Madden NFL 2003 - E3 Preview

The gridiron matchups seem poised to boil over this season as Madden?s traditional turf faces serious challenges from relative newcomers like NFL 2K and NFL Fever, but this crowd favorite isn?t just resting on its rep.

In the Huddle
The gridiron matchups seem poised to boil over this season as Madden?s traditional turf faces serious challenges from relative newcomers like NFL 2K and NFL Fever, but this crowd favorite isn?t just resting on its rep. Once again, the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube versions will be largely identical, and in all three, the popular 30-season Franchise mode will now challenge you to scout and select rookies in combines and a four-game preseason. On the mainstream side, a new Mini Camp mode will mimic the excellent mini-games found in Virtua Tennis with fast, fun drills involving pocket pressure on QBs, swatting balls as a DB, blocking, precision field goals, and much more. Alongside new plays like the halfback pass, the create-a-playbook feature will enable you to create detailed offensive and defensive plays from the ground up or just cherrypick your favorite NFL plays to assemble a custom playbook.

On the gameplay side, a faster pace and a slew of new moves should tighten up the action as players will perform gang tackles, stand-still catches, toe-dragging sideline catches, and more, while QBs like Rich Gannon will use their signature sidearm throw. The running game is also being tuned so that the ball carrier will more naturally slip through smaller gaps, and coverage on kick returns is being ramped up as well.

The visuals will sport slick enhancements to the stadium lighting, turf textures, and the detail of the crowd and of the players? faces. EA Sports is also focusing on the audio with the new team of John Madden and Al Michaels, who are backed by a broader set of cues that should make the commentary smarter and more lively. Last but not least, although the PlayStation version will chiefly consist of a roster update, the new GBA version will offer head-to-head link play and a create-a-player feature.

Modem Matchups
Some of the bigger news for this year?s Madden is the addition of online play for the PS2 version. Online support for the Xbox and GameCube versions was undetermined at press time, but it?s still a reasonable possibility for this season. The action will consist of two-player exhibition games and will naturally require the purchase of the PS2 network adapter. Each player?s view will be independent of the other player?s, and a 30-second timer on pausing should help prevent cheating. In future versions, EA Sports plans to add more in-depth features to the online side, such as leagues and franchise play. This season, though, gamers will also be able to reap one of the main perks of online support: Downloadable roster updates will be available on a regular basis.

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