Most of us here in New Zealand are not regularly exposed to actual games of American football. We would tend to get most of our exposure from movies, whether it be Al Pacino shouting "can you win or lose like a man" in Any Given Sunday or Adam Sandler being told not to play that evil 'foosball' in The Waterboy. That this sort of exposure can lead to a skewed view of the game is arguable, but it is the way a lot of us have been introduced to the sport.

For the uninitiated, American football can be slightly confusing. Luckily the basics are not too hard to grasp. For those who have not played the game before Madden is there to help with several training modes designed to give a better understanding of certain plays and positions. Much more harder to grasp are the intricacies of the sport, which unfortunately will only come from prolonged exposure to the game. Americans have this in the same way we have a deeper understanding of rugby, knowing which plays to play when and how each player adds to the plays. Lacking this deeper knowledge does not detract from the game though, and Madden is still fun to play either against the CPU or another player.

Being an annual release, Madden 2004 looks and plays in much the same way Madden 2003 did. All the enhancements that were added to the 2003 edition are here, including the Football 101, Create-A-Play and Minicamp modes that were introduced last year. Both of these modes are still great for learning how to control individual players, and for learning specific plays. Football 101 takes the player onto the practice field, where individual plays are explained and previewed. The player can then practice these plays with ongoing advice from the commentator. It's a great feature, and one of the most useful for those needing a deeper understanding of how certain plays and formations work.

The only criticism of it, as with last year, is that only offensive plays get this treatment. For a game where defense is all-important, and sometimes hard to implement well, it seems a strange omission. The Practice mode does make up for this in some way though, with the ability to practice both offensive and defensive plays against any other play. Time spent here is invaluable and players can test out any play against any other play, as well as being able to spot patterns in the opposition behaviour. The Minicamp mode breaks the team up a little more, with players able to train with specific positions and roles. Here players can practice their passing, running, catching and blocking, both in a simulated environment and in a game situation. It's an excellent mode, and players can certainly improve their skill by spending time in it.

A number of create options are available in Madden, including the Create-A-Play and Create-A-Playbook introduced last year. Creating a play allows the player to let their creativity loose to try to make a play that will gain more yards than the normal plays. All sorts of trick plays can be made, and making a successful play is very rewarding. New for 2004, players can now also create teams and edit historical teams. Finally we can put an Auckland team in the NFL, or add ourselves to a classic Superbowl team. The options available with the create functions are virtually endless, and add to an already deep game.

With these extra modes, players could easily spend hours before playing a game or getting to the main mode of Madden, Franchise. Here players can take their teams through a full season of play trying to get to the Superbowl, and then repeat again for 30 years. It's a massive mode where the player can choose their level of participation, from playing every game to simulating all the games and all points in between. Players can also, if they wish, have full control of the roster of their team, from scouting rookies for next years draft to promoting different players to different positions. On top of this players can now extend their game to being an owner.

The new Owner mode in Madden adds a lot to a game that is already more on the simulation side than some the other more arcadey football titles around. In this mode players can act as the team owner where the goal is not only to win games, but to turn a profit as well. There are many factors that can be tweaked, ranging from something as small as the price of a drink to something as large as which city the team plays in. During the season the owner should be keeping an eye on the roster, on the attendance and fan support, as well as the salary cap and overall profitability. You can even design your own stadium, designating different types of seating around the ground, including how many corporate boxes are available.

The level of depth in this Owner mode is at times quite remarkable. Take, for example, the decision making needed for just the coaching staff. Each team has a coaching staff of four, with a head coach and three coaches under him. The player now has the ability the hire and fire these coaches, or promote them to a different coaching position. The ability to scout for available coaches around the league is also possible, as is the ability to set salaries and track the progression of each coach. All this is driven by statistics and, as with most American sports, there are a terrifying number of stats available. The ability to micro-manage in a football game has never been so apparent.

While there is a lot to work with in the Owner mode a lot of players will not necesssarily bother with it. Players who love to micro-manage will be drawn to it but the amount of time it can take, especially in the off-season, may put off some players that just want to play football. Luckily there is the option to switch Owner mode off and just worry about playing football. There are still others, who like the simulation side, and it is possible to play the Franchise mode virtually forever without even needing to play an actual game. It's a great addition to have in Madden 2004 though, and the option to play Franchise mode as the player, the coach and the owner will definitely appeal to some.

Graphically Madden is up with the best on the PS2, although not noticeably improved from last year. The stadiums and players still look excellent, and the animations run very smoothly. Replays have been slightly altered. Instead of stopping the clock and showing the full-screen replay, a half-screen version of the replay is shown while the player is picking the next play. This serves to speed up the game, with players having the option to pause and get a full-screen replay if they wish.

The main addition to the gameplay of Madden is the Playmaker control. A playmaker can be called at the line of scrimmage by pressing the right analogue stick in one of four directions. On offence this can change the direction of play, or the path a runner will go to. On defense, the playmaker is called just after the snap and can change the emphasis of the defensive pack, whether it's shifting the blocking or protecting a run or a pass. There are a couple of advantages to calling these playmakers. Firstly, they help the player adjust quickly to the oppositions lineup or play, in the same way an audible or hot route does. Secondly, they are quicker to call than an audible or hot route and does not change the formation of the players in the same way an audible does. So they can be called without the opposition noticing. The playmakers turned out to be quite useful, and added extra options for play-calling. Their addition to the game is welcome and the controls have been well implemented and are easy to use.

One of the major additions to the EA Sports lineup also makes its debut with Madden 2004. The EA Bio records all the player's activity on any of the EA 2004 sports titles in true big brother fashion, including time played, titles played, win percentage and major achievements. Starting out at Level 1, the player can increase their rank by playing more and winning more. The higher the rank of the player, the more that can be unlocked in each of the games. In each of the games will be larger unlockables, including stadiums and teams, and to unlock everything a range of EA Sports titles will need to be played. It's a neat concept, and one obviously aimed at increasing EA's dominance with sports gamers. Luckily the range of EA sports games looks to be excellent this year, and it will be interesting to see how much can be unlocked as more titles are released.

The main criticism we have of Madden 2004 is that it is so much like its predecessor, to the point where they need a video presentation to alert the player to what is new in the game. Sure there are updated rosters, but to most players in NZ this will not matter. Yes, the new Owner mode does add a lot of depth and replayability to the Franchise mode but a lot of players may not want to play as owner, especially when this takes time away from playing games. And certainly the new Playmaker control is very useful, but it is still just a tweak in the overall game. Madden 2004 is an outstanding game, but it is certainly not revolutionary.

One of the other criticisms we have is one we had last year as well - the lack of online play. Now a big selling point for the PS2 version in the US, this will be the second season PAL gamers miss out on playing others at a distance. Although PS2 online has not been rolled out here yet it would have been nice to have the option in the game, as it is in some other recent releases, in anticipation for the eventual release of online play in New Zealand.