Playstation 2 - Football Games

Factual Questions
1

I don’t think the brand of football matters in this case, but I have a question (Mods, if you feel this thread should be in another forum, please move it with my apologies).

While playing football on the PS2, I realize that I suck at defense. I don’t know how to get any better. To those of you that play…

What are some techniques to run an effective defense?

I’m not the only who has the problem either. My son and I played each other last night, and we both pretty much scored every time we got the ball. While it’s always fun scoring touchdowns, it isn’t too challenging.

As far as me playing against the game itself? fuhgettaboutit!

2

Well, I can tell you that part of playing defence well on the PS2 (Madden 2003 anyway) is trying to predict the kind of play the offence will run. If you know they’ll be passing, stay away from the rushing defense and try and put as many people in the backfield as possible. Also, and again I refer to Madden, don’t automatically start moving the stick as soon as the ball is hiked. Let the computer run the play (it will move automatically until you start pushing buttons) and only take over once the ball is thrown.

3

Speaking as someone who has played football on the XBox…

  1. Set the difficulty higher. There seems to be less points on higher difficulty.
  2. Don’t pick all-star teams. The defense hasn’t got a chance when you do.
  3. Let the computer control the positions where a screw-up would be very costly, like cornerback. I usually stick to a defensive lineman, because it’s easy to play that position.
  4. Some games have “recommended plays”. Pick one of those.
  5. Follow what you’re supposed to do on the play. Don’t go safety-blitzing every time when you’re supposed to be in zone coverage.

Hope that helps.

4

If you have good defensive players, then stick with man-to-man defenses. Its just too easy for a good offensive player to time the zone defenses.

Of course, you want to predict the plays. A nickle or dime works well against pass plays, but not that great against a run.

5

Thanks for the tips everybody. The biggest help so far was “don’t automatically start moving the stick as soon as the ball is hiked”. That’s a hard habit to break! I’ve tried to pay attention to what I’m doing that is detrimental, and that was the biggest thing… next was when I get close to the ball, sometimes I just start mashing all the buttons to do anything to stop the runner.

I’m getting better at open field tackles now, because I’ve slowed down enough to think “push button to highlight closest defender, next push button for diving tackle”… and yes sometimes even the ever popular: “push button for blocking/intercepting a pass”. I still have a long way to go. I will now try to set the game to a higher level.