Madden NFL 06 E3 2005 Preshow Impressions

When it comes to EA Sports' Madden franchise, this may be the most important year in the series' history. After all, with no direct NFL competition from other publishers, Madden NFL 06 will be operating under the weight of heavy expectations and under the scrutiny of many skeptical eyes. To its credit, the development team at EA Tiburon doesn't seem to be simply resting on the laurels of the company's licensing victories of 2004 and early 2005. Instead, the company is looking to take the pigskin title in some new directions both on the field and in the online game.

The most obvious new approach to the game is the vision and precision-passing system, which we detailed in our last Madden NFL 06 preview. If you missed it, the newly tweaked passing mechanic will manifest itself as an illuminated cone on the field, indicating the quarterback's field of vision. The higher the awareness rating of the QB, the more of the field he will see and thus the larger his cone of vision. A star like Peyton Manning will be able to see nearly the entire field, while QBs of lesser ability, such as Brian Griese or A. J. Feeley, will have much more limited views of the field.

The precision portion of the new passing formula will let you place passes with more accuracy than ever before. By pushing in one of four directions on the left analog stick (or directional pad), in tandem with the assigned button of the receiver you wish to throw to, you'll be able to make tosses high, low, left, or right. The benefit here will be taking advantage of the specific route your receiver is running, relative to the position of his closest defender. If he's running a crossing route to the left over the middle, with a corner draped over his right shoulder, it will be in your best interest to lead your throw right and put the ball where only your wideout can grab it.

As players adjust to this new passing system, both using it and defending against it, it's reasonable to assume that an entirely new style of cat-and-mouse game will emerge in online battles. As players learn to follow their opponents' cone of vision to key in on where they are thinking of throwing the ball, and as virtual quarterbacks learn the value of looking off receivers in order to bait the secondary into biting in the wrong direction, the complexity of online games should take some interesting turns. Furthermore, it's safe to assume that we'll be seeing new favored teams in Madden NFL 06. Forget teams like the Falcons and Vikings, and their strong-armed, quick-moving, but less-aware quarterbacks. The teams of choice in Madden NFL 06 will likely be New England, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Green Bay.

Further enhancing these online contests will be a number of new-look features for networked play. The first is the EA "sports locker," a sort of server-side memory system that will allow you to upload, back up, and share files among friends online. Though we have yet to see the EA sports locker in action, the idea of putting up things like modified rosters (how about the 1985 Chicago Bears complete with names and correct equipment setups?), playing offline franchise games with online buddies by sharing franchise information on the Internet, or swapping saved replays sounds intriguing. We're definitely hoping to see more of this feature in action at E3, and we will report back our findings as soon as we do.

To further discourage quitting and cheating, EA plans on introducing some unique feedback mechanics that will allow you to rate one another on criteria that dig a little deeper than the standard feedback responses found on Xbox Live games. The peer-based feedback system, dubbed EA Rep, will allow players to assign positive or negative ratings to online opponents, as well as call out gamers who quit early or consistently use "cheese" tactics (such as consistently going for it on fourth down, exploiting money plays, or generally acting like a jerk). This system is based on "stars and Xs" (stars denote positive feedback and Xs denote negative). The system will automatically take into consideration DNF information, and it will track unique user feedback, so there won't be any fudging of the results (such as false DNF reports after handing someone their butt, for example).

As you progress through online matches and your skills improve, you'll be able to improve your overall rating in the EA online system. By winning matches and participating in a variety of online games and game modes, you'll earn the equivalent of experience points, which will go toward your EA "gamer level." Your level will be a result of not only your skills in games like Madden, NCAA Football 06, and NASCAR Chase for the Cup 2006 (specifically your win-loss-tie records), but also your social rating as well. Your skill level for individual EA Sports games will be kept and your gamer level will play a big role in the online matchmaking system, which will be designed to find opponents at or around your specific level.

One aspect that didn't make it into this year's online mix is the club feature, which would have allowed you to group together with fellow Madden players, track club stats, and take on other clubs in regularly scheduled rivalries. According to EA, the feature was dropped in favor of fixing bugs and polishing online gameplay; hardly a bad reason for dropping a feature. Still, the club feature sounds like an intriguing concept, one that we hope makes it onto the online menu for the next Madden.

While we've yet to see Madden NFL 06's online features in action, it's clear that EA Sports is trying to bring a more user-friendly experience to online sports games. Whether this includes a much-needed reworking of the online menu systems and its presentation isn't clear at this point, but we're hoping for the best. Expect to see much more on Madden NFL 06 as we approach its release later this year.