Features: Online
Online play has quickly become one of the most touted features for football games, year in and year out. Both EA and Sega stepped up their online games this year, but which one stepped it up the most?
ESPN
The big shift in online for ESPN this year is a complete overhaul of the league system. Last year's leagues were pretty bare-bones, but this year's are really quite something. Aside from the ability to track stats and results from a pretty-slick-looking, ESPN-themed Web page, the game hosts live rosters for the purpose of tracking injuries and allowing for trades between teams. Going back to the Web site stuff for a second... Did we mention how slick these features are? You can get full play-by-plays for each game, look up all the player stats you'd expect to see on a real NFL stat-tracking site, and get your message board on with your fellow league members. You've also got the choice between full seasons or simple tournaments for your leagues. It's all really, really cool stuff.
Outside of the leagues, you've got all the usual head-to-head-play stuff, as well as a built-in ESPN messaging system and the ability to download an opponent's user profile in hopes of using it to train against him (more on that on the next page). Since the game launched, it has had its share of issues online, but things seem to be running pretty smoothly now. And for the record, we haven't had a single problem getting into a game online since the most recent fixes went up, nor have we experienced any game glitches.
Madden
Madden is supposedly going to have its own premium pass league system at some point, but as it stands, none of it is currently up and running. Furthermore, it won't have live rosters. It will have most of ESPN's other league features, however. More premium pass stuff includes some exclusive leaderboards, a customizable sports ticker, and so on. But to access any of it, you'll have to enter a credit card number and sign up for the crazy premium service (although it's supposedly still free). Outside of standard head-to-head play (of which there is plenty), you can also play one of Madden's minigames online (more on that on the next page), as well as check out profiles of other users online to familiarize yourself with their play styles and tendencies (not available via download, though). Also worth noting is the fact that Madden is on Xbox Live for the first time this year, and whatever rookie mistakes might have been made in last month's NCAA Football 2005 appear to be absent for Madden. The game plays great over Live.
Which is better?
Despite whatever technical issues may have existed for ESPN (which, again, we never really encountered), the fact remains that ESPN has the best available list of online features available today. All of EA's league stuff is untested and theoretical until it launches "near the beginning of the season," and what ESPN has in terms of leagues is just cooler, features-wise. And while EA's premium stuff sounds cool, it doesn't seem cool enough to really warrant the extra hassle of giving them a credit card number. We'll see when it goes up, but for right now, ESPN is most definitely where the online business is at.
Winner: ESPN NFL 2K5
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