XB Madden NFL 2006 Description:

XB Madden NFL 2006 review:
5 stars (bomb-digity!!!!!!!!!) - this game rocks your football playin socks!!!!!!i havent seen a foot ball game this good since last years espn 2k5 super star mode is awsome and the new cone feature is ok....its hard to get used to but you can turn it off if your to of a sissy to play a challenging game so get this game now!!!!!wat are you doing go buy it!!!!!
1 stars (its NOT in the game! Playoff format still incorrect.) - I agree with the other reviewers saying that this game cheats just to keep the game close. However what irks me the most is that this game can't even get the correct playoff matchups in the post season. It is apparant that this game developers don't know a thing about football, are lazy have, or a poor QA department or all of the above. I have emailed EA on this issue for Madden 2003, but they are so arrogant they ignored my bug find so its pretty clear that they never fixed the bug and it appears in 2006 as well. They claim "if its in the game", but apparantly its not. See below:



I am the Dolphins and I had the top seed in the AFC. And here are the final regular season seedings for the AFC



1. Miami (16-0-0) AFC EAST winner

2. Cincinnati (12-4-0) AFC NORTH winner

3. Denver (9-7-0) AFC WEST winner

4. Indianapolis (8-8-0) AFC SOUTH winner

5. Baltimore (11-5-0)

6. Pittsburgh (10-6-0)



Wild Card

========================



6. Pittsburgh defeats 3. Denver

4. Indianapolis defeats 5. Baltimore



According to the official NFL playoff rules, the lowest seed winner from wildcard weekend plays the number 1 seed. And in my case that would mean I should play Pittsburgh (6th seed) in the divisional. However the game matches me up with Indianapolis. It seems the game is doing the match ups by record instead of playoff seeding. The same thing happened in the NFC the previous season.



I also noticed that the game does not follow the tiebreaking rules. this year the falcons and panthers were tied at 10 - 6 in the NFC South. The split the season series and also have the same division record, so the next tie breaker is best W-L-T percentage in common games. The panthers won this tie breaker however the game put atlanta ahead of carolina. This is also wrong.



To test this out on madden 2006 I picked up a rental to see if the same bug appeared, and unfortunately it does. see below



I simulated an entire season and ended up with the following playoff teams with their playoff seedings



1. Eagles 12 - 4 NFC east champ

2. Seahawks 11 - 5 NFC west champ

3. Vikings 10 - 6 NFC north champ

4. Falcons 9 - 7 NFC west champ

5. Giants 10 - 6 Wild card team #1

6. Packers 10 - 6 Wild card team #2



I simulated the wild card and here is what happened.



6. Packers defeat 3. Vikings

4. Falcons defeat 5. Giants



Again according to the current NFL playoff format, the #1 seed plays the LOWEST seeded winner from the wildcard week, and the #2 seed plays the HIGHEST seeded winner from wild card week. In this case the #6 Packers should play the 1. Eagles, and the #4 Falcons should play the #2 Seahawks. However the game puts the #4 Falcons against the #1 Eagles, and the #6 Packers against the Seahawks. This is clearly incorrect and it seems that the game is matching up teams based on record rather than the seeding as the NFL does.



This game claims to be so perfect, but it can't even follow the NFL rules! I can't believe the NFL gave these people an exclusive license.
1 stars (madden has taken a step back the last two years...) - the makers of madden the last two years need to be immediately fired and replaced with the makers of NCAA football, as it has been a significantly superior football game compared to the debacles that madden has been. the xbox version of madden as we all know is 100x better than the ps2 version. if you are interested in buying madden just be forewarned and don't play NCAA football first...if you do you'll be unable to play madden afterwards because it's just not good enough compared to the dominating NCAA. superstar mode is dumb and will never get played because everyone plays franchise (same mistake made in NCAA with the heisman mode). the qb vision thing...well don't even get me started. it's that bad. and tony bruno shows up for yet another year making sure you'll have your remote control next to you while playing madden so you don't have to listen to him repeat himself every season.