For the last 15-years Madden NFL football has been the game of choice for NFL players and NFL fans, even though for the last few years ESPN's NFL 2K franchise has looked better and for three of the last four years has played better.

Despite Visual Concepts' efforts, the Madden NFL series dominated the market mainly due to Electronic Arts' marketing muscle, and not necessarily because of EA-Tiburon's football game development skills. It seemed as though Tiburon was becoming complacent, cocky and a little bit over-confident. During this time, Visual Concepts and Sega kept making improvements to the NFL 2K series and received more and more attention from gamers.

That trend has come to a screeching halt, and like Warren Sapp chasing after Brett Favre in the backfield, Tiburon has not only caught Visual Concepts, they have caused a fumble and have taken the ball back the other way for a touchdown. This year's version of Madden NFL 2005 on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 is the best football game made in over a decade by anyone on any platform.

Despite the changes in this year's version of Madden, ESPN NFL 2K5 is a great game and Visual Concepts has come as close as anyone in defeating Madden in terms of overall presentation and game play.

In recent years, the main reason gamers kept picking up Madden wasn't because of the in-game innovation, it was more due to the familiarity with controls and the in-game presentation.

Another reason why the game has been firmly etched in the psyche of NFL fans is partly due to the Madden name. Madden carries weight in NFL gaming circles and EA Sports should thank their lucky stars that they have had the coach on their side. But even without the coach, this year's game is solid from top to bottom. The chuggy nature of the animations have been fixed, new plays and formations have been added on offense and defense and this 15th anniversary version of Madden NFL 2005 does the series and the coach justice!

Last year's offensive playmaker controls were a nice addition. This year on defense EA has renamed the right analog stick the "Hit Stick". Using your thumb, you toggle the right analog stick when you are making a tackle and kajacka kablam, your defender will leave his feet and make a bone crushing tackle just like Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Timing is key with the "Hit Stick" and this is one addition that will keep NFL football gamers coming back for more. Using the Hit Stick and having your defender hit someone down low as opposed to up high will trigger one of the many animations to play. Each year EA-Tiburon adds new animations to the Madden mix and this year is no different. At the end of a play, players will jump over the pile or slow down just like in the real game.

Before the snap on defense, this year you can change the assignments of any of your defenders. You can pull a defensive back into the flat, double-team a receiver or send someone in on a blitz. The only thing you can't do is switch guys from zone to man to man and that is a bit of a drawback at least for NFL savvy fans like myself. You can also adjust all of your linebackers and have them all blitz or you can have your entire defensive line slant to the left or to the right.

Just like in ESPN NFL 2K4 in the pause menu you can assign certain defenders to specific offensive players. So you can put your speediest defender on your opponent's fastest receiver or have one of your linebackers spy on the quarterback to make sure if he takes off out of the backfield he is covered.

On offense you can use any play in the playbook and make it an audible on the fly. You can also create custom personnel packages and change or shift an offensive formation without calling an audible. You can also change a Singleback-4WR set to a Singleback-Big formation without changing the passing routes of your receivers.

The artificial intelligence (AI) has been vastly improved and I tested it out big time. I tested how well the AI decided which patterns were the best and in most cases the AI did what I would have done.
This is huge and it elevates the playing field and gives Madden NFL 2005 a huge edge over ESPN NFL 2K5 in the AI department on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Last year madden got trounced by ESPN in the overall presentation department. This year Tiburon tried to rectify that. You can do a lot of things, including create a fan who will be included with some other fans in cut scenes between plays.

This year's version of Madden has undergone a number of graphical changes, and more emphasis has been placed on the players. This year they have a bulkier look to them. New shoulder pads and the way the jerseys stretch over them have been modified. As a result, the player animations and the on-field action looks better and more polished.

On the online side of the ball, Xbox Madden fans will be able to test their gaming skills on Xbox Live. On both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, 30 different trophies can be won for doing a variety of things, like winning five games in a row. You will also be able to play a minigame called Rushing Attack against someone online.

Tournament play has been tweaked and it's a lot faster and more improved over last year. Members of the Madden design team actually worked with online Madden players to address some of their concerns and fix them in this year's version of the game. A reputation rating has been added to give you some insight into whom you will be playing against. Stats will showcase the type of game your opponents like to play and give you an indication of the best way to beat them.

Gamers have high expectations when it comes to the Madden NFL series and so do I. I have played every single version of Madden ever made and this one is the best one yet.

I am not going to sit on the fence and give this game the same score as ESPN NFL 2K5 to be politically correct. Just like a linebacker keying in on a receiver catching the football in the middle of the field with his head down, I am going to send a message.

Madden NFL 2005 is my favorite NFL football game of the year and it sacks ESPN NFL 2K5 in the backfield for a loss. Not a huge loss though. Both games are worthy of a purchase. In fact, if you are an NFL fan and don't own a console, both games are so good that purchasing a system to play either or both of them would be well worth the money!