I had high hopes. I guess it turns out that it's easier to buy the NFL license than to make a better NFL game...
User Rating: 7.9 | Madden NFL 06 XBOX
The games looks decent enough though it's not as much of a graphical upgrade as I would have liked. Most of the animations are nicely done. However, there are some animation problems when it comes to tipped passes. These tend to stay up in the air much longer than they should and can look glitchy at times. The stadiums look as good as usual and the frame rate has been acceptable or better so far. There are a ton of new things to learn when it comes to gameplay. Especially if you are an ESPN NFL 2K5 guy like I was. While it's nice to add some of these features, it can be a bit overwhelming for some players to try to master the passing system. The new vision aspect of quarterbacking is both nice and annoying at times. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you make a nice play but you will find yourself fumbling to turn toward the correct receiver by holding the right trigger and hitting the button for him then letting go of the trigger and hitting the button again to throw the ball to him. It's a bit much to throw a pass but will get easier over time. I'm also not a big fan of the amount of time it takes to release a pass. Good luck trying to dump the ball off when the defense breaks through your line on a blitz. Also, there is at least one major flaw in the system that can become very irritating. When you switch to a receiver after throwing the ball in his direction, he may cut his route short or at least hesitate enough to miss the pass. This happens about 1 in 10 times. This is insanely irritating. You may notice this same problem when switching to a DB while trying to cover a fly route. So far, I've been forced to let the AI handle coverages that I would normally have to switch to and receivers before the catch. OK, it sounds like I'm ripping the game and, I guess in a way I am. It's not that the passing system is horrible, but it's definitely a bit clunky and should have been refined. The running game is much better than the passing game but still has the same issues that have plagued football games since the dawn of time. That problem is two-fold. First, on the defensive side of the ball, holding is almost constant. You should be able to shed a block by moving laterally. However, most of the time, blocks will hold you in place allowing big gains. Then you have the inconsistent tackling. Sometimes the back blows right through a clean hit with little trouble and sometimes he gets knocked down when touched with one hand by a diving tackler. It all balances out eventually so I guess it's not too bad. The kicking game is decent as well. You may have a bit of trouble timing the aim of your kicks at first but you should get past that after your first game. Defensively and offensively there are about a billion things that you can do at the line of scrimmage to change your play. These are great options provided you can remember the controls for each thing. Again, with time you'll get it all down and be able to mix it up against better players. The NFL Superstar mode is cool. I haven't gotten too far into it but, it seems fun so far. Tons of stuff to do. I'd love to hear what most are scoring on that IQ test. I figured that it would be very dumbed down given the target audience for this type of game. It's not. It has several easy and several difficult questions. FYI, NFL goal posts are 18'6" apart...=) Overall the game is very good. I'm a big fan of EA and have been for quite some time. However, lately I've been playing my football and hockey on the Sega 2K series because I thought that they were better games. I'm disappointed in EA because it appears that, instead of making a better game and selling it at a similar price, they've decided to purchase the license and not invest in development as much while charging us the premium price for the game. It's a shame that there will be no competition from Sega this year since competition is what drives all manufacturers to make a better product at a lower price. Oh well, so much for true capitalism... 
