Madden 10 Hands-Off First Impressions

[ScoobySnax]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlyGilmore

OK - version 2.0 of the article is now online. EA sent over some screens so I added them to the story. Two of them show gang tackling in action. For those who have already read it, here are the new images ...

Wow!! Nice screens!

[TheWatcher]

I see where the timeouts are now, but still no challenge indication, no stats/stat cards and no replay options. For '11 they have to step their game back up here. Simplifying is okay, but there is a line to where when it's crossed you go from simple to needlessly elementary.

From Bly's article:

"- Team-specific sidelines have been added. Everything on the sideline looks a lot more realistic than it has in the past."

That's interesting. I saw no real change from the live view of the sidelines from 09. The blur effects make it look better from a distance though. There are cutscenes of the sidelines like we saw on Jimmy Fallon and those are nice, but the live sidelines, I saw no change in terms of detail quality.

[GTheorenHobbes]

I love seeing the huddle at the play call screen. That's odd, though...shouldn't we see the Steelers' huddle since it's the Steelers' defensive play call screen?

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by GTheorenHobbes

I love seeing the huddle at the play call screen. That's odd, though...shouldn't we see the Steelers' huddle since it's the Steelers' defensive play call screen?

Yep, and they should make sure it stays for good. I don't know what possessed them to get rid of it in the first place.

[therizing02]

Thanks for the impressions Bly! We're you able to notice any sort of "atmosphere" during gameplay.

If the goal is immersion, atmosphere is a MUST HAVE. I think most will agree that Madden was just a boring game because of the lack of atmosphere. Were you able to notice whether or not the crowd reacted properly given the situation on the field or did they have they same boring Madden dull monotonous sound in the background?

Can you talk a little about the in game stat overlays?

Also, were you able to notice anything regarding the adaptive AI? Specifically, does the offense adjust it's playcalling based on the USER's defensive play calls? All of the AAI talk to this point has centered around the CPU's ability to change it's playcalling tendencies on the defensive side of the ball based on the USER's offensive playcalling.

[ch46647]

^^^ Yes please comment on crowd interaction. Crowd noise isa huge reason why I love NHL 09 so much. The crowd is awesome! It still could be MUCH better but Madden has literally no crowd noise at all and they cheer when they shouldnt cheer. (Opposing team scoring a TD)

[dr logic]

Any word on the realism of those sidelines bly. That is a detail that is stupidly important to me. Thats the level of immersion I was hoping for.

[BlyGilmore]

Sorry guys don't have a lot of that information. The discussions I had with EA really focused on a few key elements of game play and Madden 10, and I didn't get to see much other than that.

Also the sound was turned off, so I wasn't able to judge crowd noise, atmosphere or even how the announcers were doing.

(Keep in mind too this was an April build of the game - there's still a good three months before Madden goes gold some time in late July/early August).

Hopefully a lot of this stuff comes out at E3.