BY ADAM DIAMOND
SALSA DANCING
WITH
Getting Sacked
New Madden game is mostly
an improvement.
L
et me save you some time. Yes, this is a great game; but no, it’s not as
great as the EA publicity machine would have you believe. And that’s
sad. But what’s really sad is that what’s good about this title is not
what’s been advertised, and what’s been advertised isn’t that good. Confused?
Play the game. All will become clear soon enough.
As any real football geek well
knows, Madden is the premier foot-
ball franchise in the video game
world. The ’06 version is no slouch,
offering all the fun Madden has pro-
vided in the past but with a few inter-
esting new touches. For example,
under certain circumstances during
Franchise mode, you can save a key
game and replay it as long as you
maintain the Franchise file it came
from. This is called Spawning, and
can be useful for when you want to
play a game with your Franchise ros-
ter against a friend but don’t want to
mess up your Franchise record
should you lose.
But Spawning is small potatoes
compared to NFL Superstar Mode.
Similar to one of the modes in NCAA
’06, Superstar Mode allows you to
MADDEN NFL 2006
create a player from scratch and put
P u b l i sh er : EA SPORTS
him on the team roster of your
choice. Don’t want to start from
P la tf or m : PC, PS2, XBOX, GC, DS, GBA,
scratch? Take that graduating senior
(PSP & XBOX 360 coming soon)
you created a few weeks (and four
virtual seasons) ago in NCAA ’06 and
P r ic e : $49.99 for consoles,
turn
him into this year’s Pro. More of
$39.99 for DS & PC, $29.99 for GBA
an NFL Streets fan? Created players
E S RB Ra t i ng : E (Everyone)
in NFL Streets 2 can also come in,
giving EA the synergy they desire.
Wh a t’ s c oo l: Playing the same franchise
Superstar mode is rich and deep
on both your PS2 and PSP; a vastly
and may make you forget about the
improved running game; and the
omnipresent Franchise mode alto-
exclusive NFL license.
gether. Not only do you have to play
games, but you’ve also got to attend
Wh a t ’s u n co o l : The QB Vision
practices and handle the media with
Control makes passing more
skill. Pick up a mentor to help you
challenging and less fun all at
deal, and you’ll get the advice you
the same time; graphics are
need to do well. You’ll also have an
less than expected; nothing
agent. Now this can be a good thing
spectacular in EA Trax.
and a bad thing. Your agent will do
Gameplay 4, Graphics 3.5, Sound 4
what you ask but he may involve the
media and that is something that
never goes over well. If you and your
agent handle the media well, however, you’ll end up with a sweet endorsement
deal. And isn’t that exactly why you started playing the game in the first place?
Now, what’s really disappointing is the much ballyhooed QB Vision Control.
I found it hard to get the hang of and not very fun to practice. When a compo-
nent of a game is hard to master, the mastery should at least be fun. And get-
ting sacked every time your primary receiver is covered is never any fun. Let’s
just say that this feature, and the rest of the passing controls, still need a bit of
work.
The graphics aren’t all that impressive either. They’re not much better than
the graphics in the college game, and those were pretty disappointing as well.
Even more of a letdown is the music. EA Trax has offered us many hits over the
years in their many titles, but this particular batch really seems to fall short.
Despite some of the negatives, though, this game is well worth the $50
you’ll have to spend for it — just don’t expect that this is the chosen game that
will change your life and give it meaning. Despite all EA’s advertising to the con-
trary, it’s just a great football game.
ew
Adam Diamond writes for Weekly Dig (www.weeklydig.com) in Boston.
CALIENTE
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SEPTEMBER 22, 2005 33