October 31, 2005 - As a die-hard football fan, August 2005 had me scratching my head and puzzling over a few choices; Madden 06 was hitting the Xbox and I “really” wanted to play it. In fact, I “needed” to play it. After reading about Superstar Mode and having played a lot of NCAA Football 06’s Race For The Heisman any football fan would’ve been climbing on furniture and scratching at walls. I knew that Madden NFL 06 would be hitting the Xbox 360 a few months later and I knew that it would look amazing, so was I capable of waiting a few more months? Well, I succumbed to the temptation and I’m glad I did. As it was, I had assumed that the 360 version would simply be a graphics upgrade to the Xbox version, but in fact, the 360 features a brand new game rebuilt in every way from the ground up. It lacks a few modes here and there (hence my happiness at picking up the Xbox version) but it certainly more than makes up for it in all the places that count.

To set matters straight from the onset, Madden NFL 06 is without a doubt the greatest looking game ever made to date. From the accuracy of the stadium and player/coach models down to the tattoos, arm hair and beads of sweat, Madden is nothing short of a humbling experience. I knew it was going to be nice, but I never expected it to completely blow away anything possible that I had imagined.

I started out playing as the Rams versus the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. The first thing to note is that the stadium is as accurate as humanly possible. You’ll find the three Superbowl pennants (all in their accurate rendering), the marks on the field from the Saturday’s soccer game (and the turf a little less for wear), the two towers above the main enclosure, the rock garden by the arches and anything else that you could be looking for. I was told that the stadium took over 2 years to create and that thousands of pictures had to be taken of each in order to get everything (from the seats to the boards around the play-field) as accurate as possible.

The next thing to note is that even though this is Madden football, Al and John are no longer doing the play-by-play. In fact, the audio is now “on the field” and features a more gritty feel to it. Instead of playing as if you were watching it on TV, the game now feels like you’re playing it from the sidelines or from the turf itself. There’s now a PA announcer that calls all the plays like at the real game. Don’t worry, John is still around in the revamped “Ask Madden” play-calling option where he’ll give you the 411 on what plays he feels you should call next.

Also in the audio department, EA has gotten many of the real NFL QB’s (around 20) to come in and run through their cadences, audibles and trash talk to get the “on the field” portion as realistic as possible. When you hear Tom Brady calling an audible, it’s really Tom Brady calling an audible.

Keeping with the “from the ground up” mentality the play-calling interface has also been re-vamped completely. There are now many ways to pick your next play. You can choose by formation (like in previous Maddens), you can choose to Ask Madden, You can choose by player/go-to-guy (and if the Rams’ playbook is any indication, there are as many plays in Madden as in Mike Martz’s actual playbook; Tory Holt has 65 all to himself), you can choose a Key Player/Star, you can use Coach Plays (and you’ll actually hear the coach call out the Gun Delta Niner streaks play). In all instances, there’s more personality to play calling since you’ll see the faces of the men involved and you’ll note that the scrimmage diagram appear easier to decipher than other football games.

Once you’ve seen the stadium and called your plays you’ll finally see Madden NFL 06’s engine for what it is. And here are the facts; Madden 06 360 plays a lot like every other Madden and that’s a good thing. This “feels” like Madden through and through and I was glad that nothing had changed here. You can still tweak your packages at the line, still use the Hit Stick and the A.I. seems as clever as ever. Trying to run the ball with Michael Vick in a later game, I found the defense adapting intelligently (and quickly) to my play-calling and shutting down Vick immediately. Pure Madden.

Returning is also this year’s new QB Vision. It should be noted that it has been tweaked a lot and is only activated it you choose to press the right thumbstick in. Its implementation is also a lot more user-friendly and natural. Veterans appreciated the need to actually check receivers, but for newcomers, the cone appeared overwhelming and so it’s nice to be given the choice now. The other large change comes in the new kicking meter. Gone is the annoying circle that sets your power and precision. This time you have a large arrow that moves back and forth and you stop it where you like. A gauge then climbs up and down to set your power. Sure, it’s not a big challenge, but it’s a much needed change to a kicking meter that seems almost a decade old.

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