Madden NFL 10

 

Ever since EA purchased the NFL license and eliminated virtually all of the competition in the football video game industry, the Madden franchise, while selling as well as ever, has seemed to be stuck in the same gear over these past four years. It seems like it finally dawned on the developers that something needed to be done to the next iteration to make things fresh again before fans decided it wasn't necessary to make the yearly upgrade.

Madden 10 opens with a dramatic video briefly highlighting the journey of cover athlete Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald on route to the epic Super Bowl XLIII we witnessed in February. The video closes, displaying the tagline “Own the Moment”, leaving us to ponder on the thoughts of creating are own breath-taking moments within the game. This short introduction is however more than just eye candy. It symbolizes that this is the year EA finally made some much needed enhancements to the presentation.

Before each game you're shown an overview of the stadium along with statistics of various players from each game. This sounds like something simple but people who have played Madden over the years understand that this is a big addition. They also have finally added refs to the game. Gamers have been begging for refs for a while now, but they may be wanting them removed after this years game. While on the field the pinstripes sometimes blend with a teams uniform making the passing game more difficult. Even worse though is the fact that for every play within a yard of the first down they have to bring out the chains, for every catch close to the sidelines they have to get together and decide the call, and for every semi-close touchdown they have to get together to debate. These animations are a fun addition the first time or two you see them, but after a while they get just plain annoying. You would think EA would at least give us the option to skip these cutscenes. It is nice though that players are more interactive with one another now, and you'll see things like coaches ripping players on the sidelines or the quarterback slapping his receiver on the backside after a big play.

Adding to the presentation this year is the addition of the show called “The Extra Point”. This is actually broken into two parts. One occurs during halftime of every game, and provides you with scores from other games around the league (if in Franchise), stats from your game, and the top plays of the first half from your game. This show also is featured after every week in Franchise mode and gives you a recap of some of the big games of the week, names offensive and defensive players of the week, shows the standings across the NFL, and gives a preview of upcoming games. This is a great idea, but it wasn't executed as well as it could've been. The hosts are so monotonous that the shows don't feel engaging or exciting. It's also disappointing that you can't see highlights from other games, they simply display a stat sheet.

 

 

Madden has improved visually in more ways than presentation. This is probably the best looking football game to the date. Player models look realistic and up close shots reveal most players faces looking just like their real life counterpart. Even more attractive than the players are the stadiums. The field looks amazingly realistic and it reacts appropriately to weather if it's raining in Seattle or snowing in Green Bay. The whole look comes together nicely and depth of field is used very well, but there's definitely a lot of noticeable pop-in during the play calling screen and the problems with textures like player hair spazzing out still remains.

Not only did EA Sports make all these visual improvements, but they also made some drastic changes to the gameplay. No need to re-read that sentence, it's actually true. First of all, you can choose from five different speeds to fit your style of play. These range from Very Slow through Very Fast letting you craft the game speed to what feels right. The default speed is set to Slow, and playing at this level makes cutting through holes and finding the open receiver easier (though not too easy). The good thing is if you don't like this slightly more realistic approach you can switch it back to what last years game was, or even make it a little faster.

Gameplay feels a lot more refined than last years version. The running game feels better than it has in many years, especially if you play on one of the slower speeds which gives it a sense of smoothness. The new Pro-tak system makes getting wrapped up more interesting and makes tackles more unique. Passing is vastly improved since '09, thanks to the new pocket presence. If you try to scramble outside of the pocket and your QB's performance will drop making cheeser scramblers less effective.

If you happen to fumble/force a fumble at some point during your drive and you aren't the only one in the vicinity of the loose ball, multiple players will dive for it triggering the new Fight for the Fumble segment. In order to gain control of the ball you have to mash the button being displayed on screen. Two worries I had about this was that it would be over used and that it would be unfair. The mini-game is appropriately used and one team starts out with an advantage if it looks like their player got to the ball first.

If you played Madden 09 on a higher difficulty setting you probably remember feeling like you got cheated a few times because the computer would use cheap exploits to gain an advantage over you. That problem does still exist this year as well as some other plagues that keep 10 from being perfect. Interceptions are too often, and going along with what I said earlier, they can be cheap. How many times have you seen a defender running with down field, not even looking at the ball, then magically leap, do a 180, and snatch the ball one handed? Or how about DB's who can swat and tackle at the same time? Running backs seem to break too many tackles too easily, even if there are 5 people gang tackling him (I'm looking at Michael Turner and Brandon Jacobs). Maybe the biggest hinder of all is the fact that certain passing plays are nearly unstoppable. This can make playing online a hassle, you just have to make sure you find someone who doesn't who doesn't abuse these plays.

To get the full experience from the new and improved gameplay, you'll want to look farther into the career modes. There's Franchise and Superstar offline, and a newly added Online Franchise. (Yes that's Online Franchise, not just Online League but we'll get into that later.) Taking over an NFL team and playing up to 60 years with them, calling all the shots and controlling your players has been the staple of the Madden franchise for the last many years. In 10 not much has changed, which isn't to throw a fit over, but it would've been nice to see some improvements. At this point we've played these franchise modes so much it just feels like going through the motions. It's still a lot of fun signing free agents, making trades, drafting, and leading your team to the Super Bowl, but there's nothing new (other than those monotonous end of the week shows) that makes you feel a connection to this year's iteration in the franchise mode.

 

Now Superstar mode is a different story. It's funny how this mode has gotten worse since it changed generations. On the old PS2 games there were all kinds of things that made this mode fun. Participating in off-field activities like doing interviews or shooting movies gave the mode a unique feel and a little bit like a real NFL player. But now Superstar has become create a player, go through the calendar, work your way up the depth chart, become a star. Heck, the mode has been so stripped that now participating in practices don't even matter because you just run plays without ever being reward skill points. Superstar mode has lost it's spark that made it fun a few years ago.

Last year, EA introduced the Online Leagues which let you play out a single season with 31 other user controlled teams. Online Franchise lets you and (still) 31 other user controlled teams take part in a 10 season franchise mode. It was limited to 10 seasons because this is just an experimental addition, but it shouldn't be a problem as most players won't end up sticking around for the full 10 years anyway. The functionality within the mode is almost completely identical to what you'll see in the offline version which is just plain awesome. If you can get an active league going (which is unfortunately difficult to do, especially if you don't know the other people in the league outside of the game) this mode can end up being the best part of Madden 10. It's not perfect though, and one nagging issue is that teams don't have any kind of salary cap so teams can just go and sign anyone they want come free agency time.

EA did add one more gameplay mode which may end up going unnoticed by many. What I'm talking about is Co-op, which can be played both with a buddy at home or a stranger online. Only two people can participate and it's only a play now, unranked game, but it's a start. One player is the play caller (and all-time QB) while the other can switch around to any player they want to control. Defense works pretty much the same way with that same person still calling the plays and both can switch to control any defender. Defense is a lot more challenging though due to the camera angle and it leads to your team giving up some long touchdown plays. It can be a lot of fun just messing around with another player and if EA works out the kinks it could be a nice addition down the road, and maybe eventually we can see a 11-on-11 mode...or at least I hope so.

Commentary is handled by Chris Collinsworth as the color commentator along side Tom Hammond doing the play-by-play. Commentary ends up being one of the lower elements of Madden 10. Collinsworth and Hammond show hardly any emotion taking away from the feeling of this being an actual NFL game broadcast. Also very often you'll hear them just get things wrong, like saying they didn't think Chris Johnson could run that fast or that Peyton Manning isn't an accurate passer (only to turn around and say no one can argue that he's one of the most accurate passers in the NFL). I wish Madden would get back in the booth and record lines for Madden, since you know, it does bear his name. The soundtrack doesn't do the game a lot of justice either no matter what genre you like. They threw a handful of songs from every genre, and most of the rock tracks were taken straight from EA's Rock Band license. I ended up just turning on all of the Sam Spence songs and leaving a few others I liked checked on.


EA has done a lot to improve the Madden series. I went back and played 09 and it really made me appreciate how much better the game felt this year, and also the small things like the new play calling screen which just give the game a smoother feel. The new Online Franchise mode should be a welcome addition that long-time Madden gamers have been waiting for, and even if you want to play by yourself there are hours upon hours waiting to be had offline. Madden 10 still isn't a realistic simulation game, but it's an excellent game of football and the best title the Madden series has seen in years.

 

 

Score: 8.4