There are some things Madden 05 is clearly better than Madden 06 on the PS2. The little things I like to say. In no particular order:
1. Sideline reporter Jill Arrington. In 06 there is no sideline reporter which takes away from the realism. Plus Jill Arrington is a babe and has a voice that I could listen to all day.
2. When you pause the game and then return to the game, Al Michaels says something like "Back to the game" and similar stuff like that. In 06 he says nothing.
3. Some good cutscenes were removed in 06. These were the coaches talking to the players and a opposing player firing his teammates up when the other team couldn't convert on 3rd down.
4. Cheerleader cutscenes were removed in 06. These occured in 05 at the end of quarters/halftime.
5. Pregame cutscenes were removed. In 05 they show the weather/general game information, showed coaches talking with one another and announcers talked about the key players. In 06, it goes straight to the coin toss which is quite boring and takes away from the realism.
6. I liked the controller configuration of 05 on defense. X is change player and O is sprint. In 06 it switched so sometimes when I want to change player to tackle, I can't press those two buttons on time. Defensively the controller is more user friendly in 05 although I believe you can change the configuration in 06.
7. I like the in-game music in 05 more. Although this is a personal opinion.
8. In 06 when showing replays it shows the EA Sports logo but in 05 it shows the Team logo. Just a small thing but still.
9. AI CPU quarterback play is much better in 05 compared to 06. The QB vision really hurts the CPU play. They take too long in the pocket, miss too many open receivers and throw too many deep balls/interceptions. Also get sacked more in 06 than 05 because they hold onto the ball far too long.
10. Corners/safeties plays more realistic in 05. In 06 they jump 6 feet in the air (ignoring footplanting/body momentum/athleticism/fatigue) and tip balls like crazy. Very unrealistic.
11. Receivers don't drop as many passes in 05.
12. In 05 the CPU puts guys in motion more on offense. In 06 they hardly do this and just hike the ball which is unrealistic as QB's in real life constantly put players in motion.
13. Punt returns were much better in 05. In 06 your teammates don't block at all and thus you almost always have to call fair catch. In 05 they block.
14. Kicking meter was a bit harder in 05 which I liked. 06 was too easy to kick deep and accurate.
15. More penalties, injuries and fumbles occurred in 05 which is realistic.
16. In 06 they say the Horsetrailer player of the game too early. Even when the game is still undecided. It looks stupid especially when the other team comes back to win the game. In Madden 05 they do it when the game is right about over.
17. I felt that the overall commentary was slightly better in 05.
18. Player faces look better in 05.
I do understand that in order to add things to the game (Madden 06), they have to remove things as well (Madden 05). Especially on the PS2's limited disk space. Plus the Superstar mode introduced in 06 probably took a lot of space and thus had to remove the things I mentioned above. Though it did make some parts of gameplay considerably worse.
Having said all that Madden 06 is fun because they introduced QB vision, truck stick, additional pre-snap adjustments as well as more types of plays/formations. Running game is slightly better and the players don't look like they are all bodybuilders like 05. Also introduced QB precision passing but I swear I can already do this in 05.
When you played Madden 06 how was the CPU quarterback play? They suck right? In 05 it was solid. Because of this I can't play Madden 06 for too long because I get frustrated.