yeah, can anyone here who has bought the game elaborate on this? I usually wait til the footy games hit the bargain bin, but I'm thinking about picking this one up. But if the chise mode is horrible, then it would be a waste. I know the 2003 madden chise was flawed, and the 2004 extras that they put into it didn't really blow me away, just seemed like a bunch of unnecessary add-ons. I haven't played a 2k game since 2k1.
The trading AI kinda sucks. You have teams trading away their franchise players like their nothing. There are so many crazy trades that by the 2nd season there are teams with completely different rosters from the previous season. I spend a lot of time doing GM stuff and the large number unrealistic trades kind of ruins it for me.
For you guys who were asking about franchise mode, I don't know everything about it yet, but there are a few things I can tell you. The worst thing about it is that the computer isn't NEARLY stingy enough when it comes to trades. For example, if you want Jamal Lewis (or basically any superstar), you can have him for two first-round picks and some scrub at his position you signed from the free agent list. That's my biggest complaint so far. Also, teams don't distinguish between different teams' picks, i.e. teams don't desire the Cardinals' #1 pick any more than they do the Patriots' #1 pick, Several things about it kick ass. For example, you can trade not just current draft picks, but next year's picks too. When negotiating with free agents their interest will go down a little bit every time you lowball them on an offer, and they'll eventually stop talking to you. If you still want the guy at that point, you can still egregiously overpay him and he'll forget how much he hated you. Also, you can decide free agents' contract structures: frontloaded, ascending, even, descending, and a few others I think. You also decide what percentage of his salary is a bonus. There's also a nice little cap management screen which tells you your three highest-paid players, the cap penalties you're taking for that year, and how far under the cap you are for the next seven years or so. There are new power rankings from ESPN every week you play. In the offseason retirement menu, you can "talk retiring players out of it" with a huge payday. The draft is sort of a love it or hate it thing. They give you four scouting periods of only 9 hours each. You can scout players for one, two, or three hours. One hour gives you a general idea, two gets you more specific stuff, three gets you estimations of their ratings. It's cool, but my problem is that an NFL team should really be able to scout more players than that. One thing I really like is that ESPN has their own mock draft and their own scouting database, so if you don't feel like doing the legwork yourself you can just draft off their board (of couse they'll often be wrong). You can turn on "edit rookies" if you want, which lets you change the ratings of undrafted rookies. So yes, you could make a perfect player and then draft him #1. One thing that is just plain stupid is how little you can sign first round picks for. I used "edit rookie" to make an awesome QB, drafted him #1, then signed him to a 7-year deal worth ONLY $16 MILLION. Yeah, the day the #1 pick signs for $2 million a year... Hope this helps you guys out some.
fry's has it on sale for 17.99 today for those that don't have it. it also has psi-ops for 19.99 and i've heard pretty good things about that as well. i want to get one but i'm not sure which.
Sounds ok to me. Some of the things are still there from a few years ago like the draft things and stuff, and I didn't really have a problem with it. The trading superstars thing kind of bothers me, but then again, I think a lot of games do that. I borrowed last year's Madden and was able to put together a pretty awesome team with mostly just picks and stuff. I still remember my starting five on ESPN Basketball a year ago being Lebron James, T-Mac, Rashard Lewis, Rasheed Wallace and Yao Ming. I guess this could be a problem though if I offer the Falcons two 1st rd picks and Tony Romo for Michael Vick. The contract signing stuff sounds pretty cool as well along with the players who retire also. The weekly planner seems like something I'd REALLY like. I just thought of something. We're not even at training camp, but if I got this game, I'd already have to do roster changes, putting Eddie George on the Cowboys.
I actually thought I'd love the weekly planner too, but when it comes right down to it, that's an obscene amount of work for one game, and I ain't gettin paid for it. Didn't realize just how much was involved with that, so I ended up turning it off. I'm also a Cowboys fan, and there are a few really illogical guys they left out of the game. For example, they have Patrick Crayton, but no Randal Williams. There's no James Whalen, no Tony Romo. Several O-linemen are missing. There are only three safeties on the roster, the starters plus Dixon. No Lynn Scott. You gotta just sign another safety in franchise. And, by far the worst oversight, THERE'S NO BRADIE JAMES! This guy may well be starting, and he's not even in the game. Ugh.
Boy, that sure hurts about the roster. That's one thing I don't like about sports games in that the rosters are always changing, and that requires me to create and edit players like crazy. Now I'll have to look up how tall and how much James weighs as well as how much he can bench and squat. Darn you ESPN! I'm pretty sure Randal Williams was in a previous ESPN FB game, not sure why they would not include him. If I create him, I wonder if I'll go with something like a 95-99 speed like he can ran, or something like a 85-94 speed which he can only seem to do on the field when running routes....I'm thinking 99.
Well let me elaborate. The weekly planner is a neat feature yes. But it feels like it was thrown in and not thought out properly. I searched on gamefaqs.com to find the best weekly routine for my team, the Texans, and every week my defensive line loses ratings. Also in the second year of my franchise Andre Johnson fell to a rating of 70! WTF. David Carr picked up his game but the player progression didn't do it for me. I liked the weekly sportcenters. Overall this game doesn't have the right "feel" to it. The trade glitch as I have seen others complain about on other boards is a bad problem. But again I flat out love the gameplay of a the games. I can tell they focused on it the most this year. Graphics are the best I've seen. It's just the franchise mode didn't do it for me. You might as well rent it, to try it yourself.
I actually went to rent a game today and this games was a game I was thinking about renting, but if it only costs $20, or even $15-16, I feel I might as well buy it. Knowing me, I'd probably like it and get really into it and before I knew it, I'd have late charges for more than $20. So I just ended up getting Psi-Ops so I could throw people's bodies around. Once I get that football fever, I'll probably end up buying it, but as of now, I'd rather wait till I am hearing reports of Quincy Carter being 15 pounds stronger, Julius Jones surprising everyone, and Terrence Newman being a madman during training camp and then I will get the game.
I don't really play franchise mode or anything like that I just play the season through, and even if the game sucked which it doesn't it wouldn't feel like a bad investment
Fry's has it for $15. I am thinking of getting it. Hell for that price, everyone should give it a try. My Dream list of games for 2004: 1. GTA San Andreas 2. Rome: Total War 3. LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth I might give Sims2 a try also...
Does anyone else find it rather difficult to get your passing game going? The pass rush comes in pretty fast and the coverage is pretty tight. It's much easier for me to run than pass.
Yeah. I figure the passing game will come to me in time. Most of my passing yards come from backfield passes to Priest Holmes. The best downfield passing I've had have been slant routes, as the coverage is very tight on recievers down the field 15 yards or so.
Me too. 70% of my passes are on swing passes to my running back. I also end up taking off running w/ my QB more often than I would like, since either a) my receivers aren't open, or b) the pass rush comes in too fast and I don't have time to look upfield at my receivers.
I think Madden guys (like me) are used to the receiver's skill not mattering too much, and maybe that's wrong, but in Madden it was pretty much all about where and when you threw the pass; it didn't seem to matter much if all your receivers sucked. In this game, from observing the computer, the passing game seems much more predicated on lobbing the ball up to a really good receiver (like TO or Moss) and letting him simply beat the coverage. That's one thing I don't like much about this game. The other thing is receivers don't hang onto the ball as well as they do in Madden. Often I'd get my man the ball in the middle of triple coverage, and he'd hang onto it about 2/3 of the time. In this game if you do the same thing, your man might hang onto the ball 1/4 of the time (and I'm mostly throwing to K. Johnson, I would think he could hold onto it better).
u should use the sliders to help u out. adjust the cpu pursuit and blocking I think Madden guys (like me) are used to the receiver's skill not mattering too much, and maybe that's wrong, but in Madden it was pretty much all about where and when you threw the pass; it didn't seem to matter much if all your receivers sucked. In this game, from observing the computer, the passing game seems much more predicated on lobbing the ball up to a really good receiver (like TO or Moss) and letting him simply beat the coverage. That's one thing I don't like much about this game. would u think that if u were in triple coverage u would hold the ball like 2/3 of the time? i think those 3 defenders will going to give u big whammy on ur receivers.
BEST. SPORTS. GAME. YET. I'm amazed at this unbelievable game. I've played plenty of sports games and this is just damn good. I haven't been able to play a game in franchise mode yet because the weekly prep thing is so in-depth. NO reason any football fan shouldn't own this game.
