Touchdown! 'Madden NFL 06' shuts out the competition and runs up the score

Joey Harrington is no Peyton Manning, and the new "Madden NFL 06" -- which comes out this week -- makes this plainer than ever. - NFL Football -
When Harrington drops back to pass in this game, his eyes can view a small wedge of the football field. When Manning gets ready to fire the ball, he can see half the field.
This is quarterbacking control at its most sensitive level. This year's version of "Madden" gives you more of it. If your receiver is not in the wedge of the quarterback's vision, you most likely won't complete the pass. And better quarterbacks have better eyes.
They call it "Vision and Precision," fancy descriptors for this game's biggest two new features: shifting the quarterback's viewpoint and dropping a pass in perfectly behind a defender.
It works pretty smoothly, and it adds another layer of strategy and button-pushing to a game that already was ridiculously detailed. Now that game maker Electronic Arts recently spent all that money to lock up NFL licensing, there is no other game to rival "Madden" 's realistic look and play. - NFL Football -
You can make the quarterback eyeball his intended receiver in a number of ways. I found using the right thumbstick most useful, adjusting it after the ball was hiked. This gave me a new way to fake defenders: I shifted my eyes away from my target until the last minute, then looked back and zipped in a bullet. - NFL Football -
The other new control allows you to direct your pass after you release it, hitting the receiver high, low, behind and in front, using the directional keypad.
"Madden" has all the other perennial goodies, and there are tons, including expanded online play and more defined hot routes for receivers. - NFL Football -
There's also an overhauled single-player superstar mode, which allows you to create a player or import your saved player from "NCAA Football 06" or "NFL Street 2."
Truly, my only nit with this title is the announcing. Al Michaels, who coanchors the games with John Madden, still sounds robotic after all these years. I now believe it's a problem with him, not the game, because the announcers sound great in Electronic Arts' collegiate counterpart to "Madden." - NFL Football -
I still miss this game's big rival from last year, "ESPN Football," whose demise came when Electronic Arts bought up everything.
But if you want the best pro football game out there, "Madden" is the only choice now. And make sure Manning's at the helm, not Harrington.

JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS GAME MASTER