It's a new NFL season and you know what that means. That's right another year of Mediocre Madden.
From a presentation stand point, Madden 10 is great with a couple of exceptions. When it comes to commentary, Collinsworth is fine in his role. However, the other guy is just plain annoying. I don't quite know what it is, but its almost like he is reading from a script word for word and line by line. As for the graphical presentation, it is getting to that TV style presentation that you see every Sunday. It can be down right spooky. The animation is quite good. However, there do appear to be way too many cut scenes. As usual, you can hit the button to skip them, but sometimes the game just doesn't respond fast enough.
From a gameplay standpoint, every couple years EA tries to add a new feature that just doesn't work. A couple of years ago, EA added QB vision. That was a flop and this year, EA has added a new feature that's a flop as well. The fight for the ball will be this year's QB vision. Its a feature that could have worked but it just doesn't. I noticed it was broken when I had two players around the ball and the other team didn't have anyone as the ball had been knocked loose and rolled backwards away from the RB. My two defensive players were the only ones near the ball. It was obvious that I had recovered the ball and yet out of nowhere this little mini game popped up and I lost a sure turnover.
As usual, the CPU completes way too many passes and its RB is able to break too many tackles. While on defense, your DL will have troubles getting past the OL. The Vikings are supposed to have one of the most dominate D-Lines in football, but Allen gets manhandled by single blockers far too much. As for the Williams wall, they just aren't that formidable. They can be single blocked giving the offense decent holes to run through. When on offense, the fact that the game has slowed down does make running easier as the holes do open up and are held open a little longer, but your line's blocking is a little suspect too often. Year in and year out I continue to see the same glitch. You know the one, where your lineman stands up looking for someone to block only because DL ran right by him. It can get extremely frustrating when your DL can't get past OL but your OL can't block the DL. Also, there just seem to be too many of those 'huh' or 'what the?' moments. You also know these. The one where its 3rd and 7 and your WR for some reason runs to his spot and waits for the pass to come to him only to run back and make the catch essentially wiping out your chance for the 1st.
Some of the stats that have been provided are off. Of course this is my opinion, but I find it difficult to believe that the Vikings, who have had the top run defense 3 years in a row should have the same as the Packers. The stats for speed have been made more realistic. It is nice however to not have to worry about linemen running down WRs and RBs.
Overall, Madden is a decent game. Personally though, I think EA has finally hit a point where they have nowhere to go but down. While many complain they are the only game in town, I just don't think that is the main problem. The main problem I believe is that its a sports game. There really isn't that much you can do to improve the particular genre. EA continues to try and add little features here and there but in the end there is only so much you can do. In the end, Madden 10 feels like nothing really more than a roster update. My advice, for the die hard Madden and football fans, go ahead and buy it. As for everyone else, I would rent it.