Madden 2006

[Smithian]

Went and got it at 12... In the fouirth quarter right now up on Dallas by 11,. Enjoying our platybook. It is really run opriented, but the few pass plays are awesome to me... Attack the sidelines with Patten and Moss with Jacobs, who I made the slot, coming inside a bit and ey is consistently attacking the middle.

Portis is better than his rating.

[skinsfano28]

i went and got it at 12 too, but i havent played it yet, heck i haven't even opened it...if anyone has an online account, tell me wat your name is or wahtever and as soon as i get mine hooked up we can play--if enough people have it, we should have some sort of online 06 tourney or something, that'd be pretty sweet.

[ejay183]

I just got back from the store and have not played it.

[Redskins4Life]

My damn PS2's broke so I have to wait for my neighbor to come back from vacation to borrow his PS2 for a while

[air_hog]

Just got mine, and I played a quick game against my friend.

Here's what I noticed right away. The players bodies have just about no shape at all. They all are fat little pumpkins. The shoulder pads suck too.

The Vision Cone is eaiser to use than I thought, but it takes gettting used too. (I just used ey the whole game and he had like 120 yards)

Portis is okay, but only on sweeps and counters, if you run him up the gut he gets worked or fumbles (he fumbled twice for me)

The playbook is okay, at lesat they had a lot of singleback formations.

So after one random quick game, I would give Madden about a... 7.9 out of 10.
Now I haven't tried franchise or superstar mode yet so that rating is too official.

Overall, I guess you should buy this game, since it's the only one out there !!! Stupid EA!!!

Well, I'm going to go play it somemore.

RIP ESPN 2k...

[Chris Luva Luva]

A few quick thoughts....


Ramseys QB vision is tiny as heck. Dont bother using the right stick because its too easy to sweep past the intended receiver. Hold the R2 button and press the icon of the WR you want. However this will cause issues when the icon you want is the R1 button, your fingers will need to contort and crap.

Portis is almost worthless up the gut... Madden definately improved the running game but its a far cry from the bliss of ESPN 2K5. Madden still suffers from that suction cup tackling in the trenches. The Mario running is down drastically.

Is it me or is Rogers realllyyyy slow in this game?

[ejay183]

Rod Gardner is a huge weapon still his jump is 96, so he can outjump most guys, plus he can catch in the game. I wish the Skins playbook had normal I-Form and HB Blast, my 05 favorite plays.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Rod Gardner is a huge weapon still his jump is 96, so he can outjump most guys, plus he can catch in the game. I wish the Skins playbook had normal I-Form and HB Blast, my 05 favorite plays.

Im using Denvers playbook. Gibbs playbook in Madden seems really limited for 3rd down type situations.

More Impressions:

Portis isn't too bad up the middle as I initially thought. He does tend to fumble if you use him too much and dont use the protect ball feature. If you run him up the gut every so often he will get yardage

Like I said earlier the run game is improved. Im not sure if its just the skins but our linemen can be a bit slow at times. The play will be 100% success except waiting for my block.

Im really digging the vision cone thus far.

[Redskins4Life]

Damn I cant wait to play this damn thang.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Mike Sellers got a huge boost in ratings in contrast to last year. He's a 80. I swapped him from the FB position and placed ey in there. It didn't work out too well for me, ey's RBK ratings is too low. I ended up putting Sellers back at FB and leaving ey at TE. I don't ey is as sure-handed as he should be but that could have been me not using the vision cone correctly...

Santana Moss catches everything.

Gardener catches everything....

I haven't used Patten yet.

Thrash is slow as molasses.

Antonio Brown is MIA.

The rookies Nehemiah Broughton and White are MIA.

Rogers speed is a 90 but he just seemed to move so slow in the ball batting drills.

[skinsfano28]

the vision cone sucks when you're ramsey, but as campbell anything i throw up seems to be caught...whatever...i did notice that the redskins playbook is awfully limited, so i think tomorrow i am going to use denver's like CLL...i thought their playbook was awesome last year, and i think it'll prolly be much of the same this year. hopefully i can get used to that vision cone thing, its kind of tough to get everything working at once at midnight

[Chris Luva Luva]

the vision cone sucks when you're ramsey, but as campbell anything i throw up seems to be caught...whatever...i did notice that the redskins playbook is awfully limited, so i think tomorrow i am going to use denver's like CLL...i thought their playbook was awesome last year, and i think it'll prolly be much of the same this year. hopefully i can get used to that vision cone thing, its kind of tough to get everything working at once at midnight

Its working really with me for Ramsey. I plan on playing him for the entire season and letting Jason come in during the 4th qtr with a comfy lead to groom him for the 2007 or 2008 season. I may resign Pat for one year and see what he does.

The vision cone really forces you to read the defense which isn't too hard for me.

[air_hog]

Rod Gardner is a huge weapon still his jump is 96, so he can outjump most guys, plus he can catch in the game.

Gardener catches everything....

You guys are still using Gardner? He's not even worthy to wear a Redskins jersey. The first thing I did was drop Barrow and Lott and then picked up Antonio, Dyson, and Dixon. Then I traded Gardner for a 4th... bargain huh

After I've been playing for a few hours, here's what I found.

- The gameplay is not that hard as long as you use sense and don't do the same play 3 times in a row.

- Compared to the 2k series, it doesn't feel as if you have control of the defense. Sure you can make a lot of Pre-Snap adjustments, but once the ball is snapped everyone just runs into to each other. However if you do a LB or DB blizt, that's kind of fun, especially when you lay down the Hit Stick.

- The Running game is fun, especially counters. Actually, I feel like the real Portis because I always get too excited and out run my blockers and then I get smacked.

- The Super Star mode sounds fun and is fun while your picking you parents and agent and all that stuff, but once you are all set and you have to play the game it gets pretty boring.

I chose to be a RB named Leon Charles and was drafted by the Cardnials? in the 3rd round (which makes no sense at all considering that one round earlier they drafted JJ Arrington?) And by the way, I scored 100% on my "wonderlic"... But then once you start playing the games, it's boring. I mean your just playing for yourself and I'm playing with all the Arizona fools.

However, some people may like it due to the fact that you have to work your way up to Super Star status. But I'll just sick to Franchise Mode.

- The Franchise is pretty darn good, however the whole story line central thing really hasn't changed. Actually, the Franchise Mode hasn't changed at all except for this thing called Weekly Gameplan (which they copied from ESPN 2k5

- Quite Frankly (been wathcing too much Stephen A Smith lately), the graphics suck. It's kind of complicated but here's how I see it. In 2002 they had the same graphics on PS2 and it looked great at the time. However they have not evolved to a major extent since then so now they are worse considering the upgrades they could have done. And no new animations have been put in, or at least I have not seen any wich is a bummer.

- The commmentary is basically the same as last year, with maybe a few new phrases.

So overall, after I have played it for about 3-4 hours I have now decided to rate it 8.8/10

I just think the game would have been more improved if they had any competion... but don't get me started on that.

So if you have time on your hands, and 50$ lying around, I would buy it.

[skinsfano28]

i am still in preseason and in my QB position battle, i have campbell as the front runner, then brunell, then ramsey. campbell is completing 50% of his passes, has a 100-something QB rating, 3 TD's and no INTS--through 2 games. its probably that ramsey is playing first team while campbell is playing second team, im going to try starting him next game and seeign what happens, but right now i have to say that ramsey looks pretty shaky with that narrow vision cone, although he can BOMB it out there.

on the topic of gardner, i traded him for a 3rd, 4th, and 5th to carolina, and then traded barrow and the 3rd to the falcons for michael jenkins, who is a beast as far as im concerned--the kid catches everything. i really like how i can leave it short and make it a jump ball for him to go get, and he and mccants usually do go get it...its pretty sweet. ladell betts is also a beast--a good tip in the running game is to change it up a lot, just mess with the defense and run portis a few times, then betts, then cartwright and then back to betts, and i guarantee you they will get so tired you can run portis on one play and score from 30+. it worked for me, and it can work for you!!

[ejay183]

i am still in preseason and in my QB position battle, i have campbell as the front runner, then brunell, then ramsey. campbell is completing 50% of his passes, has a 100-something QB rating, 3 TD's and no INTS--through 2 games. its probably that ramsey is playing first team while campbell is playing second team, im going to try starting him next game and seeign what happens, but right now i have to say that ramsey looks pretty shaky with that narrow vision cone, although he can BOMB it out there.

on the topic of gardner, i traded him for a 3rd, 4th, and 5th to carolina, and then traded barrow and the 3rd to the falcons for michael jenkins, who is a beast as far as im concerned--the kid catches everything. i really like how i can leave it short and make it a jump ball for him to go get, and he and mccants usually do go get it...its pretty sweet. ladell betts is also a beast--a good tip in the running game is to change it up a lot, just mess with the defense and run portis a few times, then betts, then cartwright and then back to betts, and i guarantee you they will get so tired you can run portis on one play and score from 30+. it worked for me, and it can work for you!!

Thats all I did in 05 and I am glad it still works a bit in 06

[spudstr04]

Kevin Dyson....where is he...i had to create him...do ya'll know where he is?
I also noticed there is no shotgun in the gibbs playbook...when we all know they added it this season...damnit...

[air_hog]

Kevin Dyson....where is he...i had to create him...do ya'll know where he is?
I also noticed there is no shotgun in the gibbs playbook...when we all know they added it this season...damnit...

Yeah, I had to create Dyson (made him 80) and I created Nemo (made him a 70). I could have made Manny and Newberry, but I just didn't feel like taking the time

It's wierd though, after droping Barrow and Lott, we have like 12 million in cap space?!?! Now I know we don't have 12 million cap space in real life, so I'm kind of confussed... But I don't want to sign any FA because that's just wierd, so Instead I am re-signing all our vets. and just giving them mass $ in this year.

[skinsfano28]

i dont know waht the deal is with our playbook, its really conservative...at least last year we had 4 WR sets in Singleback and whatnot...w/e, that's why they give you a choice to put in your own packagaes, something i will most likely try tonight

[EasyMoney]

I think this years version is much better than 05. As it should be. The line play is much better. The receivers looking down the ball and making adjustments to catch it is definitely an improvement. The RB's don't get stuck behind blockers like they used to, you'll actually squirt out the majority of the time. Sweeps and draws actually work. The play action doesn't get your QB killed. I think Gibbs' playbook is great. All of the I formation plays are quality. A lot of H-Back oriented plays all over. It's actually "in the game" this year. The single back in Gibbs' playbook is excellent. There must be 12 different sets. The strong receiver sets in singleback put the big receivers in automatically (McCants). The presentation is SO much better. The score display and the drive summaries are an improvement. The commentary isn't as annoying as it was last year. I'm not sure if it's the AI that has been improved or if it's the new animations but playing the game on All-Pro seems to be a better challenge this year. I'm not complaining.

My only two gripes are the cone vision and the superstar mode. Try doing the accuracy drills with Patrick. VERY difficult. This needs to be improved before I even consider using it... That or Ramsey needs to have an awareness rating of 99. The superstar mode seems to make you play the game forever to actually get to the stat boosting drills which are apparently a lot of fun. I'll play through it once to see what it's all about but I put a lot of time in on it yesterday and it's so monotonous. I can't really get into playing with the Cards either.

[Chris Luva Luva]

You guys are still using Gardner? He's not even worthy to wear a Redskins jersey. The first thing I did was drop Barrow and Lott and then picked up Antonio, Dyson, and Dixon. Then I traded Gardner for a 4th... bargain huh icon_lol.gif

- Compared to the 2k series, it doesn't feel as if you have control of the defense. Sure you can make a lot of Pre-Snap adjustments, but once the ball is snapped everyone just runs into to each other. However if you do a LB or DB blizt, that's kind of fun, especially when you lay down the Hit Stick.

ESPN 2K5 defensive control? Are you serious? That was the biggest problem with 2k5. The floaty ball physics, the retarded DB AI logic, it was hard to follow the play... Read any review for that game and you'll find all the things I listed. People always say that ESPNs running game is too strong and its not that its too strong its that the defense is too weak.

[air_hog]

You guys are still using Gardner? He's not even worthy to wear a Redskins jersey. The first thing I did was drop Barrow and Lott and then picked up Antonio, Dyson, and Dixon. Then I traded Gardner for a 4th... bargain huh icon_lol.gif

- Compared to the 2k series, it doesn't feel as if you have control of the defense. Sure you can make a lot of Pre-Snap adjustments, but once the ball is snapped everyone just runs into to each other. However if you do a LB or DB blizt, that's kind of fun, especially when you lay down the Hit Stick.

ESPN 2K5 defensive control? Are you serious? That was the biggest problem with 2k5. The floaty ball physics, the retarded DB AI logic, it was hard to follow the play... Read any review for that game and you'll find all the things I listed. People always say that ESPNs running game is too strong and its not that its too strong its that the defense is too weak.

Dude, ESPN was so much more fun to play on Defense than in Madden. Now yes, the defensive AI was worse, but I'm talking about actually being the defender. When you play as, say a DE, you actually have control of what your doing with the swim moves and stuff. But in Madden if your a DE, you just kind of get caught up in the mosh pit and have no control.

Plus, in Madden 06 do the 4-3 Strong Side formation and just have LaVar blitz on the outside and he will get the sack just about every time. The LT or TE take no notice of LaVar and the only guy in your way is some lame RB. And you can do it like 10 times in a row and the opponent won't pick up on it.

But your right, the running game was a little cheap in ESPN, but you had a bigger arsenal of moves at the command. Plus, their stiff arm actually worked.

[SkinsFanInHawai'i]

You guys are still using Gardner? He's not even worthy to wear a Redskins jersey. The first thing I did was drop Barrow and Lott and then picked up Antonio, Dyson, and Dixon. Then I traded Gardner for a 4th... bargain huh icon_lol.gif

- Compared to the 2k series, it doesn't feel as if you have control of the defense. Sure you can make a lot of Pre-Snap adjustments, but once the ball is snapped everyone just runs into to each other. However if you do a LB or DB blizt, that's kind of fun, especially when you lay down the Hit Stick.

ESPN 2K5 defensive control? Are you serious? That was the biggest problem with 2k5. The floaty ball physics, the retarded DB AI logic, it was hard to follow the play... Read any review for that game and you'll find all the things I listed. People always say that ESPNs running game is too strong and its not that its too strong its that the defense is too weak.

Dude, ESPN was so much more fun to play on Defense than in Madden. Now yes, the defensive AI was worse, but I'm talking about actually being the defender. When you play as, say a DE, you actually have control of what your doing with the swim moves and stuff. But in Madden if your a DE, you just kind of get caught up in the mosh pit and have no control.

Plus, in Madden 06 do the 4-3 Strong Side formation and just have LaVar blitz on the outside and he will get the sack just about every time. The LT or TE take no notice of LaVar and the only guy in your way is some lame RB. And you can do it like 10 times in a row and the opponent won't pick up on it.

But your right, the running game was a little cheap in ESPN, but you had a bigger arsenal of moves at the command. Plus, their stiff arm actually worked.

Play the game on All-pro or all-madden. That probably will not work.

[EasyMoney]

You guys are still using Gardner? He's not even worthy to wear a Redskins jersey. The first thing I did was drop Barrow and Lott and then picked up Antonio, Dyson, and Dixon. Then I traded Gardner for a 4th... bargain huh icon_lol.gif

- Compared to the 2k series, it doesn't feel as if you have control of the defense. Sure you can make a lot of Pre-Snap adjustments, but once the ball is snapped everyone just runs into to each other. However if you do a LB or DB blizt, that's kind of fun, especially when you lay down the Hit Stick.

ESPN 2K5 defensive control? Are you serious? That was the biggest problem with 2k5. The floaty ball physics, the retarded DB AI logic, it was hard to follow the play... Read any review for that game and you'll find all the things I listed. People always say that ESPNs running game is too strong and its not that its too strong its that the defense is too weak.

Dude, ESPN was so much more fun to play on Defense than in Madden. Now yes, the defensive AI was worse, but I'm talking about actually being the defender. When you play as, say a DE, you actually have control of what your doing with the swim moves and stuff. But in Madden if your a DE, you just kind of get caught up in the mosh pit and have no control.

Plus, in Madden 06 do the 4-3 Strong Side formation and just have LaVar blitz on the outside and he will get the sack just about every time. The LT or TE take no notice of LaVar and the only guy in your way is some lame RB. And you can do it like 10 times in a row and the opponent won't pick up on it.

But your right, the running game was a little cheap in ESPN, but you had a bigger arsenal of moves at the command. Plus, their stiff arm actually worked.

Air Hog, what difficulty setting are you playing on and how long have you been playing Madden? I know you preferred ESPN but the things you're describing sound like you're playing it on pro. Which is the default. Madden is all about timing. I've been playing the game since it came out and there is just no way you can run the same play 10 times in a row (offense or defense) and have it be just as effective as the first time you call it. Especially in this years game. That was one of the things EA actually worked on. The AI's play recognition. For the stiff arm to work you have to be kind of running away at an angle and time it perfectly to make it work, otherwise the ball carrier looks like he's one of Hitler's henchmen and you'll get tackled. As a D End you have to realize that Daniels and Wynn aren't going to overpower anyone. Try using Peppers or someone like that and try the swim moves. They'll throw the LT or RT out of the way in no time. With the lesser skilled players you just have to time it right and make sure you swim to the correct side. The more you play it the more you'll realize how deep the game actually is.

[Chris Luva Luva]

You guys are still using Gardner? He's not even worthy to wear a Redskins jersey. The first thing I did was drop Barrow and Lott and then picked up Antonio, Dyson, and Dixon. Then I traded Gardner for a 4th... bargain huh icon_lol.gif

- Compared to the 2k series, it doesn't feel as if you have control of the defense. Sure you can make a lot of Pre-Snap adjustments, but once the ball is snapped everyone just runs into to each other. However if you do a LB or DB blizt, that's kind of fun, especially when you lay down the Hit Stick.

ESPN 2K5 defensive control? Are you serious? That was the biggest problem with 2k5. The floaty ball physics, the retarded DB AI logic, it was hard to follow the play... Read any review for that game and you'll find all the things I listed. People always say that ESPNs running game is too strong and its not that its too strong its that the defense is too weak.

Dude, ESPN was so much more fun to play on Defense than in Madden. Now yes, the defensive AI was worse, but I'm talking about actually being the defender. When you play as, say a DE, you actually have control of what your doing with the swim moves and stuff. But in Madden if your a DE, you just kind of get caught up in the mosh pit and have no control.

Plus, in Madden 06 do the 4-3 Strong Side formation and just have LaVar blitz on the outside and he will get the sack just about every time. The LT or TE take no notice of LaVar and the only guy in your way is some lame RB. And you can do it like 10 times in a row and the opponent won't pick up on it.

But your right, the running game was a little cheap in ESPN, but you had a bigger arsenal of moves at the command. Plus, their stiff arm actually worked.

I think we're going to disagree. I only played ESPN for the running game. Check my history, Im a huge ESPN advocat and they were headed in the right direction but there were a lot of issues with the defense imo. I agree that it was definately easy to use the linemen, but I like to control the safeties. In Madden I find it very easy to follow the flow of a play as opposed to ESPN.

Use the mini-games in Madden I used to feel the same way about Maddens linemen but I learned some technique in the mini-camps. However they dont control as well as they did in ESPN. I try to go through every mini camp in get gold in every event before I start a franchise.

[redskincity]

I like it but I will have to get used to it.

The cone for me was very difficult due to the fact that I switched to the Xbox this year. The controller was the problem, I fixed that by purchasing an adaptor to use my PS2 controller with the Xbox.

I like the running game but I get most of my yards up the middle by running a singleback formation.
Portis is a beast but you cant press the sprint button right away or else the defender will break tackle. Its funny that when I use Betts, I average 4.8 but with CP I average only 4.0. I will fix that with some practice.

Yesterday I was going through some playbooks and I must tell yall that Norv Turners playbook is beast. It has a tight formation set and has alot of formations that bounce out to the side lines.

After swithching to his Plybk I averaged 40 points a game compared to 24 that I was getting from using that sorry one they gave us this year.

All in all very enjoyable.