Madden NFL 06

Another year. Another Madden. Only this time around, selective gamers will have little or no choice when it comes to choosing which gridiron simulation will receive their hard-earned money. With the recent third-party license agreement between EA and the NFL, along with the cancellation of Sony’s story-driven Road to Sunday PS2 title, the abundance of football games we usually see each year has been reduced to two; Madden 2006 of course, and Midway’s Blitz: The League, which has yet to hit store shelves. Needless to say, if you’re yearning for some realistic football action right now, then Madden is your only option.

The Madden franchise has never been one to undergo drastic changes. In fact, many people stay clear of sports titles for the sole reason that many games offer little more than a roster update from year to year. That’s why I'm having a hard time understanding why this year, along with the usual modes from the past, EA has decided to introduce a new feature that will either make or break the game for a lot of people, which is the new QB Vision cone.

The vision cone undoubtedly came into play for the sole reason of making the passing game seem more realistic. Although it serves its initial purpose, it does take an extreme amount of time to get used to, and actually might be one of the reasons that this year’s Madden takes a few steps forward, but also a giant stride back. Each respective quarterback has his very own vision cone display while passing. This is represented by a yellow funnel, or cone, that spreads outwardly over the field during passing situations. As you might have expected, guys like Payton Manning and Tom Brady has larger vision cones and will have an easier time finding the open man. Likewise, guys like Michael Vick and Drew Brees, who are younger and less experienced, will have a harder time seeing the field and making the right read.

After hiking the football, players will use the right analog stick to move the cone around the field, as well as using the left analog stick to move the quarterback. Once you locate your intended receiver, you can also use the new Precision Passing option, which allows you to throw the ball high, low, or slightly in front of the receiver so that only he can catch the ball. But if you throw to a player that isn’t in the path of your quarterback's vision, the pass will more than likely be way off target, or even worse, be intercepted. The biggest problem with this isn’t necessarily the cone itself, but rather the amount of time that it takes to scan the field looking for open receivers. Any fan of Madden knows that you have precious little time in the pocket before you get annihilated by a linebacker, and adding the chore of making sure my cone is over my receiver's head before I throw the ball is extremely difficult at times. In fact, it’s more than difficult, it’s borderline frustrating. While I do enjoy the fact that people actually have to find the open man rather than blindly throwing up Hail Marys, the end payoff will either be a love it or hate it affair for most gamers, and I personally would have been happy with just the precision passing, rather than the vision cone. Unfortunately, if you choose to disable the cone, which is an option, the Precision Passing feature gets turned off as well, therefore forcing you to use the QB Vision if you want any improvement in the passing game whatsoever.

The Truck Stick is another offensive addition to this year's game that will help players counter the amazing defense that Madden 05 brought to the table. When running the ball, especially with players like Jerome Bettis and Priest Holmes, players can push the right analog stick forward to run over defenders, or pull backwards on it to stop suddenly, and causing opponents to miss the tackle completely. Using the stick too frequently can cause fumbles however, or using it with weaker running backs can be more trouble than its worth, due to the fact that they may not have the skill or power to pull off these moves. The truck stick in general is usually fairly balanced, but there were times when I felt that my running back was a little too powerful, but that’s Ok considering that the defense is as punishing as ever, and really hasn’t lost too much since last years offering.

Another fancy distraction in this year's game is the NFL Superstar mode. During this mode you will live the virtual life of an actual NFL superstar. From the start you will have the option of either importing a player from NCAA or NFL Street, or creating a superstar from scratch. After you're done creating your player, you will go through everything that a real-life player endures while leading up to the draft, which include IQ tests, interviews, as well as hiring an actual agent, all which play a deciding factor in the up-and-coming draft. Come draft time, all the preparations you did will either pay off with an early pick, or those arrogant one-liners you gave in last week’s interview will cause you to slip to the third round. Your position of choice will also play a huge role in deciding which team drafts you. Defensive teams like the Tamp Bay Bucs will go for offensive players like quarterbacks or wide receivers, and a team like the St. Louis Rams will be looking to stock up on defensive tackles and cornerbacks. Once you hire an agent and experience the draft first hand, you will have the option of roaming the town, acquiring tattoos, visiting your agent to talk smack about your opponents, or attend various training facilities to increase your stats. Eventually as time goes on, you will hopefully become an NFL superstar, where you can sign endorsement deals, demand trades, and even become a Hollywood celebrity and star in various movies that are filmed throughout your career. This will be a welcome addition for most fans of the series, but some people might let the lack of team control such as trades or signing free agents scare them back to the regular Franchise mode.

EA has also added a few new animations to this year's game as well. No longer will you witness the same two or three tackles or catches over and over again. This time, you might actually see a little variety in the motion capturing, but still, it doesn’t happen frequently enough to warrant the 2006 label. One would think that instead of offering tons of different gameplay modes, EA would concentrate on making the on-field action seem more lifelike. For instance, why is it 2006 and I still don’t have the ability to dive over the goal-line? I can’t even count the amount of times where a few clumsy linemen would be blocking my path to the endzone, while I just simply stood behind them, frozen and unable to move. What’s even more frustrating is that EA allows the player to jump or dive for showoff purposes, but only after I have broken the plane of the endzone, and this really only exists to remind your opponent that you just schooled them with another 50-yard run. Why even have these abilities if they can’t be used to further gameplay? Would people really rather showboat than experience a bone-crushing goal-line dive to win the game, I think not.

It is nice to see, however, that taller receivers like Randy Moss have an advantage in the endzone now. A lot of times you can throw a slant to the corner of the endzone where a jump for the ball will ensue, and most of the time, the taller receiver will come down with it. This is welcome improvement over last year’s version where players would try to make a jumping catch, but would usually come up short. I still would like to see players actually understand where they are located on the field. Too many times have I had receivers run blatantly out of bounds while making a catch instead of tiptoeing the line. To make matters worse, it’s usually not even your fault as a QB, because the ball will still be in the air when the player runs out of bounds when all he clearly had to do was stop and catch the ball. So just like in previous versions of Madden, I'm left with a six or 7-yard loss because this issue still hasn’t been fixed, instead we were given the gift of new gameplay modes, which have no bearing on the actual gameplay. All complaints aside, Madden 06 does offer enough improvements to keep most gamers happy, and for the most part, the new running and offensive line techniques work very well. It’s just a shame that many of the nagging issues from the past are still present, but to be fair, they’ve existed for years, and apparently many gamers didn’t care then, and they likely won’t mind now. 

The visuals in Madden 06 are slightly disappointing as well. I fully realize that the Xbox is at the end of its life-cycle, and that a new next-gen version of Madden will hit store shelves in November, but EA did very little this year in improving the graphics. Player models still look slightly disproportionate, and the actual stadiums and crowds look very similar to last year's title. The real-time weather is a very nice touch, though, as the sun going down will cause shadows on the field to appear, and will even cause the stadium lights to come on, which is extremely realistic. That’s about it, though, as it almost seems like EA has decided to focus most of their graphical overhauls toward the next-gen version, and has slightly abandoned Madden 06, but that’s almost understandable from the timing standpoint.

Overall, I do think Madden 2006 offers enough improvements to keep fans of the series happy. The new QB Vision cone passing system is a bit hard to get used to, but it ultimately brings the best new feature in the entire game with it, which is the Precision Passing ability. The new NFL Superstar mode and the Truck Stick are good ideas as well, it’s just that they seemed slightly rushed and aren’t as polished as they could be. Ultimately, this year’s version will satisfy most hardcore Madden fans, but newcomers may want to wait until this fall when they can play Madden 2006 in the way it was intended.

Gameplay: 8.6
New features like the Truck Stick, QB Vision, and Precision Passing adds a lot of variables to the gameplay, but the steep learning curve in the passing game will make them less intriguing. Oh I almost forgot ... where’s my goal-line dive?

Graphics: 9.3
Mostly the same character models from last year, but the real-time lighting effects are a vastly improved, thankfully.

Sound: 8.8
The on-field sound effects are nearly the same, but the play by play has been given a slight boost, and isn’t so repetitious. Sound tracks are standard EA fare and Tony Bruno has made another return, but he’s still just as boring as usual, and rarely has anything relevant to your actual season to say. 

Difficulty: Medium
The QB Vision cone will add a new layer of frustration to the difficulty level, but luckily, players can adjust the various sliders to fit their preference.

Concept: 8.5
I personally like that this year’s Madden offers a slew of new options on and off the field, but with Precision Passing being the only exception, the rest of the new features just seem a bit rushed and unpolished. 

Multiplayer: 8.0
Madden 2006 for the GameCube lacks any type of online play, but you and three of your friends can play at the same time. This doesn't compare to playing on Xbox live, but it is somewhat of a fun alternative.

Overall: 8.7
Instead of taking a year off from improvements, which EA very well could have done thanks to the exclusivity deal, they tried to bring something new and refreshing to the series. Unfortunately, they tried to fix something they shouldn’t have (passing), and neglected other areas that needed attention (various). The new Superstar mode will keep fans looking for a slight twist on the series fairly happy, but overall the difficulty of the QB Vision mode will probably be the deciding factor in whether you enjoy Madden 2006 or not.