Customer Reviews

Madden NFL 2006

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The last Madden football game I purchased was Madden 04. I deliberately held off buying the 05 version, because it seemed quite similar. When 06 came out, I thought it looked worth buying. After playing it once, I knew I was wrong.

Okay, I'll be fair, there are a couple of good things that have been added to the game: The 'truck stick' function that allows running backs to bull-doze their way through defenders was fun, though didn't add a whole lot to the game. I'd say the new QB vision function was the best part of the whole thing, creating a range of sight for your QB. The better the QB, the bigger the range. It made passing a lot more realistic (ie- a lousy quarterback can no longer lob the ball anywhere and have his WR catch it, they must be in his line of sight).

My beefs:

Superstar mode, was, to me, a super letdown. Frankly it's a waste of space. The interface was decidedly user-UN-friendly and quite difficult to navigate, not to mention being completely pointless. The football games themselves aren't played any differently, but in your off-time you sit in your apartment while trying out for movies and being stalked by TO and your snivelling web-master. After playing in this mode for about a half hour, I realized my time would be better spent doing something else.

Commentary: As lame as ever. You'd think after all these years, they could've changed it a little. Okay, this isn't a major issue, since my beloved Madden 04 has the same lame commentary, I just wish they'd given it a little more life.

Music: Much as my above comment, I realize that the earlier versions of Madden also had the same sort of music as 06 does, but after hearing the same angry rap song for the 10th time, I sort of want to throw myself out a window. One good addition to the musical repertoire is a number of traditional NFL instrumental tracks. These are great, and I wish they'd thought of doing that before.

Create-a-fan: Wtf? Is there even a purpose to this? Another waste of space.

Create-a-team: This used to be one of my favorite features. In Madden 04 (and 05 too, I think), as some of you are probably aware, you could play in the franchise mode with your custom team, taking them all the way from pre-season to the superbowl, and everything in between. For some reason they've taken that functionality away in 06. This is very frustrating and it renders the Create-a-team mode rather pointless. Sure, you can still play on-the-spot games with your created team, but to me, the loss of the ability to play them in franchise mode is a big one.

My overall assessment of this game is that, while the actual gameplay has been improved on a minor level, Madden 06 is a waste of money. You'd be much better off getting a copy of 05.

I don't know what to say about the previous reviews and people having technical issues. I have (knock on wood) had no problems at all with getting the game to work. In fact, it has played flawlessly. Installation went smoothly. My gamepad worked instantly. Gameplay is smooth and fluid.

The last 2 football games I have played were NFL 2k3 and Madden '05, both for the Gamecube. Madden '06, hands down, is THE most realistic football simulation I have ever experienced. The graphics are amazing. The character animations are amazing - the tackles look great. Running the ball every down is a viable option unlike previous football games I have played. The blocking is SUPERB - Offensive and defensive lines go for their blocks and stick them. You can play as a lineman and roll off a block to try and get at the QB. Sacks on the QB are actually possible (unlike 2k3 where the QB would never go down). Another great thing about this game are the fake handoffs/draws. They look very realistic, fooling me even when looking very closely.

The main 'lure' of Madden '06 was this new precision passing feature. If you play on the easier difficulty settings, you won't really notice a 'huge' effect on gameplay. If you have some skill you can take your team to the Superbowl without worrying about the precision passing. However, if you go on a harder difficulty, you need to use this feature. Some QB's, noteably Favre (as I almost always play as Green Bay), have a field of view that is about 90% of the field. As such, when playing as him, you can totally ignore manipulating the field of view cone. I think it is too big in this case. Even a hall of famer like Favre can only look to a certain area of the field at once. Then I bring in a backup QB and his field of view is like 3 degrees wide... painful.

My 2 main gripes with Madden '06 are the kicking system, and 'the EA thing'. I've never been a fan of the kicking system in Madden games, so this is nothing new as it is the same system that was in '05. It seems way too hard - I shouldn't be missing 34 yard field goals with a pro-bowl kicker. And I play games A LOT, so it's not me sucking ;) The 'EA thing' gripe is the fact that this is the first game EA has released under their new "Exclusive NFL License". Because of this license, EA is the only company that can produce football games using the real names of NFL players. I don't like the thought of shutting other franchises (like NFL 2k) out of the market. They had good ideas too. Competition is good, and benefits the customers.

Graphics: 5/5
Sounds: 4/5
Commentary: 3/5 (nothing seems to have been added since '05)
Realism: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

The controls have been completely remapped on gamepads, and unlike the console versions, you cannot set them back to the way they've been for the last decade. It is going on week 6 of the NFL season, and a roster update has yet to be released, and moderators of EA forums have said that Tiburon expects it to be "a few more weeks" until any patch or roster update is released. There are starters on teams that didn't even make it to the pre-season. Don't ever expect to return a punt, as it is almost impossible due to buggy AI. If you MUST buy this game, buy a console to play it on. They've had patches and two roster updates so far.

Visit the player forums at EA for these issues and more. When EA bought the exclusive rights to the NFL trademarks, and the NFLPA rights last year, they made sure that PC purchasers had nowhere to go but to consoles.

This game is fun. I am a big NFL fan, and I have to say, this game really is like an NFL game. I like the way you call the basic set and then decide on a play. The stadiums look like the real stadium, i.e. when you choose San Diego, it really looks like the stadium the Chargers play in. The look and feel of the game is great. They even have close-ups of the faces of players, and they look like the real player. I like the way you can click from one player to the next on defense (or offense). For instance, this morning, I was playing as the NY Giants, and I could rush using Strahan (when you click on him, his name appears), and then when the pass went downfield, click to be a corner or safety. Good stuff. I managed to return an interception 95 yards, off Kurt Warner. That was fun. I am still "mastering" this game (I still have not figured some things out, like how to punt well). I think the instructions could be better. It took me about an hour to figure out how to set the thing up so that I could use a mouse. Overall, this game is fun and authentic. I got the game for $ 9.99, which is an amazing price. I don't feel like I have to spend $ 39.99 either (to buy Madden 2007), just because the NFL currently - due to free agency - "shuffles" players in and out of teams, and teams are in some cases mostly different from one year to the next (the Vikings, etc., for instance). I will just play Madden'06. I am not falling for the "I have to update now, just because Daunte Culpepper signed with the Dolphins". I'll spend my money on something else. It would be kind of cool to play with Reggie Bush in a Saints jersey, but I will wait on that.

EA's Madden line has produced virtually all of the great PC football games. Unfortunately this time they got it wrong. While the game is still quite fun and challenging there are 3 glaring problems.

1) Old rosters - EA created the rosters in the preseason, since then there have been many trades, injuries and retirements. If Madden is going to be the exclusive NFL game it has to at least get the rosters right
2) can't change controls - in many scenarios (training camp, practices, Madden Bowl) you are not allowed to set custom key configurations.
3) the clock doesn't work - if you quickly call the next play after running out of bounds the clock continues to run. In a real football game that may not be a big deal, but in 5 minute quarter micro-games that's the difference between winning and losing.

Just like the first reviewer, I have the exact same error on the loading screen. All of my software (XP sp2, directx, drivers, antivirus, antispyware, everything) is up to date. My system meets the min requirements and a WHOLE LOT more. I battled it out with EA's tech support for a week before finally giving up. Their tech support is clearly automated (their techies have a flow chart and that's about it). I expect there will be a patch released within the next week or two. It's shoddy enough that PC users have to wait so much longer to get the product but clearly EAs porting process is $#@!

If you buy it, good luck getting it to work. The only thing my setup may be guilty of is being TOO new, and that's just sad for EA.

My specs (maybe this will help someone else):
Pentium 4 3.0ghz
1gb RAM
Geforce FX 5500
SB Audigy 2 zs
Acer 77c monitor

p.s. The lock up that occurs can't even be ctrl-alt-del, alt-tabbed, or ctrl-escaped out of. The only way out is to reboot. What fun that makes trouble-shooting!

Enjoy!

This is by far the best volume of the Madden franchise. The graphics are amazing and the players are completely real. The main thing that makes this a huge improvement over 04 and 05 is the tougher AI. When your QB you find that you dont have an hour sit in the pocket, but must find the open man and throw before getting sacked. Also you cant simply take a strong running back like Jerome Bettis and expect him to go running through all the linebackers like last year. Also you find that when playing defense the AI actually makes good playcalls when on offense. They also seem to know which move to pull when in a certain position when running.
Overall this game is fantastic. Its hard to say if theres anything wrong with it. Also, i just talked about gameplay here, but the other modes, especially NFL Superstar are excellent as well. I highly reccomend this game! It is worth whatever you pay for it.

Right now Madden '06 is the main game on my PC. Its good fun, mostly great graphics, so for me its worth it. For the hard-core Football fan it might not meet the mark but for the casual gamer it certainly is worth the money. I skipped Madden '05 so I can't compare it but its a great improvement over Madden '04.

First off the bad. You will need a game pad to play this game, but if you don't have one, what are you doing playing sports games on your PC anyway? Secondly there are some graphics glitches and the animated crowd is just plain ugly.

However the game itself is what you are there for and quite frankly its worth it. The Superstar mode is excellent and it plays much closer to the real game than '04 did. Its worth noting that in Superstar mode you do have to take the practice sessions and the "focus" training will improve your chances of winning the next game! Quite probably I will never play in any of the other modes but you know, the reason I bought the game was to have an enjoyabe experience and that is what it delivers.

All in all, it may not be the most realistic football game out there but it certainly is worth picking up!

This year's game has graphics that are a little better than last years and are certainly great. The commentary is a little improved as well. The difficulty of the game on all-pro is not as tough as expected and I think it should be easy for everyone to smash! One aspect of gameplay that has been improved is the button control scheme, now you can sprint with the quarterback while the passing icons are still up, however this is also a liability (see below).
The rosters are all updated and the franchise mode is excellent; in fact it may have too many different options and modes.

The weakness of this game is primarily that running quarterbacks totally dominate every other team. This is however true to an extent in the NFL, everyone knows who Michael Vick is. By the way, that whole "quarterback vision" thing is merely a nuisance, I just turn it off and play as usual.Screen passes are sometimes too effective as they often result in long touchdowns.
I also still see a lack of kicks and punts being blocked and then taken for touchdowns.

Is it a very good game? Yes, but if you bought last years version then upgrading might be unnecessary...

For whatever reason, EA elected to strip out features this year. Most notably, you can no longer use custom play books with your franchise. For some reason, you can still make a custom playbook -- I did, spending several hours putting together plays -- but you can't actually use it, except in a practice match. This obviously takes away from the strategy element of the game. In fact, Madden has stripped out most of the strategy, focusing instead on the bells-and-whistles like creating fictional players and choosing their parents' DNA. The coaching aspect of the game is now non-existent... it's become an FPS for sports fans.