Madden NFL 06
Posted February 1, 2006
The first iteration of professional football built for the Xbox 360 is but a shell of EA Sport's Madden series. Madden NFL 2006 seems to be more of a token effort to garner early sales on the Xbox 360 rather than a complete game. While EA Sports took extra care to design a new graphics engine and a snazzier presentation, they left out many key features found in same version on the older consoles. The rush to meet the Xbox 360's launch date harmed the overall quality of the title, but it is a good starting point for future versions of Madden.
As the intro movie begins to play, the high quality of the presentation becomes apparent. The polished, opening video is a tense, 4th down situation at the end of a high profile game with one team in an almost impossible situation. While the animated crowd roars, the camera swings around giving the player a view of the suspenseful situation about to occur. The video is intentionally cut off at the end to leave the impression that you will be making the play calls within the game. After a short load time, the menu system appears and the music amps up while you explore the features in the game.
Gameplay:
The overall lack of features jumps out when navigating the menu system as the absolute, worst flaw of the game. A few of the absent features include the practice mode, the mini-camp & mini-games, and the create-a-player tool. While those are worthwhile extras in the series that are sorely missed, the most idiotic exclusion is the challenge-a-call replay ability. Challenging a ruling on the field has been an obvious standard in professional football since 1999. I can't understand why EA Sports would leave out such an important component in modern NFL football, especially since it's in previous versions. Removing this from the game creates a false illusion that the referees are always correct, but some calls are just wrong.
The features that did get included in the game have been stripped down to a barebones approach to football. If you haven't played a Madden game in several years, you will notice the franchise system didn't change since then. Instead of the polished franchise addition of the past couple years, EA Sports hacked away and we are left with a text based version that fails to impress. On the plus side, the franchise mode can be taken out thirty years into the future and includes drafts, recruitment, coaching options, and tons of statistics. Sadly, it's not as much fun to experience that as it used to be due to a lack of style.
Beyond the ancient franchise mode, there is a play now feature and an online mode. The play now mode immediately starts a game per your preferred game setup. You can adjust amount of time on the clock, difficulty level, and the time of day for the game. The online mode is a standard array of attributes including gaming challenges via ranked or unranked opponents and a common leaderboard. Online play over Xbox Live is fairly hiccup free beyond the occasional dropped games. I'm not sure if the dropped games are the fault of the network service or a sore loser on the opposite end of my masterful play-calling.
Play-calling is one aspect of Madden that has seen some vast improvement in this version. The play-calling screen is an incredibly useful menu system that breaks down play formations into several categories. The plays can be searched through by formation, play type, and my favorite, key player. The key player menu will pick out a few of the potently, explosive members of the offense and choose the plays designed around their strengths. The play type choices are handy as well if you need to make a fast decision in a general category. If you have a hard time calling plays, the play-calling screen also includes Ask Madden or Ask Head Coach. Asking Madden what to do is usually a riskier play call than asking the Head Coach, but you can rack up the yards with a little field perception using Madden's advice.
Calling plays for your star athlete can be rewarding, but you have to watch their energy level. The fatigue system has remained in the game and it seems to be slightly more accurate to real life. Tiring the same receiver over and over with passes or running the halfback to his limits seems to happen much quicker. It's important to vary pass/run play-calling if you plan to use the key player menu exclusively. After calling a play, the options to modify the play on the field, offense or defense, have been stripped down to the essentials. On the offensive side, you can call audibles and set players in motion. The defensive front allows for player shifts and a man coverage alignment that provides a safe alternative to a bad play call. The controls are confusing at first to pull off a quick change on the field, but can be learned through trial and error.
The controls are similar to every Madden game that appeared in the past. Besides the layout, there isn't much of a difference in the number of moves that can be performed. The bird's eye camera view can still be entered by hitting either of the triggers to determine the best route for your receivers, which is perhaps the most useful of the control buttons. The offensive juke moves are still available, although more prone to fumbles if used. The only true change is to the control of the kicking game. The kicking game uses a method similar to the now defunct NFL2K series. The arrow rotates left to right and the kick power meter rises up and down for maximum distance. I found the new kicking system to be overly simplistic at first, but performing a successful kick gets tougher as the level of difficulty rises. Attempting to accurately kick at the all-pro level can be an exercise in frustration.
Speaking of frustration, the artificial intelligence at the all-pro level is really a heck of a challenge. The A.I. adapts much faster to play calling which increases the chance of an interception or an audible. Running the same play over and over is impossible, so opening up the field to new ideas becomes a necessity. The A.I. offense is not as stifling as the defense, but they can rack up touchdowns quickly if you don't pay attention to formations. At the lower levels of difficulty, the A.I. is far too loose with their play-calling and make numerous mistakes. They are easily beaten with a team of average ranking which is one way to unlock some of the game's achievements.
Out of the thirteen Xbox 360 games I've played so far, Madden 2006 has the most uncreative distribution of gamerscore points. The 1000 points are split between eleven tasks, each hopelessly simple and unchallenging. There are no restrictions on how the points can be acquired, so the game can be exploited to that effect. For instance, if you are losing a franchise game or the Super Bowl, just switch over to the opposite team before the game ends and the points are awarded for the win. The severe lack of creativity or structure when these points were assigned to these easy challenges cheapens the experience and kills some of the replay value. The points can be collected in about 4 to 5 hours without any skill whatsoever.
Graphics:
Simply put, this is the best looking football game on the video game market. The game's graphical engine was built from the ground up to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the Xbox 360. The amount of detail in on the field is vastly astounding and breathtaking. The player models and the facial animations are true to form and appear almost lifelike for the highest paid players. On the flip side, the rookie making the bare minimum $230,000 a year salary just got a variation on a simple character design. Watching the crowd is a pleasure, especially when kicking a field goal at an opposing team's stadium. Each ticket holder is individually moving and attempting to make you kick wide left. Every item in the stadium is finely tuned for a sharp, clear image of what a real football stadium should look like.
The throwing and running animations are quite fluid and similar to what you will see when watching Monday Night football. The weather effects are also exceptional. Watching players trounce through a snow cover field leaving footprints is second only to watching the footprints getting covered back up with more snow. The only true flaw in the graphical quality is an annoying hitching pause that occurs between plays and creates a jerky, stuttering motion when loading up the next play or switching to the play-calling menu. It's a result of poor coding and memory management on the part of EA Sports. Hopefully, they can solve this problem with more time and experience on the Xbox 360 hardware.
Audio:
The music sounds exactly the same compared to the previous versions of Madden. I can't tell if any new songs have been added, but the genres used have remained the same. The sound effects are typical of the series. The on-the-field chatter, crowd chanting and roaring, and giant men grunting all seem representative of the NFL experience. The announcer for the game was surprisingly coherent, mostly due to the fact that Madden wasn't in the booth. The dialogue from John Madden is limited to the advice given during play-calling. This is a welcome change for the series, for my ears anyway.
Conclusion:
EA Sports seems complacent to put on a fancy show with slick graphics instead of focusing on content. While detrimental to sports gamers, it's really an interesting approach to business for EA Sports. Their exclusive contract with the NFL allows for a monopoly on the professional football game market. Pro football fans have no other choice if they want a NFL game for the 360, so spitting out a featureless shell of a game means they can profit for now and take credit for all the "innovation" the PR department will proclaim is occurring when the "new" features are added in next year's version. It's sad to see this happen, but it's only going to continue if we keep sending average games like Madden into the top tier on the NPD sales charts.
Overall, Madden NFL 2006 for the Xbox 360 is really a mixed bag. The general lack of standard features, piss-poor achievements, and graphical hitching ultimately hurt the quality of the title. But playing a quick game of offline football at the all-pro level or jumping out on Xbox Live to compete with a friend can be pretty entertaining. I can't recommend purchasing this title due to reasons mentioned earlier to anyone but diehard Madden junkies. However, I do urge renting the title before purchasing it to anyone interested in professional football on the Xbox 360.
As the intro movie begins to play, the high quality of the presentation becomes apparent. The polished, opening video is a tense, 4th down situation at the end of a high profile game with one team in an almost impossible situation. While the animated crowd roars, the camera swings around giving the player a view of the suspenseful situation about to occur. The video is intentionally cut off at the end to leave the impression that you will be making the play calls within the game. After a short load time, the menu system appears and the music amps up while you explore the features in the game.
Gameplay:
The overall lack of features jumps out when navigating the menu system as the absolute, worst flaw of the game. A few of the absent features include the practice mode, the mini-camp & mini-games, and the create-a-player tool. While those are worthwhile extras in the series that are sorely missed, the most idiotic exclusion is the challenge-a-call replay ability. Challenging a ruling on the field has been an obvious standard in professional football since 1999. I can't understand why EA Sports would leave out such an important component in modern NFL football, especially since it's in previous versions. Removing this from the game creates a false illusion that the referees are always correct, but some calls are just wrong.
The features that did get included in the game have been stripped down to a barebones approach to football. If you haven't played a Madden game in several years, you will notice the franchise system didn't change since then. Instead of the polished franchise addition of the past couple years, EA Sports hacked away and we are left with a text based version that fails to impress. On the plus side, the franchise mode can be taken out thirty years into the future and includes drafts, recruitment, coaching options, and tons of statistics. Sadly, it's not as much fun to experience that as it used to be due to a lack of style.
Beyond the ancient franchise mode, there is a play now feature and an online mode. The play now mode immediately starts a game per your preferred game setup. You can adjust amount of time on the clock, difficulty level, and the time of day for the game. The online mode is a standard array of attributes including gaming challenges via ranked or unranked opponents and a common leaderboard. Online play over Xbox Live is fairly hiccup free beyond the occasional dropped games. I'm not sure if the dropped games are the fault of the network service or a sore loser on the opposite end of my masterful play-calling.
Play-calling is one aspect of Madden that has seen some vast improvement in this version. The play-calling screen is an incredibly useful menu system that breaks down play formations into several categories. The plays can be searched through by formation, play type, and my favorite, key player. The key player menu will pick out a few of the potently, explosive members of the offense and choose the plays designed around their strengths. The play type choices are handy as well if you need to make a fast decision in a general category. If you have a hard time calling plays, the play-calling screen also includes Ask Madden or Ask Head Coach. Asking Madden what to do is usually a riskier play call than asking the Head Coach, but you can rack up the yards with a little field perception using Madden's advice.
Calling plays for your star athlete can be rewarding, but you have to watch their energy level. The fatigue system has remained in the game and it seems to be slightly more accurate to real life. Tiring the same receiver over and over with passes or running the halfback to his limits seems to happen much quicker. It's important to vary pass/run play-calling if you plan to use the key player menu exclusively. After calling a play, the options to modify the play on the field, offense or defense, have been stripped down to the essentials. On the offensive side, you can call audibles and set players in motion. The defensive front allows for player shifts and a man coverage alignment that provides a safe alternative to a bad play call. The controls are confusing at first to pull off a quick change on the field, but can be learned through trial and error.
The controls are similar to every Madden game that appeared in the past. Besides the layout, there isn't much of a difference in the number of moves that can be performed. The bird's eye camera view can still be entered by hitting either of the triggers to determine the best route for your receivers, which is perhaps the most useful of the control buttons. The offensive juke moves are still available, although more prone to fumbles if used. The only true change is to the control of the kicking game. The kicking game uses a method similar to the now defunct NFL2K series. The arrow rotates left to right and the kick power meter rises up and down for maximum distance. I found the new kicking system to be overly simplistic at first, but performing a successful kick gets tougher as the level of difficulty rises. Attempting to accurately kick at the all-pro level can be an exercise in frustration.
Speaking of frustration, the artificial intelligence at the all-pro level is really a heck of a challenge. The A.I. adapts much faster to play calling which increases the chance of an interception or an audible. Running the same play over and over is impossible, so opening up the field to new ideas becomes a necessity. The A.I. offense is not as stifling as the defense, but they can rack up touchdowns quickly if you don't pay attention to formations. At the lower levels of difficulty, the A.I. is far too loose with their play-calling and make numerous mistakes. They are easily beaten with a team of average ranking which is one way to unlock some of the game's achievements.
Out of the thirteen Xbox 360 games I've played so far, Madden 2006 has the most uncreative distribution of gamerscore points. The 1000 points are split between eleven tasks, each hopelessly simple and unchallenging. There are no restrictions on how the points can be acquired, so the game can be exploited to that effect. For instance, if you are losing a franchise game or the Super Bowl, just switch over to the opposite team before the game ends and the points are awarded for the win. The severe lack of creativity or structure when these points were assigned to these easy challenges cheapens the experience and kills some of the replay value. The points can be collected in about 4 to 5 hours without any skill whatsoever.
Graphics:
Simply put, this is the best looking football game on the video game market. The game's graphical engine was built from the ground up to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the Xbox 360. The amount of detail in on the field is vastly astounding and breathtaking. The player models and the facial animations are true to form and appear almost lifelike for the highest paid players. On the flip side, the rookie making the bare minimum $230,000 a year salary just got a variation on a simple character design. Watching the crowd is a pleasure, especially when kicking a field goal at an opposing team's stadium. Each ticket holder is individually moving and attempting to make you kick wide left. Every item in the stadium is finely tuned for a sharp, clear image of what a real football stadium should look like.
The throwing and running animations are quite fluid and similar to what you will see when watching Monday Night football. The weather effects are also exceptional. Watching players trounce through a snow cover field leaving footprints is second only to watching the footprints getting covered back up with more snow. The only true flaw in the graphical quality is an annoying hitching pause that occurs between plays and creates a jerky, stuttering motion when loading up the next play or switching to the play-calling menu. It's a result of poor coding and memory management on the part of EA Sports. Hopefully, they can solve this problem with more time and experience on the Xbox 360 hardware.
Audio:
The music sounds exactly the same compared to the previous versions of Madden. I can't tell if any new songs have been added, but the genres used have remained the same. The sound effects are typical of the series. The on-the-field chatter, crowd chanting and roaring, and giant men grunting all seem representative of the NFL experience. The announcer for the game was surprisingly coherent, mostly due to the fact that Madden wasn't in the booth. The dialogue from John Madden is limited to the advice given during play-calling. This is a welcome change for the series, for my ears anyway.
Conclusion:
EA Sports seems complacent to put on a fancy show with slick graphics instead of focusing on content. While detrimental to sports gamers, it's really an interesting approach to business for EA Sports. Their exclusive contract with the NFL allows for a monopoly on the professional football game market. Pro football fans have no other choice if they want a NFL game for the 360, so spitting out a featureless shell of a game means they can profit for now and take credit for all the "innovation" the PR department will proclaim is occurring when the "new" features are added in next year's version. It's sad to see this happen, but it's only going to continue if we keep sending average games like Madden into the top tier on the NPD sales charts.
Overall, Madden NFL 2006 for the Xbox 360 is really a mixed bag. The general lack of standard features, piss-poor achievements, and graphical hitching ultimately hurt the quality of the title. But playing a quick game of offline football at the all-pro level or jumping out on Xbox Live to compete with a friend can be pretty entertaining. I can't recommend purchasing this title due to reasons mentioned earlier to anyone but diehard Madden junkies. However, I do urge renting the title before purchasing it to anyone interested in professional football on the Xbox 360.