Madden 10 – Reviewed (360, PS3)

Well, it is a matter of days before the NFL season starts again and what better way to get your gridiron juices flowing than going great guns with a game of Madden.

Traditionally, Madden is a huge seller in the sports market with many other EA sports games taking note and implementing features that were first seen in the Madden series.  For those of you that have been locked in the cupboard for the last 20 years or unfortunately dead then you have probably missed out on the most precise, feature packed, statistic heavy and geeky sports gaming franchise to date.

Madden has been around for a very long time and as the evolution of the game continues, as with every other EA Sports title year in and year out, you have to wonder what new things can be included to make you want to spend £40 a year for what some would consider updates.  With the exception of a couple of the Madden titles every single year this game surprises and surpasses expectations on what it delivers and Madden 10 is no exception here.

I could bore you with technical details like other sites do talking about graphics, physics and blah, blah, blah but I’ll leave it to them to sort out and just let you know what features have changed, what has been added, taken away and all the juiciness of how it actually makes you feel by playing the game.  After all, that is what a review is meant to be about – right?

For those of you that haven’t played this game before, been put off by the what you think are over complicate rules, or just think that you will not understand what is happening then fear not.  Madden has always been designed with the beginner in mind.  Traditionally you have been able to customise anything you want, from your skill level, playbooks, maddens advice on play calling and everything in between to make your life easier when you start off and enable you to learn as you play without being put off.  In Madden 10, things remain the same but with the addition of an ingenious idea that was in Madden 09 and that is an IQ test.  This is designed to put you through a series of skill tests to determine your awareness of the game and automatically assign the right skill level for you.  As you play, you’re IQ will go up and down according to how well you are doing in each area and will also adjust the A.I. to keep things fair but help you develop without wanting to never play the game again.  If you fancy stepping the level down though you can do so through the settings option but I would strongly advise utilising the IQ feature.  There is nothing worse and boring than having an 84 – 0 win against the opposition and feel as though you never competed for the win in the first place.

The main theme and also tag-line to this year’s version is “fight for every yard” and this is executed perfectly in the game play.  Earlier versions, up to last year’s game, were based around 1 or 2 players tackling your ball carrier, receiver or QB but this time around they have added a more realistic dimension of gang tackling which allows the initial hit and if the ball carrier is still standing up more players will pile in.  This is an absolute Godsend to the game because before you could break the initial tackle and go for very long yards and even touchdowns very quickly, now you literally are fighting for every yard as the processor creaks under the weight of processing needed to calculate all the information coming in.  Stats are all the more important now as weight and quality of the players will play a part in the hit.  If you have a top runner against a defender that doesn’t hit as hard then he will more than likely get run over initially and need the help of some of the team to slow him up or bring him down.  This simple little addition, which I am sure took a long time to code, toughens up the game play more and in the higher skill levels definitely brings another thought process to the table and increases the depth and experience of playing the game for real.  Yes, you can still break tackles for big gains but they are a lot harder to come by and you have to think of your tactics to get it right.  It doesn’t stop with just the tackling but also a new fumble feature where players can fight for the ball, referees pull the pile apart, more immersive cut scenes to make the game come alive a lot more than previous offerings.

All the normal game types that have become ingrained into Madden are still available which include a franchise mode, where you can fully manage and play 30 years of football, become an NFL superstar where you take control of one player’s career which includes training, contract negotiations, managing your agents and, of course, playing the game in one position.  Something that FIFA has now adopted into its game play mechanics.  New to this year’s Madden 10 though is the ability to play franchise mode online with live leagues and tournaments where you can manage every aspect of your team from drafts, injuries, depth charts and playing the games.  The list is endless to what you can utilise here but do be aware that to unlock this feature you will need the code that comes with the instructions.  Once it is used you will not be able to download it for free again and therefore if you are buying a pre-owned copy will have to pay 800 MS points to unlock it.  I will be honest here and say that it would be well worth the money and for the experienced players among you there is an elite madden feature that can be unlocked too for another 800 points.

Overall, Madden 10 does everything you expected from Madden 09 but with more features and tougher, more realistic game play implemented. My only concern with the game was that they have taken out the design a play and playbook which I particularly liked and I’m sure other experienced players did too.  Push that to one side and you have what I would consider the most solid Madden exper
ience yet that will keep you playing until the next one arrives.  How they can better it we will probably find out next year but for now, I feel it is time to trade in the old one and immerse yourself into the joys of American Football once more with the feeling that you haven’t been cheated out of a few quid.