Madden NFL 06: Season Preview

[brickjohnstone]

April 13, 2005 - The next edition of Madden will take the franchise into the era of exclusivity as the only officially licensed NFL videogame. And that means all eyes will be on Madden NFL 2006 to see if Electronic Arts will rest on their well developed laurels as the only game in town or prove interested observers wrong by making Madden better than ever. To keep the momentum of 15 years of success going, the developers at EA Tiburon have put together a truckload of enhancements, features and new modes in the 2006 edition of Madden NFL.
By truckload of enhancements, we mean the handful of obvious improvements you've wanted since Madden 2005, a few ideas jacked from well-written and insightful Madden wishlists and a couple surprises that nobody could've envisioned until EA Tiburon made them happen.

Quarterback Vision and Placement is EA's fancy way of saying they've changed the passing mechanic in Madden '06. Being able to see the field is a valuable skill for all football players but it absolutely makes or breaks NFL quarterbacks. Good QB vision is what separates Peyton Manning --who can see the entire field-- from Eli Manning --who can see out of his helmet's earholes-- and what will finally make that awareness rating of your QB mean something.

In a nutshell, QB vision passing will require your quarterback to look at the receiver he's passing to in order to have the very best chance of completing a pass. Other bonuses of looking at the intended receiver include having the option to lead him and place the pass precisely where you want it. That is you can throw behind or ahead of a receiver to keep the defense from getting to it and even that awesome stem route Chris Carter used to run with the Vikings where he wanted the ball just over a defender's head. But all of this only comes with looking at the receiver in the QB vision system.

Currently the system works by having the QB looking at the primary receiver once you snap the ball. You'll use the right analog stick to switch between targeted receivers as the play unfolds or to switch quickly, you can hold down a shoulder button as a toggle and hit the icon of the receiver you want to look at. When you're looking at a receiver you'll actually a see a subtly lit cone of vision laid out on the field that stretches from the QBs head all the way to the receiver.

A high awareness quarterback like Peyton Manning will have a gigantic cone of vision that covers the whole field pretty much so that he's effectively looking at all of his receivers at one time. The athletic but awareness-challenged Kyle Boller on the other hand will have an extremely narrow cone of vision so that he can only "see" the receiver you've targeted for him. The difference will be that Peyton can go anywhere at anytime with the ball but Boller will be trying his best just to get it to the guy he's looking at. In both cases the receiver will still have to be open to make the play but Kyle will always be letting the defense know where he wants to go so the receiver won't stay open for long. This is one of the nuances of NFL football that Tiburon is attempting to bring to the videogame even though most of us usually miss things like this when we're watching on television.

Now before getting totally alarmed you can still throw to receivers outside your vision cone but you have the best chance of hitting a targeted guy. Also there's discussion that this new passing system will be an option or possibly only available on certain difficulty levels since it really changes the way Madden NFL 2006 plays. Instead of dropping back and looking for open receivers like you do now, you'll have to use the controller to get your QB to do the same thing you're doing, all while avoiding the pass rush.
The QB vision system will allow for some new strategies, however. In head to head as well as CPU games the defense will know who you're looking at so you can use this to your advantage by looking one way and throwing in another direction. On a play action fake, the quarterback will be late looking downfield since selling the handoff and the run is the whole point of the play fake. Also the cone of vision shrinks for every QB when he's scrambling since he'll be less focused on what's going on downfield. And yes the control system in Madden06 has mimicked NCAA Football 2006 so that X on the PS2 controller is now a permanent sprint button and the passing icons are always up on a pass play. The most welcome addition that comes with QB vision passing is that the CPU will have to use this system as well. You'll be able to see where the CPU QB is looking to throw the ball and you'll have to take care that they're not trying to look you off of a particular receiver as well. Best of all, you'll finally be able to feel the difference between a cagey veteran like Brett Favre and a youngster like Rex Grossman when you're playing against them. Against Grossman you know you'll be able to rely on his lack of vision to help you play defense. Remember awareness isn't throwing ability, it's how well they can see the field. Even veterans like Kurt Warner or even Brad Johnson will be able to see everything and look off a defense with ease even if they have trouble delivering the pass.

In Madden you've been able to add some precision positioning on your passes for some time now, ever since Visual Concepts fine tuned Maximum Passing in the 2K football series. So the leading and placement you'll be doing in Madden NFL 2006 is more about the specialized animations that are going to go with it. You'll see receivers stretch for passes in front of them and pivot to position themselves between the incoming the pass and the defender. Fade routes will be a thing of beauty, just like in real life, now that your receiver will try to keep his feet in bounds to catch a ball thrown with perfect touch over his outside shoulder. You'll have control over the whole thing as the QB but you'll have to earn it by keeping Antonio Gates or Randy Moss in your cone of vision and then putting the perfect amount of touch on the ball. As your QB winds up for his throw you'll use the analog stick to pick a shoulder and height of the ball.