Madden NFL 06

The field sound presentation is great. I love the lineman screaming plays and calling people. All the up close sounds, like the football catching and throwing, the uniform and helmet clashing, and the hard tackles also sound very realistic, as does the stadium crowd which makes the football game ambience even greater for that extra immersion.

My biggest gripe with Madden however, is the awful announcement system. EA Sports Radio, as they call it in-game, just sounds ridiculously bad. First off, the whole low-quality sound stream is really not something I want to see in a next-gen game. The announcers themselves are as plain and boring as a robot voice, and combined together it can really kill the immersion factor.

EA Trax is back and there is some more awful Pop-Punk heard in other EA games here. For a game where tracks are heard maybe for 10 seconds max, EA cramped the soundtrack with 20-30 songs.

However overall, Madden 06 does everything right as far as sound goes, except for the awful announcement system.

There is nothing new with Madden’s Live features. You create a match, or you join a match. You play a game and you go back to the lobby, it is as basic as it gets. You do have a leader board if you need something to strive for, but I really only see Madden’s multiplayer as something you and your friends can enjoy with some trash-talk and football action.

Although there were no bugs or lag that I noticed while playing Madden online, there isn’t much innovation for a next-gen title here, so again I’m hoping for something new in the next Madden.

Final Word

This game delivered some nice football action for me. It definitely quenches any football thirst you might have, however it might fall short if you really want a good next-gen football game. The graphics have potential, the audio is pretty much there, and the multiplayer needs something extra. All signs point for something new.

I’m not going to point fingers and say EA didn’t care about the Xbox 360 and should have put in more work. The graphics engine definitely shows there was work done to make this look better than last-gen consoles and it had no problems, no glitches and ran extremely smooth. I think most Madden, and other football fans, won’t be too disappointed in the game’s presentation and gameplay, but maybe a little in its lack of content.

So overall, I believe that Madden 06 is good, but hopefully the next one will be a lot better.