Madden 2006
Posted August 30th, 2005 @ 02:06pm by Erik J. Barzeski
A few days ago I traded in a bunch of PS2 games (I now have only three or four) for Madden 2006. A few thoughts, then…
- Online play is nice.
- NFL 2K5's gameplay is both more realistic and more fair. I've never seen so many footballs go through defenders and still be caught by the receiver.
- Kicking is now very difficult.
- The menu system is horrible. Absolutely horrible. You go into a menu, press the "back" button (triangle), and you're taken two menus up. Combined with the fact that there are no breadcrumbs, navigating the menus in this game is next to impossible. I avoid them as much as possible.
- Why, when I push the audible button, can't a menu of my audibles appear so I know I'm choosing the right one?
- The computer seems awfully adept at throwing the ball just as they're about to get sacked for an incomplete pass (that travels a yard or two).
- The vision cones are pretty stupid, and throwing to a receiver not in your vision cone requires pressing three buttons just to get a pass off accurately.
I'll have more thoughts as I play a little more. I'm in the pre-season right now (the Steelers just beat the Redskins). We'll see how the season goes.
P.S. Yes, many of the above are simply the result of EA's lock on the NFL market.
Donate Life
Posted 30 Aug 2005 at 2:59pm #
Amen to that. Been playing it for a few days now, and you're definitely right about the kicking game and the general UI nastiness. 2k5 had much better presentation as well, I mean come on, EA, gimme a half-time show, instead of just a plain old stats menu!
I think EA just got lazy this year. Everyone who wants to play with current rosters will be buying their game, so they don't have to cram features in there.
Posted 30 Aug 2005 at 3:57pm #
I haven't bought Madden but I believe you when you say "the menu system is horrible." Over last 12 months or so we've played Tiger Woods, MVP, and College Football. All EA games, all with horrible, eye-gouging interfaces.
My favorite is the number of times Tiger Woods asks you for confirmation when saving your profile. It's as if it treats every save as an overwrite of someone else's profile. Seriously there are like 3 or 4 yes/no questions for a simple save after a round.
And then when you are trying to set up an online match, there is a choice right next to "request match" on a player profile that says "report abuse" and that goes through with one click. I could not stop laughing after I hit that by accident and it went through with no confirmation.
And then there is the fact that after a game in MVP you have to choose "quit" to go back to the menu system, which to me feels like I won't get credit for this game.
And then there are the obnoxious one liners from the announcers in MVP. I can't imaging how QA would let that level or repetition be present in a released game.
And then.... ugh I could go on forever.
Fact is EA puts out some shitty games as of late and I'm not anxious to further support their exclusivity practices nor the treatment of their programmers. I think I'll just go outside and play these sports myself.
Posted 30 Aug 2005 at 4:12pm #
I have been playing ESPN Since 2k3 and I definitely like ESPN a lot better, damn you EA Sports for taking all of the fun out of playing good football video games (For me anyway). I guess I will have to get used to EA Sports now, though I don't really want to. I just could never get into EA (Madden) the same way I do with ESPN.
Posted 20 Sep 2005 at 4:28pm #
I love madden 06, but i hate playing chep fagots who always pick the eagles, and throw to T.O all of the time, for me that is where the game fucked up. so if you a cheap loser pick the eagles when you play, but if you are not, counter with the patriots or steelers (Bettiis is a monster!!) If you hot stick tackle mcnabb you can injur him!!