Madden 2002 NFL: "Madden Madness"

    $41.25 [ Buy Now! ]

There has been plenty of time from the end of last season to the beginning of this one, but I don't think that any fan has been waiting for the start of this season more than I have. I think many hardcore gamers that are sports sims junkies couldn't wait to get their hands on Madden 2002.

I usually get freakish and start fiending for the next release around baseball's All-Star break. Every year I think that the programmers are just going to update the team rosters and give us a really cool intro. The truth is, EA Sports has improved their product every year. This year is no exception.

I recently switched to playing on the pc from the playstation. Oh Boy!!! The bunch over at EA Sports have converted me.

Graphics:
EA has spent some time and money putting together a new graphics engine. The graphics used in this game are getting pretty close to looking at a game on Sunday afternoon. From the players to the fans in the stadium, realism is in, and it looks good on the pc. There are still some buggy moments when two players seem to join as one. I'm sure that will be taken care of with a patch release (hint).

Wanttaplayability (my own word):
You can create your own team and take 'em to any NFL stadium and dog the opponents. You control everything: height, weight, skin tone, jersey number, skill set, the works. You even get to design your team uniform and import your own team logos to be used in the game. You can spend plenty of time with that alone.

Having played a bit of football, I can honestly say I'm glad I'm not a pro. The collisions in this game are way to close to being the real deal. I had a quarterback get smacked around by two defensive ends, he left the game with a migraine headache.

Playing in the great outdoors has been covered in great detail. The time of day changes, while you're playing the game! Rain, fog and snow are constantly changing. No longer are you likely to see rain from kickoff the to the end of the game. It still happens from time to time, but not likely.

EA Sports has been a trailblazer in the sports game industry. I got hooked on Madden football way back in the late 80's. I look forward to getting restless in mid June or July, knowing that EA Sports will pull out all the stops for their next release.

Minimum System Requirements:
CPU: 333 MHz or faster Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-2 processor
HARD DRIVE SPACE: 40 MB free hard disk space plus space for saved games (additional space required for Windows swap-file and Direct X 8.0 installation)
RAM: 64 MB RAM
GRAPHICS: 16 MB video card with DirectX 8 compatible driver
CD-ROM: Speed 8x or faster CD-ROM/DVD-ROM

Madden 2002 is available now at Gameport for $41.25!