Author Topic: [Video Game] Madden NFL 10  (Read 2534 times)

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Offline setrataeso

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[Video Game] Madden NFL 10
« on: September 23, 2009, 11:14:34 PM »
Name: Madden NFL 10
Publisher: Electronic Arts/EA Sports
Developer: EA Tiburon
Genre: Sports (football)

With autumn and winter on their way, the sports seasons start up again; as do the sports games. The series of NFL, NHL, NBA, and FIFA follow in the next few months, and so its time for this reviewer to don his beer can helmet, bust out a plate of nachos and Pepsi, and grunt like a man for hours on end.

Madden needs no introduction; at least none that hasn't already been given many times before. The highest selling game series of all time is back for its yearly installment in Madden NFL 10, from EA Tiburon; the well-known developer of the series since the '99 installment. Tiburon brings a few new enhancements to the experience, as well as overhauling certain aspects of the game as well. So, does Madden 10 bring its top game? Read on...

Madden games have usually been good or great games. Rarely does a very poor Madden game show up. The 06-07 versions of the games were a little rocky due to the new hardware that EA had to work with. Still, the past few have been fairly steady. Is Madden 10 any better? Yes and no.

Obviously, the first question buyers are going to be asking themselves is "what makes this Madden better than the last?" Well there are a few things. But lets start with a positive note: this is the best playing Madden game yet. One new feature is the PRO-TAK engine that allows for realistic tackling and up to 9-man pileups. Now, people can argue about what their favourite part of football is, be it catching, running, or throwing. Me, I'm a hitter. That's odd, as I'm not a big guy, but I suppose I fuel that in video game form. PRO-TAK works really well, and there's lots of great moments that can be gathered from this. The tagline for Madden 10 is "Fight for every yard", which is nicely emulated in the actual gameplay. Tackling becomes more satisfying, but also requires more thought than before. For instance, a tackler wants to push one way, and the runner wants to run the other way. Eventually one man will win in a situation like this, but its not always so black and white. A tackler wants to push the runner back as many yards as possible for a loss, but the runner could slip out and recover the play. Or the runner could let the tackle happen as to not lose the yards if he feels the struggle will not go his way. All these choices happen within every tackle, and when you're part of it you need to decide what the smart move is. Its one way that Madden 10 is more realistic than the previous version.

The game feels a bit harder this year. I was usually able to play on All-Pro or my custom skill level with a reasonable challenge, but now Pro gives me a hard enough time. Of course these difficulty upgrades often come from the upgraded AI. The opposition is going to play a much tighter game, and the reason for this is the new ratings philosophy. Tiburon has rescaled the ratings for players, so there are now more noticeable differences between players of different skill levels. This is a step in the right direction for realism. The issue I found is that it means there are 2 or 3 players on your team that will be your "go-to" guys, and I found myself choosing plays that suite these players. It doesn't sound so bad in text, but in practice it means you'll see the same plays quite often.

There are few other changes in the gameplay, for better or worse. The game speed has dropped this year, and now has become a more thinking-oriented game. I prefer this, as the AI is getting smarter, the game slows to balance it. If you prefer the faster-paced football games, I would recommend NCAA Football 10. One thing I noticed is that there is a copious amount of interceptions and fumbles in Madden 10. This is obviously to show off the new fumble recovery system. Now, when there is a fight for the fumble, a quicktime event will occur where you need to tap the designated button to gain possession for your team. I am not a fan of this at all. I actually like quicktime events, but they don't belong in football games. If you're prepared for it you can win almost all of them, but the first time, when you aren't ready, is going to feel very cheap. Still, I find that the increase in interceptions is a frustration, and makes the game more hateable, as it now is going to be stealing the ball from you at seemingly random times.

The career modes remain the same as last year. You have your franchise mode, the superstar mode, and some training minigames that are also tied into the superstar mode. Franchise has gotten a bit of a facelift. Theres no longer a calender to schedule practice, as you now just jump between games. It's no big complaint for me, but some may miss it. A new addition is The Extra Point, where you can see highlights from other games from the week. I'm not always in the mood for watching recaps, but its nice to know its there. The superstar mode has been streamlined a bit, but the stupid ideas are as visible as ever. Like last year, the training seem to take all the fun out of the mode. Your created player will run plays, train, run plays, do interviews, run plays, and play games. There's a noticeable emphasis on the running of plays, which is dumb as the actual execution is flawed. You see, you run your practice plays over and over again expecting it to end after 5 or 10 runs. No, it doesn't end. It's just as easy to quit through the menu, but I still wonder why Tiburon chose to not have these things end. It's not a big deal, but it was something that bothered me last year and I was just as irked to see it had not disappeared this year.

The online additions are great as I had hoped. You can take your fantasy team across the country to play other online teams. There's a league to it as well, that needs some tweaking to make things easier to understand, but overall it worked quite well. The lag was noticeable at times, but Madden 10 is, sadly, a fairly laggy game offline. EA and Tiburon's dedication to improving online is showing where they are heading in the next few years, and I applaud their innovation to making a full-fledged online league, even if it does mean I'm getting my ass handed to me by kids who really know their stuff.

Madden 10 looks a bit better than Madden 09, but not by a lot. The gaps between visuals are starting to lessen, and so you'll see a lot of the same models as last year. The animations look great, though. During gameplay, players react to the game like never before. Players heads will follow the ball and it sails through the air, and the aforementioned pileups look great and feel brutal. The animations during the cutscenes are very poor though. The constant cuts to coaches talking, players walking around or sitting on benches is really unnecessary, and more work needs to go into these cutscene animations.

The audio is not much better. With John Madden retired, you'll find his voice only show up a few times during the game. He'll show up during menus and when you're choosing plays. He'll occasionally give his advice on a play, but he doesn't pipe up as much as last year's version. The commentary is just as dull. Very little new dialogue has been recorded for Madden 10, and so many quips and comments from Madden 09 are going to be prevalent here as well. The soundtrack  is fairly generic. There are lots of unknown artists and some of the usual Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Pantera stuff, but nothing that blew me out of the water. Overall, I feel this end of the presentation could use a complete overhaul.

As I mentioned before, the game suffers from some lag. This has been the case with all the Madden games, but last year's was at an all-time low for me, and its disappointing to see it return. Not only that, the game has several bugs as well. The game froze on me several times, and I had to reboot the system. I had hoped that games were over this epidemic but, like the Denver Broncos, the comeback was inevitable.

I'm going to go ahead and recommend Madden NFL 10 to anyone on the fence about getting a new Madden game. If you own 09, and you aren't sure about what you'll get with this year's installment, well it'll be worth it. You get better and more realistic gameplay, updated rosters and presentation, terrific online modes, and some neat extras. I will go out and say that there will be changes that will drive many people nuts, but I think its worth the money, as there is lots of value to Madden 10. While the changes are going to blow many away, I will go ahead and say that this a better Madden than what we've seen in the past.

8.5/10
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https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=25343.0

Setra, I think that is the best statement I have read on this forum.  Very well said.