Well we are now smack dab in the middle of preseason football, which means that the start of the regular season is right around the corner. But more importantly, for us gamers, this time of the year means that once again we will be able to live our football fantasies of grandeur via the football titles that are released August through September. And of course when you think about football for the home console systems one of the names that has to come up is John Madden football. This year the guys and gals at EA and Tiburon defiantly had their work cut out for them, not only did they have to come up with a game that was better and more polished than last year's installment. But, they also have some pretty stiff competition in the field this year. Titles like ESPN football, from Sega that has amassed a pretty loyal and rabid fan base and NFL Fever 2004, which has now established itself as a primetime player. All this simply means that the Madden franchise cannot afford to take a step backwards, now that it has true rivals in the field of video football entertainment.

Starting with the graphics department in this year's edition of John Madden football, it is safe to say that this year's Madden is easily the best looking version so far. While Tiburon didn't make any drastic changes to Madden's graphics engine this year, they did touch up the models making them look far more realistic than last year. One of the most noticeable changes they made to their models was the size of their heads; last year models almost had that bobblehead doll look to them, this year the size of the helmets and heads in relation to the models' bodies are dead on. One of the most impressive improvements in this season's Madden football is the amount of new animations that were added. New stiff-arm animations, breaking tackles animations, catching animations, tackling animations, and of course celebration animations are just some of the few that were crammed into Madden this year. The stadiums in Madden look fantastic, and even the crowds look better than they have in other incarnations of John Madden football.

This year Turbine has even nailed the general atmosphere of a football game in the NFL (No Fun League), which unfortunately isn't quite as exciting as a game in the college ranks. They have emulated the crowd extremely well; during the franchise mode how well you do reflects how many people show up to your games, and this reflects how loud the crowd is, and how many people actually show up for your games. The overall presentation has improved, now replays will go on while you are selecting your plays; and the stadiums look like their real life counterparts. Furthermore, the announcer team of John Madden and Al Michaels are pretty good. While John Madden is still quite generic and bland, Al Michaels has a very diverse array of dialog that he can spit out during the season. Still, wait for the day that Tiburon gives Madden the prompter screen marker and let him draw his squiggly lines all over the place, while telling a story about a turkey with six legs; now that would be a realistic simulation of John Madden. For John Madden veterans this year's version of John Madden will feel as comfortable as an old pair of basketball shoes; this is because it plays pretty much the same as last year. For people that have never played Madden, or have not played it in some time, learning how to play John Madden football should be a snap. The very basic controls of John Madden football have not changed at all in this year's version.

What makes this year's Madden so much different than last year's Madden, gameplay wise, is the AI in Madden 2004. This year Madden 2004 is smarter than it has ever been, and isn't quite as "cheap" as it has been in past versions. No more rolling out with your quarterback and having all of the defense's covermen drop coverage because they think you are running, while you bomb it for a 50 yard TD. This year DB stay until you cross the line of scrimmage, linebackers stay in their zone, and for the most part defenses do what they are suppose to do instead of breaking down at the slightest sign of a quarterback scramble.