Madden Online

Madden NFL 06 marks the second year of availability on Xbox Live®, and few franchises have benefited so much from opening up such a wealth of available competition. Ranked matches are found in seconds as hardcore and casual gamers ply their skills online. Join tournaments, set up quick Rushing Attack matches while waiting for friends, earn trophies, scout opponents, and more. Madden NFL 06 is flat-out bursting with goodies online. Now for a bit more detail on some of its more prominent features.

Get ready to eat turf.

Game Types:

• Unranked: For those needing to skill up before tackling ranked games or just wanting a bit more flexibility with the game options, Unranked matches get it done for you. Change or select Game Skill Level (Rookie, Pro, All-Pro, or All-Madden), Quarter Length (anything from one minute to fifteen minute quarters) and Fatigue, Injuries, and Fair Play (you can toggle these on or off). For those that don't recall, Fair Play limits some of your decisions (like going for fourth down conversions early in the game) to make for a more realistic and fair football experience.
• Ranked: All Ranked games are played under the same circumstances, so you know exactly what you're getting into when you play: four minute quarters; All-Pro difficulty; Fatigue, Injuries, and Fair Play turned on.
• Hardcore Ranked: This is similar to Ranked games, only the Game Skill Level is jacked up to All-Madden for some extra smash-mouth challenge.
• Rushing Attack: This quick hard-hitting mini-game pits you against an opponent as you rotate rounds to see who can amass the most rushing yards. It's a great alternative when you don't have time for a full match.

Tag-teamed punk!

EA Locker
Finally! There is shareable info in a sports game online. This cool new feature allows you to upload information to be shared or played out.

• Upload your profile for someone else to use or look at.
• Save Spawned games (a feature that lets you save Franchise games to be played later), so you can actually pit your wits against a friend and have the outcome realized in your Franchise season.
• Save the Franchise itself, and use it against friends and foes alike. You can also make it public (along with a description) so anyone can download the file as is and progress with the Franchise you've built up.
• Upload your own rosters to be trade or make them available to anyone you wish.

Stretch out for glory.

Tournaments
Whether Quick or Regular, you can play bracketed tournaments in Madden NFL 06, similar to last year.

• Standard Tournament: Choose to host or join a custom created tournament, with news (if the host chooses to add any), custom rules (such as turning on or off Injuries or Fair Play), a set starting time, and designated space between rounds.
• Quick Tournament: These slightly less formal affairs are quick four- to eight-player tournaments, designed to offer a bit of structured competition to be finished in a couple hours or so. Once you join a Quick Tournament, you're there for the duration.

Of course, there are several other online features for Madden NFL 06 worthy of note: the real-time real-world sports ticker that gives the day's scores (across all sports), the level, reputation, and DNF (did not finish) systems, the tally of online players, the updates on your friends games … the list goes on and on. So while the broader points that I've expanded on are worthy of highlighting, don't think Madden NFL 06 isn't also filled with the little touches that help make the online experience as excellent as it is.

Article by Alex McLain