X-Box - best Franchise Mode football/basketball/hockey/baseball games? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

FatherMukada · 10-25-2004, 07:20 PM

Just wanted to see if anyone else here is into using sports sims for purely a "franchise" type experience, it's all I get them for. Was thinking of picking up the new Madden, but is it the best of the year from just a franchise mode point of view? How about for hockey, baseball and basketball? Especially in baseball I can't find one I really like on X-Box and ended up using OOTP baseball on the PC this year, which is great but without graphics.

dksuddeth · 10-26-2004, 07:12 AM

Nascar Thunder 2004 has a great career mode thats pretty realistic. I thought that 2005-chase for the cup would be much better as far as the team ownership concept goes but its not. Its great from a drivers perspective though.

aerozeppelin · 10-26-2004, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatherMukada

Just wanted to see if anyone else here is into using sports sims for purely a "franchise" type experience, it's all I get them for. Was thinking of picking up the new Madden, but is it the best of the year from just a franchise mode point of view? How about for hockey, baseball and basketball? Especially in baseball I can't find one I really like on X-Box and ended up using OOTP baseball on the PC this year, which is great but without graphics.

I have both Madden 2005 and ESPN 2k5 (though I haven't even opened ESPN yet, too busy playing Madden). I'm very happy with the new Maddne franchise mode. 1st round picks are no longer overvalued in trades like they used to be - you have to give up players and picks to get a quality player from another team. I'm not quite as sold on the new player signing system - it makes it very difficult to keep good backups, as a good number of quality backups get upset about not playing. The new newspaper system is nice, as is the email system. The player ratings will get VERY high very quickly at first, and will get really high (for your team that is) if you play all your regular season games. One thing I've noticed is that after a good number of years of franchise play there seems to be a lot of players rated around 90 overall, with few 95+ rated (fewer than the games default rosters include, anyways) players. The only exception to this rule is quarterbacks and fullbacks - they seem to go up and stay up rating wise.

I've heard that ESPN has more options for injury rehabilitation than madden does, but I always turn injuries off so I couldn't comment on those features.

Derwood · 10-26-2004, 11:45 AM

ESPN College Hoops had a great mode, but it locked up after 7 or so seasons.

If they clean that up, it will rule all!

You are forced to start with a small school (Monmouth, Radford, Cal Fullteron,etc.) and if you play well, you'll be offered more and more prestigious coaching positions. I went from Cal Fullterton to Miss. St. to Pitt before it locked up on me. I'm now in my 1st season with Radford, and I'm undefeated going into the big dance.

FatherMukada · 10-27-2004, 04:06 AM

One thing I really look for and find to be very hard to get is to be able to watch the team I've created play a game (without me controlling them) - so let it be CPU vs CPU - and feel like I am watching some accurate representation of what might happen RL in that sport. I know with Madden in the past, to get close to that I've had to fiddle with the sliders (for example last year's would have way too many INTs by default) and shave minutes off of the clock to get it to run a realistic number of plays per game. How is it from that perspective this year? 2k5 is the other one I've had my eye on so if anyone has opinions on that it would help me decide which to eventually go and buy.

aerozeppelin · 10-27-2004, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FatherMukada

One thing I really look for and find to be very hard to get is to be able to watch the team I've created play a game (without me controlling them) - so let it be CPU vs CPU - and feel like I am watching some accurate representation of what might happen RL in that sport. I know with Madden in the past, to get close to that I've had to fiddle with the sliders (for example last year's would have way too many INTs by default) and shave minutes off of the clock to get it to run a realistic number of plays per game. How is it from that perspective this year? 2k5 is the other one I've had my eye on so if anyone has opinions on that it would help me decide which to eventually go and buy.

I don't know if you can have the computer totally run a simulation while you watch, but there is "coach mode," where all you do is call the plays and the computer runs them independently. The simulation in Madden 05 is pretty good - if you have a clearly superior team, you can win 13+ games or even go undefeated, which I thought was a MAJOR improvement over last year, where half the time you'd go 8-8 with a 96 rated team when the next closest was an 89.
The sliders also seem better set by default - I haven't had any ~70 INT seasons, and haven't had any 20+ INT individual performances either. Fumbles seem to happen more naturally than in 04 - rather than a random WR fumble (unless its a fumble prone WR), its usually the QB who will drop the ball after getting sacked. Speaking of sacks, that does appear to be the one stat that can be abused - I've had ~15 sack games. The problem seems to be that the AI will not throw the ball away, so if you drop everyoen into zone and send the line on an all out pass rush (outside and rusihing to the outside), they quite often just go down. Not that big ofa deal though, and fairly realistic - that's a defense set up to take the pass and gieve the run, and you ahve to take what they give.

jer0 · 10-29-2004, 07:07 PM

If you call yourself a football fan, and want a good franchise experience, then DEFINATELY get NFL2k5. Ive bought madden every year since its incarnation ( sega genesis ) and even though i bought nfl2k5 for 20 bucks, and played it a few weeks whilst i waited for madden05 to come out, i figured hey.. its only 20 bucks and itll get me through my football craving till the real game, madden hits. Welp after 2 weeks i started to LOVE nfl2k5. Everything about it was SO much better than madden. Graphics, Gameplay, Features, Presentation, Sound, Options, etc just beat hands down anything madden had to offer. And the much hyped hit-stick definately wasnt a hit with me as the hits felt the same and i had better tackling animations and experiences on 2k5.

After everything was said and done, i traded in madden less than 2 weeks after i shelled out 50 bucks for it with and old game to get burnout3, which was easily the best trade in ive ever done. Right now, the best football game ive ever played sits still in my xbox, nfl2k5.

Its 20 bucks. Trust me on this one, id pay 3 times that to get this game. NFL2K5 is THE football game to own this year. And the franchise mode is GREAT. I especially love "the crib" where not only can you customize your house with gadgets, you can go upstairs and look at all your player records, and the trophies they give you that correspond with said records. Not some flimsy notebook you flip through where you read about your records, you actually can zoom in and rotate each trophy and its engraved with your record numbers ( like record for yards per season, etc ).

Great game, Great price. Madden sucked this year. Hopefully this taught ea a lesson and will make them make a better madden next year. Im still a madden fan, but if you have last years version, dont expect anything new.

10-25-2004, 07:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
FatherMukada Upright	X-Box - best Franchise Mode football/basketball/hockey/baseball games? Just wanted to see if anyone else here is into using sports sims for purely a "franchise" type experience, it's all I get them for. Was thinking of picking up the new Madden, but is it the best of the year from just a franchise mode point of view? How about for hockey, baseball and basketball? Especially in baseball I can't find one I really like on X-Box and ended up using OOTP baseball on the PC this year, which is great but without graphics.

10-26-2004, 11:45 AM	#4 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	ESPN College Hoops had a great mode, but it locked up after 7 or so seasons. If they clean that up, it will rule all! You are forced to start with a small school (Monmouth, Radford, Cal Fullteron,etc.) and if you play well, you'll be offered more and more prestigious coaching positions. I went from Cal Fullterton to Miss. St. to Pitt before it locked up on me. I'm now in my 1st season with Radford, and I'm undefeated going into the big dance. __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

10-26-2004, 07:12 AM	#2 (permalink)
dksuddeth Junkie Location: bedford, tx	Nascar Thunder 2004 has a great career mode thats pretty realistic. I thought that 2005-chase for the cup would be much better as far as the team ownership concept goes but its not. Its great from a drivers perspective though.

10-27-2004, 04:06 AM	#5 (permalink)
FatherMukada Upright	One thing I really look for and find to be very hard to get is to be able to watch the team I've created play a game (without me controlling them) - so let it be CPU vs CPU - and feel like I am watching some accurate representation of what might happen RL in that sport. I know with Madden in the past, to get close to that I've had to fiddle with the sliders (for example last year's would have way too many INTs by default) and shave minutes off of the clock to get it to run a realistic number of plays per game. How is it from that perspective this year? 2k5 is the other one I've had my eye on so if anyone has opinions on that it would help me decide which to eventually go and buy.

10-29-2004, 07:07 PM	#7 (permalink)
jer0 Upright	If you call yourself a football fan, and want a good franchise experience, then DEFINATELY get NFL2k5. Ive bought madden every year since its incarnation ( sega genesis ) and even though i bought nfl2k5 for 20 bucks, and played it a few weeks whilst i waited for madden05 to come out, i figured hey.. its only 20 bucks and itll get me through my football craving till the real game, madden hits. Welp after 2 weeks i started to LOVE nfl2k5. Everything about it was SO much better than madden. Graphics, Gameplay, Features, Presentation, Sound, Options, etc just beat hands down anything madden had to offer. And the much hyped hit-stick definately wasnt a hit with me as the hits felt the same and i had better tackling animations and experiences on 2k5. After everything was said and done, i traded in madden less than 2 weeks after i shelled out 50 bucks for it with and old game to get burnout3, which was easily the best trade in ive ever done. Right now, the best football game ive ever played sits still in my xbox, nfl2k5. Its 20 bucks. Trust me on this one, id pay 3 times that to get this game. NFL2K5 is THE football game to own this year. And the franchise mode is GREAT. I especially love "the crib" where not only can you customize your house with gadgets, you can go upstairs and look at all your player records, and the trophies they give you that correspond with said records. Not some flimsy notebook you flip through where you read about your records, you actually can zoom in and rotate each trophy and its engraved with your record numbers ( like record for yards per season, etc ). Great game, Great price. Madden sucked this year. Hopefully this taught ea a lesson and will make them make a better madden next year. Im still a madden fan, but if you have last years version, dont expect anything new.