As always crappy. I miss the custom soundtrack option of the 2k series

Godsmack, and the Foo Fighters aren't that bad, at least we got some known bands not like the past.

I don’t like that kind of music at all. I like rap and r&b and madden rarely ever has any of it

Which is a good thing for me... because, rap today in my opinion is garbage.

A lot of it went downhill the last few years. When I was a teen though it was great. There is still at least 4 good songs they could put on there? Plus with 2k I can put anything I want

Screens for PSP Buyers:

http://media.psp.ign.com/media/727/727130/imgs_1.html

The NFC North is the next division, here are the ratings:

http://sports.ign.com/articles/633/633546p1.html

Top Players:

Daunte Culpepper 98
Kreutz Olin 98
Matt Birk 96
Darren Sharper 95
Brian Urlacher 95
Shaun Rogers 95
Kevin Williams 94
Pat Williams 93
Antoine Winfield 93
Chad Clifton 93
Brett Favre 93
Ahman Green 92
Bryant McKinnie 92
Jim Kleinsasser 92
Mike Flanagan 92
Ryan Longwell 92
Mike Brown 92
Brad Maynard 92
Jason Hanson 92
Javon Walker 91
Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila 91
Damien Woody 91
Mushin Muhammad 91

I was about to post these but you beat me, SOB. Just j/k about the SOB stuff.
But you know what this menas? IT MEANS THE AFC EAST WILL BE THE LAST ONE DONE!

Saving the best for last...

Here is another quote from EA:

"The bad news is, we forgot we were making a football game and not a Genealogy sim. So...we just threw in Madden 95 instead of trying to fix up the gameplay...but you can choose your parents' parents!"

New Video just got out:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/maddennfl2006/media.html

Scroll to the bottom

NFC East Ratings:

Cowboys: http://sports.ign.com/madden06/cowboys.html
Redskins: http://sports.ign.com/madden06/redskins.html
Giants: http://sports.ign.com/madden06/giants.html
Eagles: http://sports.ign.com/madden06/eagles.html

Top Players:

David Akers: 99
Brian Dawkins: 98
Terrell Owens: 98
Donovan McNabb: 97
Michael Strahan: 96
La'Roi Glover: 96
Roy Williams: 96
Tra Thomas: 95
Marco Rivera: 95
Lavar Arrington: 95
Corey Simon: 94
Jevon Kearse: 94
Larry Allen: 94
Jeremy Shockey: 93
Michael Lewis: 92
Tiki Barber: 92
Jason Witten: 92
Chris Samuels: 92
Randy Thomas: 92
Marcus Washington: 92
Clinton Portis: 92
Lito Sheppard: 91
Sean Taylor: 91
Joe Jansen: 91
Dat Nguyen: 91
Greg Ellis: 91

Pete Hunter: 75

I posted Pete Hunter's rating since he just recently has become apart of the Jets.

3 New Madden Vids:

http://media.sports.ign.com/articles/634/634197/vids_1.html

Hey guys wanna hear something that is kinda funny, and something that will also get you kinda pissed off?

Well Doug Brien, remember him?

He is rated an 85 in Madden...

Uh Why?

I know he is the 10 most accurate kicker in football, or whatever, but isin't madden's ratings supposed to be on the last season? The point is last season he sucked, and he should be rated in the 70's

Preface:
Well as all of you know rac and I got to head out to EA in Redwood City, CA. It was a blast just like last year. The point of going out there was to check out a full build of madden. What we played was pretty much what will be pressed and sold to everyone. I beleive nathan said there could be some tweaks here and there but its pretty much done. The event EA held was called EA Hot Summer Nights. This gave us the chance to not only play Madden, but pretty much play any new EA game coming out. The games I checked out were Madden PSP, March Madness 2006 and played the hell out of NBA Live 2006. I will only talk about Madden related stuff in this thread. If you are interested in Live and March Madness I will be posting about that stuff in the NBA Live forum.

The Cast:
MaddenNation.com-Rac and myself
MaddenMania.com-Marcus Stephenson
MaddenPlanet.com-AndyP and Damon
MaddenWars.com-Raymond aka Shopmaster
XBOX.com- Dan aka Packwolf
VGSports.com-Bert and kobra

What Happened?
All of us got there early Wednesday, checked in and met nathan for lunch at 1. After that we headed over to EA. That meant Madden 2006 playing time. Nathan said from the feedback he got from us last year all of us said that we wanted more hands on time, so he gave us all we could handle pretty much. So wednesday was playing madden all day. So we got an hour or so of gaming, then started a mini-madden challenge. I didn't think i was going to fare to well in it because i couldnt get the passing down. So Marcus from MM requested to play me first. I steamrolled him 48-6 (good guys 1-MM 0 ) Then I played Raymond from MaddenWars and that game went into OT, I eventually won on a FG. Then I played Kobra from VG in the finals. nothing went kobra's way that game and he conceded defeat late in the 3rd, since he probably wouldnt have caught up the way i was running the ball on him. So i ended up winning the whole challenge. The prize was an autographed Terrel Davis football, and bragging rights. It was a blast. Then at night we went and ate dinner with a handful of EA employees that ranged from Producers of the game to marketers.

Last night, Thursday, was the actual EA Hot Summer nights event. We played more madden in a room, got some presenations about fantasy football and some online stuff. Then we were able to go down with the rest of the press and take a look at all the games. Its all setup in a big gym, with plenty of TVs and systems. you just walk up and play, whats cool is the producers of the games are there and will answer any question you ask. We went down to play pretty late, like a cuople of hours before closing, so it was dead. I was able to play Live 06 for over an hour and just chat with both producers. I was very very impressed with Live 06. But enough of about that and the trip. Lets get into what people want to hear.....Madden. Below are some shots of the ea facility. The shot of the field is the one that they use in NFL Street

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea1.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea2.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea3.jpg


Madden 2006 PSP Version:
I'll hurry and get some brief impressions of PSP Madden out of the way. So i went into the gym and saw PSP madden. Decided to give a try becasue I have PSP. I was pretty impressed at the way it looked graphically and during gameplay it was fairly smooth. I didn't know what to expect since this is 2006. I didnt know if they had Vision and Precision passing, or anything like that. THe game itself is a really simplified version of madden. There is no Vision cone, truck stick, hit stick, or anything like that. Its pretty much just regular passing and running. One thing I did like was that the controls were pretty responsive. You can take control of WR and manual catch, thas how responsive it is. Same with the DBs.

If you have PS2 version you'll be able to do a few things with the psp version. First you can import a franchise game to play it on the psp. You can also use rosters that you have in madden ps2 version on PSP. There is a menu in madden that says PSP system link. There you can do all that stuff.

I didnt really get a chance, or want to play PSP too much since I was focusing on NBA Live 2006. But from what I saw of the PSP madden its going to be nice for hardcore madden fans who want to play on the portable. Its leaps and bounds better than the crappy DS version. In fact all the playbooks are the same in the console versions and psp. You can also do franchise mode, and it has a ton of mini games. Definitely pick this one up if you have PSP. Comes out in Sept. Below is a screen from the PSP.

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea4.jpg

Madden 2006 XBOX and PS2
Now we come to the moment everyone has been waiting for. First impressions of Madden 2006. We were fortunate enough to play this game back in March. We thought it was headed in the right direction back then. Playing the full version the past 2 days only reinforced that opinion. I played hands on with both versions extensively so i'm not going to leave anyone out. Also if you guys want some very detailed gameplay Q&A check out this thread at VG Sports Kobra had already been answering a lot of questions while we were at EA. I didn't have a laptop so he got an early start and has answered a ton. I'd check that thread out if you dont see something I didnt cover. So here we go.

Starting off I will say something I never thought I'd ever say.....I WILL be playing Madden 2006 on the XBOX. Why? Well not only did it play smoother and look a lot better, but EA has changed the controller scheme for xbox. Last year to juke left and right you had to hit the Right Trigger and move the right analog left or right to go in a certain direction. This was frustrating for me, since it ruined my run game. Well this year EA has put the juke as the left the right triggers depending on the way you want to juke. This caused the stiff arm buttons to be put as the black and white buttons. For me this is perfect since I rarely use the stiff arms, and with the truck stick this year, I will definitely not use the stiff arms. As many of you know i've been a hardcore PS2 madden gamer, this year it changes for me. The game played very smooth on xbox with no slowdown and the graphics were outstanding. On the ps2 version there was slowdown and it didnt look as good. I know it wasnt the tv since one of the ps2s was hoooked up to a flat screen tv. Nathan also hooked me up with a copy of NCAA 2006 for XBOX. I need to play on that version if i plan on making the switch to madden xbox. Below are two screens showing the new menu layout

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea5.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea6.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea7.jpg

Passing and Catching in Madden 2006:
Obviously the big thing this year is the Vision and Precision passing. Its tough to get used to, but I love it. It makes the game realistic. We were all pretty bad at passing lol. ONe thing Kobra and i were talking about was that its probably going to be easier to pass with the right analog with the QBs who have great AWR like Manning, Brady, McNabb and Trent Green. You dont have to pan the cone too much since their field of vision is so big. With QBs like Rex Grossman and Kyle Boller, its probably quicker and easier to use the R2 on PS2 or Right trigger on XBOX and then the WR button to move their cone to that WR. Kobra tested it with Green and it defintely worked better that way. I guess it depends on what QB you are going to use. I know what will happen already. When the game comes out, some people are going to love it, but i will guarantee a ton of people, on these forums alone, will be whining up a storm at how hard it is. I really dont think it'll be that hard once people get the hang of it. I love it because its realistic.

Tied into the passing game is the offensive line play. Its greatly improved from last year. Now you can slide block and tell your O-line to block a certian way depending on what your opponent is doing. No more looping DEs to get to the QB. For the most part your line will do a good a job, the only time it doesnt is when you drop back more than 10 yards. Remember, EA has implemented the new AI that will either sack or cause you to be hit if you drop back that far. I think it makes you practice staying in the pocket just like the real NFL QBs.

The WR agressive catch animations are a nice touch. I saw a few plays where the WR fought for the ball. Also, the new head tracking really adds another element to the game. It makes the passing game even more realistic. One thing I noticed about this years Madden, is the WR catch and DB play are a lot similar to NCAA 2006. By that i mean you get rewarded and are able to make plays the CPU wouldnt if you took control of them. The controls were responsive and not like last years Madden. You can get A LOT of user picks, and make some pretty cool catches manually. Overall the controls feel alot smoother and more responsive than last years. The best example is its like NCAA 2006.

Here are a couple of screens of the new features on defense and offense. There is also a pic of the new drive summary screen after each TD.
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea8.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea9.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea10.jpg

Running the Rock in Madden 2006:
This was by far my favorite part of the game. The new truck stick features OWNS! Remember the hit stick last year? Picture that but on offense, and here is the best part. It's realistic! What I mean by this is that the brusing bigger RBs will have success with the truck stick, while the smaller scat backs will not. Here is an example. In my match against Kobra from VG, I ran with the Bears. When I had Benson in, he's a power runner and was able to truck stick with success most of the time. When he got tired and i subbed in Thomas Jones it wasnt effective. In fact Kobra stopped the run everytime i tried to truckstick with Jones. The other big back I tried was Jamal Lewis. He was a beast. Now I know what you guys are thinking, this wont be fair you can just run over people with big back. Part of that is true, you are going to be able to break tackles easier with this, but it makes you really tired. One thing I noticed is that everytime i laid out a defensive player with the truck stick, after the play was over my RB was in yellow. Dan from XBOX tried it with his fullback, who was full white dot at the playcall screen, after he truck sticked someone he was yellow. So there is consequence with using this too much. One thing I found myself doing was I kept hititng left and right on the analog stick because i was used to the juke stick in NCAA. I really wish they would have implmented that in this years Madden.

Running to the outside also seemed improved from last year. i was able to cut it to the outside quite a bit, and if I had a DB in my way it was truck stick city. Other than that the running game seems to be pretty much the same. They didnt redo the run game engine or anything. Below is an amazing vid from a game I had with Dan from XBOX. He was the Bears and i was Lions. The movie is in quicktime format, and its from the XBOX. The quality isnt perfect since i was using my camera to record it. It's new though, i think you all will be blown away. Its of Kevin Jones and Brian Urlacher.

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2.../kevinjones.mov

Superstar Mode:
I was looking forward to this mode, especially after playing the RFTH mode in NCAA. Imagine RFTH, just way more detailed and you have your Superstar mode.

If you don't import a player from NFL Street or NCAA you literally create him from scratch. It gives you two random parents and shows you their IQ and personalities. You can either accept them or ask for another set. Below are pics of what i just described.

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea11.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea12.jpg

After you do that, then you fill out an application to enter the NFL. We decided to create ACBates from MN. Figured since the mother was a dramatic actress and with Bates known to cry it was a perfect match. Below are two screens.

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea13.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea14.jpg

After that you do a ton of other stuff before the draft. You actually take a wonderlic test and it tells you what you scored. Then you sit down and watch the draft take place. When RAC and I did this it had a panel of people and you saw the picks being taken as they went this past year. Then it pops up when you get drafted. Bates was drafted in the 3rd round. I thought it was pretty cool that the actual draft takes place. You have a schedule you follow and it displays everything for you. You also get a "mentor" to help you out and give you advice. In this case it was terrel davis. He blew up our pager. Was always leaving messages and trying to help out. It was pretty cool.

Other things you get to do in Superstar mode. You get to hire agents, you havea huge list to choose from. And some of them arent interested in you because you aren't worth it yet. So you might have to go with a crappy agent. You also get to go to a barber, tatoo artist, and you get to talk to your webmaster about your official site. Rich Eisen from NFL Network will also leave messages for you. This is about all i got into the mode. I believe RAC simmed it and saw what happened. I went and played the XBOX Madden, so I cant say what happens. Hopefully he can answer it. Here are a ton of screens from various parts of the Super Star Mode

http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea15.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea16.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea17.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea18.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea19.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea20.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea21.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea22.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea23.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea24.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea25.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea26.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea27.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea28.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea29.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea30.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea31.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea32.jpg
http://www.maddennation.com/madden2006/screens/ea33.jpg

Online
Online play is everyone's big thing. Overall the online stuff is a lot like NCAA 2006 look, with a lot of the same from madden 2005. You do get the EA Sports locker and you get about the size of a memory card to save stuff. YOu can upload, games, rosters, profiles, franchise etc... You can make your card private or public. And to access it you just click on that persons name and go to ea sports locker. Being able to load franchise will allow you to have an online franchise in a way, will just take some work. Everything else is the same as ncaa 2006.

Playbooks
Playbooks are simply sick in this years game. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many plays to choose from. I ran with the balanced D playbook and was amazed by all the plays. They even have this formation in Dime that is just like the Pats D where they dont have anyone down in 3 point stance at the LOS. They are all standing like LBs.

I used the bears offense playbook and was pissed they took out the HB Direct snap. I think everyone is going to happy with the playbooks. Redskins, Chiefs, Seahawks and Panthers all have some damn cool playbooks.

This is all i really have to say right now about the game. i can answer questions for anyone. Just post it in here and i'll try to answer it as best I can. If i can't you'll just have to wait til we get the game in a couple of weeks.

great - now people are gonna be truckstick whores

In case you are wondering I just checked Santana Moss rating's, here they are:

Santana Moss 97 Speed, 98 Acceleration, 48 Strength, 96 Agility, 80 Awareness, 86 Catching, 82 Jumping, 97 Kick Return, 72 Injury, 88 Stamina

87 Overall

Well if moss is an 87 then Coles has to be at least an 88.

That's fair for Moss, and then we know Coles is at least an 88 as JetsRock said.

i gaurentte coles is at least a 90 - if u watched the video of how they rank players they saw they rate them on the past, present, and future

New Screens at Gamespot (7-14)

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/maddenn...creenindex.html

NFC SOUTH RATINGS OUT haha i beat bizkit!
http://www.maddennation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35563

NAAA

J/K

New Videos over at IGN:

http://media.sports.ign.com/articles/634/634546/vids_1.html

I think Price should be a little higher. Like 84 or 85.

Well that is all of the NFC ratings. Does anybody know when they are going to start the AFC ratings?

This game looks SICK. The vision control I really like. One of the big upgrages is that you can actually shift the O line to the left and right. That will stop those guys who loop their Dline on almost every play.

Another thing that really pissed me off about 05 was people who play quaters D and bring their D down to the line of scrimmage and the offence running in a I form big will get stuffed. That has to be one the most ridiculous things I ever had to witness. But I heard with this game people who do that will be sorry. The made the O Line block better and stronger when in these situations as it should be. Also what is different when you do bring your D down to the line of scrimmage"bring the house D" your safties are in a more realistic position instead of them being inbetween the OLB's and MLB.

I like the fact that they have realized that the dreaded corner pattern has virtually been elimitated from it's current existance. Man that was B.S how people would get burned on that like crazy. I had to play saftey on the weak side all the time because everybody would pick a slot corner pattern eveytime.

Another thing thats changed is the bump and run . THANK GOD. The bump and run is something that was also way to unrealistic. They should be breaking off the blocks quicker depending on the type of reciever that you are contesting.

One of the upgrades I do like is if you have time in the pocket you star reciever WILL more then likely get open after he has performed his route.

I was reading about Madden in a site called maddenauthority.com and they were saying that if you were on D and you picked blitz the blitzers didn't always blitz in the same spot. Which in a way is good because it will stop those NANO blitzers. But if I pick a blitz I want my guys blitzing where they should be.

The new truck stick will be nice if they make it again "realistic". I have smoked Jamal Lewis with Erik Colman a hundered times. If I have Eric Barton and I'm going after Cliton Portis he better get his head tooken clean off. Insted of Portis knocking Barton on his ass. KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING GUYS.

The last thing that burns me is. The Jets D ranking. 76 is *beep*ing ridiculous. I know the analyse each player and then rank the team accordingly. But the should have taken "team moral" in consideration and bump our D up a bit.

They changes our ratings. We have an 86 Offense and an 86 defense now.

That *beep*in awsome.... THANK GOD

Wait a minute. They boosted our shit from 76 to 86. I doubt that now that I think about it. A whole 10. WOW. If thats the case then thats great. But I can't really see it going up that much.

No guys, that was just a rumor our defense is still a 76, which sucks. I saw it on maddenmania that it said it was a 86, and I was happy. Then they just updated it again, and it is a 76. Don't worry if we get Law our defense is going to go up anyway.

I think even if we are at 86, our defense is still underrated, I'm thinking 90, we were right in there with the Pats, Steelers, and Eagles, and everyone was in love with their defenses. I think I need my good friend.......

Our defense should at least be an 87.

on that vid on gamespot it shows two guys picking teams and i saw the jets defense it was an 86 dont worry its on one of bizkits posts it is an 86

AFC West Ratings


http://sports.ign.com/articles/635/635015p1.html

Who wants to meet me in the chat room?

Notable AFC West Ratings:

Randy Moss: 99
Will Shields: 98
LaDainian Tomlinson: 98
Tony Gonzalez: 98
Champ Bailey: 98
Tony Richardson: 97
Antonio Gates: 96
Al Wilson: 96
Priest Holmes: 95
Patrick Surtain: 94
Trent Green: 91
Charles Woodson: 91
Drew Brees: 89
Jerry Porter: 87
Lamont Jordan: 86

Pennington better be higher then Brees. I also put Lamont Jordan for you guys to comment on.

http://sports.ign.com/articles/634/634981p1.html

all teams starting qb and backup qb vision cones!!!

FIRSTNAME LASTNAME Position JERSEYNUMBER OVERALLRATING SPEED ACCELERATION STRENGTH AGILITY AWARENESS CATCHING CARRYING THROWPOWER THROWACCURACY KICKPOWER KICKACCURACY BREAKTACKLE RUNBLOCK PASSBLOCK TACKLE JUMPING KICKRETURN INJURY STAMINA
D.J. Williams LOLB 52 90 87 93 72 87 74 62 55 22 18 12 15 60 54 34 87 75 0 84 92
if williams is a 90 then vilma = 92

oh btw bizkit wilson is too HIGH

If you guys wanna a really good read on every aspect of the new Madden it's all right here. Read the Q.A... Man eveything you wanted to know is here.

http://www.vgsportsinc.com/communityday.html

Lamont is the same as 05. No big deal. Also his fumbles will be high becasue he is an emerging starter.

lamont in 05 = 84

In 05 Lamont was an 84 wasn't he?

Maybe.. If thats the case 2 attribute points don't mean shit.

In 2005 LaMont was an 83 when you first get him. Tomorrow I think they'll have the AFC East ratings.

PennyBoy's fieldvision on Madden NFL 2006.

Yeah Penny's Cone is the shizzle - and AFC NORTH will be out next anway

You should look at Peyton Manning's vision cone. He could see the whole damn field. How the hell is that possible?