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				Graphics: 9.0 Gameplay: 8.0 Sound: 7.5 Control: 7.5 Replay Value: 10.0 Live play: 7.0 Rating: 8.0 Publisher:  Electronic Arts Developer:  Electronic Arts Number Of Players:  1-2 Screenshots
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  Madden ’06 is EA Sports’ latest rehash on its enormously popular Madden series. It’s no secret to anyone that Madden has dominated the game industry in the sports department, with very few sports games ever competing on the same level. With the immense power backing the Xbox 360, EA had some big shoes to fill, but did they revolutionize the game enough so that it doesn’t play like its predecessors? In short, not really.

  Graphically the game is beautiful, I’d have to say it’s one of the top “pretty” games out there, but you’re definitely going to need a HDTV to take full advantage of what Madden can do. To solidify my claim, my mother happened to walk in the room while I was getting crushed by the Colts. She sat down on the couch next to me and asked who was playing. Yep, that’s right; the lady didn’t even know it was a video game. The game’s good enough to fool your average Joe; but lets face it, my Mom won’t be any Halo competitions anytime soon, so her word doesn’t hold much weight with your average gamer. To you hardcore gamers, the graphics are definitely up there, but there’s always room for improvement, at least when you’re packing a 512 video card and 3 processors there is. We all know developers need some time before they can utilize all the graphical power the 360 can pump out, so we’re all a bit more lenient with what the launch titles can do. Taking that into account, I have to applaud EA for making the game look so nice.

  The game itself plays just like any other Madden game out there. Why is this? Because football will always have 4 downs, and there’s only so much evolution you can force on a static, never changing game. Is this a bad thing? Nope, not really. Why do we sit down every Sunday to watch football? Because we’re hoping something will change? Negative, because we love it the way it is. However, I do have one major gripe about the game-play, it’s pretty damn slow. Unlike previous Madden titles, first down doesn’t speed right into second down, you can fully expect a bit of a wait for your huddle cut scene, and your QB to waltz up to the line, then another 5 or so seconds before it will let you snap the ball. Now of course the cut scenes can be skipped, but when I push the A button, I fully expect my center to give me the damn ball, I don’t care if my QB isn’t done calling the play to the rest of the team. If you’re true to Football, this could be a great thing, bringing every “real” element from the field, to your TV (which is hopefully high def), but if you’re like me, lets get this show on the road already. However, I do have to give credit where it’s due, and the features like the “Hit Stick” and “QB Vision” Passing are a nice touch.

  With the addition of new graphics and more involved Live play, certain things had to get dropped, I mean there’s only so much room on that little disk. If you were a huge fan of making Billy Smith, your digital clone who happens to be a star QB for the 49’ers, give it up. There’s no create-a-player option in this game. While EA was on a trimming spree, they also excluded a few of your career options. No more scouting for players, Tony Bruno’s weekly radio show, or create-a-fan to name a few.

  If you’re like me, you’re a point whore and love the Gamer Score feature built into the Live system. You’re probably sitting there with your 65 points wondering how all those people got up to 1,000+ so fast…and a large part of the reason is Madden ’06. The achievements for this game, and I use the term loosely, are easier than a two dollar whore. If you just got the game and decide to play an offline exhibition match with the computer, you’ll probably leave the match with 80+ points. Examples of the poorly distributed achievement points are as follows:

  Complete an Offline game: 30 pts

  Get a first down: 10 pts

  Score a Touchdown: 30 pts

  Win a Franchise game: 100 pts.

  So let's say your first game was a franchise game (career mode), and you happen to win. So now you’ve left your first game with 170 points to slap onto your gamer score. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all well and good if EA wants to give out points for your first win, but 100 points is a bit excessive. If you’re looking for some quick points, and have no interest in football, fork over the 6 beans and go rent Madden.

  Lets take a minute to talk about the sound. All your favorite grunts and one syllable groans are built right into the game, which is nothing spectacular. What I am impressed with is the announcer, and the crowd. Both react so well to the current situation. If you’re about to get sandwiched between two defensive linemen, you’ll hear the announcer exclaim, “Oh Oh, He’s in trouble”. Thanks for the heads up wise ass, like I didn’t see the two 250 lb dudes coming at me like freight trains. The crowd goes nuts on big plays, huge hits, and will cheer louder and louder as your team’s momentum gains and you’re really moving the ball downfield (assuming it’s a home game at least). If for some reason this bugs you, pushing the left analog stick in will have your selected player make a “hush” motion with his hands, quieting a home field crowd, but making the crowd at an away game scream louder. A nice little touch by EA in my opinion.

  If you’re big into customization, and having a button for everything, then this game’s for you, because there’s a button to do just about anything football related you can think of. Unfortunately, working with a controller with about 16 or so buttons just isn’t going to cut it. Hence, there’s a different set of controls for the following situations:

  Preplay Offense

  Preplay Defense

  Passing

  Ball Carrier

  Ball in Air/Loose Ball

  Defense Engaged

  Defense Pursuit

  That’s 7 different sets of controls! Controls you have to know inside and out or you’ll dive instead of Juke, or spike the ball when you didn’t mean to. For crying out loud that’s a lot of controls to memorize. I’m a big fan of simple, and anyone that tells you this game’s controls are simple is just plain lying, or drunk…hopefully the latter, nobody likes liars.

  The great thing about this game is that you’ll never have the same game experience twice. The replay value of Madden ’06 is through the roof. There’s a boatload of different team match-ups you could come up with in single player alone. If you feel unsatisfied with that, start up a franchise and play a whole season as you’re favorite team, you even get to play the preseason games. Yeah call me in 4 months when you’re done with that one, that’s a time consumer and a half.

  If you don’t like single player, then load up the Xbox Live and take your favorite team worldwide, competing against the best, and worst of the digital athletes. You can customize your Live games by specifying the level of the player you want to play against, be it “same level as you” or “whoop your ass”. That really makes me excited, because there’s nothing more than I hate than playing somebody 400 times better than I am. So I beat the tar out of some 12 year old kid, I rule. You can play just for fun, or set up ranked matches to record your stats and pit you against all the other Madden players out there. Just be careful of sore losers, people are complaining left and right about their opponents leaving mid-game because they were getting stomped on. The servers themselves are still shaky at best; it took me four tries to set up a game without being disconnected. However, once it decided to work, it went pretty smoothly from there; as a lag indicator lets you know ahead of time whom not to play with. My favorite part of online play is that you can join a chat room to find a game. This brings me back to the days of Battle.net where you can see a list of players in the room, in this case pairing up for some manly football. Unfortunately, the more experienced players can easily take advantage of this chat room feature. While sitting there happily in the room, prepare for several game invites from people you’ve never even heard of. Why is Mr. Random so intent on getting a game of madden in with you? That’s easy, the chat room visibly displays your “level”, and they know then can beat you like a read headed stepchild. Be weary of game invites, and always check up on the person who invited you; if they’re on a 9 game winning streak then you might just want to steer clear of this one. However, there’s nothing stopping you from picking on the weak either, so feel free to slap that level 1 around.

  If you don’t like playing with random people, just create a private room for you and a buddy to play. Laughing at your best friend as you injure his starting QB is probably the funniest thing ever. At least this way you can play with a certain level of casualness, and not worry about the humiliation of losing to some kid who knows jack about football, and his Mommy just bought him Madden.

  Madden ’06 is definitely worth a purchase if you’re a football fan. Even if you’re not a fan, you might find yourself surprised, so at least download the demo which is currently up on the Live Marketplace for free. It packs a enough of a punch to make you feel like you’re not playing the same old Madden. Are you going to be blown away by the games revolutionary take on football? Hell no you’re not, because that doesn’t exist, but it does feel like a step in the right direction.

12/5/2005  Brian 'Frosty688' Nadolny