Fun, especially considering I don't play sports games...
As I mentioned in the title, I usually don't play sports games. The last Madden I even touched was Madden 03 for Xbox, and it was for about 15 minutes at the most. The only football game I ever played "religiuosly" was NCAA Gamebreaker 98 for PSOne, and that was because it was really fun playing with my brother, you know, cracking jokes, punching each other when something didn't go our way, the goods. So it's not like I had high hopes for this game. As far as gameplay goes, I can see the game is lacking in some features, like being able to challenge a play. However, overall, all the main key aspects of football are there. There are tons of plays to choose from, all the teams, a great franchise mode setup, and enough variety of gameplay to keep someone hardcore busy.
Graphics:
This (and I'm not a graphics whore normally) was actually the reason I wanted to play the game. Just to see how real sports games could look. And while the graphics are amazing, there is still just something there that isn't right. Maybe it's the fact that the screens we saw of the game before release isn't the same as what it looks like now, but I don't know. Either way, the weather affects, stadiums, crowd, players, everything looks top-notch and the best I have ever seen. Man, even the jerseys are wrinkled!
Sound:
The staidum sounds are really good. Sounds real. So does the voices of the football players and the crunch effects of the tackles. Very nice sound department overall.
Replay:
It is football, and it is the same thing over and over again. Bleh. But hey, for those that LOVE football, I'm sure you'll keep coming back to it. As for me, about 4 hours of the game was enough to keep me satisfied for a while.
Overall:
A very decent and well put-together game I thought. And, as I said, I don't normally play sports games, so this game treated me nice. My guess is hardcore players won't like it as much as I would because of the missing features, but since I don't normally play, those missing features showed me no lacking. Madden 06 is a good game. Fun rental anyway.