Madden 09

Microsoft XBOX 360

Click HERE for screenshots.

Madden 09 begins with an effort to address the main problem I have had with the last couple of Madden games on the XBOX 360 – the default difficulty is too damned easy.  The game starts with a holographic image of John Madden asking that you take a “madden test” to determine your “Madden IQ” which will then determine the game’s difficulty. 

It was great to see John Madden back in the game – he has been largely absent since Madden 2005 – so I was happy to take his little quiz.  After accepting his offer, I was transported into a “virtual reality” in which all of the players were holograms.  This is pretty weird, but I didn’t question it and took all four phases of the test – rush offense, pass offense, rush defense, pass defense. 

The results for these tests were all over the board for me.  I was rated as “All Pro” at rushing offense (nearly “All-Madden”) and “All-Madden” passing offense.  The latter rating had to do with a glitch where I could always hit an open TE short over the middle of the field and get 100% completions. 

In complete contrast, both my rushing and passing defensive tests went horribly.  I got a 0% against the run and something like a 15% against the pass.  This set my ratings on D to “Rookie”.  My initial Madden IQ was rated as 438. 

My first game was in the divisional round and featured the Chargers coming to town.  Would my “Madden IQ” impact the game play?  I’m pretty sure it did.  My very high offense ratings ramped up the CPU’s abilities on defense and made moving the ball downfield extremely difficult.  Conversely, my pitiful defensive rating bolstered my defense to the point where the Chargers never stood a chance to get things going. 

Subsequently, this playoff game was a very low scoring affair.  The presentation was pretty good – while I missed the cinematic player intros from Madden 08, I was thrilled to hear that there were once again commentators in the series and the generic “radio announcer” had been canned.  Unfortunately, the commentators are John Hammond and Chris Collinsworth, who are less than thrilling to listen too. 

This game was in a torrential rainstorm, and the graphical effects were damned impressive.  I felt like I was playing in the “Mudbowl” as player uniforms were covered in chunks of grass and mud and the field was chewed to shit.  This effect got more and more dramatic as the game wore on – well done EA. 

I’m not certain if this was due to the rain effects being so intense, but the animations ran a little slower than they did in Madden 08 (but not as bad as 07).  The biggest gripe I had was due to the frequency of dropped passes that I encountered.  Several times I had Moss open deep, Brady threw a perfect pass, and it inexplicably went through his hands.  Perhaps it was the rainy weather, but I think it had more to do with my “All-Madden” passing rating and the CPU trying to even the score. 

The hit animations also seem to have been tweaked for maximum violence, but this isn’t so over the top as to make it seem fake.  There were a couple of times where I ended up wincing at the intensity of these cyber blows, but sacking the QB could very gratifying. 

There are a number of other changes – there are now photographs for the starting lineups, presented in-game, just like on TV.  There is also something called “Backtrack” in which Chris Collinsworth breaks down plays where you screwed something up (generally interceptions).  There is even an option to “redo” the play – but I couldn’t view this as anything other than cheating and avoided it in my games. 

As the first half wore on, my lack of offensive productivity started to really wear on me and my frustration started to boil over.  After watching Randy Moss – who had incidentally shattered the TD receiving record in real life the year before – drop yet another wide open pass, I began to draw some comparisons to the dreadful Madden 2002, a game ruined for me by excessive dropped passes. 

At halftime, I was losing 6-0.  I was annoyed by the low camera angles on the field goals because I could not tell if the kick was good or not as the play happened on the field.  I had to wait until Collinsworth made the call.  This is a very simple thing that is inexcusable to get wrong at this stage in the franchise. 

At the end of the 3^rd quarter, I finally got on the board with a FG of my own, cutting the score to 6-3.  I hoped to win the game late in the 4^th, but was once again held to another FG and forced OT with the score 6-6. 

I got the ball back at the start of the extra period, and after having dropped the last 5 passes, Randy Moss inexplicably got the one that mattered most while double covered.  He elevated over the two DBs who had him blanketed and brought the ball down.  I was relieved to then kick the game winning FG and end this frustrating game, but there was definitely some irony that the one pass Moss caught all game was the one where he was actually well covered. 

Following the game, a screen popped up and my “Madden IQ” was adjusted.  While my total score went up to 455, my passing skills went down while my defensive ratings improved. 

Going into the AFC Championship game against Cleveland, I was curious as to how my adjusted Madden IQ would impact game play.  In short, it changed things dramatically.

In this game against the Browns, everything was clicking for me on offense, defense, and special teams.  I blasted the Browns for a 24-0 halftime lead.  I thought the game was in hand and prepared to coast to victory in the second half, but was mistaken.

The Browns opened the second half with a 1 play 80 yard TD drive.  Just seconds into the 3^rd, the score was 24-7.  I proceeded to milk the clock, taking 3 minutes off en route to a FG, putting me up a convincing 27-7.  I kicked the ball off to Cleveland and once again – in spite of my deep zone defense – they scored a 1 play 80 yard TD.  This seemed a bit wonky and kind of cheap, but the score was suddenly 27-14.  I got the ball back and tried to milk some more time off the clock, but my drive stalled and they got the ball back.  They ran the ball to the right side and their RB broke 4 tackles en route to the endzone.  1 play, 65 yards.  With 2 minutes to go, the score was 27-21. 

All of this was highly suspect to me- it seemed as if the game was rigged to keep the CPU competitive.  When I got the ball back, I was stuffed for a loss on 1^st and 2^nd down.  On a huge 3^rd and long, Randy Moss came up with the play of the game, breaking free to score a 60 yard TD.  This put the score at 34-21 with 1:47 to go and the game was effectively over.  Although the CPU managed to nearly score one more time, I held them to 4 and out at the goalline and preserved the 34-21 win. 

This was a wild game, but ultimately a fun one for me.  It got my heart rate up, but never made me furious (like Madden 2002 did constantly).  At the end of my second game, my Madden IQ was rescaled once again, and this time fell to 447.  This scaling was interesting to me, but I wasn’t sure how well it was working. 

The Super Bowl featured the Patriots vs. Cowboys.  I really did not know what to expect going in – a defensive struggle like my first game?  A shootout like the second?  What I got ended up being a blowout. 

Mike Vrabel picked off Tony Romo on the opening play and nearly took it back for the TD.  On 1^st and Goal, Maroney finished things off and rumbled into the endzone.  On the ensuing Cowboys drive, Romo was once again picked off and moments later Sammy Morris rumbled in for the score.  Less than a minute in, I was up 14-0 and Brady hadn’t thrown a single pass. 

After a couple of Cowboy first downs (thanks to Terrell Owens), they were forced to punt.  I opened the second quarter with a deep TD to Randy Moss.  On my next offensive drive, I ran the same play and had the same result.  TD Moss.  With 3 minutes left in the 1^st, the score was 28-0.

Dallas then more or less went into panic mode and gave up on the running game.  In spite of a number of nice plays by Owens, they were unable to get any points before the half and the score remained 28-0. 

My main complaint about the game to this point was that the commentators did very little to acknowledge that this game was the Super Bowl (in fact, I don’t think they mentioned it at all).  Some of the canned comments just didn’t make any sense as a result (“He is going to have a lot to study in the film room before next week’s game!”). 

I hoped to avoid any frantic comeback attempt by the Cowboys, so I did all I could to grind out the clock in the second half.  I was able to basically impose my will on the Dallas defense and ran out the entire 3^rd quarter in one drive (before punting). 

Not much happened in the forth quarter (other than some more great catches from T.O. that led to nowhere).  Late in the 4^th, Dallas put together a great drive that stalled out with consecutive sacks of Romo to end the game and preserve the 28-0 Patriots win.

The Super Bowl celebration was weak, just a few frames basically repeating the animations from the end of Madden 08.  This one was a bit shorter and lamer though.  I was also annoyed (and this happened in Madden 06 and 07 as well) by the fact that when you win the Super Bowl, the in-game monitors flash with the text “COWBOYS LOSE!  COWBOYS LOSE!!!!”  This is just weird and even a bit cruel.  Shouldn’t they be celebrating the new champion rather than taunting the loser? 

Eh- whatever.

In wrapping up, this particular game was never competitive, but boy were the graphics pretty.  On the whole, Madden 09 improves upon the already very impressive graphics from Madden 08.  I get the impression once again that this is a pretty good game, but I never really got to play it.  Following the game, my Madden IQ shot up to 500.  I suspect that if I played a bunch more games, my IQ would have evened out to the point where the difficulty level hit a sweet spot and all the games were appropriately competitive (win some/lose some).  But, alas, there are still two Madden games to be played, so that experiment will have to wait until another day.    

Madden 08

Microsoft XBOX 360

Click HERE for screenshots.

Madden 08 opens with the first memorable opening movie in many years for the Madden franchise.  Blending sounds and images from real-life NFL films footage with scenes from the game– all set to an epic sound track – this opening movie makes you want to strap on a helmet and hit somebody.  Can the game itself hold up to its great intro sequence? 

The answer is a qualified “I think so”.  The game is clearly a huge improvement over its immediate predecessor, Madden 07.  The graphics are crisper and brighter, and perhaps even more important- the animations are smooth as silk.  Madden 08 made me feel for the first time that I was TRULY playing a “next gen” Madden game that worked as it should- it also served as a jarring reminder as to how much choppier gameplay was in Madden 07.  My “initial reaction” notes are filled with the words “smoother” and “faster”, even in reference to the menu screens.

So what’s the problem?  Well, as I’ve written before, for the sake of consistency, I have been playing all of these Madden games with their default settings.  This means the “PRO” difficulty level, which for many years, meant “medium”.  However, for Madden 08 (and its predecessors on the XBOX 360), “PRO” seems to mean “easy”.  (Just a quick note, in spite of all my Madden playing, I consider myself to be an “average” player – any 10 year old could probably embarrass me on XBOX LIVE.)  Regardless, I found the “PRO” setting to be ridiculously easy and subsequently, none of the games I played were remotely competitive in Madden 08.  The graphics were sure pretty though. 

My first game featured the Pats hosting the Colts in the Divisional Playoff.  I was surprised to hear Marshall Faulk open the game with a prediction that the Pats would cream the Colts 20-9.  This was weird for a couple of reasons- first of all, I don’t recall seeing score predictions in any Madden game before this, and second, why Marshall Faulk?  Really?  As a Pats fan, he is pretty low on my list of favored announcers.  This said, I didn’t have to listen to him much, because once the game got underway, the game bounced back to the generic “radio announcer” that has been featured on the XBOX since Madden 06.  John Madden’s voice is sorely missed once again.

The game got started after some pretty slick player introductions that were cinematic and exciting.  Again, the animations were smooth and the graphics crisp as ever.  Complete with fireworks and the roar of the fans, I was fired up and ready to play. 

The controls in Madden 08 – in large part due to the very smooth animations – are fantastic.  I felt completely in control of my offense on my opening drive as Brady marched down the field, hooking up with Randy Moss and making it look good.  The first chink in the armor appeared at the end of the first half when the CPU started making bizarre play calls.  Rather than run out the clock to end the half, the CPU inexplicably punted the ball on 2^nd and 20.  I wasn’t expecting it and wasn’t able to turn it into additional points, but I’ve never seen that call in that situation (in reality or Madden).  The half ended with the Pats up 14-0.

At halftime, I was treated to highlights from the game- these were captured replays of big plays from the game.  I really liked this and the presentation was slick.  It has come a long way from the “halftime highlight shows” of Madden ‘91 through ’93. 

The second half allowed me to continue my dominance, but again, there were some funny quirks.  The Colts would jump offsides frequently when I called a hard count and faked the snap.  It happened so often, that it felt like a cheat (I think this had to do with my being a “LEVEL 1” player or something – see my Madden 07 review for a discussion of that).  This quirk was outweighed by the stunning presentation of the game though- the field quality degraded as the game went on, player uniforms got dirty- it all looked fantastic. 

All of this distracted me from the fact that the game itself was damned boring and I coasted to a 21-0 win.  My defense shut them down completely and the outcome of the game was never in question.

The AFC Championship game featured the Patriots hosting the Ravens.  Marshall Faulk predicted a 21-3 Patriots route before the game before he disappeared for the next hour. 

Again, I enjoyed watching the intro sequence and was bowled over by the great graphics and animations.  However, as far as gameplay was concerned, I began to feel like the game was rigged somewhat in my favor.  On every close play – a tight pass, a run close to the marker, whatever – the outcome would always be good for the Pats.  It was a bit like Pleasantville – just thread that needle, Brady will get it there!  He always does!

I knew things were a bit stacked when Lawrence Maroney broke an 80 yard run from scrimmage for a score – something that never happened in reality (except for one time in a freak snowstorm against the Titans).  While the Ravens had a few nice drives, they couldn’t put points up and I took a 14-3 lead into the half. 

The second half was pretty boring and after a 50 yard TD return on an interception, I won the game 28-9.  Marshall Faulk’s voice came back to tell me something about my “ring progress” (?) and the game was over.  The game wasn’t ever close, but I had fun because the controls, presentation and animation were so damned good. 

In reality, Super Bowl XLII was a devastating loss for the Patriots.  In Madden 08, it was simply another Patriots blowout victory.  For the third straight year, my Super Bowl matchup featured the Pats against the Seahawks.  Were the Seahawks ever really that good or was one of the Madden programmers a Seahawks fan? 

Regardless, the game got off to a slow start and the score was just 3-0 Pats midway through the second quarter.  For a brief moment I thought the game would be competitive, but I was quickly proven wrong.  The Seahawks appeared to be driving on me, but I managed a pick-six from Asante Samuel (a 90 yard TD return!).  On my next offensive drive, Brady threaded the needle (he always does) for a nice TD.  Suddenly I was up 17-0 at halftime and the route was on.

The second half was more or less a repeat of the first half.  I shut the Seahawk offense down completely, tacked on a FG and two more TDs (both long INT returns for TDs) and closed out the game 34-0.  There was a modest victory sequence (a couple of frames of players celebrating and Tom Brady raising his arms to the heavens). 

This Super Bowl game more or less summed up my experience with Madden 08.  The graphics and presentation were fantastic- without a doubt the best yet in a Madden game.  They got all the details right and the game ran perfectly.  However, the game was too damned easy on the default settings and there were too many “big plays” for TDs.  

Madden 07

Microsoft XBOX 360

Click HERE for screenshots. 

Madden 07 improves upon its predecessor on the XBOX 360, but still leaves quite a bit to be desired.  My initial impressions upon starting the game are that the menu interface is similar to 06 – crisp and easy to read.  However, I was confused by the fact that the controls on the menu screen seemed choppy and not very smooth.  This isn’t anywhere near as bad as it was in Madden ’99, but is still worth noting.  These menus also seem overly complicated to me, with layers upon layers of different menu trees to sort through.  The music is once again angsty and terrible. 

For my Wildcard matchup, the Pats hosted the Kansas City Chiefs.  I could see that a number of my complaints from 06 were to be repeated here- Tom Brady looks like a huge brute, the pre-game intro is very choppy, and Madden is once again absent as a commentator and replaced by a generic radio voice.  On the upside, they managed to fix the ridiculous camera angles so that the defaults are usable, and a number of little graphical improvements have been implemented (improved grass texture, the helmets sparkle, etc.) 

The opening play of the game sums up my entire experience playing Madden 07.  I generally open games with a conservative call in an effort to settle into the controls and whatnot.  I opted this time for an inside run to the left with Corey Dillon.  I snapped the ball and Dillon ran untouched for an 80 yard TD.  Wow- those were some easy points.  It could have been an anomaly, or so I thought, given that long runs do sometimes happen to start a game (see Pats vs. Ravens in 2009 playoffs). 

However, on the Chief’s very first offensive play, they threw an interception that I returned 25 yards for a TD.  On two plays, I was winning 14-0.  Less than 1 minute had passed on the game clock.  These two plays proved to be the rule rather than the exception as I raced to a 27-0 lead at the half.  In my notes, I wrote: “I’m not really doing anything well, it is just the CPU giving me all these turnovers and big plays”.  The only positive comment I had written down was that they had reinstated the “end of quarter” and “2 minute warning” screens, which were oddly missing from Madden 06.

My lead hit 34-0 going into the 4^th when I focused on just trying to run the clock out.  The anemic Chiefs offense showed a little something at the very end and managed to surprise me with a couple of quick scores, but the game was long over at that stage.  My comments following this 34-14 domination were as follows: “I don’t feel like I’m really in control, more like a spectator” and “This game is boring as shit.”  There were 8 turnovers in the game, which is a ridiculously high number.  It also took just over an hour in real time.

The divisional matchup was in Pittsburgh.  This game was surprisingly competitive following the blow out against KC.  With the score tied at 3 into the second quarter, the game’s AI got a little bit weird.  I dropped back with Brady and saw that Deion Branch had a half step on the Steelers CB and was streaking down the right sideline.  Brady let the ball fly and inexplicably, the cornerback peeled away and started running away from Branch rather than move in to bat the ball away.  As a result, Branch was left wide open and hauled in a 70 yard TD catch.  This play was weird for two reasons- one was the AI misfire, but the other was that Brady threw the ball 75 yards in the air.  He has a strong arm, but 75 yards is kind of nuts.  I managed a couple more field goals and took a 16-3 lead into halftime. 

The second half featured a decent attempt by the computer to come back.  They narrowed the lead to 16-6 by the end of the 3^rd and were able to score a TD with 4 minutes left in the game, which made it 16-13.  For some reason, at this point, the game started to have frame rate issues.  It wasn’t consistent, but for some plays, the game would slow to a crawl, adding an unexpected layer of difficulty to the experience. 

Regardless, the attempted comeback ended as I was able to run out the clock and preserve the 16-13 win.  All in all, it was a pretty good game and the first competitive one I had had in awhile.  Was this the start of a positive trend?

The answer turned out to be “no”.  The AFC Championship game in San Diego started out promising, with my posting a modest 10-0 lead at the half.  Although it was a bit fluky - there were 4 turnovers – the game was at least competitive.  The second half was a different story. 

While my defense continued its domination, I sprang to life on offense.  A major difference was that I finally started to implement the “dual analog stick” controls whereby the right analog stick is used for jukes and “highlights” while running and as a “hit stick” on D.  While I know that this has been around for a few years by this point, I had never really used it before.  Once I started to use these controls as they were intended, my offense exploded in a way reminiscent of the 2007 Patriots (before the devastating loss in the Super Bowl).  I put up another 28 points to close out the game with a 38-0 win. 

The game was a shellacking and felt like it could have been 70-0.  It reminded me of my Super Bowl game back in Madden ’96 vs. the 49ers.  Once again, there were 9 turnovers in the game- an unusually high number.  I had five interceptions on defense.  This was pretty silly, but at least I was wrapping my head around all the controls. 

Super Bowl XLI featured the Patriots vs. the Seahawks.  As had been the case in Madden 2003, 2004,  and 2005, I was playing in a championship game against the player featured on the cover art- RB Shawn Alexander.  I took a moment to revel in how great the stadium/field graphics looked.  The field was decked out for the big game and looked fantastic. 

My praise for this particular game ends about there.  As was the case in the Wildcard game and the Championship, the Super Bowl was a one-sided romp.  I opened the game with an 80 yard TD run by Corey Dillon.  I raced to a 14-0 lead before Seattle managed to score a FG late in the second. 

With the score 14-3, I thought the momentum might swing away from me when it was ruled that Corey Dillon had fumbled the ball on a run up the middle of the field.  I challenged the play, and for the first time ever in a Madden game, I won the challenge and the ruling was overturned.  Rather than giving Seattle great field position and a chance to pull within 4 points, I kept the ball and ended up scoring again.  The score was 21-3 at the half. 

Just moments into the 3^rd quarter, I scored again to make it 28-3.  In spite of my efforts to run out the clock at that stage, I tacked on two more TDs by the time it was over and won 42-10.  My notes included “I have learned the controls and am apparently unstoppable” and “this is pretty boring”.  After the final gun sounded, I was rewarded with nothing.  There was no Super Bowl celebration whatsoever, just the typical “end of game” screen.  Jeez.

The final statistics were pretty warped- Corey Dillon finished with 208 yards rushing and 5 TDs.  I noticed while playing Madden 07 that there was something called a “Madden level” that I think has something to do with a scaling difficulty.  I started at a level 1 when I played the Wild Card game vs. the Chiefs and after I won the Super Bowl, I was told I had reached level 5.  If this leveling system is indeed intended to make the games harder as you “get better”, it didn’t work very well as I won both my first game and last game in equally dominating fashion. 

I imagine that this issue had more to do with the difficulty setting- “pro”.  I didn’t switch this to “all-pro” for the sake of continuity.  In all of these Madden reviews I have played through the Super Bowl using the default settings, so I didn’t want to change it up here.  Based on that scale though, Madden 07 is way too easy and as a result, a forgettable installment in the Madden franchise.  

Madden 06

Microsoft XBOX 360

Click HERE for screenshots. 

The first foray by the Madden franchise into the world of “HD Gaming” on the XBOX 360 is uneven and in many ways a step backwards from the previous three games released on the less powerful PlayStation 2 hardware. 

The first thing I noticed about the game was a positive though- the font used on the menu screens (and throughout the game) is crystal clear.  This might sound like a trivial matter, but it really bothered me how difficult it could be to read text on the screen at times in the Madden franchise.  Now, after 16+ years, they finally figured out how to display a crisp readable font.  Thank you HD.

As I began my wildcard matchup against the Steelers, I immediately felt that something was wrong.  Something important seemed missing as the players were introduced and kicked the ball off.  Then I realized- there is NO JOHN MADDEN COMMENTARY in this game.  In fact, with the exception of an “ask Madden” option in the play-calling screen (see below), John Madden is completely missing from Madden 06.  While I will concede that I have criticized Madden’s role in the game in the past, playing a Madden game with no John Madden felt surreal and left a huge vacuum in the game’s presentation.  Instead, we are left with an exceedingly generic one-man “radio broadcast” in which some unknown dude quietly tells you the down and distance.  “You don’t know what you got til it’s gone.” L

The graphics have undeniably been jacked up for Madden 06 on the XBOX 360 – the HD presentation makes everything sharper.  EA Sports has imported player faces for key players, so they vaguely resemble their real-life counterparts.  This works better for some Patriot players than others (Richard Seymour looks great, Tom Brady looks a bit brutish).  The player models are OK, but I thought that at times players looked like monsters and the proportions were a little too exaggerated.  I also thought that the models had a bit of a plastic sheen to them (almost like the ken-doll look of Madden 2001).  Players shouldn’t glisten from head to toe the way they do in Madden 06. 

Play calling has been revamped dramatically and I found this infuriating.  Play calling has been more or less identical since Madden ’91.  Sure, the presentation has changed a little bit over the years, but the core mechanics are always the same- pick a formation, pick a play.  Three plays are always highlighted at once and chosen by pressing the corresponding button.  I never thought too hard about this mechanic because it always made sense- put simply, it WORKED. 

However, in Madden 06, you are given a variety of options for how to go about calling a play.  You can go by formation, play type, “ask coach”, “ask Madden”, by player position, or choose by “recently run plays”.  When you go by formation, rather than giving you the base formation and then being able to scroll to variations (i.e. Shotgun>Shotgun trips right, Shotgun 5 wide, etc.), they give you every formation under the sun all at once (goal line, I-form, I-form 2 TE, Shotgun, Shotgun trips-right, Weak I 3 wr, etc.).  They can’t fit it all on one screen, so you have to scroll around to find the right one.  This was a clusterfuck of options that was more or less unsorted.  Making matters worse, is that rather than highlighting 3 plays at a time (which saves time), you only can highlight one.  SO, if you need to pick an option at the bottom of the list, you have to frantically scroll around until you highlight precisely the correct formation (and then play) that you need.  On offense, you have a 40 second play clock, but on defense, you usually have about 10 seconds to sort through hundreds, if not thousands, of possible plays. 

They offer the “ask coach” or “ask Madden” options to simplify this, but I didn’t care much for this either.  This would cough up 5 vanilla plays to choose from depending on the down and distance situation.  Basically, you have a choice between frantically sifting through 1000 plays or choosing between 5 boring ones. 

I compromised by playing vanilla “ask coach/Madden” defense while mixing things up a bit more on offense.  By sorting offensive play calling by “play type”, I was able to call plays classified as “inside runs” or “regular passes” or whatever.  While this was better than the vanilla “ask coach” options, I still was left wondering what was so bad about the old method?  It had worked well for 15 fucking years. 

Back to the action, I immediately was struck by how crappy the camera angle was on the field.  It was basically at field level, making it extremely difficult to see what the hell was going on.  I went to the (sparse) options screen to change the angle, but alas, there was no option to adjust the camera!  This seemed like a glaring omission to me, and after some research I was able to determine that by pressing the “right trigger” on the XBOX controller, you could zoom all the way out with the camera.  While this was a bit further away than I would have preferred, at least it gave me the chance to see where players were lining up on the field and a chance to read the defense.  Once again, Madden 06 presents you with two extreme choices- either position the camera on the ground, or in the blimp.  (I also found it annoying that I had to press “right trigger” for EVERY PLAY – there was no way I could find to fix that setting, at least not from the “in game” options screen.) 

The control scheme has also been completely re-done for Madden 06.  Some of the default settings are simply bizarre.  For example, while the left analog stick lets you steer the selected player on defense and on running plays (and after passes are completed), it will not allow the QB to scramble in the pocket.  Instead, it will cause the QB to stop in his tracks and “pump-fake”.  To move the QB in the pocket, use the d-pad.  Why the hell would you assign the analog stick to “pump-fake” when a simple button would do?  I had to remember before each passing play (after I hit the right trigger to fix the camera) to move my thumb off the analog stick and onto the d-pad (but not on runs).  It just feels like they are being obtuse for the sake of being obtuse.

Back to my wildcard game against the Steelers, I had managed a weak 6-0 at the half.  I made note of the fact that there is no longer any notification when a quarter ends or when the 2 minute warning happens.  Pay attention to the little clock on the screen, because the CPU sure as hell isn’t going to mention it.  Also, why does Madden insist on periodically taking away drive summaries from their games?  I find them useful and that they add to the narrative of the game.  There are none in Madden 06 – not mid-drive or after a score.  I couldn’t find one even in the convoluted “game stats” section (which you access by clicking the right analog stick when you are on a specific screen). 

The camera is particularly useless on punt returns, putting it at such a low angle that you have no idea where the ball is going to land or where your returner is- he is often completely off camera as the ball is coming down. 

In the second half, I extended my lead to 13-0, but the CPU responded with a fluky hail-mary TD play of 80 yards.  I countered with a TD of my own after a decent drive to put the score at 20-7.  Weirdly enough, the CPU had a second fluky 80 yard TD pass and the game ended with the score 20-14.  I basically shut them down all day, but they had two big plays which made the score seem close. 

The divisional round was against the Ravens.  In this game I noticed how wonky the physics seemed to be at times in the game.  Players would whiff on tackles in an unrealistic way (like they are going for a flag rather than a player).  I raced to a 14-0 lead in this game before a fumble resulted in a Ravens score.  I responded right before halftime and the score stood at 21-7 Pats. 

In the second half, I fumbled on my opening drive and once again they converted it into points, putting the score at 21-10.  On their next drive, I picked them off, but inexplicably fumbled the ball a split second later.  They scored and got a 2-point conversion.  Suddenly my commanding 14 point lead was reduced to 3.  With the score 21-18, the CPU more or less gave up as I tacked on a late TD and won 28-18.  For the second straight game, I had led throughout and held off a half-hearted comeback by the CPU.  Both games had also taken over an hour in real time.

The AFC Championship game against the Colts was even less competitive as I won handily 27-13.  The most noteworthy event in this game was the glitch that surfaced late in the 4^th quarter when the CPU attempted to run a “no-huddle” offense.  While scrambling to the line, their fullback got “stuck” to a wide receiver and the players seemed “glued” to each other.  In spite of the fullback’s best efforts to “detach”, 20 seconds were run off the clock before the QB snapped the ball.  Weird. 

Going into “Super Bowl XL” against the Seahawks, there were some recurring themes in my notes.  Comments like: “this game makes me feel cold and alone” and “this game was slow and boring” and “the game feels far away to me, in spite of the polished graphics” or simply “this isn’t all that much fun”. 

For “Super Bowl XL”, there were virtually no changes in presentation from the previous games (except the Super Bowl logo in the endzone and at the 50).  The game itself followed a similar script to the others- I raced out to a nice lead (21-7), the CPU appeared to threaten to come back (21-14), but it was never really close and I won handily (28-14).  The game took over an hour of real time.  My “reward” for winning the game was a big fat pile of nothing.  No fireworks, no Gatorade shower, no trophy, no acknowledgement whatsoever. 

In summary, in spite of the pretty graphics, Madden 06 strikes me as a very THIN game that just barely works at all.  I don’t use most of the features in Madden games, so the fact that I noticed that so much is missing is alarming.  This feels like a rushed product with too many poor design choices for me to recommend it to anyone.  Madden 2005 on the PS2 is a much better product- I'll take slightly less flashy graphics and great gameplay over this any day of the week.