Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL release effectively marks the start of the major release season each year. It’s a phenomenon in America, selling an average of five million units each year, and provides a consistently good digital representation of the game. Last year, EA Tiburon put in a huge effort to get the series back on track after a poor transition to new hardware, but most of its improvements were fleeting. For Madden NFL 10, they’ve focused on upgrading the core gameplay, while adding some heavily demanded features like an online franchise mode and better TV-style presentation. Yet in spite of these tweaks and additions, this year’s Madden feels rougher and less polished than previous outings.

The first thing players are going to notice when starting Madden NFL 10 is that a lot of the flashiness that has characterised the series to date is nowhere to be seen. The Madden hologram and fancy menus from last year’s game are gone, and the Madden IQ test is buried in the features menu. Tiburon has decided to go back to basics, with more focus on the underlying gameplay, so there’s not as much room for superfluous features. It gives the game a bit of a bare bones feeling, but if better gameplay is the payoff, then we’re all for it.


Numerous changes have occurred to Madden NFL’s on-field play. The game’s default play speed has been dramatically slowed down to encourage realism, mainly in response to feedback about last year’s game being a little too fast. It’s most noticeable during throwing plays, as quarterbacks move far slower than they used to – almost like age pensioners. The speed changes make play outside of the pocket a lot easier to follow, though. Stamina has a much greater effect on players’ abilities than it has in the past – running the same plays and passing to the same guys will wear them out faster and affect their performance. Effort has also been made to increase the number of attributes per player to better reflect a player’s real world tendencies and abilities in the game. A new injury system is in play, giving players the option to rest or continue to use players that have sustained minor injuries.

Another major change to Madden NFL 10’s core gameplay comes from the new “Pro-Tak” tackle system. Pro-Tak mostly focuses on procedurally generating tackle animations for a more realistic looking game, but it also facilitates new types of tackles, including gang tackles involving up to nine players. The end result looks really good – the running game feels stronger and grittier, while gang tackles are really effective at stopping speedy backs in their tracks. There’s an unfortunate side effect of the system, in that one-on-one tackles have become much easier to break; steamrolling through five or six tackles is a cakewalk for a talented back or wide receiver. You can weed it out by messing with the sliders or player attributes, but it’s really something that should have been balanced during testing – perhaps it will be addressed in a patch down the line.


AI has seen some fairly significant upgrades this year, becoming more methodical and analytical in its approach. Whereas in Madden games past, there were a few key plays you could run by the AI without fail, this year feels more like a battle of attrition in comparison. The AI will examine the way you play the game and look for certain tendencies and adjust its play style accordingly. Players need to wear the AI down by picking at holes in their defence and denying offensive opportunities. Pass defence in particular seems tighter than ever, though that is counteracted in some part by the AI’s seemingly boosted passing abilities. There are moments when the AI loses its marbles like passing into heavy coverage on offence, or making stupid decisions when blocking.

Not every addition in Madden NFL 10 is good, though. Tiburon has attempted to make fumble recoveries more interactive with a new system called “Fumble Pile”. When a player makes a fumble and a group of players dive on top of the ball, you are subjected to a button mashing mini-game. As annoying as that is already, the game isn’t particularly good at picking up when you’re hitting the button it demands, so more often than not, you’ll lose the challenge despite doing everything it asks in the allotted time. Hopefully they’ll drop this for next year’s game.


Much attention has been paid to jazzing up Madden’s presentation in recent years, particularly in Madden NFL 09, where new commentators were introduced. This year, they haven’t made quite as many forward steps in presentation – there are far more interstitial scenes, but they feel disjointed, disrupting the natural flow of the game. American football stops and starts a lot by nature, but there’s only so many times you need to be taken away from the game to see a bunch of refs chatting away in a single match. That sort of thing could easily be accomplished with picture in picture displays. Commentary seems to have become worse; there’s little context given by the play-by-play caller and the script is hopeless. There’s a new half time show which highlights key moments from the game and reflects on the statistics from the half, but the presentation lacks flow.

Franchise mode still represents the meat of the single player experience, and is largely unchanged. There is a new end of week show called The Extra Point, hosted by some presenters from the real world NFL Network. The segment is well conceived, showing some of the highlights of the week and handing out awards for offensive and defensive performances of the week. There’s a slight issue with these awards given that the game does not scale simulated games to fit in with the settings of player contests, effectively meaning that every other match runs for four 15 minute quarters with statistics that reflect those of a full length game. That also has an impact on player development between seasons.


After years of heavy demand from the core fanbase, online franchise mode is introduced this year. Online franchise lets you run through seasons of NFL play with human players controlling teams and meeting up to play at regular intervals. There are a few issues currently with salary caps and trading with computer controlled teams, but generally players who are looking to go online should be satisfied. One unfortunate thing to note is that a code for online franchise play is meant to come free with each new copy of the game, but codes were left out of Australian versions of the game. EA Australia hasn’t come up with a solution yet, so your only option is to buy the online franchise DLC or import the game from America (both versions are region free).

Madden NFL 10 makes advances in several key gameplay areas, but its presentation is decidedly lacking. It’s clear that the focus at Tiburon now is improving on-field gameplay, evidenced by the new Pro-Tak system and enhanced AI. Some effort needs to be put in to clean up the presentation – the new half-time and weekly shows are nice additions, but they seem very rough. Commentary has become something of a joke, something that EA really needs to assess going forward. Madden NFL 10 will fulfil any NFL fans needs for the upcoming season, but it’s rougher around the edges than one would expect.