March Madness 06 Impressions

[Chairface1]

As I pointed out in another thread, not every team's roster can be edited. EA goofed again and left out the All-Time teams.

[sparker]

Just played the NCAA title game as Louisville vs. Duke.

Some of the animations have been smoothed out this year. The behind the back dribble looks to have been polished up some, and possible have two variations (not quite sure yet). The lockdown stick continues to be fun, but you can get into trouble against good PG.

When you successfully draw a charge, the play reverts to a cut scene that looks good. All of the cut scenes look good, they just don't pop up enough for me. I could stand a little more. I have always hated the way instant replays look in MM so I cut them way down. I wonder if this is reducing cut scenes as well. If so, I may have to turn the replay bar up.

I don't think the "CPU shot control" is in this year. My guess is that most players control release themselves. If you don't like to, you may have to do it yourself this year.

The NC celebration looks the same as last year's. They kept "One Shining Moment" in the game.

One new animation I just saw. At the end of the game DeMarcus Nelson attempted a driving jump shot and spread his legs wide to prevent getting into a charge situation. It looked good.

They also have implemented the 5-second call properly. If you create space, the countdown ceases, only to begin again later if closely guarded again.

The shot behind the glass bug looks to have remained. It results in a turnover of course.

I'll get to some more negatives later.

The atmosphere is top notch. I like the announcing and crowd sounds (bursts and lulls are properly implemented). MM has always been pretty good here, and this year seems better than years past even.

[LHT69]

Thanks all for the great initial impressions. had one question, is there auto subs this year? I think last years game did not have auto subs. Thanks in advance.

[sparker]

I just went into rivalry mode with UNC hosting Duke. The scene looks amazing. I paused the game to relay a few things.

At the beginning Nessler asks Vitale what his greatest game as a coach was. Vitale again gave a really long answer, involving a win his team had against Al Maguire's Marquette team during the year that MU ended up winning the NC. Though long, it sounded natural.

I just saw a great sequence. It started with me pulling off the "dribble handoff" (it looks awesome; the CPU has been using it against me all night). I got a quick basket, and then my UNC's #34 (Noel?) created a loose ball with a a wrap-around steal attempt from behind, the ball flew into a UNC player's hand who hit a streaking #34 for a thunderous dunk. The crowd exploded and DU called a TO.

They have really smoothed out the behind the back dribble animation, and the defensive animations using the lockdown stick look real nice.

I'm not seeing alot of subbing --- none for my team. I need to check for the auto sub feature and report.

[flip2101]

Thanks for all the great info guys I really wasn't sure about this game at first glance but i'll pick up a copy after work and give it a shot !

[MaddenLivER]

yo can u see if u can play wit ur named players online? like ncaa football

[sparker]

Some bad news, there is no autosub feature as far as I can tell. It also looks like EA put the default for fatigue effect real low (so as to avoid the need for subs). My guess is that the autosub feature went out so players would use the timeout interface that they put in last year (I would much rather have auto sub that the timeout interface that they were so proud of). This is a big negative to me also. Saw a hard foul animation earlier, and Vitale commented that the fouler was sending a message.

Just saw a great split-two-defenders layup animation in at Alabama-Auburn game in rivalry mode. They have all the little details on Auburn's floor added in this year, but EA still has Auburn's lanes blue instead of orange.

From my last game, Josh McRoberts for Duke is nice. Good news for Tar Heel fans: Noel is a monster.

[sparker]

Alabama is destroying Auburn. Here may be some indication as to the effort EA put into the game this year. (1) I saw on the Internet the other day that Auburn's basketball program is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. The site has a logo dedicated to it. That logo is on AU's court in 2 places in the game. (2) #23 on Auburn is a frosh (Quantez Robinson). He just shot the ball --- lefthanded. I don't know if he is LH, but if so, it is a good sign (I know the overall ratings have upset some people, but this is a good sign I think). In the past we had to fix Lefthandedness, even for well-known players, not to mention less freshman on losing teams.

EA never has Auburn's fight song in its games, and the fact that the lanes remain blue may be some indication that Auburn is simply a licensing hardass on EA (?). I don't know.

More time with the game still has me really liking the graphics and animations this year (I haven't mentioned but I play X-Box).

One small thing. I'm sure everyone remembers the addition of the halftime and postgame highlight they added last year, the one that stopped at the climax of the play (usually a dunk). They fixed that --- the play continues till the ball is through the hoop and almost o the floor.