The upcoming dilemma...ESPN vs. Madden

August can't get here quick enough. The coming of Madden has always been a good omen becaue of the return of the NFL. Now I have been a huge madden fan forever, but it has had its flaws. I never really felt ESPN's series had enough to push it over the top, but good god NFL 2k5 looks amazing!!!

At Teamxbox.com they have been doing weekly features on NFL2k5, and its blowing me away. The presentation took a huge leap with virtual chris berman and suzy kolber's. I like that on the xbox berman will actually go over actual highlights from your game thanks to the HD in the xbox.

But what really sold me is the right stick juke system. The one thing that always bothered me about madden was the very rigid control scheme for RB's or after the catch situations. There is a spin button, a juke button, and a stiff arm button. All the moves performed look the same, and timing a spin cutback move is great, but its looks bland after the 15th time.

I just saw a video demo with LT using the right stick juke system...wow. It is so intuitive. Pushing back on the stick =quick stop, pushing up = stuttuer step, pushing L + R jukes, but the great thing is combining those motions with rolls left or right

i.e. i push right, and then roll the stick left, the player will juke right and then spin back to the left and continue going...it just seemed to obvious that this was needed in football games.

ESPN has always had better animations also, both camps EA and Sega are doing big hit tackle buttons, but ESPN is looking mighty fine this year. and for 20 dollars who can pass up that deal.

Madden is going to have numbers online though, which might be the only reason i would buy both games. But wow, ESPN is looking really good.

Yes ESPN NFL 2k5 is selling for 19.99 preorder right now.

I hear rumors also that they may advance the release date to July 28th to get a jump on madden even more so. I am glad someone is finally taking it right to EA's doorstep. LIke i said, I love madden, but its becoming a bit stale. Same animations, same gameplay.

That EA interview is sadly unsurprising. The Madden Series has become the "coke" of video game football. Its got the name recognition and it is giong to hold a large share of the market for a long time. They always state that during the trade shows they go play ESPN and are always surprised and impressed by what is in the new edition which forces them to go back to the drawing board, but I guess this time they are just going to bury ESPN in its advertising wake.

The hit stick really excited me, but EA stated most of their new animations come to play with the hard hits. I do like the emphasis on defense with the defensive hot routes and all, but the game just doesn't change. It is still the online play that makes me think I will buy both, because im pretty sure there will be a ton more Madden players online then there will be ESPN...although interestingly enough, unless I misread this somewhere, ESPN sold better on the xbox than madden 2004.

It is probably xbox screens. I think in the same article that I read about ESPN's better sales on the xbox than Madden they also said that Visual Concepts decided to develop the game for the xbox and port it to the ps2, so they added all those fancy technical terms like triple pass rendering and actually seeing muscles flex and waht not.

Well, its official 19.99, releasing ON AUGUST 10th...the same day as madden.

The video football wars are heating up.

I am really waiting to see what all the gaming sites say about the preview build of Madden.

Most of the big sites dont say anything bad about preview builds, but I want to see how the features and gameplay are going to compare to this preview build of ESPN that has already blown people away. The online options for Madden still haven't been totally revealed, but lets see what happens in the next few weeks.

Madden's graphics seem on par with ESPN's. I thought last years ESPN was a bit lacking compared to madden, but this year they both seem to be on equal footing.

I think the lighting looks fantastic in the ESPN shots...the player detail on the Madden screenshot looks greatly improved from last year. Granted im sure they will both look great, but I have seen a whole lot more of ESPN and I think it does look better, but I think the differences are nothing to get too excited about, they both look great.

hahah, i love you carl. As a madden-ite who is slowly being converted to ESPN, I think the graphics are better for both, but ya you can only do so much in one generation of console lifetimes.

Sega has a new distribution deal with Take-Two interactive. Apparently this move has allowed them to cut the price down. Granted I am sure they hope it will sell them more copies which might recoup any profit loss due to the price cut, but this is obviously a competitive move on sega's part.

Both franchises are going to be around for a while, and I think this is sega's golden opportunity to showcase what they think is the better game to a wider audience. And when/if they convery madden owners, they will more likely then not buy the next year's edition at whatever price it happens to be at.

I read it...I like the defensive intensity applied in the new madden. ESPN seems to be doing some very similar stuff too.

I dont think it should scare anyone away though. It just gives you more control over the defense. I am sure you wont be using it every down, but if you know you are playing against vick, being able to spy him every defensive down no matter what your original play call was, will really help you play a better game.

Or, if you know your d will cover the recievers well every down, yet the offense keeps burning you with flat routes out to a RB or FB, i think you will be happy that you can have a LB cover the flat every down without having to change the entire play.