RipTen Videogame Blog » Madden 2010

Ripten “Review Then To You” 1/7/10 Winners Announced

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:08:54 +0000

The winners of our first ever “Review Then To You” contest have been selected. Sorry this is being posted so late. You could say I was on a bit of a warpath over being falsely accused for destroying all of mankind. Anyway, the games up for grabs in case you forgot or simply don’t recognize them from the lovely image above are: Batman Arkham Asylum, Madden 10, Uncharted 2, and Wii Music Modern Warfare 2.

If you didn’t win, there’s no need to fret. We’ll be holding another just like again this soon enough. If your name is listed below please contact me via email at clakkis [at] ripten [dot] com with your mailing address as well as your choice of game in order of first (the one you want most) to fourth (the one you want least). The exception of course being our first place winner who has his/her choice of whichever they please. Congratulations.

[drum roll .... ]

First Place: GameBoyardee
Second Place: darthmacgyver
Third Place: goodgamer77
Fourth Place: nickreaume

Again, if you didn’t win you will have plenty of chances to do so in the near future. Assuming GameStop doesn’t start offering full trade in value. Har har har.

Annoying EA Madden 2010 In-Game Pop-up Advert Seems to Have Been Removed

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:53:22 +0000

I reported earlier that Madden 2010 received an update which included an extremely intrusive pop-up advertisement that reared its ugly head before each snap in the game. After banging my head against the wall in frustration, I decided it would be better to reach out for a comment on the matter from EA Sports/Tiburon.

While waiting for a response, I decided to power up the PS3 to capture a video of the advertisement in action to better illustrate just how much of a distraction it was. To my surprise, it was gone. I’m not sure if the ad is time of day based or what but it isn’t showing up anymore. Could we have possibly got our point across to EA that quickly?

Please sound off in the comments section below if you are still seeing the ad or if it has vanished for you as well.

Update: Owen Good over at Kotaku let me know that the ad is still popping up in the 360 version of the game, so as of right now it seems that whatever change (if any) that was made only effects the PS3 version.

EA In-Game Advertising Abuse: Madden Arcade Ad Flashes Before Every Madden 10 Snap

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:21:01 +0000

I went to play some more of my Madden 2010 franchise this morning after not having played it since prior to writing the review up a few months ago. The PS3 flashes a notice that the game requires a 182 mb update, so I hit accept and start to watch the bar fill up. About a third of the way through, I grabbed my laptop to browse the web for some info on the update contents.

While reading up I saw a forum thread about the update listing gameplay related fixes (which sounded good), but it also featured a few comments stating that it added more in-game ads (which sounded bad). Unfortunately, before I could stop the download to read up some more, it had already completed. I pressed start thinking to myself … “how bad could it be?”

How bad could it be? It’s pull the hair from your head bad. It’s toss the game out your window bad. It’s “I’d rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in my ear” bad.

The game now feature an advertisement for Madden Arcade that flashes on the screen — before every fucking snap!!! Are you fucking kidding me? Every snap? That’s just going too far. If you play with 15 minute quarters and the new accelerated clock feature, that adds up to well over 100 ad impressions each game.

It’s not even like the advertisement is subtle The damn thing is the equivalent of a white flag that pops out of a gag gun with the words “BANG!” on it. Got that visual? Good. Now picture someone standing in front of your TV pulling the damn trigger every 10 seconds. BANG! … BANG! … BANG! … MADDEN ARCADE AVAILABLE NOW! … BANG! … BANG!!

Surely if you already own the game the savvy folks at EA Sports would be kind enough to disable this ad right? Wrong. This poor soul, who owns both Madden 10 and Madden Arcade, finally reached his breaking point, issuing the following comment on the EA forums:

As of today before every snap in Madden 2010 Franchise Mode, a popup saying “Madden Arcade Available Now” appears. This is annoying for two reasons: First I already own the product, yet you are continuously trying to sell me this product. Second, the advertisement appears before every snap and stays on the screen until the ball is hiked. Your obnoxious advertisement pissed me off enough that I stopped playing to write this post. I’ve already given you [EA Sports] my money for Madden 2010 and Madden Arcade, why do I have to see any in-game advertisements?

Couldn’t agree with you more sir. Shame on you EA — you’ve taken in game advertising too far with this one and you deserve any and all bad press you get for it.

Update: I wanted to see if this ad filled update existed on the 360 version of the game, and sure enough, it does. The difference is that the 360 version pop-up ad promotes Microsoft’s new search engine “Bing”.

Also, I’ve reached out to EA regarding the update and their decision to implement the ad in this manner. I’ll update this post as soon as I hear something back.

Update #2: While I’ve yet to hear back from anyone at EA Sports/Tiburon, I recently powered up my PS3 to capture a video of the advertisement in action to better illustrate just how much of a distraction it was. To my surprise, it was gone. I’m not sure if the ad is time of day based or what but it isn’t showing up anymore. Could we have possibly got our point across to EA that quickly?

Update #3: Owen Good over at Kotaku let me know that the ad is still popping up in the 360 version of the game. So as of right now it seems that whatever change (if any) that was made only effects the PS3 version.

Please sound off in the comments section below if you are still seeing the ad or if it has vanished for you as well.

EA Sports Announces Madden 2010 Ultimate Team In-Game Trading Card Strategic Mode

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:20:53 +0000

I’m now convinced that EA Sports has my phone tapped. I literally had a conversation on the phone last night talking about how this year’s Madden was vastly improved in so many areas over last years iteration. But that said, there were still things I missed from the last gen version of the series — things like trading cards.

Well here they are … sort of. Cards will contain players, coaches, and jersey options, but special ability or perk cards offering up things like “rocket arm” or “scrambling legs” don’t look like they made the next-gen transition. You will however be able to collect cards and do something new with them — build a custom team.

Cards will apparently come in different flavor decks (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) with each deck costing a different amount of “points” and each deck containing higher quality players than the previous. Points won’t cost you money (which is refreshing) but will instead be earned via on-field achievements. It also looks like there will be periodic “weekly deals” offering up discounts on the rare cards.

Collecting players from the same professional or college team will grant special on the field rating boots and different instances of a single player will be able to exist on the same team. So, while you will need to build your team with lower level players at first, with a little dedication and hard work, it won’t be long before your squad resembles the John Madden Ultimate “Brett Favre” Team shown above. Boom!

The Madden 10 “Ultimate Team” feature will be available for free sometime in January via download on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network. Below are some screen images provided by EA Sports. What do you think of this latest addition to the game?

EA Sports Madden 2010 In-Depth Review

Chad Lakkis — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:21:58 +0000

Another year of EA Sports flavored Madden NFL Football is upon us, and with the gift giving season quickly approaching, those who are still without Madden 2010 might be wondering whether this years iteration is worth the purchase. I’m here to help … under one condition, you must first use the bathroom, grab a snack, and block off about an hour from your calendar. I’ve been playing Madden 10 for nearly a months now, and this review is … somewhat lengthy to say the least.

Put a Little In, Take a Little Out
I busted out every copy I own for both the PS3 and 360 dating back to Madden 06, and threw NFL 2K5 and All Pro Football 2K8 in the mix for comparison as well. The reason I did this, is because Madden, while big on creating and promoting innovative features each year, is also notorious for changing and sometimes even removing them completely the next. Examples of this include QB Vision (introduced in Madden 06) and Lead Blocker (introduced in Madden 07). Neither are a part of the game today.

Considering Madden is the only option on the market these days for NFL loving gamers, I wanted to see just how far the title has come since making its jump to next gen in 2006. To do this, I felt it was only fair to compare it, not only to itself over the years, but to 2K’s last NFL branded game and their most recent non NFL branded game in All Pro Football 2K8.

From Disbelief to Sense of Relief
Madden 06 through Madden 08 were disappointing releases for me. They left me bitter, and with that, I didn’t bother to give Madden 09 much thought prior to its release last year. All that changed when one of my writers saw it on the floor of E3, and told me that I had to check it out. I asked why, and he replied “it has nets behind the goal posts.” Those of you that followed the game during its transition from the Xbox and PS2 to the next gen consoles of today know that something as basic as nets had not been in the game since Madden 05.

I spent some time with Madden 09 that day on the E3 floor, and needless to say, it gave me hope for the future of NFL branded video game football despite the unfortunate news of EA’s exclusive NFL license extension.

EA Tiburon’s Development Manager, Ryan Ferwerda, walked me through the features answering questions frankly and owning up to the companies downfalls. He left me with one piece of information about Madden 10, which at the time was over a year away from its release. Ryan promised that Madden 10 would mark the return of on field referees and the chain gang. Fast forward a year later, and its pretty apparent that he was telling the truth.

Madden 2010. This year’s title is definitely different, but is it better? Is it worth your hard earned money? How many steps backwards, if any, did EA take in their attempt to move forward? Let’s find out.

Madden 2010 Introduction Narrated by John Madden

Pre-Game Fly By to Topless Parking Lot Guy
Presentation. It’s more than window dressing. Simply put, presentation is important. It immerses us in the experience, making it believable and enjoyable. Madden 2010 does a lot to improve in this department. There are various camera angles showcasing the exterior and interior of each stadium with a varied focus so you don’t see the same damn people before every game. You can expect to see a healthy mix of fans walking around, purchasing tickets, and loading up on hats, foam fingers, and other merchandise.

Two team branded “shields” pierce the turf before kickoff announcing the matchup at hand, much like the helmet clashing of Monday Night Football on ABC. Fighter jets fly by as the National Anthem concludes with players standing at attention on both sidelines. The coin toss features captains at mid field, and as mentioned in the intro, on field referees and the chain gang crew are back after a long overdue hold out.

Madden 2010 Pregame Presentation

Commentary Chris is the Man, But Tom Deserves the Can
Chris Collinsworth is back, and does a great job commenting on games, though his partner Tom Hammond still leaves much to be desired. The duo isn’t bad, but they’re no Peter O’Keefe and Dan Stevens. EA would be better served spending a few extra bucks and getting Al Michaels to relieve Tom of his duties in the box. Heck, I’d even settle for Shawn Michaels of World Wrestling Entertainment fame.

Button Mashing Fumbles May Lead to Finger Throbbing Grumbles
The new “Fight for the Fumble” feature is exciting, but the “Simon Says” meets “Tug of War” button mashing sequences get old after a while, and you’re likely to disable the need for your interaction as a means to save your fingers. To be clear though, by no means do I hate this addition. It’s fun, but it’s almost just as fun to watch the fumble fighting scrum without having to participate in it.

Madden 2010 Fight for the Fumble in Action

The Menus, The Clock, Plus A Few Things Madden 10 Still Hasn’t Got
In terms of the in-game menu system, things have been streamlined to load faster and get you from point A to point B without having to stop off at point Z on the way. And while you’re in the menu, you’ll notice new options allowing you to increase player speed differential, making faster players exponentially faster than their slower counterparts, and clock acceleration, allowing you to accelerate gameplay after play selection. The last one is great for simulated matchups or games with quarters set up near the 15 minute mark, as it runs off a maximum of 25 seconds after a play is selected (if done quickly). My experience is that enabling clock acceleration in longer lasting games makes for much more realistic final score outcomes.

There’s no doubt that things have gotten better, but Madden 2010 is far from perfect in this area. The Extra Point half time show, while informative, is no where near as entertaining as the Chris Berman hosted segment in NFL 2K5, and running out of bounds into your random number jersey wearing teammates on the sidelines doesn’t provoke a “hurry and stop his momentum before he runs into the cheerleaders” reaction the way it did from teammates in All Pro Football 2k8.

Here’s the Madden 2010 Half Time Show on Xbox 360

Here’s the NFL 2K5 Half Time Show from 5 years ago on the original Xbox

The blue square initiate end zone celebrations, which were a welcome addition to Madden 09, are sadly no longer available in Madden 10. Your guess is as good as mine on why they didn’t carry over into this years release.

Madden 09 included other aspects that didn’t make the jump as well. Player moral and the highly touted weapon icon system from 08 and 09 is no more. Injured athletes can no longer be manually rehabbed or placed on IR and pre-game training seems to have been nixed as well – not that I was a big fan of the next gen version of it. Mashing left and right analogs to run a 40 yard dash in 6 seconds plus just didn’t do it for me.

You can no longer access your Franchise Room to admire all the glorious hardware your team has amassed over the years. Competitor 2K had the “player in-game personal space” environment practically perfected with the “Crib” in NFL 2K5. Not only did it give you a place to store your trophies, it let you customize the room itself, and fill it with collectible in-game player bobble heads, posters, dart boards, and other various odd ball entities.

Tiburon made serious strides towards this in Madden 2009 with their Madden Showcase containing customizable rings and a browsable trophy case. Sadly, they either didn’t have the time or didn’t think enough of the feature to include it in Madden 10.

This is NFL 2K5′s Crib from 2005 on the original Xbox

Here’s the Showcase from Madden 09 that Didn’t Make it to Madden 10

Mob Mentality Tackles and Jukes That Feel Like Shackles
Overall, player control and animation in Madden 2010 is much better than its 2009 counterpart. The sideline tightrope walking to stay in bounds that first appeared in Madden 09 thankfully remains a feature in 2010, but Tiburon added much more this year.

Gang tackles took a step forward allowing up to ten players to simultaneously hump the ball carrier until he gives up the goods. The “Fight for Every Yard” aspect of Madden 10 means going head-to-head with a tackler as a ball carrier actually allows you to physically stand them up by pressing forward on your right analog stick. From that point its up to statistics and a little luck as to who will get the better of the deal. If you don’t break the tackle quickly though, this years release will make sure that plenty of help makes its way to you all but ensuring you hit the turf or fumble the ball.

Madden 2010 Gameplay Footage Featuring Eagles and Cowboys

Madden 2010 Gameplay Footage Featuring Patriots and Panthers

Players heads, on both defense and offense, actually turn to see the rock in now. Overall, the animation on both sides of the ball this year seem much more fluid and believable. Blocking could still use a little more tweaking but its far from unbearable. The added emphasis on realism is apparent, and momentum changes from 09 to 10 will be immediately be visible when trying to quickly change direction with your player.

With all the changes that clearly lend themselves towards the authenticity of the real thing, there is one momentum or animation change that bothers me in 2010, and that’s the difference in right analog juke movement. Madden 09 offered up two flavors of juke. Tiny jukes by wiggling your left analog side to side, and big jukes by shifting your right analog in the direction you want to fake. This years Madden makes jukes initiated by both analog sticks look darn near identical.

At first I thought maybe the idea was to make certain players better at juking than others, so I loaded up a few kick off practice drills to test it out. After cycling through various kick returners all the way up to the Vikings explosive Percy Harvin and the Dolphins Ted Ginn Jr. I realized that juking as a whole was toned down this year.

I get the need for realism, but when players like Reggie Bush can jump into the end zone from six yards out, I think certain players should be allowed a little more lateral motion in their juke.

Reggie Bush Dives into the End Zone from Six Yards Out

While it may take some time getting used to, there is a work around of sorts for the change in “juke mechanics.” It involves using the left analog in a stop and go fashion. Run to the point you wish to juke, release the left analog, then tap it in the direction you want to juke.

Franchise Mode is Addictive But Lacking, Add More Features And Less Graphing
Madden 2010′s Franchise Mode allows you to hire a coaching staff, extend player contracts, promote team captains, add features to your stadium or even move it all together. You can scout college prospects during the regular season and trade picks and/or players to move up in the draft to get them. On the flip side, veteran players retire from the league, with the fortunate ones getting inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

How does this years Franchise Mode stack against that of years past? It’s not a bad experience by any means, but it isn’t worthy of writing home about — unless your parents enjoy reading through sheets of paper containing video game draft picks.

I spent a great deal of time playing Madden 10′s Franchise Mode — nine seasons to be exact. It’s a large part as to why this review is so late, but that doesn’t mean every minute of it. In fact, I’m beginning to think I’m a sucker for punishment. I’d imagine that most people who enjoy this mode are perfectionists. They want to build the best possible team they can through free agency and the draft, and bring in the tons of cash each year with TV contracts and merchandise sales. They want to boost attendance with fan appreciation day and raise ticket prices when their teams playoff success allows it. Most of all, they want realism and the in-game tools to make it work.

Paper Cut Draft Board Meets Coffee Table War Room
Going head to head in a fictional draft against computer operated teams would be more fun if the game offered a wider variety of options as the draft approached. I found myself jotting down names each season on heaps of paper just to keep things straight. How about adding an in game draft board so I don’t have to turn my coffee table into a War Room?

Yes. These really are my draft sheets for Madden 2010.

Last years release offered up more in-depth player evaluation during the regular season, some off which you are only able to see this year once the draft has begun. Other tidbits like actual scouting notes seem to be removed all together and replaced with number revealing statements like “run blocking is 90.” That doesn’t bother me much to tell the truth, but a happy medium could combine the old scouting notes with the number reveal creating something like “this player is an excellent blocker who follows through on every play. [run blocking is 90].”

What bothered me most about the draft, is that information you could see during the regular season, like player potential bars, mysteriously vanishes during each draft. For this reason, I had to take note of each players potential (once again on sheets paper) before advancing into the following season.

More Power to the Owner Will Give Franchise Fans a …
You still can’t do things you used to be able to do in Madden 05 like adjust ticket/concession prices or offer fan appreciation days, and things like player moral management and player holdouts, which existed in Madden 08, have yet to be reinstated either. In addition, the ability to admire your conference and Super Bowl winning trophies (as we mentioned above) in a virtual setting like we could in Madden 09 is gone too.

Also, while this mode acknowledges player retirements, Steelers Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau just disappeared from the list of available coaches on my staff one off season without any explanation. I know the man’s old but some type of “this coach has retired” message would have been nice. Don’t disrespect the Dick!

Overall though, Madden’s franchise mode, and the ability to watch your game in a broadcast camera view like a power hungry owner in their booth, is still pretty captivating if you simply enjoy building a powerhouse and don’t mind having to keep track of certain things outside of the game on your own to do it. That said, even that might get old for some gamers after a while. The addition of a few more in-game tools and the return of some classic features would really help put the replay value of this mode over the top again.

Your Mama’s So Fat…
Madden’s Online Mode is pretty straight forward as it lets you play matches with random trash talking kids who start their day with cartoons and finish it by whooping your butt in some Madden. Sounds fun doesn’t it?

You can also take the reigns as team owner in an online franchise with other real owners by joining a league in progress or starting one of your very own with 31 of your closest friends. You do have Al Davis on speed dial right?

I personally don’t play Madden online very much so this is probably going to go down as one of the least descriptive portions of my review. It’s essentially the same as the rest of the game only more magically delicious because it lets you see how bad you are at it compared to eight year old Madden prodigies with mouths like truck drivers.

Practice? You Talkin’ Bout Practice?
Yes Allen. We’re talking about practice. Superstar Mode lets you play the game from the perspective of a user created young player exiting college and approaching the NFL draft. Alternatively you can play as an already drafted NFL rookie. Madden 10 allows you to customize your players stats directly by dipping into a 100 point pool, where as Madden 09 utilized actual drills such as bench press and 40 yard dash to generate stats for your player. While this is nice in its own way, you can’t lower other stats to boost more viable ones, meaning your stud back will have 65 kicking power and 65 kicking accuracy.

NFL draft hopefuls start off Superstar Mode by taking a Wonderlic type test with a 5 minute timer prior to seeing where they’ll be taken in the draft. Last years version of this mode allowed you to sign an agent, perform individual work outs for teams, and attend the NFL Combine all before taking the stage on draft day, but this years version seems to have stripped away all of those things.

Madden 2010 Superstar Mode Gameplay

Once drafted you magically end up with an agent even though you never picked one up (those slimy bastards just appear out of thin air). You’ll be able to talk to him an request face time with the press as well as make outlandish predictions of victory in your upcoming games if you dare to be so bold.

The amount of calendar scheduled practice time with your team is no where near the amount it was in last years version, which may sound like a good thing to Allen Iverson and anyone else who found the constant running of the same play over and over a bit boring.

Madden 10′s Superstar Mode kindly display route information on the field both before and during the play which is really nice, even if you decide to go rogue and not follow it. If a play happens to go badly though, the camera angle doesn’t adjust accordingly, making it a little awkward to chase touch down bound intercepting defenders.

In a nut shell, Superstar Mode is nice, even though it more or less remained the same with the exception of a few minor changes here and there. If you’re looking for a cool way to experience what it’s like to be one part in a large machine, this is it.

Closing Thoughts
The Madden team obviously focused intensely on gameplay mechanics such as gang tackles and momentum with this years release. Additions of on field referees and the chain gang crew plus an overall improvement in pregame, half time, and post-game presentation make Madden 2010 slightly more polished than its predecessor.

However, the team at Tiburon continued the unfortunate trend of addition by subtraction, removing features that appeared in other next gen releases of the game without any real explanation as to why.

I’m hopeful that we will someday get an NFL game that embodies the total package we deserve as gamers, but until that day comes, Madden 10 is an unparalleled head-to-head pro football experience with significantly more positives than negatives.

As a side note, EA will be updating Madden 2010 with a Madden Ultimate Team in-game trading card system letting gamers spend points earned by performing various in game feats on bronze, silver, and gold level packs of trading cards. Each pack contains athletes and coaches that can be combined to form custom teams by the player. The update will be free and available for download on Xbox LIVE and PSN sometime this January.

Madden 10 Blog: Improvements to WR/DB Interaction

Tyrell Jackson — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:42:03 +0000

Even though this eagerness process repeats itself every year, nevertheless, Madden 10 is one of the most anticipated titles of 2009. To help quench some of this anticipation, Ian Cummings, the Lead Designer on Madden 10, has recently posted updates in regards to the development process on a weekly basis. This week, Cummings talks about new animations that have been added to WRs/DBs for a more overall realistic experience.

Go here to read the full blog by Lead Designer Ian Cummings as he delves into what will make Madden 10 an enjoyable experience when it comes to WRs and DBs. Ripten will continue to keep you informed about Madden 10 throughout its development from now it’s release.

Madden NFL 2010 Info Leaked – On Field Refs & Chain Gang Set To Return Next Year

Chad Lakkis — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:54:01 +0000

Last year at E3, we were able to unearth information about a yet to be released NFL Head Coach game which ended up being confirmed several months later. This year’s conference has its share of surprises as well.

It has been confirmed to me that the chain gang and on field referees will in fact be making a return to Madden banded NFL football in the 2010 installment of the game. That’s all the information I have at this time, but be sure to check back often for updates.