Game Overview
We have to be honest with you on this one; NFL games confuse us more than anything (possibly with the exception of women!). If you have never shown an interest in American Football then it's a no brainer, this game is not going to be for you at all, if in doubt there is always the free demo to download on the Xbox Marketplace, if you aren't playing it on 360 then pop down to your local rental place and hire it for a couple of days.

We want to start with the graphics, they are sublime! The looks of aggression on the player’s faces, the concentration, the reflection in their eyes, the crowd, everything about the graphics in this game is good! Madden 2006 is probably one of the best games to look at the moment and realize how far we have come in the world of gaming!

Gameplay in NFL games can only be so good, American Football is more about tactics, you have to pick the right plays and make the right passes in order to gain valuable yards and get closer to that all important End Zone. Being a tactical game it is very stop start and games do seem to take ages, if you select 5 minutes each quarter you will be playing for at least an hour as the clock stops after every play has been completed, this unfortunately leads to a bit of boredom if your not playing a mate, the AI can be very predictable and tedious and 5 minutes a quarter is way to long!

Madden 2006 has included a Quarterback Vision Control, to be honest this is something we just can't get the hang of, depending on which quarterback you have depends on the field of vision, very sensitive to move and we have to admit to us seems a little pointless, we have been informed though that it's a very useful feature to use once you get the hang of it! We will leave that to you guys to work out!

As with nearly all EA games the soundtrack is buzzing, tracks from the legendary Foo Fighters, the ever popular Arctic Monkeys and many more top quality musicians will keep you tapping your foot the whole way through Madden 2006, and if you don't like that sort of music then make your own soundtrack using the Xbox features, easy solution!

Our Conclusions
In a nutshell this game is sleek, stylish and very addictive if you know what you are doing, the Franchise mode could probably be taken out without anyone really caring, it's a little bit too long winded! If you are looking for a good sports sim and you’re adaptable to all types of sport then this is definitely a game you should get! Simply stunning!

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Huge thanks to Shaun at EA for sending this over to us and causing us enough confusion to last till Madden 2007!