Introduction:Madden 2004 continues console gaming's most hallowed franchise (which by the way, was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame earlier this year) by boasting many new features. Aside from the standard AI/gameplay tweaks, the biggest addition in the year's installment is a new franchise setup called the Owner's Mode. And it was Good.

The Game: Madden's gameplay is, to put it simply, great. In addition to the standard modes, it has Mini Camp, Madden 101, the Two-Minute Drill and the aforementioned Owner's Mode. The Mini Camp is a set of drills that introduces you to the mechanics of playing the game and serves as an excellent tutorial. Madden 101 is a primer course on the basics of football strategies and what formations are good in what situations. While good in theory, the strategies given are so elementary that even casual fans will have more knowledge. The Two Minute Drill awards you Madden tokens dependent on how many times you're able to score within two minutes.

With a few minor exceptions, playing the game is a pure treat. Everything from passing to special teams is done well. The AI is smart in most cases: if you can't stop the run, they'll keep running then top it off with a playaction pass. Continue blitzing with the same people on the same side, and suddenly the computer will pull off a sweep and burn you on the outside. As in real life, defense must be played with a proper mixture blitzing, zone, and man coverage.

Offense in Madden can be a bit frustrating, but is overall very satisfying. Running to the outside is nearly pointless as you'll very rarely gain more than a yard on even normal difficulty levels. Going up the middle is handled realistically, as the gap you're supposed to hit will sometimes be clogged with linebackers, forcing you to seek an alternate route. Passing is also done extremely well, and driving your team to a late rally win is nothing but exciting. Understanding the difference between zone and man to man coverage is crucial, as both can be exploited but in different ways. About the only gripe with the passing game is the pass rush seems a bit too powerful. If the computer decides to play bump and run defense, odds are you'll get sacked or at the very least have to scramble around before throwing.

If you arrive at the line of scrimmage and see that your play just won't succeed, Madden gives you new options for calling an audible. Not only can you call an entirely new play, but you can change the direction of the run or the route of any receiver. You can also tell a receiver or back to go in motion to size up what kind of defense is being run. If all that fails, and you find yourself scrambling out of the pocket, all it takes is a flick of the right analog stick and you can tell your linemen whom to block or what direction your receivers should run to get open. This is difficult to get the hang of and seems to only work in the rare instance, but it's great when it does.

And then there's the Owner's Mode, and it was Good. It provides a depth unseen in any football game to date. While some of the features seem unrealistic or superficial, overall it's plain fun if you've always wanted control over more than just the team. This mode allows you to control ticket prices, merchandising, your concessions, even how much to charge for parking. The goal of all this being to turn a healthy profit and upgrade your stadium or even build a new one. If the fan support for your team is particularly low, you can receive bids from other cities to move to their town. There are advisors (in the form of simple comments) letting you know what you're doing right and what needs to be improved. If your team is playing poorly and the fans aren't too supportive, you can increase the money spent on advertising to bring them back, and even have a Fan Appreciation Day where free hats, programs, or keychains are given away in an effort to get them through the gates.

Unfortunately, not everything seems as perfect as it sounds. After making the playoffs and raising ticket prices to slightly higher than normal (the owner's reward for making the playoffs), I saw an 85% attendance rating. The next game I lowered prices to normal and was greeted with a 95% rating. At a playoff game. That's just silly. Any postseason game should be an automatic sellout as long as ticket prices aren't doubled.

In addition to making money, as the owner you're responsible for spending it in various ways. You must sign free agents and hire a coaching staff, which has a direct influence on your players in the form of increased attributes. Players who increase their stats greatly between years may holdout for more money, and negotiating new contracts is for the most part handled well. Trading players between teams is insanely tough, but very realistic. Each player is given a letter grade depending on his value to the trading team. Attempting to trade quarterback Mark Brunell may only receive a grade of C+ to Green Bay, but the Cowboys will consider him at least a B+. This would make for a very tedious system, but Madden's trading block allows you to put players up and request what you want in return, letting you just tweak the details of the trade.

Finally, another new feature is the training camp. Doing this allows you to upgrade the skills of your players. It takes the drills from the mini camp mode and, depending on how well you perform, you receive a certain number of points to raise attributes. Because you can only use a player once in training camp, it prevents one player from becoming all-powerful.

The major knock against Madden and the EA Sports franchise is that none of the games this year will be Xbox Live enabled. Due to squabbles between EA and Microsoft, the only way to play another human is if he or she is sitting next to you.

Graphics & Sound:The graphics in Madden 2004 are good, but not great. The player models are done well and the animations are excellent. The stadiums look superb and mimic their real life counterparts very well. About the only lackluster part of the graphics are the cheerleaders. We really need some DOA3 graphics before I don't skip through the half-time show.

Madden 2004 has drastically different sound values. The effects themselves are very good, with hard hitting tackles sounding like they really hurt. Linebackers will call out whether it's a pass or run, and the crowd will roar it's approval of touchdown plays.

The playcalling from Madden and Michaels, however, leaves much to be desired. Madden (who, unlike the game, has not been inducted into the Football Hall of Fame) repeats generic phrases over and over again, sometimes not even making sense. Which I guess is a little too realistic. Michaels does a decent job, but Madden manages to drag the whole thing down.

Innovation: Although the majority of sporting games get caught in simple tweaks and roster upgrades, Madden 2004 brings enough new things to the table to warrant a purchase. The Owner's Mode is extremely fun and shows great promise for what lies ahead. The mini- and training camp modes are also inventive, allowing for fun side-games when you need a break. With the training camp comes a bit of strategy. Do you build up your first round draft pick or try to keep your aging veterans around longer? The new audible calling system is surprisingly deep and allows you to make changes on the fly without drastically altering your play.

Mojo:Melissa Stark. Need I say more? She takes the player through some of the tutorials and her mojo almost pulls Madden up from his inane ramblings to the threshold of cool. The much-hyped Owner's Mode and the training camp are worthy of praise and bring an immense amount of replayability to a game that's not online. It's just cool to build a powerhouse dynasty in the era of salary caps and parity. Unfortunately, nothing matches the fun of trouncing a human opponent and the trash talk that goes along with it. The exclusion of Xbox Live for a football game is just stupid, no matter the reasons.

Lowdown:Madden 2004 is a great game that is based on making as realistic a football game as possible. Everything from the playcalling to firing your lazy offensive coordinator gives you total control over how your team performs. Unless you have no friends and online capability is required, I highly recommend it.

Gameplay: 9, Graphics/Sound: 8, Innovation: 9, Mojo: 7. Final: 9