Madden NFL 10: The Game Which Almost Was

Feature Article

Submitted on: 02/06/2010 by Jayson Young

For all its improvements this year, Madden NFL 10 is still far from being a great game; what it is, instead, is a great first step in turning the franchise around from an industry in-joke to a respectable simulation of NFL football.

When the football season officially ends on Super Bowl Sunday, Madden 10 may not go down as the greatest football game in recent memory, or even the greatest football game on the current consoles; Madden 10, instead, may be remembered as the game that finally got the Al-Davis-esque Madden series back into playoff contention after years of top-10 draft busts and stuck-in-its-ways ownership.

Here are five off-season moves that helped make Madden 10 a harbinger of continued success in 2010:

Improved Presentation

Yes, Tom Hammond sucks the life out of every broadcasting booth he steps into, and yes, features like Fran Charles’ Extra Point and Alex Flanagan’s halftime/postgame shows are about as exciting as watching Hammond do a real-life playoff game with Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann (that actually happened?), but the larger point is, now that post-game and mid-game presentations are finally back in Madden, next year’s booth and studio work will have a chance to build upon Madden 10’s weak first attempt.

Who let Bilbo Baggins in the booth?

Source: news.uky.edu

Barring any setbacks, next year should finally be the year that Madden's presentation can compete on the same level as Boom and the gang from NFL 2K5.

Signature Animations

Taking another page from the 2K Sports playbook, Madden 10 made kickers and quarterbacks the first positions ever in an EA football game to have player-specific animations. Madden fans should be safe to assume that a few more positions will have their playing style motion-captured in Madden 11.

Running backs seem like the obvious choice for next year’s game, and if All Pro Football 2K8 taught us anything, it’s that seeing guys like Walter Payton and Barry Sanders knifing through opposing defenses with their trademark running style is the kind of thing that can turn a great football game into a legend as timeless as the players themselves.

New Position-Specific Ratings

For many years, throwing power and foot speed were the only ratings GMs needed to look for when finding an elite Madden QB.

Madden 10 finally changed all of that with independent accuracy ratings for short, deep and medium throws, as well as new ratings for play action fakes and throws on the run.

The result is that, even though their arm strength may only be two points apart, JaMarcus Rusell (98 throwing power) no longer performs on the same level as Tom Brady (96 throwing power).

While average from the pocket, a 97 "Throw on the Run" rating and 92 "Play Action" rating make Ben Roethlisberger a bootlegging beast.

Madden 11 could further improve the rating system by adding new QB categories for throws under pressure and throws off the back foot, two skills that all QBs in Madden 10 -- regardless of their accuracy ratings -- are still able to perform at an All-Pro level.

Greater Player Differential

As Madden continues to expand and refine its individual ratings categories, the mysterious “overall” rating has become increasingly irrelevant.

Aspiring GMs can no longer just throw contracts at the guys with the highest overall ratings; instead, Madden 10 GMs now have to look at the game's position-specific ratings to make decisions like:

Do I want a power back or a speed back? A linebacker who can rush the passer, play the run or sit back in coverage? Will my secondary specialize in man or zone coverage, and if man, will they be playing a lot of bump coverage?

But while it’s great that players are finally starting to differentiate themselves based on their unique skill-sets, GMs shouldn’t have to comb over 30 different attribute categories to figure out where those strengths lie.

So why not make Madden 11 the first EA Sports game to get rid of the archaic “overall” rating and bring back a feature that – in true EA Tiburon fashion – was a great concept hindered by poor execution: the weapons system from Madden 08.

Being able to glance at two or three icons to find out whether a player is more of a “pass rush specialist” or a “run stuffer” would make scrolling through pages upon pages of ratings a forgotten nightmare.

Just this time, let’s keep all those icons all off the playing field and leave them where they belong: in the game menus.

Online Franchise

For the Madden fans who live for the adrenaline rush of facing live competition, online franchise has been the feature that’s kept Madden 10 going all season long. Though the mode is far from perfect, competing against 31 different owners for draft picks, free agent signings and the all-important gameday victories are what earned Madden 10’s online franchise the OS Award for 2009's Online Experience of the Year.

Madden 10's new online franchise hub, accessible through your PC or iPhone and targeted by bosses everywhere as a serious threat to workplace productivity

If Madden 11's online franchise can simply shake off the first-year jitters by upgrading features like the barebones stat tracking, bizarre playoff logic and complete lack of salary cap, we could be looking at a repeat champion in 2010.

So what do you think? Is the Madden series headed down the road to victory, or is it, like the Oakland Raiders, still another year or two away from getting back into post-season form?

Sound off in the space below and let your voice be heard!

Madden NFL 10 Videos

Member Comments

# 41 carnalnirvana @ 02/14/10 04:44 PM

i have preached getting of the OVR rating for yrs.

also if tendencies made it into the game that would further seperate players as it stands manning is the same as brady more seperate characteristics are still needed.

also new plays are a must these plays we have been using since madden 03 at least

# 42 PantherBeast_OS @ 02/14/10 08:01 PM

Well for the most part I love madden this year. Best ever. But will be even better come madden11. There is still work that need sto be done to madden 11 to make it much better then 10. But Ian and his crew will do it.

# 43 jyoung @ 02/14/10 08:25 PM

If they added the Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers from Madden: Ultimate Team and brought back the weapons system from Madden 08, then we could finally say goodbye to the overall rating system.

With there being something like 40-50 different rating categories in this game, there is no reason to try to compress all that data into one magic "overall" formula.

Just let us know the player's skill set via "weapons" icons and his overall tier based on the bronze/silver/gold system and you'd simplify the scouting process a ton.

# 44 mburke2 @ 02/15/10 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wEEman33


	If they added the Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers from Madden: Ultimate Team and brought back the weapons system from Madden 08, then we could finally say goodbye to the overall rating system. With there being something like 40-50 different rating categories in this game, there is no reason to try to compress all that data into one magic "overall" formula. Just let us know the player's skill set via "weapons" icons and his overall tier based on the bronze/silver/gold system and you'd simplify the scouting process a ton.

Overall ratings are definitely outdated and just plain useless at this point. The weapons system is the best way to go to identify which players you want to sign/draft, as the overall rating tells you very little if anything. I'm sure that most people who are veterans at this game know how to check for attributes on players that identify what their skill sets are and match what they're looking for on their team. But the AI does not do this and only signs players based on an overall rating, which leads to computer teams signing players that don't fit teams' systems, making the outcomes unrealistic. Reintroducing the weapons system and programming the AI to have teams sign the right players would make the game much more realistic, particularly in franchise mode.

# 45 Mofficial @ 02/15/10 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodriggo


	The annual "What I want in Madden" thread. Let me tell you how it ends........they ignore everything you ask for. They simply take a feature already in this years game and give it a catchy name like: Madden 11: "Field General" - make pre-snap adjustments. or Madden 11: "Become a Dynasty" - Play as the same team over and over and over again. or Madden 11: "Own the League" - Control every aspect of your team except for the ******* stadium music.

LMAOOOOOOOO exactly.

Really, I just want them to fix the gameplay. After a while, this game stunk. Not trying to simply hate, but they just don't get it. Look at backbreaker's dev diary #1 on Gamespot. They have the correct concept: momentum (and for them, realtime animations) is the predominant factor. Ratings are simply INFLUENCERS on the game. What madden fails to do is having the ratings influence how the AI and players play. Instead, EA has ratings determine what happens on the field...no, momentum, animations, AI and the play call are the main factor that affects what happens on the field. Ratings come second.Once they finally understand that, and actually use animations that you see in real life in the NFL, then they'll have a good game. Until then...no dice.

Till this day, 2k5 is more fun and more realistic than Madden. Madden doesn't have to switch to Euphoria, they can keep their motion-capped animations, but just have them realistic and smooth so that they can capture what happens on an NFL field! If 2k5 was blown up into HD and had all the features of Madden, it'd be a great game!

Madden needs to focus on 3 main things:
1. Momentum, physics and animations ... and having ratings affect HOW players play
2. CPU AI
3. Football IQ and structure... how players play the flats, the difference between man and zone blocking, the NT being double teamed, etc. Fundamental aspects of football that affect the whole dynamic of play.

Go back to basics EA, go back to basics. Fix these issues, and you have a good game... jeez.

# 46 Vikes1 @ 02/16/10 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tito78


	Instead of trying to wow us with the mantra " everything you see on Sundays", realize that will never happen and take a more realistic approach. How about " what you don't see on Sundays, you won't see in Madden 11"? It is simply not possible to re-create every aspect of an NFL contest on a video game; however, it may be possible to eliminate all of the things that happen in Madden, but don't happen during NFL games.

I think you make an excellent point here Tito.

Imo anyway...this mantra sounds more presentation based than anything else. Which would be fine, if you have the core gameplay and AI that is impressive.

Seems to me, that most of the comments about other highly thought of sport games such as The show, NHL and FIFA, are nearly always about the realistic gameplay and smooth lifelike animations. And not so much about the overall presentation. Meaning that the commentary and presentation nicely supports the core of the overall game. But it isn't for the many, the main focus of the praise.

Anyway...I think I know what your getting at. That on Sunday, you don't see teams punting on their opponents 30 yard line on 4th and inches. Or players/ball, morphing through each other, players jet packing to the ball, or players getting sucked into blocks etc...

I think we may agree Tito, that the thing that will bring Madden into the same conversation as theses other games is maybe what you DON'T really notice...or take for granted. Such as sense able AI, and lifelike animations. It wasn't the talk of the flash and dance that drew me to these other sports games. But rather the constant comments about how solid the basics were.

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