I've always been a Madden guy. But I will admit, in '05 2K kicked 'em in the butt. That year I ended up with both (And I still have my 2K, thats classic). Since ESPN 2K5, no Madden edition has captured the fun factor of the NFL like 2K did.

But I'm with you, I think this is the year. All the cutscenes I'm seeing... Romo talking to Wade during a timeout, McNabb on the phone, all that stuff. These are the things thta Madden has neglected in years past. There was no drama!

I'm already liking it. I can't wait either. But please don't forget...no game is perfect!

I'm in the same boat as the OP.

I started with Madden '94, got a lot of fun out of the SNES games up to '96, enjoyed the heck out of Madden N64 and Madden '99, then completely abandoned the series once the Dreamcast came out.

The only next-gen football game I've bought is All Pro Football 2K8, which I played for a solid year-and-a-half before finally moving on...to nothing. I haven't played a football game in a long time.

The way it's looking, though, Madden '10 may be my second football game to own this generation.

I never cared for Madden when it first came out. I didn't like it until they went polygon on the PS1. I basically stopped buying Madden when 2K4 came out. I still maintain that 2K4 was the best football game at the time as 2K5 disappointed me with many problems. I'm in the small minority since both 2K5 and Madden 05 disappointed me. Hopefully the '10 football games will be great.

I also really want to be excited for NCAA this year, but it doesn't sound like much of the good improvements of Madden are making it to NCAA this year. That's probably a good thing as my gaming time is severely limited nowadays due to chasing a kid EVERYWHERE.

Madden looks to be ready for prime time this year! Even my wife is impressed with how it looks!

I am too excited about Madden this year for the first time in forever. I loved Head Coach last year and loved 2k4...2k5 was great, but 2k4 is when I fell in love with ...... good football video games. I'm actually thinking that EA will turn the page after taking 5 years to catch up to their former rivals...

I am still a little reserved with Madden, on the surface things look good but things have looked good in the past two years and I have been let down. I hope that Madden is great this year, I would really enjoy a true Next gen football experience. But it will be a rent first for me personally.

I agree with you Kado. As much as I would love to bury my copies of NFL2K5 & APF2K8, I will still have to be reserved with Madden10. I'm not a fan boy of either game company, I merely want a good playing football game, so if M10 is that game I will happily purchase it. With that said, I will still have to give M10 a rental first; simply put, ever since M05 I have been horribly disappointed with EA's outputs to the point M07 was the last one I owned (yes I tested all future releases).

Hopefully, Ian & co's "inspiration" (ie: copying) from NFL2K5 will FINALLY put the game over the hump. That's pretty sad to say, seeing as a modern day, modern gen game is just barely about to eclipse a 5 year old game. But we can all keep our fingers crossed.

DBETH - You're taking me back down memory lane, again. My cousin "accidentally" ended up with the first Madden on the Genesis, Lakers VS Celtics and something else that I don't remember and the funny thing is HE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A GENENSIS!! His mom used to work for Family Circle magazine in NYC and I guess EA was trying to promote their games there and left a buttload of cartridges on a table that was for anyone to take so my aunt, who actually thought they were VHS tapes, grabbed three and called my cousin and told him she got some movies for him. When he asked what they were and she told him, he told her that they were videogames, not movies, for the Genesis. She asked him if that's what he had already and he said no, he has a NES (ironically, before this situation, again because of him, that's how I found out about Metal Gear and it was a game that his mother randomly bought him. I found it under a couch there when sleeping over and played it while he was asleep), so she said, since Christmas was coming up, she'd buy him a Genesis.

Now, I was already putting pressure on my parents to get Super Play Action Football for my SNES for Christmans since I already had Play Action Football for my NES and I did get it. I wasn't very happy with it as it was more like Super Slow Action Football and thought it shoulda been much faster than the previous installation but just tried to be appreciative of it however, we went to my cousin's house in the afternoon and I played Madden for the first time - I didn't want to leave nor did I want to go back to that Super Slow Action Crap so I begged to spend the night and I coulda stayed over and caught the train back home, which my aunts were OK with but my parents ultimately said no.

From then on, I was pretty much a Madden head but always gave credit where credit was due. Remember Game Day by 989 Sports? Maaaan, that game took me away from Madden. I just thought they did so much better than Madden gamplay wise then it went polygon - Was kinda ugly but it was the very first polygon console football game. That series fell off, though. 989 had something and they just dropped the ball with all their devving since, imo.

As for NFL2K1, nah, didn't like it. It felt arcadey and a lot like Joe Montana's Sports Talk, at the time. I did buy that one and 2K2 but I didn't really get into it until 2K3, which I still have by accident. I rented it, that time, from Blockbuster and forgot to bring back the actual CD. Just brought back the case yet they didn't notice and they never brought it up nor was I charged full price. I bought 2K5 and that game took over me after I stopped playing Madden 2005. I still have both of those, which I have played in the last two weeks Memories...

...BUT now it is time to usher in the latest and possibly greatest football game of all time in Madden 10. Game looks fantastic so far and the amount of effort Ian and co. are putting into it is crazy. I hope the final product pans out as near perfect as can be.

Well im a NFL 2k fan but ive been playing madden all these years. I hate to say it but since it was the only football game out and i love NCAA college football and it allowed me to draft my players i bought it every year. I have seen the videos and this year madden looks very similar to 2k and i just cant wait. They even have the Qb evade with the right stick that 2k had !!! awesome .... i hope madden gets it right this year... and i hope backbreaker its a good game too !!!!

I just Ian to find a way to keep the ball in camera view on deep passes. That really irks me. Can't believe i am the only one that this bothers. It almost like the ball just drop out of the sky on those deep passes. I'm just use to following the ball and taking the receiver there, not following the shadow of the ball. But i will at least rent Madden 10 b/c it clearly the most improved madden in years.

Convince - they fixed the moon ball trajectory on deep passes. I should be better in Madden this year.

TreyMI2 - I agree with you about 2K1. I just didn't like it very much either. It needed a lot of polish. I bought a used copy of 2K3 and really liked it. Fell in love with 2K4.

Madden has me excited for the first time in over 5 years. NCAA is bringing the opposite emotions. I'm so dejected at this point I may not even get it this year. The dev team seems focused on ALL the wrong things compared to Ian.

I been playing Madden since Madden '94. Yeah, the last few years have been weak. I never like Madden on 360 or PS3, it has been horrible. But Madden '10 is looking nice. I hope to buy it on the release date.

I gave in and bought Madden last year, it was a very good game, I didnt like all the interceptions left and right but it was a good value.

Ian has been good for Madden.

Now EA needs to find someone to fix the most stagnate EA Sports franchise: NCAA football.