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.
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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.
