Madden NFL 10 Review - SBartlett's Blog

Arena Blog Dynasty Scores Sign Up ☰

SBartlett's Blog

Madden NFL 10 Review

Posted on August 15, 2009 at 12:43 PM.

(3)

Madden NFL 10 Review
By Steve Montani Bartlett
OperationSports.com

Madden football is a phenomenon in the game industry. For 20 years, Madden has been in the elite class of sports gaming � a type of longevity that is rare in any industry. Today, Madden can be viewed as the ultimate product to compliment the NFL Shield every time a new season rolls around. Mike Vick to the Eagles and new rivalries are born to form the perfect storm of NFL season hype. This year, Madden football was released on the first day of NFL exhibition games armed with sick looking commercials after every TV timeout. So is Madden a success thanks to their exclusive NFL Shield, or does it deliver based on pure sports game quality?

Presentation & Sound

The broadcast theme in Madden NFL 10 delivers a larger than life experience upon powering up the Xbox 360 for a match. On the field, the top quarterbacks all have their voice-overs in the game as in years past. You can hear them calling plays and hot routes in the tumultuous atmospheres � it�s a blast. You get the impression you are going to battle and it�s exciting.

All the graphic overlays are crisp, big, and polished. You feel as if you are watching NBC Football Night in America when the game introduction begins. As each team is introduced, you will view a cut scene with the players warming up on the field with a quick stat overlay bringing us back to the old Playstation 2 Madden days where this originated.

I enjoy customizing my star player�s gear, putting mean visors on the beasts, and then watch them warm up, looking all serious and ready to put in work.
The sound and atmosphere of the stadiums is just awesome. It reminds me of a FIFA World Cup match, and the FIFA atmospheres are alive so this is a great achievement for the Madden NFL 10 team. Fans can be seen entering the stadium wearing the latest NFL equipment gear, and purchasing concessions and assorted game day memorabilia. EA Sports missed out on an opportunity to take advantage of these cut scenes for the Franchise Mode, but I will touch on that a bit later.

Graphics

The high level of detail on the player models finally help bring Madden football to life. From the helmets, down to the socks and everything in between, the design of the player model has these virtual NFL players looking fresh.

Madden has tons of different helmet types, uniform types, and even cleats with different features to them. You can edit all of the player�s gear, even the particulars such as pad height, hand warmers and towels draped on their waists. There is an assortment of visors to choose from: starting with clear, smoke, dark, amber, red, green, blue, purple, and my personal favorite chrome.

It�s cool to see the players have more personality to them this year. Doing so gets you more into the game. You�ll be emotionally attached to the players as if you were Vince Vaughn playing Madden in the The Breakup; those are your lil� digital players on the field with big hearts just makin� plays.

When my guys weren�t makin� plays in my Seahawks Franchise after a few hard hits on the ground, Julius Jones would get up in frustration and spike the ball; to add to it, Collinsworth was questioning my play calling. These are some of the elements that help progress Madden NFL 10 ahead of its predecessors.

The Madden NFL stadiums are painted with a designer�s stroke of perfection. Like any great piece of art, on occasion you may get lost its beauty. The lights are on and the cameras are flashing, creating the illusion of an electric atmosphere. Brilliant visuals.

Game Play

The game play in Madden NFL 10 is hard to judge. The game speed right out of the case was making this game play so slow to the point that it wasn�t entirely functional (in my opinion, of course).

Wide outs don�t get separation from corners, or even some linebackers, and this tremendously affects the lack of realism in the game. I know Madden is retiring but slower game play doesn�t equate to simulation football. My first impressions of the new game left me unimpressed aside from the cool tackling animations.

Upon adjusting the game speed to normal and lowering the player speed threshold option to 40, Madden seemed to pick up the pace. Wide receiver separation began to take place. Those are my recommended settings to get a quality paced game, but you can adjust it the way you feel comfortable playing.
All we have been hearing for months now is Pro-Tak will change the way this game is played � and EA Sports and their team were right. Pro-Tak is an excellent engine that was added to this franchise and it will definitely carry the series for the next few seasons. But with all the Pro-Tak hype, a product of EA�s Marketing Hype Machine, I decided to analyze other aspects of the game to see how much improvement has been made.

A.I. & Ball Flight Issues

I have noticed that while the football physics have been adjusted slightly, they still need work. It�s still almost impossible to throw a fade route, or lead a receiver away from a defender with a touch pass. These are core pieces to the passing game that just don�t work very well.

Another frustration is the running and skating or sliding problems that will pop up in the game. Most ball carriers run the same, and the cuts just are awkward. Sometimes cutting is highly inefficient when you are trying to cut back hard, you just start running in place like a Looney Toons cartoon.

A big back should run differently with a heavier center of gravity than a smaller shifty ball carrier. It would be nice to see EA Sports make different run animations for smaller guys and larger guys. Guys like Randy Moss should have longer strides than players like DeAngelo Williams. Feel me?

Some other game play problems are found in the Fight for the Fumble pile ups. These are more of a hassle than anything. It�s almost impossible to win the fumble against the cpu. I just shut it off in the options menu.

During the game, you can finally matchup your best cover corners on the opposition�s best wide receivers. Thank you four years later! Sometimes, it doesn�t matter though because the man-alignment pre-play assignment feature is pretty much broken. Defensive players only align in front of their assignment when they are located within five yards of them. This results in the possibilities of having a corner covering a TE on the other end of the line. (try flipping your play to matchup your guys better)

Pro-Tak Animation System

So with any game, there will be imperfections as I noted above. The new Pro-Tak is where this game makes its money.

The Pro-Tak Animation System uses procedural animation steering, branching, and real-time manipulation in a gang tackle. So in other words, tacklers can come in and branch on to the gang tackles, steer the pile, and everything will react in real-time as the play develops. This new system brings a whole new way the game is played in terms of player speed, size, ratings, and maneuverability. The more you play this game, the more you will notice the influence it can have.

Runners with high break-tackle ratings are more likely to shed tacklers - this is where Pro-Tak put in work. For instance, runners such as Maurice Jones-Drew can push some piles with a combination of strength and speed. My guys like Kerney, Tatupu, and Curry in my Seattle Franchise were all able to stop him in his tracks when he was running parallel to the line of scrimmage, which was pretty sweet.

On the other end of this spectrum, when Tatupu is chasing a running back from a weaker pursuit angle, the running back will fall forward upon the tackle. That right there is the beauty of the Pro-Tak System. It doesn�t feel randomly animated anymore � this Pro-Tak system actually seems to be calculating the player speed, size, ratings, and angles in real-time.

I enjoy when stronger defensive players bring down the backs to a halt. When Tatupu gets to run down a wide-out, he rips them down violently if he can close in.

Pro-Tak seamlessly lets you take advantage of the new Wildcat run formation if you have the appropriate personnel. Players such as Anquan Boldin are beasts to bring down.

Another nice benefit of the Pro-tak system is the ability to move the piles; if your teammate sees you bunched up in the pile, he can give you the Matt Leinart goal line push as he did on Reggie Bush in college and push you forward. When you are getting wrapped up as a runner, the right stick allows you to try to push the pile forward, escape out, or fall in the direction you flick the stick. The stronger the back, the longer the pile will stay up; and if forward progress comes to a halt and you still can�t bring the back down, the refs will blow it dead.

The Passing Game

Let�s start with the quarterbacks. The quarterback drop back feature is pretty sweet. It forces you to play from the pocket for the most part � it disciplines you to play good football from that aspect until the quarterback completes his backdrop. The pocket formation isn�t as realistic as anticipated. Actually it looks nothing like a pocket, but it is serviceable.

While in the pocket, you can flick the right stick to avoid a sack. I rarely use this feature but I could be useful for more mobile quarterbacks to be evasive and escape the pocket. EA also added QB Pressure Alert where the controller rumbles when a defender is closing in on you in the pocket.

In my Seahawks Franchise, Hasselbeck is awesome with the short to mid-range passes. You can really tell where his strengths are with his accuracy in a quick fire west-coast offense. It�s actually a blast picking defenses apart from the pocket. He can�t throw the deep ball very well, although I�ve noticed not many quarterbacks can even when they plant their feet. The passing game this year just makes it more difficult to go deep.

The new quarterback ratings: short, medium, deep, throw on the run, and play action are most prevalent when you fire the ball to medium and long distance. If you hold the button down and those lengths, your quarterback better be accurate; otherwise they throw missiles over guy�s heads like Donovan McNabb (I still got love for you Donovan, just saying).

While Madden still has work to do in making passing more realistic, there is noticeable progress made here. The detail in each unique QB is a step up in the right direction. Cutler throws darts out there, and guys like Warner and Brady are highly accurate at any yard distance. It�s good to see quarterbacks being differentiated in other ways than a vision cone. Phillip Rivers is heavy and slow in the pocket and he slings the ball sidearm; most of the star quarterbacks have their realistic throw styles.

Another nice little addition is the spiral on the ball � when you�re rushed and hurried, the ball comes out flatter and wobbly as opposed to planting your feet and delivering a strike. Quarterbacks now finish their animations even while getting it through the use of layer animation blending. This results in balls flying out sideways to be picked. This rewards rushing the quarterback into a throw.
With that said, there are still issues plaguing the passing game when you try to lead a wide receiver on a crossing route. The wide-out almost jumps towards the line of scrimmage when catching the pass slowing him down in the process. The result is not being able to complete a quick hit in stride to catch and go � instead you have to steer your guy upfield again before you can continue running.
It�s hard to lead wide-outs on any type of fade, or even on in-routes for that matter � similar to last year. Sometimes you will lead them with a lob pass perfectly, and other times the ball will come out 20 yards short of where you want to throw it. This unpredictability in the passing game really holds back the overall gun slinging which help makes the game fun. I just find leading wide-outs with a touch pass to be inaccurate, and in some instances, broken , which detracts from the game experience.

You will notice that the wide receivers break in and out of their cuts much better, but you the passing game still isn�t really timing based.

The wide-receiver defensive back interaction at the line is slightly improved, but they don�t really fight for position with their hands or anything when the ball is in flight. It�s more like the corner just runs into the wide-out and tries to push him out of the way.

The corners have a few new defensive animations to swat the ball which looks awesome. One-handed reaches to tip balls out of the passing lane have never been so welcomed. These animations show off the great design in player models as they stretch out to full-extension to defend passes.

Franchise

Madden�s Franchise mode has been reconfigured a bit. Gone are the practices during the week to prepare for the opponents. Gone are the in-season player progressions feedbacks.

What they did bring in is a new in-season scout feature for the NFL Draft. This allows you to scout from the Franchise Hub screen during the season for needs for your team. It works very similar to NCAA�s scouting. Select the players you want to scout, then advance a week and see how his ratings will translate to the pro game. There is also a player news segment and also The Extra Point Highlight show that follows the NFL Network theme.

During the off-season, the free agents now account multiple factors before signing with your team. Things like the team�s depth chart and overall team rating affects their decisions. You will find many similarities to the NCAA recruiting here as well.

Player progress is marked with a letter grade but there is no apparent in-season progression displayed. The player ratings don�t fluctuate based on performance during the season. So there is no point to having player progression without having real-time feedback. It�s a bit trivial to have to wait for the end of the season to view who has progressed.

Upon the completion of a season, the progression is updated. You can then hire new staff, relocate your franchise, add stadium upgrades, and obtain new sponsorships for the stadium.

Another element missing is the lack of an Owner Mode that is present in the Playstation 2 Madden NFL games. Franchise owners cannot adjust ticket prices, concessions, marketing and television revenue contracts or do much else than make upgrades a facility. EA Sports missed out on a big opportunity to use the new cut-scenes of fans filing in for games. The cut scenes are detailed and already present with NFL Gear, concessions, and other goods. All we need is control over the prices and some items in the stands and kiosks. Perhaps next year.

So at first look, Madden NFL 10 has some sick authenticity � great visuals, great presentation, and great sound. Pro-Tak is a straight up awesome addition to the game. There is nothing breakthrough here, but there is a damn good football game.

+ NBC Football theme & presentation is surreal
+ Pro-Tak keeps game play fresh after hours
+ Online Franchise

_ Run animations and player sliding
_ Suffer from ball flight physics that remained relatively the same
_ Lack of owner mode features present in PS2 days

OVR 8.5

Attached Images