Madden 2006 Impressions

Rather than dislike something in theory, I figured I'd rent it and see what the deal was. All they had left was one PS2 copy so I grabbed that and trundled home with it.

The passing cone actually appealed to me when I tried the game at E3. I like the idea of adding a bit more "realism" to the game and making the QB position a bit more cerebral. Unfortunately, it's not FUN at all. I would imagine once you get really good at it you can effectively switch between receivers you're focused on quickly but it doesn't feel like an added layer of depth and playability, it just feels like work. It's really, really tough to go to a second look if the guy you're looking at the snap isn't open. You get sacked a ton and if you're not playing with Favre, Manning, Culpepper or Brady prepare to get used to that auto-switch function to cycle through receivers. Manually moving the cone around with someone like Grossman, who has awful awareness is just painful. Also, because you need a few extra beats to find an open man having ZERO ability to side-step or duck a sack is made even more annoying.

So essentially what we have is a function that skews the "best" teams as the ones with certain QB's and gives a nasty disadvantage to those who don't. Passing being tougher also means more runs which also kind of means less fun too.

Remove the passing precisions feature, and you CAN disable it, you get Madden 2005 with an updated roster and a "truck stick" feature that we've been using on ESPN 2K5 for almost a year now. Worth $50 bucks? Hell no.

One thing I do like though, is the classic NFL music available. Disable all the bad rap and enable the classic NFL tunes, it's nice.

I posted some of my impressions in another thread but this seems like a better place to post them, so here they are.

I bought Madden for PS2 yesterday and have played it for about 2 hours. It's pretty fun definately a lot different than the last iteration I played which was 2004. Personally so far I like the new passing vision cone after two games with it although it is definately a bit harder to use than the traditional passing system. My one big problem with it is that it's hard to throw a checkdown to a running back. If you have a primary receiver downfield and he doesn't get open having to swing the cone all the way back to the back in the backfield before getting sacked is near impossible (although perhaps if i used the r2+receiver button method it would be better).

So far the biggest thing for me is getting used to the controls as I keep trying to use the right analog stick to juke and tapping the x button to run faster. The biggest problem I have with the game is that the presentation is a lot worse than 2K5 and the camera on kickoffs is jerky and annoying. The animations after plays often stutter which is annoying although i'm not sure if this is a ps2 only issue or not. Other than that it has been a lot of fun I spent a lot of time doing the mini camp contests as I figured they would help me learn the controls and they were always kind of fun.

Unfortunately, it's not FUN at all. I would imagine once you get really good at it you can effectively switch between receivers you're focused on quickly but it doesn't feel like an added layer of depth and playability, it just feels like work. It's really, really tough to go to a second look if the guy you're looking at the snap isn't open.

My strategy thus far has been to start the play off looking at a reciever I have no intention of throwing to and then quickly move the cone to my intended receiver and throw. It seems to work pretty well but this could get pretty obvious against a live oponent. I read last night about being able to start with the cone pointing straight forward which seems like it might be a good idea especially against human oponents. The one thing reason I really don't like the passing cone is that it adds an extra level of complexity to a genre that already had a steep learning curve to begin with. I usually prefer to play madden with friends and madden was always nice because any gamer with an interest in football has played some version of it, but with the passing cones it's basically like starting from scratch as you can't effectively run your offense at all without getting familiar with it.

I briefly played it at lunch today. The passing cone sucks and blows at the same time. I should not have to have the finger dexterity of Jimmy Page to play such a video game.

Whoa, wait, Madden sucks!?! But it's the 2006 version... it's from the future!

SUCKS

Certis wrote:

One thing I do like though, is the classic NFL music available. Disable all the bad rap and enable the classic NFL tunes, it's nice.

See, I have all that in ESPN, thanks to custom soundtracks.

The passing cone sucks and blows at the same time. I should not have to have the finger dexterity of Jimmy Page to play such a video game.

Zoink!

I like the passing cone. so there, I said it. Although in my first preseason game (only game i've played so far) I was sacked 14 times. 14!!!

Although they should have called it madden 2005.5. Cause really, come on, it's the same thing plus a few bug fixes and the cone.

After playing many games and trying to start a league (thank God that didn't take off!), I have come to the conclusion that I simply hate Madden '06. I don't mean a simple hate, I mean curse all the developers to hades hate. This series has gone downward the past few years and this year it has taken a freefall. It makes NCAA '06 look like the Mona Lisa by comparison. The superstar mode is just trash code, why the hell is there still "create-a-fan"?, the outside running game is broken as it appears no matter what team I select, my receivers have no idea what blocking means and I'm hit for a 4-5 yard loss every time, passing is ridiculous as my open receivers will immediately draw 15 players from the opposing team who were nowhere near before the ball left my QB's hand, and more than I can care to impart. I mean this game is so bad you almost have to try to get it this bad! This one is rocketing back to EB to salvage whatever I can get for it. I'd rather play an unpatched version of Battlecruiser 3000AD!

I'm getting a copy sent to me from GameFly, either today or tomorrow. I look forward to breaking the game down as a football simulation. Though I've got a crapload of preseason games to break down this weekend, woohoo!

Man. I'm staying FAR away from this one. Way to drive another series into the ground, EA.

I like it so far. I am digging the cone, the new animations, and the playbooks.

I'm enjoying it much more than last years version, and just as much as NFL 2K5.

Corporate plant! I smell a rat!

I played a bit of it at a BestBuy yesterday...I came away thinking that at least it felt better than NCAA!

Damn... foiled again *twists handlebar mustache*

OK, I need some advice from you guys. I am a longtime football fan, but I have not played a football game since NFL 2K for the Dreamcast. Is Madden '06 worth picking up? Or would I be better off with a different football game, even with the outdated rosters? Whatever shall I do?

Well, I would tell you Madden 06 sucks, but that's me. My advice would be to rent the football games such as Madden 05 (oh dear, I meant Madden 06. So hard to tell the difference.) and ESPN 2k5 and judge for yourself.

I got Madden 06 for the PlayStation 2 today from GameFly.

So far, I have only taken it into Practice Mode to give the new passing mode a try.

My initial impressions?

Fantastic.

One thing that comes with the QB Vision is, if your receiver is in the vision, the Precision Passing is superb. It leads receivers exactly how much they should be led, so long as you lead in the right direction. And if you want to throw behind the receiver because of coverage he's running towards, it throws it behind but still catchable.

Receivers get behind DBs in ways they failed to in last year's game. Throwing deep over the coverage, instead of underthrowing and cutting in front of the DB, is very possible against the right coverage.

The game rewards passers that ANTICIPATE routes. Too many players don't know how to do that. They throw to the guy that's kinda "open" at the moment. This rewards players that see the separation before it happens.

I need to take it into a game setting and see how it goes there, but from my first glimpse at it in Practice mode, I am excited. I am definitely getting this for the Xbox 360.

*Legion* wrote:

I'm getting a copy sent to me from GameFly, either today or tomorrow. I look forward to breaking the game down as a football simulation. Though I've got a crapload of preseason games to break down this weekend, woohoo! :)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA *gasp* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh Jesus, oh god, an EA game... a simulation, oh god FUNNY man. Oh wow.

Pred wrote:

Bonita Applebaum, you gotta put me on.

Nobody knows...that I did Kelly Bundy

Prederick wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

I'm getting a copy sent to me from GameFly, either today or tomorrow. I look forward to breaking the game down as a football simulation. Though I've got a crapload of preseason games to break down this weekend, woohoo! :)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA *gasp* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh Jesus, oh god, an EA game... a simulation, oh god FUNNY man. Oh wow.

I tell you what - it's pretty good so far.

The only problem I have with the precision thing is that I keep on accidentally using it, causing my quarterback to throw the ball into the sidelines, or into the ground two yards in front of my receiver. Annoyed me quite a bit when I had a guy wide open along side the end zone and my QB threw it five yards out of bounds. the 2006 controls are also {ableist slur}, I switched to '05 after a few series. Cornerback kept on diving instead of trying to intercept the ball, nearly impossible to stretch the thumb from A to Y without pressing X. (on Xbox) So instead of picking off the ball my cornerback dove face first into the ground.. smooth move.

The vision doesn't bother me too much, but I've noticed that my passing from '05 to '06 has gotten way way worse. Maybe once I use all of the fancy controls I'll get better. They finally added an injury slider, now I can get my guys hurt. Running is great, just ask my buddy Chris Brown along with his new truck stick. It seems the AI is worse at passing, or maybe it's because I can anticipate most of the routes. Kick returns are still miserable, I'm lucky to average 20 yards. More sacks now, hooray. I was dead last by a long shot every time in 05, now I'm in the top 10. And there's actually fumbles now! No longer am I sitting at the bottom of the league with 3 fumble recoveries per season. Hooray!

Seems to me that '06 made alot of great small gameplay changes, definitely an improvement over '05... and yes, the Superstar mode is a waste of time, I was watching my brother do it and it was quite possible the stupidest extra I'd ever seen. But oh well, at least they tried.

I am sort of enjoying it - I am not a big fan of the passing cone and the sacks are outrageous, but I am hanging in there with a 50% win average online and the CPU isnt really a challenge. Legion is right about anticipating routes and Highlander is right that you need a guitarist's finger dexterity to realistically throw that cone around. Remarkably enough I havent seen too many people playing the Colts, but the Raiders, Chiefs, patriots, Eagles and KC seem to be quite popular. The Ravens D is stifling especially given their quality secondary and very few people's cone skills - if you can maintain pocket presence you can dominate, but if you cant even the cruddiest D on an all out blitz is going to drop you. I have literally been sacked as the snap hit may hands - I didnt even get to drop back. I have heard there are some glitches with sacks and a couple of odds and ends. It is no 2K5, but it is serviceable.