Madden 08 Feels More Like NFL 2K5 |
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Written by Craig Gonzalez
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Friday, 28 December 2007 |
I'm not going to lie, up until about a week or two ago, I hadn't touched Madden 08 in a couple months. The reason why was because we actually got a season going in All-Pro Football 2K8 on this site and it was the first online season that has actually gone off on this site. So, it was fun to be able to get games in all the time, even though I finished the season 4-12, but I digress.
After playing a bunch of APF, I wanted a bit of a different flavor along with NFL players and then the word dropped that ESPN NFL 2K5 was now backwards compatible on the XBOX 360. That gave me new motivation to download some new rosters for the regular XBOX version of NFL 2K5 and start a new season with current rosters. One of the first things I noticed was how much faster it plays than APF 2K8, I didn't even realize the speed difference before. Another thing that was getting to me was the pass defense in the game was rather suspect and I noticed that the WR's actually caught a ton of passes that they actually had no business catching or holding onto. Like, catches in traffic where they would take huge shots just after catching the ball and hang onto it with the greatest of ease. The ESPN presentation was great, of course, but I have to say that even though NFL 2K5 is still a solid game, it actually felt.....dated.
I think the advances of both APF, Madden, and NCAA have finally surpassed what some think was the holy grail of football gaming in NFL 2K5. That being said, I'm actually more or less talking about the advances in the Madden and NCAA engines that really brought me to this writing.
After playing NFL 2K5 and noticed the speed it seemed like Madden 08 for the 360 was the next step up. The animations in Madden 08 were actually more varied than 2K5 and even the running game felt pretty good as well. I'm not going to talk about Madden's presentation due to the fact the there isn't anything worth mentioning as far as that goes. I think it's rather interesting because it seems that 2K's animation system got stiffer with APF while Maddens actually took on more of what NFL 2K5's animations were and I don't think the NFL 2K5 hardcores even realize that.
Sure, there are still differences between the games and Madden has it's issues along with APF and NFL 2K5, but like I said, I noticed a lot of similarities between Madden and 2K5 after taking a bit of a sabbatical between both games. One thing is for sure, though, APF doesn't play like either of them and that is also a good and a bad thing.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 December 2007 )
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