I cannot believe that you go like 15 seasons on the franchise... thats HUGE man.

lol, it isn't hard when you get in the swing of things... I just love managing a team, and I love playing the game. This year I'm gonna move up the minutes and move the diffuculty level up from the second hardest to the hardest (All Madden Methinks)

I also love NCAA too though, and importing draft classes adds to the fun imo.

I start off on NCAA, create a QB, and play his whole college career, at every recruit time I create 3 incoming freshmen (who I never end up being able to pull to my school)... I try to remember thier names and follow thier stats in college. When my QB graduates I take him to Madden... then I play his NFL seasons, and after every season, I go back to NCAA, sim a year, create some incoming freshmen, then go back to Madden, imprort the grad class, and fix up my team.

I just keep going and going, and never get tired of it... I tried to do it with NBA 2k3 and NFL 2k3, but Sega screwed up the import feature REALLY bad.

Woah... I never knew you could import.. . THat is sweet.

ANd how many hours do you spend on this? Must be over 4 hours.

Hmm, lets see, every game is 20 mins on the clock, but you know how an NFL game gets streched out because of the stop-and-go clock)... so we'll say 30 mins per game

On NCAA I play my created guy's years, that's 13 games per season (4 seasons). So that's 26 hours, and that's not even counting the time I spent sitting there recruiting.

Then on Madden, I get 15 years in with my QBs, and that's on average 19games per year... that's 142 hors 30 mins, not counting recruiting.

So, in all I'm playing more than 168 hours on this game... the thing is, I play damn near year around. somewhere in the leauge of 350 games.

and people wonder why I can't get used to NFL 2k3 ;)

IGN's info:http://cube.ign.com/articles/401/401362p1.html

"May 08, 2003 - After NCAA Football 2003 introduced several major new features last year to boost its profile in the football videogame world, Madden NFL 2004 is very deliberately carrying the lion's share of enhancements and improvements this year. If Madden already wasn't popular enough, last year's explosion into America's living rooms by way of Monday Night Football merely set the stage for this 2004 edition and EA's Tiburon development studio appears ready to answer the call. Nothing has been taken away from the Madden 2003 feature set and new graphics touches, new gameplay mechanics (hello right analog stick!) and a truly exhaustive franchise mode that makes you coach, general manager and owner of your favorite NFL team.

Both IGN and EA posed the question of "How can the right analog stick be implemented in a football game in a way that's both clever and entertaining?" Good thing for you the development team at Tiburon had the answer and ignored our lame request to make the right stick a freestyle celebration control stick. The freestyle control system allows you to quickly change parts of a play before the snap with a quick flick of the right analog stick. On a running play you can change the direction of the running play (including the handoff) without flipping the entire play on an audible and letting the defense know that you're going the other way. The blockers will change the direction of their block but the receivers will stay in their positions so that an opposing player won't know what you're doing. On a pass play you can use the right analog stick to change the route of your primary receiver. He won't change is position but his route change will be contextual and within the framework of the offense. You'll still have hot routes to send your guys on streaks, hooks, ins, outs and slants but flicking the right stick will change his route from a hook to a curl for example. It will be something that won't run him into another receiver's route but at the same time will allow you to exploit some weakness in the defense that you notice when you come to the line of scrimmage.



During a play the right analog stick will be used to give instructions to players on the fly. When the running back gets the ball on a running play he'll be able to tell his blockers, especially on a run to the outside, which defender to block when there's more than one approaching him. In this way you won't have to rely on the blocking AI to block the correct guy anymore. If you know you can shake the nearest defender yourself and want to set up your blocker to hit the next man down the field you merely lean the right stick in the direction of the far defensive player. On a pass play, you can tell receivers to break off their routes and break in, out, deep or comeback on a hook. It's designed to work best on a rollout play where your QB is scrambling towards the sideline. In the event that you're out on the fringe and you have more than one receiver on that same side of the field, they'll all break their routes according to your wishes. For all run-of-play freestyle moves, the players' field of vision will determine how instructions are given. You'll be able to see receivers looking back at the QB at some point during the route and at this point they'll be able to receive instructions to break off their routes. Running backs and quarterbacks will point and gesture as they give their teammates commands on the fly.

Draw plays and play action passes will be more effective in both head to head and CPU games with the new camera system that helps sell the fake. On a draw, the camera will pull back after the snap to show passing icons and the width of the field thereby throwing off the defense. The player will have to know that he's called a run and be ready to take control of the RB. It's the same thing on a play action pass. The camera will stay in close to the line of scrimmage after the snap and the ball possession icon will pop up under the running back to sell the fake and it's up to the controlling player to remember that he's called a pass play. The effect is strong enough that the game's AI is fooled just as well as a human player would be. The last impressive bit of camera work comes from the rollout camera. Rather than losing sight of the opposite side of the field when you roll your QB to one side or the other, the camera now pivots on an axis that appears to be defined by the QB and the spot of the snap and will continue to show the opposite side of the field even as you drift closer to the sideline. The same technique is being used in NBA Live 2004 to keep the action on the entire court in front of you, or field in this case, visible throughout the play.



The game's new post-play interface instantly brings up play selection menus and controls on the bottom third of the screen while replays, celebrations and other cutaway shots run in the middle third of the screen with info and score running on the top third. This will facilitate faster play-calling especially in a tight game where you may want to quickly sub-in new players using the brand new package system. Based on real NFL team playbooks, different teams will have different packages that bring in a handful of new players on both offense or defense without having to pause for the substitute menu. The players in the packages can be substituted and saved to your profile, but the packages themselves are tied to specific playbooks. You can change the personnel in Pittsburgh's five receiver package but you can't turn that group into your jumbo package unless the Steelers actually use one. Not every team puts a tight end in the backfield but if that's your thing, you'd better be using Cleveland's playbook .

The Mini-Camp mode (which is still a standalone mode) was so popular that this year Madden 2004 introduces Training Camp to be used in conjunction with the game's Franchise mode. The passing, blocking, running and kicking drills you'll remember from Mini-Camp can be used before a season to boost the attributes of your offensive and defensive players. You can only add to your players' abilities and never have to worry about losing attribute points because you suck at the pass accuracy drill. You will, however, be risking points you've accumulated as you try to take your player to the next level of a particular drill. Just because you aced that first pocket presence drill doesn't mean you'll want to risk losing all of those points by going for the big points awaiting you on the second pocket presence drill.



The Franchise mode includes a new, fully functional trading block where you can show the league the guys you don't want anymore. The difference here is you even get to set the parameters for what you want in return so you don't have to waste hours navigating menus to find potential trade partners only to be shot down repeatedly. Once you've selected the players on your team you want to dump, they're given a letter grade based on age, salary, ability and a hidden potential rating. You then tell the trading block what position, minimum rating or even draft pick you want in return. Instantly you'll see offers from other teams, if any and you can pull the trigger on your trade right then and there.

You have the option of running Ownership mode along with your Franchise mode or you can even macromanage your team without playing a single game. As owner you'll be responsible for the financial health of your team and will be able to set prices on concessions and on the various seating areas including luxury boxes. You'll even get stadium/city specific concessions like garlic fries at whatever they're calling the San Francisco 49ers stadium these days. Things like managing the salary cap will become even more involved as an owner since you'll be dealing with real world numbers and cap considerations. We weren't given too much detail on just how deep Ownership mode will be, but we know you'll be able to have rivalries with other NFL teams, run a fan appreciation day and you'll even be able to get fired for running your team into the ground. You might even be able to move your franchise from one city to another and build your football empire there.



Visual enhancements to Madden 2004 includes new player models and fresh tackle and blocking animations. Tattoos, long hair and dreadlocks will all be seen along with four different types of helmet for the truly obsessed football fan. Receivers will adjust to make difficult catches and ball carriers will stumble through arm tackles and lean into oncoming tacklers. Defenders will fight through blockers with more ferocity and fresh animations and offensive linemen will work to keep defensive linemen in front of them just like they teach you in high school.

There are other improvements to Madden 2004 that are definitely worth noting. For PS2 owners online gaming will be cheat-proofed and there will be persistent online tournaments. Voice communication, messaging and separate lobbies for veteran and rookie Madden players will enrich the online experience considerably. Still no online play for Xbox owners through Xbox Live, but, drum roll please Xbox owners are getting custom soundtracks!. GameCube owners can look forward to some kind of compatibility with the GameBoy Advance. Madden Moments will put players in historical situations from the NFL's past and you'll have to come out on top to unlock some goodies. The Raiders-Patriots snowbound playoff game from January 2002 is sure to be a contender there. The Play Now exhibition mode will actually draw all of the matchups from that particular week of the NFL season if you've got your system's date and time set accurately. Pick the Eagles in Week 4 and you'll be getting the Bills as your default opponent. You can switch your opponent yourself which is especially helpful when your team is in a bye week.



IGN will have much more on Madden NFL 2004 in the next 10-12 weeks because there's a whole lot of good stuff to get into and you know we're the ones to give it to you."

Shaping up to be nice.

Might as well add this:

May 08, 2003 - Beginning with NCAA Football 2004, Electronic Arts will begin its EA Sports Bio initiative that will keep track of every minute of every 2004 EA Sports title and reward gamers for accumulated play time and successes. Your success and total playtime in all EA Sports games will cause your particular bio to "level up" as you continue and as your bio reaches specific milestones such as level 9, 25 or 76 you will automatically unlock rewards in various 2004 EA Sports games. EA Sports fans will remember how simply having a saved game on a memory unit or hard drive from another 2003 EA Sports game would instantly unlock rewards in a new, recently purchased EA Sports title. The EA Sports Bio works on the same principal, but with a lot of extra depth this time around.
The entire 2004 lineup of EA Sports games including Madden NFL 2004, NHL 2004, NBA Live 2004 and others will all work with the EA Sports Bio. Electronic Arts hasn't revealed a list or schedule of what accomplishments and playtime milestones will unlock which rewards in which games, nor do we expect them to. However, we do know that the EA Sports Bio rewards will be exclusive. That is, you will still have the same ways of unlocking secrets and cheats by way of Madden Cards or other conventional unlocking methods, but you will have to log time and kick some ass in other EA Sports games to get unique EA Sports Bio rewards.

So while you will have no problem unlocking the '83 Raiders in Madden 2004, unlocking something like --and this is pure speculation-- the Billy "White Shoes" Johnson throwback jersey might require you reaching level 37, which would require some Herculean task like winning 10 Stanley Cups in NHL 2004 or several hundred hours of playtime in NCAA March Madness 2004. It is in this way that serious Madden fans will be able to reap many but definitely not all rewards for playing excessive amounts of Tiburon's powerful franchise football game. You'll have to broaden your horizons at least a little bit.

To keep the playing field as level as possible, rewards for games released later in the year like Tiger Woods 2004 will require higher EA Sports Bio levels. This means that just because you log 18,000 hours in NCAA Football 2004 beginning in July, you won't automatically have all kinds of goodies waiting for you when you rip open Tiger 2004 and throw it in your system this November. Tiger Woods may not yield any unlockables until your EA Sports Bio reaches level 89 or some other high threshold of playtime or success. Even if you have reached that level by the time Tiger comes out, you'll only be getting the lowest level of goodies for your new golf game with many more to come as long as you continue to log time across all of the 2004 editions of EA Sports games.

Leveraging the popularity of games like Madden and Tiger Woods to get people to play other EA Sports games by offering rewards for playing all of them could put quite a bit of pressure on other first and third party sports videogame publishers. Gamers who can be swayed away from this company's basketball title or that company's golf game will now have added incentive to make the switch to EA Sports, who already make several of the most popular sports games around.

IGN will have more on the EA Sports Bio, but we'll most likely be dishing it out in the various mailbag sections across the site. We know that just because you're reading this, that doesn't mean you're paying attention

good, now all my time will pay off ;)

While playing Madden aginst a friend or online can by very fun, playing an entire season or more aginst a computer opponent is boring, not to mention downright repetetive after a few games . This is just IMO...

*waits for bashing*

I hope they make additions to the play editor, as that is the feature that has kept me playing 2003 for so long. I've creted 4 offinsive and 3 defensive playbooks so far, but some og the limitations irk me.

1) No reversals

2) No HB passes.

3) No short traps for running plays (ex. trapping plays)

4) No line or LB shifting on defense with created plays.

If they add these featurs to the play editor, I'll never stop playing the game.

It sounds like NHL 2004 is getting a gameplay overhaul...I'm soooo excited. EA's most non updated sports game has to be their NHL series. What was different from 02 to 03? A new game breaker cam and some bad puck pick up physics. It sounds like 2004 will be a lot more of a simulation game...which rocks.

I just thought i'd throw in this NHL thing cuz ya, i'm a hockey fan. Sorry. continue your football talk.