Music Reviews of Videogames, PS2, XBox, Gamecube

Music Reviews of Videogames, PS2, XBox, Gamecube, Dreamcast

Madden 2005 Collector's Edition — PS2 Buy it at Amazon

Buy it from InSound

First as a warning to those of you that have some of the original Playstation 2 systems that were put to market—the 3000 series to be exact—you are guaranteed to have problems with disc read errors with this game and most likely will have problems with most of the new games (especially the EA sports games) in the future. Yes I experienced that and typically try around a dozen times using the old school techniques that got original Nintendo games to work—blowing inside the machine, wiping down the disc, beating on the machine, etc. Anyway if you’re familiar with the Madden series than you’ll be able to jump right in and play. The Collector’s Edition is special because it comes packaged with a massive Madden trivia challenge, older semi-complete Madden games from year’s past, as well as a variety of other nifty add-ons. As in last year, you can play online and get your rosters updated though apparently the online gaming community for ’05 has gotten a facelift to prevent some of the bad online game experiences people had in the past. Also what was disappointing to me was a feature that they removed—the salary cap option in Franchise mode—that’s right folks no more drafting/creating super players to crush the opponents with. Of course I still had no problem creating a team with most of my favorite players. In addition the franchise mode in of itself has gotten a complete overhaul. Now you can read a local newspaper for your team and find out what people (and your own players) are saying in the media as well as a national newspaper. You can also get “e-mails” from your team president, your players, coaches, and even the equipment manager. Also streaming while you make roster updates and franchise maintenance is the “Tony Bruno Show”, a radio show that has a variety of in-depth interviews with actual real coaches. It adds yet another dimension to an immense game. Each year people ponder whether or not it’s worth buying the latest Madden game, and each year EA proves that they will pull all the stops to help make the game more alluring. With the exception of the lame hardware issues, it’s all aces.

- J-Sin

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