Madden NFL 2006
by Electronic Arts
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Video Game Reviews of Madden NFL 2006
Customer Review: OK, an honest review: Not too bad, but still needs improvement; Playoff system is BROKEN.
Summary: 3 Stars
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Customer Review: Wowza
Summary: 2 Stars
This game has some of the worst AI I've seen yet. One drive you can throw for 100 yards, the next drive, every pass you throw is almost picked off. The way the AI works is so predictable and frustrating, that it makes this game worth nothing. This isn't anything new either. However, instead of cleaning up the AI or starting over to improve the game, they go ahead and buy out the NFL to make a monopoly. I've had my fair share of EA sports games, and I think it's about time to give up on them.Customer Review: Madden NFL 2006
Summary: 3 Stars
This game is not what I expected from madden. It has new things that you can do...I just hope that next years is betterCustomer Review: When it isnt a Game EA Sucks
Summary: 1 Stars
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. Customer Review: Give me a break, or a cone.
Summary: 5 Stars
I cant believe everyone hates this game. I LOVE this game. I think that every Madden gets better and better. If you buy this game you will not be disappointed. Before my brother broke his arm me and him would play every day. The only complaint I had about the old games is that it was too easy to pass and Mike Vick was way better than Brady or Manning. In this game I truely believe that it is exactly how it should be. Vick is still a true threat like real life, but everyone knows he isnt better than Manning. So it is very equal. LT is great and so is everyone else. This game is a must have for everyone interested in football.