Madden 2002 (1 Viewer)

[Camp]

To those of you who got it:
What's better than 2001? I know you can build your own team but I'm more interested in gameplay and graphical upgrades. I hated the always shiny helmets in 2001...while that's a very small gripe I hope they "dirtied" them up a bit this time around.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I only had 2002 for the PSX1, so I can't fairly compare.
But upon playing 2002 today I was struck by the feeling of "OH MY GOD"
If 2001 was this much more awesome on PSX2, I didn't realize it.
WIDESCREEN SUPPORT including a new widescreen camera angle to go with it. Nice coaches animations, great, smooth player animations.
There was one play where I threw to Harrison into double coverage in the end zone (incomplete). THE REPLAY...remember the "Matrix" gimmick from the Super Bowl. THAT'S WHAT THE GAME SHOWED ME. Not me doing the replay, that was the regular replay. Followed the ball towards Marvin's hands, zoomed on the fly, then suddenly spun around the almost frozen action and continued on.
This game is about 2 generations from simply being real football. I am blown away. Maybe 2001 was like that too, but this plays so smooth and looks so lifelike. Lots of great evasion animations that I hadn't seen before.
I got tackled when a guy grabbed my foot on a kickoff return. Wilkins tried to hop out of it but fell. Really, really amazing stuff.
I would call this easily the Gran Turismo 3 of football. I will have to check out the other versions to see if they are this realistic. It sure did seem a lot better than 2001 that I played at demo stations for the PSX2.
And again...NFL in ANAMORPHIC!!
Oh, and NFL Europe teams, but maybe 2001 had them too.

 

[Camp]

Thanks for the review...the replay feature sounds very cool.

And again...NFL in ANAMORPHIC!!

"anamorphic" isn't exactly the case...widescreen yes, but only film to video transfers can be "anamorphic"

 

[Seth Paxton]

No, anamorphic in the video sense, meaning intended to be scanned over a 16x9 space. Anything video can be Video Anamorphic, not just film source. As opposed to anamorphic lenses used with film.
Anyway, more cool stuff I've noticed.
Kicking - you can adjust your aim before the kick. This might have been in 2001, but I didn't notice.
Movement - Lineman shuffle over in their 4 point stance when you shift them. Very cool looking.
Lots of tackle animations, very situational dependent and appropriate. Wrap ups on the leg, ankle, arm, all sorts of tackle breaks as well. DBs reach in for the ball, etc. The animations are so good that you will be arguing facemasks, ball placement, holding, etc. It appears to be that good from what I've played.
Helmets have been shiny so far, haven't played in mud yet though.
OKAY, extra cool things...during the player intros, among other times, check out the jumbotron displaying exactly what the "camera" is showing.
Stadium announcer can be heard asking for the "driver of the car with license plate #...", along with various other things including stadium music. And Leslie Visser gives us interesting sideline updates based upon the game flow.
A play went out of bounds toward one of the flagmen. He DROPPED THE MARKER!!!!, started shuffling out of the way, THEN, get this, LOST HIS BALANCE AND FELL AWKWARDLY BACKWARD ONTO HIS BUTT.
Talk about details. Stuff like that almost makes you forget it's a game.

 

[RicP]

Seth,
I think your enthusiasm is awesome.
But virtually everything you talk about was in Madden 2001 for the PS2. So us old hat Madden Veterans will be a little less Jazzed about the same graphics as last year and will be looking for a little more in the way of gameplay.
Last years game got super easy by Season 9 or so and I stopped playing after I won 5 Super Bowls in a row.
I'm hoping for a more intelligent (not cheap) CPU defense this year. Last year the 4th Quarter "catch-up" code was a little aggravating, and the cheap fumbles and what not when the CPU was losing.
I've only played 2 games so far on 2002 but I hope to hit it heavy this weekend.
------------------
http://www.ricperrott.com
Ric Perrott - My DVD's

 

[Camp]

No, anamorphic in the video sense, meaning intended to be scanned over a 16x9 space. Anything video can be Video Anamorphic, not just film source. As opposed to anamorphic lenses used with film.

No. I still think that's wrong. Anamorphic refers to an intentional distortion of an image (in terms of DVD, the distortion is corrected by stretching the image). Widescreen video games are programmed to use your screen's real estate in a specific shape...there is no distortion anywhere in the process.
I don't mean to argue that the word "animorphic" might have taken on alternative meanings -but those meanings are technically incorrect.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Hmm, well Ric I'm not surprised, which is why I was qualifying my comments regarding 2001. I couldn't get a PSX2 in time to get going on 2001, so I picked up the PSX1 version which was nothing compared to the PSX2 version of 2002 I'm playing.
Obviously I can't comment on playability since I have weeks or months to get a good evaluation of that.
But I likes so far. Guess I really missed out on 2001 last year. I shoulda pre-ordered a PSX2.

 

[Graeme Clark]

Here is a review from someone that's been playing the game for weeks.

That was the biggest and most obvious concern regarding last year's game. The kick-off bug, along with the sub-par (some gamers suggested even atrocious) artificial intelligence, and the ability to run the ball at will with even the most futile team like the San Diego Chargers was something that needed to be fixed.
After playing Madden 2002 over the last six weeks, I can honestly say that the artificial intelligence and kick-off problems, as well as many other issues I had with last year's game have been fixed. The nucleus of Madden 2001 was solid, and knowing that Sega and NFL 2K2 was coming gunning for them made Tiburon step it up.

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[PaulN]

Graeme
I loved the verdict in his review:
"Madden NFL 2002 -Our Rating: 99%- Reviewed By: Aaron Hazen
*****THE CASE FOR -Kick off/ball recovery glitch has been fixed. Great new gameplay modes. Look at those facial expressions and replays! Very current rosters.
****THE CASE AGAINST - Will make other developers work harder on their football games. Well, it's bad news for them anyway.
***** THE VERDICT --
They didn't rest on the success and make subtle changes to last year's game. They cleaned house, lifted up the cushions on the couch, sandblasted the bathtub and took a toothbrush to the grout on the porcelain tiles with some new game play
modes, fixing vital areas, and yes, improving the graphics.
I think the game has been greatly tweaked and I LOVE the new widescreen mode - maybe the correct term isn't Anamorphic , but maybe widescreen mode for 16x9 TV's. It looks great! It is full widescreen at full resolution , no cheap stretch with loss of resolution. After playing the widescreen mode on my 34" 16X9 TV and then going back and playing a 4x3 mode I can't believe how much more depth of field there is with the 16X9 mode. Paul
[Edited last by PaulN on August 25, 2001 at 06:18 PM]
[Edited last by PaulN on August 25, 2001 at 06:20 PM]

 

[Michael D. Bunting]

I fired up Madden 2002 earlier tonight to check out how it looked on my newly purchased 16:9, the Toshiba 57HX81.

I set the Camera Angle to WIDESCREEN and the other option (can't remember the name) to WIDESCREEN as well.

To my suprise, when I started the game it wasn't in Widescreen? I then changed the PIC MODE on my Toshiba to the following: FULL - TW1 - TW2 - TW 3 - Normal, and still no Widescreen playback of Madden 2002.

before I had my Toshiba..I had a 4:3 Sony RPTV and when I set Madden in Widescreen mode it worked.

Anyone have any clues to what I'm doing wrong?

I'm gonna tackle this problem again tomorrow - I didn't have much time to troubleshoot earlier tonight.

 

[Dean DeMass]

Since all reviews here are glowing, I'll throw in mine.
I gave up on the Madden series about 4-5 years ago. Every new version was a rehash with updated rosters. Money plays always were abound and I could go undefeated all the time. I picked up my PS2 about two months agao and I needed a football game. SEGA Sports' NFL2K2 was a bit away so I figured I would give Madden 2002 a chance. I played the hell out of for a couple of days straight and I don't think it is a horrible game, but it is far from being a good game. The players all look like little kids. The commentary is just plain bad, the tackle animations are few and far between (most of the time the defender just bounces the ball handler backwards, not many wrap-up tackles), you can throw the ball deep at will, and there were just too many spectacular catches in double coverage. Also, while running, there was no medium, you could either run at will, or holes in the line would constantly close before you took one step, and this was against bad run defenses. The speed of the game is way too slow for my taste.
Now for the positives. The playbooks are good and deep. I like the ref and coach animations. The graphics are pretty, but the player models suck. The facial animations are great, but it appeared that many of the faces are a bit generic. The mometum based running is nice, but I just wished the game moved faster. Everything seems to be in slow-motion. The Dynasty mode is by far the best in a console football game. Stat tracking is great as well. However, the most important part of the game is not in the Positive section and that is the gameplay.
So on an end note, I traded Madden 2002 in for a copy of Twisted Metal: Black and waited patiently for NFL2K2. ALl I have to say about NFL2K2 is that it will not be going back to EB anytime soon.
-Dean-

 

[Carlo_M]

Did they take away Custom Playbooks from the console versions? I played 2001 & 2002 on PC. That was the biggest negative was that they removed Custom Playbooks (where you can select what offensive and defensive sets/plays you have access to). Now you have to find one of the NFL coaches playbooks that you like, or five "standard" playbooks called Run Heavy, Run Balance, Pass Heavy, Pass Balance & West Coast.
I loved custom playbooks because I like to run tosses ans sweeps as well as have a shotgun formation and I haven't found all of those plays in one coaches' playbook.
As far as the announcer saying "the driver of a black BMW, license plate #, your lights are on..." that was present in EA Sports' NCAA Football 1999. It did add a little humor. Along with "If you are in Section 12, Seat 5, you have won...absolutely nothing..."

 

[pitchman]

Michael, did you change the PS2 Control Panel setting for TV size from 4:3 to 16:9? I'm pretty sure you have to do that as well.

Gary

 

[Nathan A]

Back to the question-

I had 2001 for PS2 and played it a lot. I picked up 2002 for Gamecube and have played about four or five games so far. Here are the differences that I've noted-

The kicking has changed. Instead of just one meter (power/distance), you must hit the button again at the right time for accuracy (just like video golf games- if you hit it too early or too late you'll shank or hook the kick). I personally don't really like it, but those who thought it was too easy before will be happy.

They fixed the route based passing!!! It actually works now. If you time it right, the QB will throw the ball where the route leads the receiver- extremely useful for out routes, etc.

Tackle animations have probably doubled. There are many more and they now almost always make sense (the momentum of each character and where they make contact determines where and how the ballcarrier falls- this was sometimes the case in 2001, but it's much improved for 2002).

Not all receptions are one handed. There are a couple of new catching animations that make it more realistic.

They got rid of the atrocious rap songs during menus.

Character models have improved- faces (and facial expressions) are more varied. Plus, create a player probably has hundreds of faces you can choose (I can't ever seem to find me, though...).

My main gripe so far is that fumbles seem to be more common than before, but only for me (the CPU never fumbles). In my last game (me- Falcons, playing at Carolina) my players managed to fumble the ball five times (Carolina recovered all of them). Two were off kickoff returns. Two were from QB scrambles (no, not Chandler- I subbed Vick in. And what was EA thinking when they rated his speed- 89?? He's probably THE fastest man in the NFL), and one was from the RB. NONE of them were from big hits, just when they were running the ball, they scraped up against a defender and lost it.

Hope this helped.

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Nathan, how are the overall graphics of Madden on GCN? Does it look just like on PS2? Are the better or worse?

Thanks

 

[Nathan A]

Jeffrey,

I just put in 2001 and did a side by side comparison. Just remember that I'm comparing 2001 PS2 against 2002 GC (2002 PS2 may look as good as GC...I don't know).

The graphics at first look very similar- it's hard to notice much of a difference (although you can see a slight improvement immediately, it just seems minimal). A side by side comparison reveals a lot of improvement.

Textures are improved- both on the field itself and on the players. Faces look at least five times as good (to me). In 2001 they were plain, expressionless, and redundant. In 2002 they possess much more detail, have more personality, and are much more varied.

Many more animations have been added. One's I've particularly noticed are the tackle animations and receiving animations. They make it look more realistic.

2002 has a much, much smoother look. Jaggies aren't near as apparent as PS2 2001. In 2001 the players have extremely jagged edges that stand out against the field.

That's about all I can think to say. I hadn't touched 2001 in a while, but when I just put it in I was surprised at how it looked...ugly. 2002 is a definite leap forward graphically. It's not very noticeable at first glance, but if you compare them you should see a lot of differences.

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Thanks a lot Nathan! Can't wait until I get this game!

 

[ScottH]

The biggest difference for me between Madden 2001 and 2002 is the passing game. In 2001, I could complete a pass on the hardest difficulty level with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. Okay, maybe not my hands tied behind my back, but my point is, it was too easy to complete a pass by letting the computer control the receiver. In 2002, you almost HAVE to take control of the receiver to give yourself a better chance of catching the ball. This was a dealbreaker for me and the reason I despised Madden 2001. Madden 2002 is probably the best football game to date.