Features: Franchise Mode

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As the years go by, the popularity of the franchise mode steadily increases. Now, number crunching and team management aren't just for nerdy PC text-based management sim fans anymore! So, who crunches the numbers better?

The draft AI in ESPN NFL isn't quite as smart as it should be.

Trades have to fit in the context of the salary cap in Madden NFL 2005.

ESPN

ESPN NFL 2K5 has definitely seen the biggest leap of the two games in terms of franchise mode quality. The inclusion of signing bonuses and contract structuring has really added a huge amount of depth to salary cap management. AI-controlled teams behave far more realistically now, stocking up on free agents in the offseason and cutting them during training camp and the preseason. The trade logic is better in that teams are no longer more eager to make trades when you add their low-round picks into the mix, and they're less inclined to give up young talents for older players. Teams are still a little weird about how they choose to stock their rosters, though, because they will tend to stock up on positions they're already fairly well set in. Basically, teams tend to draft and sign free agents a little too heavily based on player ratings rather than on player needs.

There's also a whole new game preparation mode where you can try to emulate how teams really prepare from week to week. Everything from how much time your quarterbacks spend in the tape room to how you decide to treat an injured player can be laid out in your preparation design, and if you do it well, your players' stats will benefit from it. The only problem with the mode is that it isn't especially intuitive from the get-go, and it takes a lot of trial and error to learn how to use properly (with an emphasis on the "error"). Nowhere does the game do an especially great job of explaining any good strategies for this mode, so it's totally up to you to figure out what's beneficial and what isn't. The good news is, though, that you can just skip it if you don't care to get this in-depth with your team management.

Madden

The big, new addition to Madden's franchise mode this year is the storyline central feature. Designed to give you more insight into the morale and personalities of the players of the NFL, storyline central features everything from position battles during training camp to a player's satisfaction with his amount of playing time. Here, you can read local and national newspapers to see what the media's picking up on, and you can read e-mails from players, agents, and your staff. Finally, you can check out the EA Sports Radio Show, hosted by Tony Bruno, to get some additional notes from around the league. The Tony Bruno stuff is actually pretty cool, even though it's just pieced together from fully canned dialogue. It still manages to maintain a fairly realistic quality to it, and it does point out some good league goings-on from time to time.

Morale is also tied in to more than just the stuff listed in storyline central. Each and every player now has multiple interests when it comes to a team. When signing free agents, a player may not be interested in your team because of its location and subsequent weather, or he may prefer to play on a grass field at home rather than on turf. The draft also factors into player morale now, because the starters for positions on your team that might be up for grabs are typically adversely affected by the possibility of incoming competition. So, for example, if you're the Raiders, and you want to finally replace that overrated hack of a QB Rich Gannon (and know that Kerry Collins isn't the answer either), you can draft a QB in the first round of the draft. This, in turn, is likely to cause Richie's morale to nose-dive, unless he's so ridiculously overconfident that he can't see the writing on the wall.

Speaking of that yearly player-harvesting event, the franchise mode also features an all-new draft system. You can scout up to 15 players, and you can actually gauge how well you drafted by observing and listening to reactions from the crowd after you've made your picks. Wise draft picks, as well as poor ones, affect all that morale stuff we just mentioned above. That's about it in terms of new features, but there's also all the returning stuff, such as the inclusion of the minicamp mode (which is a training camp of sorts), and the always micromanagement-friendly owner mode. You put all of this together, and you've got a pretty amazing package.

The more AI-focused stuff in Madden's franchise is pretty top quality too. Trades make perfect sense, more often than not, and teams tend to pick up players based on what they need. The one slight irritation is that trading tends to be a little harder than it needs to be, and most teams tend to view a high-round pick as not worth very much at all. Otherwise, the game behaves very, very well.

Which is better?

ESPN does have a couple of things we like better than Madden, such as the new contract structuring system and the fact that the free agent signing period actually appears when it's supposed to--that is, before the draft. Otherwise, however, for as much of a leap forward as ESPN's franchise mode has made this year, Madden still had a pretty big lead on them as of last year, and that lead continues to this day. The storyline stuff, mixed with the new draft and already stellar features from last year's game, make it the ace number one of the bunch. If you're a franchise nut, Madden is where it's at.

Winner: Madden NFL 2005