"We've been doing this since '92, and we get better at it every season."
It's surprising to see how much effort was put into Madden 2002 to make the graphics even better! First off, let's start with player models. Instead of just looking short and stubby like in '01, players are tall and slim, short and fat, tall and have much muscle definition, and so forth! You can definitely tell the difference between a wide receiver and offensive lineman in the game, they're that good! You think that the players' faces are still zombie-like, right? Wrong! Gentle Giant Studios has scanned player faces from the San Francisco 49ers and implemented them on player models to make player faces much more realistic looking and it shows! Faces aren't pale anymore but have many different skin tones that makes player's faces much more realistic. Not only that, players now have different facial expressions. If you make a good play, the player will be happy and smiling, and vice versa! Moving on, many new animations have been added to the game that look much more realistic. There are more wrap up tackles and leg wrap tackles. For example, when you sack a QB, the defensive player will grab his waist and swing him down just like in real life! There are some new tackles for when a player jukes too. If you dive tackle, the defensive player will grab the player's leg and trip him up, and if you make a head-on collision, the defensive player will hit the player square in the shoulder making him spin in mid-air until he lands! Some other added animations are catch animations, like some beautiful diving catches and sliding one-handed catches. Another animation that has been fixed are the kicking animations, instead of the ball flying away a few seconds before the kicker actually kicks the ball, the ball starts as soon as the kicker's foot makes contact with the ball! There's even a new entrance for teams where each top offensive player (except for the lineman) is introduced and runs by cheerleaders and teammates cheering them on! Now, let's get into the nitty gritty details. Now some players have eye paint, nasal strips, taped fingers, gloves, braces, elbow pads, and much more! If you look real closely while doing a replay and get a close-up of the football, you can see each individual bump, see "NFL" in clear writing, the brand of the football, and all the individual signatures on the ball, talk about detail!
Speaking of replays, they've been redone too. Sometimes they will show it at different angles, slow-mo, or when you make a really good tackle; it will show it three times in a row really fast! But the best looking replay you can get is whenever you make an amazing catch, it will do the replay, but right before the receiver catches it, the replay will stop and do a Matrix-style pan around the player and then finish the replay! You have to see it to believe it! The sidelines in Madden '02 are as busy as ever with players sitting on the bench, the headcoach walking back and forth, camera crew, Gatorade bottles, fans in the summer and heaters in the winter, and they've even added offensive and defensive coordinators and cheerleaders that kick away all game long! Probably one of the better improvements is that players don't walk through each other anymore! It does happen sometimes during tackles, but while walking on the field they walk around each other. And last but not least, the framerate stays at a steady 60 FPS all game long and the only time it slows down is when players are piled up, but you'll hardly even notice it! And for those who care, loading times are about the same length as in Madden '01.
