Madden NFL 10 Demo Available, Post Impressions Here

[Bgamer90]

My Impressions:

*The Menu layout is very nice. So much better than the "football tron" mess.

*Cutscenes are great. They showed the fans getting food and also the Thunderbirds flying by.

*As soon as you play the game you'll IMMEDIATELY notice the slower speed. The game feels very different. It doesn't feel like the typical madden game that you're use to.

*Pockets are in and they are very well done. You actually have time in the pocket but the pressure is still there though. You would think since they made the pressure better that you wouldn't notice the pocket and the longer time that you have to toss the ball but you definitely do.

*Catching/Passing feels much more realistic. Catches aren't as automatic as they were in Madden 09. Also, when tossing deep the QB doesn't pass as if it's a normal short pass like in Madden 09... deep passes take longer since the QB is getting the power to toss the ball deep. Also, you will see players catch the ball over their shoulder too.

*Kicking is still pretty easy though the balls don't go straight into the endzone. There's much more variety to where they go. Kicking still needs to be worked on to not make it as easy as it is imo.

*Procedural awareness is great for the cutscenes. When a player is injured, you can see his face straining and you can tell that he's in pain as the trainers come by to look. You also see procedural awareness when the players are on the sidelines too.

*Fight for fumble is good but not as good as I thought it would be. It doesn't really feel like a fight... it feels more like a button mashing game (if that makes sense). But like I said, it's still a good feature.

*CPU AI has been improved. They are smart when it comes to clock management (they don't do stupid stuff like they do in Madden 09). If it's the second quarter and there's a few seconds left while being a pretty goodd distance away from the endzone (making it almost impossible to get a TD due to the time that's left), the cpu player will do it's best to try and get as many yards as he can in a running play and then go out of bounds so that the kicker can kick a FG. Also, the CPU throws deep, which is something that they rarely did in Madden 09.

*The sound has definitely been improved. I have 5.1 dolby digital sound and when playing madden 09 it just felt as if the sound was coming through the 5 speakers... no sounds coming from different angles. But this isn't true with Madden 10. You will hear the fans scream from the L/R rears or the fronts, but not all at the same time. Also there's just more chatter overall. The players talk more and the crowd is louder.

*Pursuit angles have been improved though the running game is still easier than it was in Madden 09. You can actually see holes and can run through them. The running game has definitely been improved.

*The only major issue I noticed so far was the players sometimes moving all "herky jerky" when coming out of the huddle or the players just standing looking out into the crowd not moving at all after a quarter is finished but I'm pretty sure that they fixed this problem for the final build.

In conclusion, I highly doubt the game will blow you away the first time you play it since there's so much stuff to get use to that's different from 09. But the more you play it, the more you notice the changes and the more you welcome them. In previous years of madden, the improvements made the game feel more like a football video game instead of a replication of football but this isn't true this time. You can definitely see and feel that the game is more realistic than Madden 09. Ian and the rest of the new dev team is taking the game in the right direction.

I'll post more impressions after I play some more games.

[dude88]

it was like this in 09 but the cpu always calls a timout with 10 seconds left leaving me with 5 sec left after the field goal to do something in real life they would wait for 5 sec so it wouldnt leave me any time left afte the 5-sec run off

[DaTwolves21]

[quote=gmcrb28;2039885605]anybody have to challenge a play yet? is the challenge system fixed?[/QUOTE

hard to answer that, i challenged and they didnt go to the booth they just said the play stands as called lol it's not 2k challenge system yet

[da bucs gm]

lmao they ice the kicker................................ and it worked

[ExtremeGamer]

Quote: Originally Posted by TJdaSportsGuy

Try it with your wife's gamertag.

Silver

[realultimatepower]

Those of you waiting to decide between NCAA and Madden, here's your answer.

Most "interesting" game of Madden in a long time, aside from the Gamestop demo being as barebones as possible! However, the crowds sound very good.

My gripes are rather minor, but I feel they should be mentioned. The overlays, mainly the style of them, is extremely clunky looking. I think more streamlined overlays for score, playcalling, the little blurbs about the players, would look a lot better than that boxy stuff. Its still very cool, but it does look clunky IMO.

My other gripe is field goals. So much of the game plays well, from Pro-Tak, to the new animations and most notably, the awesome tweaks to the running game, but field goals just look bad and feel bad. I think you have to see it for yourself, but it seemed to take away from the immersion watching the ball the way its tracked by the camera.

All in all, I am impressed right off the bat w/ Madden, exceedingly more than NCAA (which I look forward to more, in fairness), but new overlays next time. The boxy crap has got to go.

[gmcrb28]

[quote=DaTwolves21;2039885614]

Quote: Originally Posted by gmcrb28

anybody have to challenge a play yet? is the challenge system fixed?[/QUOTE hard to answer that, i challenged and they didnt go to the booth they just said the play stands as called lol it's not 2k challenge system yet

thanks for the response i hope they have changed it this year tho cuz last years sucked lol

[da bucs gm]

very fumble is not "fight for the fumble"