First of all, I have to comment on all of the remarks people have been making lately about sports video games being carbon copies of the past year's game (with maybe a few tweaks here and there and a new cover athlete being the only differences). They first discover a game that they like, give it 5 stars; then 3 years later the same franchise hasn't evolved enough for their liking, so they give 2 stars to virtually the same game that they were giving 5 stars to a few years ago. The people who complain about this "lack of innovation" issue sound like they were born yesterday. This is how it's ALWAYS been with EA Sports games. It was the same thing back in the days of the Super Nintendo, when I was in high school. I remember remarking to my buddies back then how similar Madden '95 was to Madden '94, and how similar NBA Live '96 was to NBA Live '95. There seems to be this growing myth that EA used to be this great, innovative company, and now they are just lazy bums who rest on their laurels and put minimum effort into their games these days. Well, news flash people--it's always been like this, aside from maybe a small handful of pivotal moments, like when their NBA series changed from "Showdown" in '94 to "Live" in '95, or when Madden went from PS1 to PS2. If you've been playing sports videogames for the past 20+ years like I have, you EXPECT this year's game to greatly resemble last year's, and the one from the year before that, etc. I thought everybody knew that. You just buy it if you want the roster update--that's it, end of story. If you don't care about updated rosters, don't buy it. Simple! Spend your money on a non-sports game. But enough ranting from me; on to the review: Do you miss the glory days of Madden from back in the '04-'07 years when the PS2 reigned supreme and Franchise Mode was king? Well, believe it or not, that style of Madden is still alive and well on the PS2--it's just flying under the radar in the shadow of the HD consoles. Personally, I loved the old Maddens from a half decade ago, and I know that many people share my sentiment on this. I decided to retire my PS2 and jump on the next-gen bandwagon back in 2008. In fact, I bought a PS3 primarily so that I could play two games- Metal Gear Solid 4, and Madden in HD. Well, MGS4 rocked, but Madden '09 just plain sucked on the PS3. In fact, I disliked it so much that I sold it after two days and bought the PSP version instead, since it was much more similar to the last-gen Maddens of yesteryear that I knew and loved. A year went by, I read some favorable reviews of Madden '10 for the PS3, and I decided to give my beloved football franchise another chance. Madden '10 was definitely improved over Madden '09, but the Franchise Mode was still very spartan and unsatisfying. The thing that made Franchise Mode so fun, satisfying, and addictive--player progression--was almost nonexistent. Now I'm all for game developers trying to evolve game franchises and try out new ideas, but they've simply ripped the heart and soul out of Franchise Mode on the HD consoles. Offline Franchise on the PS3 and 360 is tedious, not fun. All the emphasis is on online features, which I (and tons of other Madden players) couldn't really care less about. The old Franchise Mode was almost like a Football RPG. You were constantly "leveling up" your players and tweaking their stats with the Training Camp mini-games, etc. My favorite weeks of the regular season were 5, 11, and 17, because that is when player progression was updated. All of that has been scrapped on the HD consoles in favor of a system that is supposed to be more realistic. Well, it may be technically more realistic, but if I want ultra-realistic football, I'll watch it on TV on Sunday (which I do). Madden is a video game, which is never going to be realistic. Video games are supposed to be fun, and the old Franchise Modes kept you coming back for more--they tremendously upped the replay value. Thus, I sold my PS3 a few months ago, and have gone back to the good ol' PS2 for my Madden Fix. I bought Madden 11 on opening day this past week, and it has not disappointed me. The old Franchise Mode that we all remember from 5 years ago on the PS2 is still alive and well. There have been a few features subtracted from PS2 Madden, but there have been a few improvements made as well. The Tony Bruno Show has been gone for a few years now, but that's about the only thing I miss at all (but the TB show started to get annoyingly repetitive after awhile anyway). Other than that, Franchise Mode is nearly identical to how it has been for years on the PS2. Nearly every feature you remember from "05, '07, etc. is still there. On the gameplay side of things, Madden '11 is actually better than Maddens from 5 years ago. The biggest improvement is the Custom HIt Stick, which allows you to map just about any Highlight Move you want to wherever you want to on the right analog stick. I absolutely love this feature. Other notable additions in recent years on the PS2 have been the ability to Ice the Kicker, the God of War-style Fight-For-the-Fumble minigame, and player hot-and-cold streaks (which is surprisingly cool if you like an added amount of strategy). Also, it seems that the computer AI, while still far from perfect, has been improved a little bit this year. Before, (at least for me), All-Pro was too easy while All-Madden was frustratingly difficult (I always play as the Lions, which is a challenge). This year, the All-Pro difficulty seems to have been ramped up a little. And of course, the Madden-and-Michaels commentary team from the old days has been scrapped for the much less dry and more energetic duo of Chris Collinsworth and Gus Johnson. The commentary is still noticeably uneven in vocal inflection at times, but it gets the job done and sounds fresh after so many years of recycled Maddenisms and Al Michaels comments. Collinsworth's smart-alecky sarcasm and Johnson's rowdy enthusiasm are a nice change of pace from Madden & Michaels. The visuals get the job done as well--it's not HD, but it still looks crisp and clean on my 42" plasma via PS2 component cable. All in all, this year's version of Madden on the PS2 is just as good, if not better than PS2 versions of Madden from this past decade. Aside from the removal of a few frivolous bells and whistles (read: Tony Bruno Show), this year's version is just as good as (if not slightly better than) versions from yesteryear on the PS2. The Franchise Mode is just as good, and the gameplay and AI have been tweaked for the better. I actually went back and played a game on Madden '05 for the sake of comparison, and found I wouldn't want to go back to the control scheme they had back then (3-click kicking, no "R3" button for hard counts, etc.). The control setup they have now feels much better. Madden '11 on PS2 blows Madden '05 out of the water in control scheme. The only thing that it's missing in '11 is online play, but let's face it--the PS2's online capabilities were never very good to begin with. This "last-gen" version of Madden 11 is simply being ignored and/or bashed because the PS2 is yesterday's news and the technology-chasing tech freaks (you know, the people who think that something from two years ago is "old") are annoyed that the PS2 is still around. It's getting the cold shoulder because it's not cool or cutting-edge anymore. In summary, if you want online play, this is not the version for you. If you're a videophile/graphics snob, you're probably too cool to be reading this review in the first place, and wouldn't be caught dead buying the PS2 version. If you're like me, however, and like to play offline Franchise mode with the occasional local (same-couch) offline two-player matchup, this version is superior to the HD versions in more than a few ways. Plus it's $20 cheaper.
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