Customer Reviews

Madden NFL 2006

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

My initial reaction to this year's edition of Madden was 3 stars and highly critical. Now, after playing it for four days, I must say I was wrong. Here is my updated review. There still are some issues I have with it, but some of the original gripes have turned into positive points for the game and the game play itself. On the surface, the game may look like it hasn't changed, but what may seem like subtle "tweaks" have turned this into a much better football game than I initially thought. I blame EA on this one because a lot of this stuff is not spelled out clearly in the manuals nor in the on-line tutorials. I think this leads people to believe that the game hasn't changed much, but under the hood, it really has. Please read on to see how.

First off, the commentary is about the same and at times, does NOT flow well. Voice inflections with Michaels are REALLY bad. He starts off sounding really excited when he says "We're here at the (insert field name) where" and then when he states the team name (such as the AFC South Champion Colts), his excitement drops and even when he's finished saying the team name, he sounds as if he wants to say something else but doesn't. Madden's commentary is exactly the same from last year. Not much new here and just as boring as ever. I've turned off the commentary because it's just not fun to listen to.

Now, lets get to the good stuff. First off is QB Vision. At first, it may not seem that great. In fact, if you play against an on-line opponent, it could tip them off to which receiver you're eyeing if you stay focused on your primary receiver. You can make it so the cone just focuses out in front of you before the snap and doesn't tip your hand. With practice (go to the mini-camps and such), you can make it work and it actually adds realism to the game. At first, I didn't like it, but after much playing and practice, I've found that this actually can help improve your gaming experience and it makes you feel like a real QB, having to check off receivers. Moving the cone can be done with a combination of buttons presses (switching from one receiver to another, just like it used to be many years ago) or use the right stick to scan your field (the better option but takes practice). Don't throw to a receiver that is not in the cone (unless they're in the flats or running short slants) because you'll throw the most lame-duck pass you have ever seen. Fortunately, for Rookie and Pro mode, throwing outside of the cone is just like it was last year and you won't make the lame-duck passes and it provides an excellent playground for practicing with the cone vision. However, once you get to All-Pro and Madden level, you MUST use the cone. Still, don't write this off so quickly like I did.

Next is the "precision passing". At first, I thought this was just like leading your receiver. It is in some respects, but with some excellent improvements. You can throw the pass low, making the receiver having to scoop up the pass (and you'll see him actually do this). You can throw high (which works great over the middle) and this stops the problem from last year where the D-line would swat the ball down. You can throw to the right, left, up-and-right, up-and-left, down-and-right, and down-and-left as well.

Another new feature is the offensive blocking scheme shift. You can audible and make your o-line block in a spread formation, compress itself tighter, block to the left or right.

The "truck stick" is nice, in addition to juking or spinning. Just don't abuse it or you'll end up fumbling. I find that hitting it once per play is enough and it's very satisfying when you see the RB throw the defender on his rear end.

Another nice feature is the having ability to tell your receiver to extend his route on 3rd and long if his initial route won't make it to the first down marker. Just hit Y, select your receiver and then pull the right analog stick down. He'll alter his route to make it just past the first down marker. This also works in the reverse situation. If you are third and short and you discover a serious mismatch on a receiver running a 10-yard route, you can again hit Y, select the receiver and pull the right stick down. He will shorten his route to the first down marker. A really nice plus to all of this is you can do this to more than one receiver as long as it's not a half back route or an option route. It even works with playmaker adjusted routes.

Defense has some new things as well. Scrolling through your defenders is easier now. No longer do you have to cycle through with the buttons. Instead, press the A or B button and then move the stick in the direction you want to move. For example, if you highlight a player on the D line, press A or B button and then up on the D-pad or left analog and you'll now be in the linebackers. Do it again, you'll have the safeties. The same goes with moving the stick left or right. What could have taken six clicks now takes one button press and one or two analog stick pushes. Nice touch.

There are also individual assignments, which allow you to view the assignment of one player without tipping off the opponent to what the other defenders are doing.

Playmaker Zones have some new additional coverages. You can move the stick once to select one type of coverage for a highlighted player. If you do the same move again, you'll select a different coverage. For example, if you highlight your DE and then press right on the analog stick, he'll go into flat coverage. If you press right again, his coverage changes from flat to hook coverage.

You can also do zone shading for the safeties so they can play certain routes better. Your safeties can play wide or tight, depending on what you think the offense will do. Your corners can also shade the receivers as well.

With linebackers, you have the option of putting any linebacker or defensive back into man coverage as well. Just press the coverage audible button (Y), press the receiver you want to cover and then right on the D-pad or left analog stick. This changes the defender into man coverage.

The option to adjust to a run or pass after the snap is back. This premiered in Madden '04 but took a hiatus in Madden '05. If you set up a defense and then after the snap, you know that the offense is running or passing, you can immediately press down (for the run) or up (for the pass) to shift your defense into a better position to stop the play. Kudos to EA for bringing this back.

Franchise mode is great as usual. But, there are a few new tweaks that are very nice. When you are ready to play a team, you can actually get an overview of each key player on the team. This way, you can see how their defense and offense stack up against yours. Rather than having to go to the opposing team's roster, you can go to your PDA and view the information in the game plan section. This includes just about every player on their roster that is scheduled to play, including the kickers! It gives you their strengths and weaknesses and can identify key match ups between your team and the opponent.

Another nice addition is you can rep through key plays against the opposing team's defensive plays. You still practice against your teammates, but they will set up in the defensive schemes that are considered to be key for the opposing team you will face that weekend. The more reps you do against that play, the more points you get which will help you play better in the upcoming game.

I've noticed that with on-line, there are a LOT of false start penalties when you try the no-huddle. I believe this could be due to the new "fair-play" rule that states if you do the no-huddle too much or out of place where a team normally wouldn't, then it can result in false starts. Well, I was playing a game, getting waxed 14-0 with no time outs left. It was near the end of the game (3 minutes to go) and I was marching down the field. When I finally picked a play that had definite mismatches with the D, I immediately attempted to no huddle. I wanted to hot-route someone so I hit the Y button and I got whistled for a false start. 1st and 15 for my team. I then chose another play, again resulted in a first down and then no huddled again. Again, false start. Just way too many of these and I was using it in a situation that most teams would use it in. Even my opponent had it happen to him a lot when he tried the no-huddle, although he was doing it when he had the ball near the end of the game and was winning 21-0. It just seems it wasn't taking into account that I was trying to score quickly to hopefully tie the game up.

Sound wise, nothing spectacular. They boast THX 5.1 surround, but it didn't seem to make much difference on my system. ESPN NFL, ESPN MLB 2k5 and even MVP 2k5 sound better than Madden '06 does. Still, it sounds a little crisper than Madden '05, but again, I didn't really notice it much. NCAA Football '06 has the best sound between the two of them.

Graphically, there are no boosts here except with new animations. The players still look like they're on steroids. The RCA Dome in Madden 06 shows astro turf when in reality they've replaced it with the new fake grass! Even the local newspaper in Franchise Mode notes this change! Still, this isn't a game breaker, but it would have been nice to at least have some updated graphics.

The DNA stuff takes a long time to set up, and even then, don't sim anything, otherwise you lose out on choosing various options that may come up in your players career that can affect the rest of his life. This appears to be more of a marketing ploy more than trying to "spruce up" the game. It's not that bad, but I'm not sure if it was necessarily needed.

I have to admit, my initial review might have been a rush to judgment type of review. After playing for about four days, my opinion has changed. Sure, it would be nice to have it present itself like ESPN NFL 2k5 did, but in this case, the game play has improved drastically. On the surface, it may not seem that way, but you have to really give it a chance. If you're still not sure, rent the game, but you MUST play to it's fullest to really appreciate the "tweaks". They may seem like they are minor, but they really have improved this game to overtake last years edition by a long shot. A nice send off for the final edition of Madden for the Xbox.

Now, if I could only change my original rating from 3 to 4 stars in this review.

As a long time Madden fan I was hesitant to buy the new version due to all the backlash over the new passing system, but trust me when I say that it is well worth the initial frustration. Between the ability to extend passing routes beyond the fist down marker, being able to lead a receiver with "precision passing", and the aforementioned passing cones, the passing game is far more robust and improvisational. Each Touchdown pass feels like an actual accomplishment that you earned based on skill and attention to detail.

As an avid Giants fan, I couldn't be more aware of the effect that a players stats now have on the game. While Peyton Manning can see roughly the entire field while dropping back to throw, Eli has to meticulously select which receiver to focus on before throwing. The game becomes more interesting because often you will have to select a receiver before the snap to focus your passing cone on if you are running play action, or if you O-Line stinks. I've never spent more time scanning defenses and making adjustments pre-snap before, and it's all because it is integral to your success on offense.

Beyond passing, the computer can actually run the ball against a human opponent now. In previous versions the opposing team would usually end up with some absurdly low rushing total despite the caliber of running back, but (at least on All-Pro Difficulty) I can tell you that stopping the run is as legitimate a concern as it is in real football.

In conclusion, I say that if "looking off" receivers is a central part of real NFL games, then let it be a central part of virtual ones.

Personally I think the new features rule.

After vowing not to buy another EA Sports Football game after I completed Madden/NCAA 2003, I finally broke down and bought both of them. After finally becoming bored with the 2003 editions I simulated my final seasons and so I could start fresh with a brand new game.

I thought long and hard before I got this game. I remembered how much 2003 frustrated me, and never wanted to go through that again. Before I bought this game I rented it to see if it was even worth considering. I played a few exhibition games and was pretty satisfied with the visual and game play improvement over 2003. After returning the game I finally decided to buy it three weeks later.

Before I continue I must mention that there is a playoff bug in Madden that has been there since 2003. It involves the Divisional matchups in the postseason. The game bases the Divisional matchups on team record and not playoff seeding. This may not always be the same if it so happens that a divisional winner has a worse record than the 5th or 6th seed playoff team. I sent my findings to EA, they responded saying that they will send it to the Dev team, but no word it is fixed or will be fixed. I recently got a response from a rather rude rep telling me to "hope it does not appear in next year's version" So much for great customer service and support.

Coincidently the above scenario just occured in real life with the Steelers and Pats winning their wildcard games last weekend. I simulated the entire NFL season in madden to match the actual regular season and wild card results. And not suprisingly, Madden has the Pats playing the Colts and the Steelers playing the Broncos in the Divisional playoffs; when in reality, the Pats are playing the Broncos and the Steelers are playing the Colts.

In simulating the season, I also discovered that there is another playoff error that does not follow the NFL tiebreaking procedures. I discovered that Madden gave Tampa Bay the #2 seed and 1st round bye over Chicago, despite the fact that Tampa Bay lost to the Bears in the regular season. In actuality, the Bears have the #2 seed. Madden is wrong here as well.

so much for being "In the game"


Anyway back to the game.

Graphics/Visuals
=====================

Graphically the game is much improved over 2003, the players move better, look better and the stadiums look better as well. In addition to this, all teams have all there uniforms that they have used. The Dolphins have their orange uniforms as well do the Bears. The Jaguars and Eagles also have their black uniforms. Thank you EA! The 49ers also have an all gold uniform that I never seen. Although limited, tou can also create custom uniform for you team in Franchise mode, but be warned, once you create a uniform, you cannot delete it. It doesn't really cause any problems, because you don't have to ever use them, but if your playing Franchise, your team news will constantly say that your team has "new Threads" that will be unveiled. I haven't found out a way to delete the custom uniforms, other than starting a brand new franchise. I probably will just deal with it knowing never to do that again when I switch teams. Another thing I must mention about the custom uniform is that you CANNOT put the team logo on the helmet which is pretty lame. So if you have the Falcons and create a custom uni, the closest you can get to the helmet is creating a black helmet.

Madden added new player animations and also fan animations, adding to the realism of the game. This is a welcome addition to a rather bland 2003 in this department.


Sound
=======================
Sound-wise the game is improved over 2003, another cool feature they added is that you can now play your custom CD tracks from your XBOX hard drive in the game. While I don't think they will play during an actual game, they do play on the game menu's and even during training camp drills. The hits sound good as do the crowd, getting more true to life. Michaels and Madden have some new dialog, but for the most part they are carried over from past games, and still repeat themselves.

Controls
=========================
Like NCAA for some reason EA decided to almost completely revamp the button assignments, if you are used to past Maddens then this will certainly frustrate you to no end until you get used to the new layout, a good thing though is that you can change it back to past Madden button assignments.

The game also seems a lot more fluid and have more control this time around, In 2003, players sometimes seemed to run like they had lead in their shoes, and other times, they moved like they were on ice. 2006 improved this by making the game faster with more fluid and precise movements.

New Features
=========================

Madden added quite a few new features in this game, some I will never play probably, and others that are very fun in my opinion.

Superstar mode seems to be the main feature that EA focused on this year. Basically you become an NFL player and control his life on and off the field, from getting haircuts to starring in movies. Eh, OK, not my type of thing, but may be very fun for someone who is into the role playing aspect of this. For me I just want to play football with some interaction with my players, but to my Superstar seems to go a little overboard. It may be something I mess around with later, but not right now.

QB Vision / Precision Passing
===============================

QB Vision is basically a Love it or Hate it aspect. For me I am in the "Love it" group. This adds another depth of realism to passing that rewards you for making right decisions and punishes you for making bad ones just like in real life. The better vision your QB has (ie, Peyton Manning, Brett Farve), the wider his "field of vision" will be. New QB's or QB's with not so good vision, will have a small field of vision. As long as you throw to a receiver in your field of vision, you can then place the pass where you want it. If you throw out of the vision cone, then you cannot place it and worse yet your defender can pick it off. Defenders can use the field of vision to there advantage as well, if they see you are keying on the same receiver too much, then they can act accordingly. QB Vision can be turned off if you like. But I plan to leave it on. Another cool thing about this is as you QB gets better in franchise mode his field of vision becomes wider.


Improved Franchise Mode
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Since this is where I will spend most of my Madden time, this is the most important part of the game to me. First off, the Franchise mode incorporates training camp drills. At the start of every season you can choose one player to participate in the training camp drills from past Maddens, depending on how well you do you get points to add to your player's attributes. Very cool.

Another cool thing is that Madden now has national and local newspapers for every team in the league basically reporting on the team's current news. In addition to this, there is also a weekly radio show by Tony Bruno that talks about the current weeks events, complete with callers from current NFL coaches, fans, and he even has trivia questions. While it doesn't take long for this to repeat itself, it does help keep you involved. If you don't pay too much attention to it, then you probably won't even notice.

You are also involved with your players. You can check each player to see their moral and if they are happy. For stat buffs like myself you can get nearly every bit of information you want about a particular player, like College attended, draft year, Round picked, number picked etc. Hopefully this will also apply to players drafted from NCAA 06.
Like 2004 and 2005 (which I never played) you can set your ticket prices, food prices etc. But I won't mess with that too much.

Another cool thing is that you can relocate your team to another city, redesign your stadium, rename your team etc. Another thing I probably won't mess with but a pretty cool feature.

Also as mentioned before you can create new custom uniforms for you team, but this is very limited in the colors you can choose from and the fact that you can't put your teams logo on the new helmet. Another frustrating thing is that once you create a custom uni, it is there forever, even if you never use it; there is no way to delete it.

Over all this game is an improvement over 2003. Not a bad game at all, and the actual game play is pretty fun. But Madden still has a ways to go to match the excellence of NCAA Football 2006. The come back AI is still there, and those not quite as bad as 2003, there are still BS catches in which the ball seems to be magenetically attracted to the CPU's hands changing directions in mid air to end up end it's hand's rather than yours. Your defenders still dive in the wrong direction while trying to make a tackle. The CPU still moves your defenders across the line to get enchroment calls, when they reall need free yardage. I must also mention that the punting game seems to have actually declined from 2003. Your teammates will NEVER block for you on a punt return. TWO of your guys will let ONE person from the other team right through and knock the bejesus out of you. If you are leading or if its a close game, this will almost always cause a fumble which they will pick up and run into the endzone. I HATE this part of the game. I don't know what EA was thinking here.

Also the playoff bug that I mentioned earlier is very frustrating, they say its "in the game", but how could they miss that? Granted it doesn't occur every time, but the QA Department should have caught this and sent it back to Development. Since this bug also appears in 2003, that means it has not been caught by them for over 4 years...unacceptable. This and other minor bugs and flaws cause me not to be able to give this game a better rating.

While I am fairly satisfied with this game, I will still not resort to buying EA's football games every year. In my case 2006 is a big improvement over 2003, but for those who have 2005, I highly doubt there is much improvement to warrant a brand new purchase. The only way I would get 2007 is if they fix the playoff bug and tie together the other loose ends in this game.

First of all, let me clear this up: there IS a bug or glitch with Madden 2006 for Xbox which will make your game freeze up on occasion. Besides being infuriating, it is indicative of how rushed this game feels. There is nothing you can do to fix it, but feel free to do a google search on the problem and you will see what I mean.

I've been playing Madden since the very first game, in 1989, and by and large, the series has had an amazing ability to reinvent itself and keep improving year after year. Madden 2006 marks the first time in memory that a Madden game has clearly not only failed to improve, but has actually regressed. I ended up selling back my copy of 2006 and have gone back to playing 2005.

What's new? First is the unfortunate brainchild of developers starved for innovation, the unfortunate invention known as "QB Vision", which basically makes passing more awkward and more difficult than it already was WITHOUT really bringing anything to the table: it's not more fun, it's not more realistic (since my eyes scan my receivers anyhow), but it is more frustrating. The whole scheme stinks of "change for change's sake", and I bet that it will be gone from Madden 2007 on Xbox 360.

Another addition is the "Superstar" mode, which should be somewhat familiar to those who've played NCAA Football 2006 and its Heisman mode. The idea is awesome: you create a player, then lead him through his career, managing the on and off-field activities, hopefully making him a big star. While the notion of a sports-RPG is genius, the implementation stinks. Superstar mode ends up being about repetitive practice sessions, and clicking through endless and boring text menus. Yawn. Also, why couldn't EA sports combine Superstar with Franchise mode? Many players create themselves and place themselves on their favorite teams, so why not?

The rest of the game is basically the same. The graphics aren't that much better, and the animations have a few more flavors, but that's about it. The "Truck" stick is a nice addition, but for some reason EA changed the controller layout. Yet more "change for change's sake"; if it actually improves play, then go for it, but it it doesn't, why mess with it?

The game's longstanding AI flaws are still there. The secondary can be either incredibly telepathic (CPU opponents) and break off plays with Superman-type reaction times, or utterly idiotic (user players). When a 99-rated Cornerback gets beaten regularly by a mediocre receiver, then the AI stinks. The middle linebackers and their amazing jet-packs are back for another season, meaning that a team with a semi-decent MLB patrolling the middle is good for endless deflections and picks, since he can jump about 6-10 feet in the air. Last but not least, the kick return and punt return gameplay is still beyond horrible. There is no blocking, since your CPU teammates are incapable of recognizing the 250lb behemoth heading for your returner, and will just stand there while you get creamed and fumble the ball. This is inexcusable. Why is it that it's so hard to program a game in which a returner gets even average stats? Most players will be lucky if they get 5-10 yards on a punt return (to be fair, I am referring to the high difficulty levels) with a super-speedy returner. Yet when you check the stats, there will always be some joker who averages 18-20 yards per return!

That said, it's still a fun game, especially since you can turn off QB vision and change the controller layout to the classic template from 2005. But then, what is the point of buying 2006?

It's 2005 repackaged, the new features like QB vision actually make it harder without adding anything to the game, and the Superstar mode is entirely random.

Add in that the price soared back to $50, and the only reason this is selling is that it's the only NFL game with updated rosters (exclusive license).

If you liked Madden 2005 then you will enjoy Madden 2006 although the changes are minimal. The one large change is the QB vision and precision passing. I find the precision passing to be a very good idea but the QB vision is rather redundant and unnecessary. You (the gamer) in a sense already have QB vision rating. If you have good awareness then you can see the whole field and make good passes. On the other hand, if you are not very aware of WR routes, the opposing defense and the field in general then you tend to focus on one WR and your game is limited. If you blindly throw a ball then it will likely be incomplete or get picked. So YOU ultimately determine the overall QB awareness....so why be redundant by adding QB Vision? I understand that the vision of the QB is based on the QB you choose to use (Brady's cone is larger than Vick's for example). But the attribute ratings (accuracy, strength, durability....) that Madden assigns to QB's is plentiful and accurate. That should be enough since the QB vision is inherently up to the gamer just by the nature of playing the game. It is overkill to add the QB vision of each individual QB and far too subjective on the part of EA Sports. Too many buttons to press and too little time especially if you play All-Madden setting. The passing game becomes an annoyance rather than an enjoyment.

So in summary the player (yourself) has a certain QB vision rating. There is no need to add this to the game since it just makes things more convoluted. The first thing I did was turn off QB vision. Other than that Madden 2006 is the same as Madden 2005 except for a few minimal changes. It is fun but nothing that is groundbreaking.

Madden 06 I thought was a really good game like all other madden games one thing I liked was the nfl super star mode where you can start off with this young rookie and turn him into a legend. The QB vision mode is cool too, expecially if you want to throw the ball exactly where you want. The truck stick is great too which is like hit stick but on offence you can plow through defenders. Overall madden was a really good game

The designers of this game shouldn't be proud of this game. It's one of the longest running football video games, yet they never make any significant changes to the game. I believe they are still using over half of the original commentary from 2 or 3 years ago. The graphics improve gradually with each season but for the most part all they do is update the roster. They were challenged by the 2K series of games and instead of making their product better they bought exclusive NFL rights to make the game. Instead of trying to monopolize this industry they should improve the game. It makes me wonder, how lazy are these programmers? If churning out a quality game is too hard, perhaps they can lower the selling cost of each game. This effort to monopolize the industry is forcing football fans to play this lame excuse for a football game. If your looking for a quality football game for that special someone this holiday season you should look elsewhere and they'll thank you for it later. Save your money or buy blitz the league.

YES. I am still playing ESPN 2K5 because it is still the best gridiron game on the market. I rented the new Madden and I want my $5 back. You would think with how popular ESPN 2K5 was that the clowns at EA would have stolen some of the graphics, animations or ideas from the game. But noooooo! They stay with the same old formula with a few different ideas (i.e. QB vision) which stinks. I can't believe I actually got my hopes up for this game.

We can only hope they will improve this game for the release on the XBox 360 and PS3.

I must say I'm impressed that you used the correct spelling of too, given the overall stupidity of your review. It's a pretty good game. I know we got spoiled with the price of the 2K series but if you look at it objectively;Madden has always put out a superior product. This is the equivalent of the WWF/WWE buying out WCW or the USFL folding. We like competition because it keeps the big dog on its toes but lets get real,Madden puts out better games. The only major flaw they have year after year is...John Madden. If they get rid of him,it'll be great. This is a really good game,better than 2K but I prefer Arena Football for this year. Now hit my damn music.