re fun, they’re well thought out, and Sega doesn’t have anything like it. That’s worth a touchdown, but because this is my fantasy game, the extra point sails wide left for no good reason, and the score is NFL2K3 30, Madden 19. “That might come back to haunt them,” says every tired, repetitive football announcer in history. And to stop you from changing the channel, here are a few random notes about the two games:

--the PC version of Madden has an accelerated clock, the X-box version does not.

--the X-box version of Madden has a custom camera angle, the PC version does not.

--Madden’s Hall of Fame is really more a Hall of Somewhat Lesser Fame.

--Here’s a real obscurity. In the Super Bowl history screen for Madden, the game score shows as 0-0, although all the stats are correctly listed.

--if you have a 16x9 HD set and don’t care about the accelerated clock feature, I’d recommend the X-box version with the HD pack. Otherwise, I’d go with the PC version.

--to get accurate stats for simmed games in NFL2K3, you have to set quarter length to six minutes. When you actually play a game, the quarter length needs to be longer (about ten minutes). Boo.

--NFL2K3 doesn’t quite fill up the whole screen in HD (well, not really HD-480p, actually). Very odd.

--punting in NFL2K3 is somewhat suspect, as there are too many weak punters with low averages.

The third quarter starts and let’s talk about animation. Both games have excellent animation, but there are strengths and weaknesses for each. NFL2K3’s strengths are the tackling animations and the vibrant, colorful nature of the graphics. The tacking animations are amazing and great fun to watch. In addition, as a non-essential but very cool feature, the faces of the players are just astonishing. However, the general quality of the animations are somewhat uneven—some are so spectacular that you would swear you’re watching a live broadcast, and others are clearly not. Passes travel too slowly in general, which is disappointing, and sometimes players hurtle through space too quickly.

Madden’s animations are much more consistent in terms of quality. They also have more than one throwing animation for quarterbacks, which is a brilliant, brilliant move. It would seem logical that since the quarterback handles the ball on every play that developers would spend huge amounts of time getting their footwork and throwing motions lifelike, but I don’t think that’s necessarily what happens. In both games, quarterbacks just seem to hold the ball a bit “off” when they throw passes—it just doesn’t quite look right when it leaves their hand. Madden has some excellent animations on the defensive line, and its overall strength is that there just aren’t any mediocre animations—they’re not all great, but none of them are less than good.

It’s a very tough call here, but Madden’s tremendous, consistent quality gives it the edge over NFL2K3. So at the end of the third quarter, the score is NFL2K3 37, Madden 29.

It’s the fourth quarter and it’s time to talk about gameplay. Right off the bat, NFL2K3 gets sacked in the end zone for a safety because of their hideous play selection process. It’s not the plays themselves, but the fact that you have to use the analog stick and guide the cursor to a semi-circle of formations and plays. Oh, that’s annoying, all right. It looks different, but “bad different” isn’t “different”—it’s just bad. NFL2K3 37, Madden 31.

Both games have done a terrific job of mapping an enormous number of possible actions onto a game controller. That’s a draw. Both games play convincing football, although your experience is going to vary by difficulty level. This is a very subjective impression, but I think the in-game A.I. in Madden is stronger. I’ve seen running backs pick up blitzers much more frequently in Madden (and the cut block looks beautiful). Madden seems to adjust its gameplan more effectively when behind, and Madden also seems more aggressive about throwing downfield. Which they do right now, and it’s caught behind the defense and they score! It’s NFL2K3 37, Madden 37, and you know what happens with the extra point.

Wide left.

We’re at the two minute warning and the game is tied. Sega has done a shocking and masterful job of managing this contest, and they’ve got the ball. They work downfield and enter Madden’s territory at the 35. Two short passes and they’re on the 15. A run up the gut and they are on the three-yard line with thirty seconds to go. They’re out of timeouts, but no matter. It’s fourth down, and all they have to do is line up and kick the field goal to stun Madden 2003. The clock runs down to fifteen seconds and they’re still in the huddle. Ten seconds. Maybe they’ve got a timeout I’ve forgotten about. Five seconds.

Four. Three. Two. One.

Bang.

WHAT THE HELL was that?

Well, that’s what happens when you have zero clock management A.I. And NFL2K3 has ZERO. I actually saw this happen in a game. Tie score, ball on the three freaking yard line, thirty seconds remaining—and the offense does nothing. They stand in the huddle and let the clock run out. To make it even more incredibly insulting, they actually waited well past the point on the play clock where they would have normally snapped the ball.

They milked the clock to preserve a tie.

That was when I yelled “Noooo!!!” at the television. One minute, NFL2K3 is in Hall of Fame, one of the greatest and most enjoyable sports games ever. Then—it’s a pile. Just a big pile.

I watched multiple games to try to figure out what was going on. The only thing the CPU appears to care about in the last two minutes is getting the first down. They don’t throw outs to the sidelines to preserve the clock, they don’t run the hurry-up offense, they don’t spike the ball. They do like to run the ball up the middle from the forty with twenty seconds left and no timeouts, however.

My stomach hurts. I loved this game.

How did this happen? Pay more attention to the competition’s ship date than you do to your own game. Ship the latest build even though the game isn’t finished. One more month of development and it would have been fixed. Good grief, it could have been fixed in a week. And unless they shipped the wrong build, they knew. There is no way that a beta-tester could have missed this. So Sega does a hundred brilliant things with this game, and in the end it doesn’t matter.

This also points out that while console games generally have fewer bugs, what bugs they do have are yours to keep. If this were a PC game, we would all scream in outrage and one patch would have put this game into sports gaming history. What a disappointment.

There is some good news, though. Madden would have kicked the field goal. Madden’s clock management is stellar. Maybe there aren’t two great football games this year (although there should have been), but at least there’s one.

Let me tell you a story. My franchise had reached the end of its first season (we sucked), and I decided to watch the Super Bowl. That’s a great feature in itself, being able to watch games that your team isn’t playing in. The Super Bowl is between the Rams and the Steelers, and it’s an exciting, fun game to watch. St. Louis is ahead 30-23 late in the fourth quarter, but Pittsburgh scores on fourth down from the twenty yard line and ties the game in the last minute. St. Louis gets the ball on their own twenty with about twenty-five seconds left, and Madden says “I don’t think they should take any chances here. Just down the ball and take your chances in overtime.” Nicely done.

In overtime, St. Louis wins the toss and elects to receive. They drive down to the Pittsburgh thirty-seven and are faced with a fourth down and three. It’s the Super Bowl, it’s in overtime, and it’s fourth down. My mind is racing—do they go for it, or try a long field goal? Missing the field goal would give the Steelers the ball at the forty-four yard line and they’d only need to go twenty yards to be in field goal position themselves.

Then I see the punt team come out. I’m a little disappointed, because Mike Martz isn’t exactly a conservative coach, but then I think about it being the Super Bowl, and how three yards is a little beyond the comfort zone for fourth down tries, and I feel better. All right, trying to pin the Steelers deep. That’s safe but solid. The ball is snapped, the punter catches the ball, takes one step forward, and stops.

It’s a fake.

The Super Bowl is in overtime and it’s a fake punt. The receiver catches the ball at the twenty, breaks two tackles at the ten, shakes off another at the five, and dives into the end zone as two more Steelers desperately crash into him.

Game over.

Beautiful.

I’m so excited that I’m shouting at the monitor. I’m watching football—not computer football, but football. If that had actually happened in the Super Bowl, it would have been one of the greatest plays of all time. In that one moment, all my complaints about the Madden brand, all of my disappointments in years past, all of my annoyance over the hype, all of that just melted away. They earned it this time.

[Magic]

i must note that this wonderful comparison of the games is exactly how i feel too... it was written by Bill Harris, one of the editors at www.gonegold.com

[djfxp]

I played Madden 2003 on pc and really dont like it... theres verybad control in the game.. its like the game can play for u...

I never tried the other football game, but i am assuming its better than madden! :)

[December]

NFL 2K3.

Madden is a simulation game that should only be played by hardcore gamers who like the genre of football in video games. NFL 2k3 is more for the average game who wants to have fun.

The gameplay in NFL 2k3 simply rocks. When you have the ball you can do all sorts of moves when you are running, and the game speed moves a lot faster than Madden, giving it a somewhat arcade feel. You will have to step up in the pocket to make your passes more accurate in 2k3, etc. NFL 2k3 also has way more player animations, so you won't see two players doing the same thing in the same play. The franchise is deeper than Madden's, and the commentary is A LOT better. Both are repetitive up to a point however. The ESPN presentation of the game adds a nice touch to it to. The graphics in 2k3 are also better in my opinion.

Both game AI's are about the same. In 2k3, if you throw a bad pass that is likely to be intercepted, your receiver will actually turn into a defender and knock it down. The only real gripe I have about 2k3 is the kicking game. The moving arrow really annoys me. edit: Oh yeah, I forgot about how you select plays also. If you're playing against a friend and he's sitting right next to you, they'll have to be blind to not know what you're trying to do.

If you're a casual gamer, get 2k3. Its a HUGE improvement over last years 2k2, and it isn't crap like last years version. If you're hardcore about these types of games, then I'd say Madden has a slight edge - but really, like all smart gamers, you should rent both copies before you decide. :)

[Magic]

hey december... there's a trick for that little multiplayer thing


when you know what play you want to go for, hold x down over it. DO NOT LET GO... now, move the cursor to a different play, i.e. a running play if you are going for a pass... and let go... it will look like you chose the running play, but in reality, you've selected the passing play.

it's in the manual :D

[reep]

madden 2003 rules! :D