Overview

Mountains of man meat collide

In what is perhaps male America’s collective expression of its latent homosexuality, the football season is in full swing. Men of all shapes and sizes grapple with each other for the alleged purpose of getting a ball. My old English 101 professor revealed this ‘truth’, and then blew it apart when he stated that no gay man would want to watch men who’s action lasts only twenty seconds at a time. He spoke from experience, while we are content to sit back with beer, chips and a firm grasp on the controls. Remote on one side of the desk, gamepad in hand, Madden 2003 provides the perfect filler while the game is on commercial break.

Go Colts!

I'm more of a Raiders fan, actually

Rams Rams the magical fruit

Brag it might about the slick new multiplayer interface, EA knows that in reality there is no other way to play multiplayer sports except at a console where you can taunt your friend. For some reason, it’s much more satisfying to do a scoring celebration live and yell “Gooooaaaallll!”, “TOUCHDOWN!” or “He shoots, he SCORES!” than to type it out to a complete stranger, across three thousand miles of cables and wires.

So why bother on PC?

In a strange role-reversal, the PC’s advantage over the console is its singleplayer aspect. The interface is more tolerable thanks to mouse and keyboard controls. You can load up whatever MP3s you like into the internal music player. Since the music doesn’t play during the actual game, only in the front-end menu system, it is best used for Franchise mode fans.

Reaaaddy?

If anyone has something better than HyperSnap this is why I need it

I'm gonna knock Warner flat

Indeed, a sports game’s appeal on a PC really does fall into categories besides the actual simulation of play. The same game on a console has more appeal for the pure play value. With a big screen TV, a buddy in the chair beside you, snacks to fight over and a potential ample audience, it is definitely the preferred venue for getting into position and lobbing some bombs to Marvin Harrison. So why would anyone buy the PC version? We’re going to uncover that in just a second.