EA unveils Madden in New York

NEW YORK--The ESPNZone in New York is usually known as being a hub of real-world sports, where fans from all over the Big Apple converge, watch their favorite teams, and down a few cold beverages. Tonight, however, the bar and restaurant was strictly devoted to sports of the virtual kind, as EA Sports unveiled the highly anticipated Madden NFL 06. Along for the ride were a bevy of current NFL greats, such as Daunte Culpepper, Tony Gonzalez, Byron Leftwich, Michael Strahan, and Madden 06 cover star Donovan McNabb, on hand to see the public unveiling of a game in which they all appear.

EA Sports reps announced this evening that development of the football game is complete. There's still some work left to be done before the game reaches store shelves in early August, but for all intents and purposes, the job of programming and refining the game before it's sent to production is essentially finished. The level of scrutiny expected for this year's Madden is higher than ever before, as this entry will be the first NFL game released by the company since it obtained exclusive use of the NFL license in December 2004.

Tonight's event began in relatively low-key style; as media streamed in, it was tough not to notice the NFL guys all huddled around the PS2 and Xbox consoles getting hands-on tours of the game by EA reps. For many of the athletes on hand, tonight's event was their first look at the latest iteration of Madden and its new features. Among the new features taking the field this time around are a tweaked passing system that uses an illuminated cone on the field to represent each quarterback's field of vision on the gridiron, and passing controls that let players better pinpoint passes by throwing high, low, away, or behind receivers.

Pickup games abounded throughout the event, the most intense of which was a battle of Madden cover stars. Minnesota Vikings quarterback (and Madden 2002 cover athlete) Culpepper took on McNabb (whose image can be found on Madden 06) in a match that found both initially standing up to pose for photos. But as the match progressed, it ended with the two QBs seated and staring intently at the screen. Unfortunately, McNabb was pulled away to do interviews before the game ended, so no victor was named.

After the hands-on time, an open panel--consisting of Strahan, McNabb, Culpepper, Leftwich, and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, and hosted by former San Francisco 49er Gary Plummer--discussed their impressions of the game. The players seemed to be united in their approval of the new passing system and were also nearly unanimously in agreement that their current player ratings in attributes such as speed and awareness could use a nudge upward.

Among all the discussion, there was even a little room for some trash talking as McNabb and Strahan, two of the NFL's more effusive stars, took some friendly jabs at one another. Asked whether he would ever consider using the Raiders in a game, McNabb, a graduate of Syracuse University (a school renowned for its sports broadcasting program) took the time to do a detailed mock breakdown of the Raiders' offensive and defensive players, demonstrating his knowledge of his opponents both real and virtual.

Strahan, perhaps sensing he was being upstaged, asked the one question about McNabb's Eagles that was on everyone's lips, one that McNabb himself doesn't know the answer to: "Well, Donovan, will [Eagles receiver and potential holdout Terrell Owens] be on the Eagles' offense?" Needless to say, this line elicited the biggest laugh of the night.

Since the passing game is a focus of this year's Madden, Gonzalez had an interesting response to a question regarding what was more important to the offensive success of a football game: a quarterback with a great arm or a wide receiver with great hands.

"I'm not going to make [Chiefs quarterback] Trent Green the best quarterback, and he's not going to make me the best tight end. We're all going to work together, and then you have to throw in the offensive line. If you, throughout history, if you can name a great quarterback you can probably name a great receiver [that played with him] and vice versa, so for me it goes hand in hand."

The other big feature fully unveiled at tonight's event was NFL superstar mode, an entirely new mode in the game that puts the player in the position of an up-and-coming rookie athlete making a name for himself in the NFL, complete with a slate of off-the-field drama that accompanies life in America's biggest sport. On Friday, GameSpot Sports will have a full preview of the NFL superstar mode in Madden NFL 06.

[What did you think of this news? Talk about it in GameSpot Sports.]