Once again, the people over at EA Sports have delivered a beautiful rendition of cyber football on the PS2. Player and coach models look amazing, and so do the many stadiums throughout the Nation Football League. Madden NFL 2004 looks beautiful, and sounds equally as nice.

It seems to me that ever since Pat Summerall and Madden split up, the commentary both in-game and in-life has gotten better. Of course, you'll still be bombarded with stupid Madden-isms... over, and over, and over... well, you get the idea. That aside, Al Michaels sounds better this year, which makes the overall quality of the game's sound go up. Of course, you'll also be subjected to the very nice on-the-field noise that we've grown to love, even down to the play calling checks that frequent real-life. After all, 'If it's in the game...'

Unfortunately, being 'in the game' doesn't always coincide with what's happening in the real world. I know nobody can predict injuries and horrible seasons to real players, but if I was a betting man in Vegas, I'd certainly put a big chunk of cash up AGAINST whoever appears on the cover of the newest Madden game. This year's poor recipient was Michael 'On the rise, then I tripped' Vick. Okay, all kidding aside, when is the 'Madden Curse' going to end??? (Sorry about going off on my Madden-esque tangent... now on with the game...)

When it comes to gameplay, the Madden series always seems to one-up itself year after year. Sometimes the changes are subtle, and then there is Madden 2004. New to the series (and consistent with the EA Sports lineup of games) is the Playmaker control. Now every call is at your command with the Right Analog stick, on both Offense and Defense.

With the Playmaker Control, you'll be able to shout out running or passing plays to allow your defense to cheat in one direction or another. Using this method, you'll be able to drop back in the secondary, or sniff out the ball carrier on a run play, putting an abrupt stop to the current drive. On the other side of the line, you'll now be able to fake out the defense by flipping the direction of run plays, as well as have control over two players at once! If you're running the ball, you can control a blocker to help create a path to the end zone. Likewise, while scrambling with the quarterback, you can control a receiver and help him find the open spot on the field. This is a great addition to the amount of control you can have in-game, but when it comes time to actually do it, it feels like walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time... hard to do for some people.

Another new addition to Madden 2004 is the 'improved' Franchise mode. This adds the option to become the owner of your favorite team, which means a lot of executive decisions, like ...ahem... how much to charge for a hot dog. Okay, since when did Sim City and Madden do some breeding? For Sim-heads like me, it can be fun to tinker as an owner, but the novelty wears off fast, and soon it's back to what made the Madden franchise so great... namely football. And once again, Madden offers Internet play for those on either dial-up or broadband, although I wouldn't recommend dial-up because of the lag. It's just too bad that EA Sports has made the poor decision to offer online play ONLY to PS2 users. (Bad, EA, BAD!)

Other than that, Madden 2004 is just the way you remembered it from last year... a very good football simulation, with very good gameplay elements! It's unfortunate, then, that some of the things I didn't like before have returned. The most noticeable is the inability to make a clean tackle on players. For the life of me, I can't seem to understand how countless players (RBs especially) can continually break two, three... even five tackles at a time before finally being brought down. A true simulation should emulate the real players of the NFL. Sure, they will break tackles for extra yards, but even the best of the best can still be brought down by a single player any given Sunday.

As mentioned above, it's almost as if the computer cheats sometimes, because tackling the ball carrier can often seem impossible. And again, players can make the miracle grabs while hounded by three defenders, but will drop little dump-offs without ever hearing footsteps. But you do have the option to set the difficulty of Madden 2004 to meet your level, and further tweak the computer's AI from there to greater enhance your experience. I will say that the level of the teams does seem on par with reality. It can actually be a struggle to win games with a less-than-stellar team (based on the 2003 stat book), which gives Madden a bit more replay value now that you have to 'try' to win. And if the game does seem a bit too difficult, you can always revisit training camp to get into the flow of game-situation drills on both offense and defense.

In concept, the new Playmaker control with the Right Analog stick is a great improvement to the already great Madden franchise. Unfortunately, it adds to the overall complexity of the controls a lot to get it right. The good news is that for people who are set in their ways (like me) and can't seem to work it quite right, you still have the 'old-school' method of control at your fingertips. What bothers me about this, however, is that if you happen to also play EA Sports' NCAA Football 2004, the controls are slightly different, making it hard to go from one game to the other without having to think about your next button press.

Overall, Madden 2004 makes for yet another great year in football gaming. Nearly every aspect of the game shows why the Madden franchise is still the frontrunner of video sports titles. If you're a diehard football fan, and can afford it, buy both NCAA Football 2004 and Madden NFL 2004. You'll then have the ability to also draft players from college to the pros. If you're only looking to buy one game, go with which you like better, either collegiate or professional. Either way, you'll end up with a great game that will give you countless hours of replay.

NOTE -- Online play is only available in the PS2 version of Madden 2004.