Friday, December 18, 2009

Is Madden NFL 10 the Best in the Series?

By Jay Cooper

In general the Madden NFL 10 is a more realistic and enjoyable game. And true to its realistic nature, it has always had a few good and bad that has been troubling the entire series. Passing the ball is very realistic and the Pro-Tak adds to the games glamor quotient. Besides this, the lined menus work well to navigate easily and the online franchise works excellently well. The AI is a lot better this time, but on the trend of a bit more fixing to get it just right. The referee cut scenes need to be minimized a little more. And above all the commentary needs a lot more improvement.

In both the offline and online versions, the game tweaks are very obvious. Like advertised the Pro-Tak looks very realistic. It's interesting to watch the players struggle to pull down the ball carrier which resembles real game. And the game avoids too many breakaways and because of this it seems to have a poor down-field blocking form. All these add up to the setbacks and though it does happen similarly in the real NFL, here it happens more often and makes it very unreasonable.

All this cause many setbacks which incidentally happens in the real NFL but since it happens more often here, it makes it more artificial and unreasonable. The other setbacks are the AI defense inconsistencies and turnovers. In most it seems like the AI analysis on what. In spite of this, the pass defense is realistic and good.

In most games it seems like the AI analysis on what's working and what's not and then creates situations to pull you down. Still the pass defense here is more realistic and better.

Also here the fatigue plays a higher role than in previous versions. This helps to make the star player go down by constantly focusing your balls at him. Unfortunately this game calls for punishment in cases of repetitive play calling with injuries. The look of the game is more improved and refined with finer details in terms of player models such as patches, and the presentation elements that add to the TV broadcast feel.

One clearly understands that EA wants to go down to fundamental basics of the game with Madden NFL 10 and has tried many constructive changes.

It's clear that EA aims to get back to fundamentals of the game with Madden NFL 10 and with this as context has made many changes that seem constructive and good. The running game looks good and the passing game feels much more improved than previous versions. The Pro-Tak system and the online franchises are good reasons why anyone should involve in this year's game. The new co-option which lets two players play is another great feature. But the camera and positioning needs improvement. Also setbacks like the inconsistencies in the AI defenses needs attention. In spite of all this, Madden 10 is not a bad game but a little more tweaking could have made this the best game ever played.

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