Madden 2010 Impressions/Review - Skyboxer's Blog

Skyboxer's Blog

Madden 2010 Impressions/Review

Posted on August 16, 2009 at 05:50 PM.

(2)

Like many football fans I've been waiting for a Madden game to not only deliver a fun game of football but one that at least tried to be tilted more towards the coaching decisions and less stick skills.
Madden 10 went in the right direction.
I'm going to go ahead and say it...Madden 09 was a HUGE disappointment and frankly it was a chore to "play".

Madden 10 has delivered on so many levels while at the same time falls short on some.

First the good:
The game looks beautiful! I am really impressed with the visuals overall.
The crowd sounds IMO took a step up and overall I'm happy and hopefully EA will continue to make improvements.
The new Pro Tak system is great and really adds to the feeling of weight and player momentum. While sometimes some things happen that just seem off a tad (Player almost down and then while hitting B button they start to stand back up) but overall a great addition.

For the first time in a few years I feel strategy is more important than the stick skills. You really need to know not only who you're facing but who you have on the field. ratings definitely matter this year.
Love it!!

Overall the many new animations, especially the tipped passes and the effort to de-cheese the game added a ton of fun.

Online franchise!!! I love that it's in and while I know it will get better the fact it made it this year is nice.

Now the negatives:
First my main beef. What's with the CPU quick snaps on XP's and FG's. If I was a betting man I'd say it was on purpose. Possibly this year it was too easy to block the kicks and this was a quick "fix"?
There's no way this was not seen in testing thus I believe it was meant to be that way OR it was seen and other things deemed more important were fixed first. We'll know after patches I suppose.

Magnet blocking while toned down a lot is still there and at times very frustrating. I still have times where I have a clean line to the ball carrier only to see my player under MY supposed control...stop...turn away from ball carrier...and engage a blocker. Again it has been toned down but it needs to be totally gone at some point in the future.

Announcers.... more times than not they are terrible IMO. Many times what is said makes no sense to what happened on the field. Needs a big upgrade next year.

Onliine franchise obvious updates needed: Salary cap, Free agency logic, the ability to use custom rosters.

Bottom Line:
For the first time in years I not only was excited to get the new Madden game but the game actually delivered.
Big thanks to the developers on the big strides they made from 09-10. If the same care is taken in the future I can only imagine where the game will end up.

As far as a number I don't like them but I will give Madden 10 a Playoff Birth just short of getting a First Round Bye..