Video Games Five things to know about Madden 2010 - Page 2

**The Franchise** · 05-29-2009, 09:54 AM

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames...ory?id=4105808

'Madden 10': Five Things to Know

ESPN Video Games' Jon Robinson takes an exclusive first look at "Madden NFL 10," the most anticipated sports game of the year.

As I was previewing the upcoming "Madden NFL 10," one question kept crossing my mind. What really happens at the bottom of a fumble pile?

According to the NFL players I've talked to, it sounds as though the craziest action of every game doesn't even make it onto cameras.

Ronnie Brown of the Dolphins simply described it to me as "a scuffle."

Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald told me, "Spitting, stepping on your hands -- whatever it takes to get the ball out of your hands, they'll do it."

Rookie Mark Sanchez even broke down how USC practiced the mayhem: "When you're coached on it at any school, they call it a dog pile, and anything goes -- pinching, scratching, biting -- that's the way it is. And if you're not good at it, then you're not protecting the football, you're not competing to get it back. And then it's about the guys on your team when they know you have it, pulling guys off the pile and stalling the refs so you can get it if you don't have it. There's a right way to go about it, and I think they taught us that at USC."

Luckily for Madden gamers, they'll be able to experience the chaos without the controller poking them in the eyes, as the fumble pile is one of the new features in the game.

For the first time in series history, when the ball hits the ground, it doesn't just go to the guy who randomly touches it. In "Madden NFL 10," players will pile on the ball, and gamers will need to pound the button that is shown on the screen to try to wrestle away the rock. As the button commands change on the screen, the ball can switch hands numerous times until the refs actually dig through the bodies and declare a winner.

"That sounds a lot more fun than being in a real pile," Brown says, laughing. "Guys will do just about anything to get that ball."

But the fumble pile isn't the only new addition to "Madden NFL 10," and ESPN sat down with the game's senior producer, Phil Frazier, to get all the dirt on the new game. Click to the next page to see the five things you need to know about "Madden NFL 10."

1. If I can't tackle you, how about I bring seven friends to finish the job?

"Madden NFL 10" introduces a new technology system called Pro-Tak. The biggest addition this advanced technology brings comes in the form of gang tackles. In "Madden NFL 10," up to nine-man gang tackles can take place (up from three in last year's edition), and they can be played out in any fashion, as in eight defenders versus the runner, or even four offensive players trying to push four defensive players as they try to move the pile toward the first down. On some plays, the running back gets stood up by a couple of defenders and pushed back to the point where the refs on the field blow the whistle even though he never went down. And on the goal line, if a runner looks to be stopped before reaching pay dirt, you will even see offensive linemen try to hit the pile to help push the ball into the end zone. It's all based on size, strength and the number of guys in the pile.

This might be the most significant difference to the way the game looks and plays this year, and it's a change that definitely helps improve the franchise's realism.

"Pro-Tak is a new animation technology that helps drive several new features in the game," Frazier said. "This includes nine-man gang tackles, a brand new pocket for the offensive line, steerable blocks, steerable tackles and the fight for the fumble feature that really lets you fight for that ball at the bottom of the pile.

"This technology is amazing. It allows us to procedurally move players into gang tackles, it allows us to procedurally move the pile, and the nice thing about it is it's not just one offensive guy against eight defensive players. You can have two guys try to wrap the ball carrier on defense, then have an offensive lineman hit the pile from behind and try to move the pile. It's all dynamic, all procedurally done, and it really allows us to blow out the animations."

Frazier broke down how Pro-Tak handles those fumble piles. "You don't literally try and bend a guy's fingers back or anything like that, but that's the background intent. You hear all these stories about what goes on at the bottom of the pile, and we like to think of the button-mash for the ball as one of those things that you're doing. It's not like the X button is twist the wrist, but you have to pound the buttons in order to fight for the ball.

"The ball hits the ground, and this doesn't happen with every fumble, but if there is a situation where two or three guys are right there, then they'll jump on the ball. You're unclear over who has the actual possession, so we cut to a cut scene, and that cut scene will show players jumping on the pile and fighting for the ball. Then, during that cut scene, we are going to flash a button, and that button you have to button-mash as fast as you can. We are also going to show a meter, and that meter represents possession, and it will either point one way or the other. You basically fight throughout the cut scene, then when the referee comes in and pulls the players off, we finally reveal who recovered the fumble."

2. Eyes in the back of your polygonal head.

One of the toughest aspects of playing quarterback in Madden (or real life) is trying to look down the field during a heavy pass rush. You're trying to spot the open man while at the same time watching the pocket collapse around you and looking for someplace to run.

"Madden NFL 10" introduces a new quarterback avoidance system that should go a long way toward helping solve this issue.

"When I play the game, I have a hard time looking in two places at the same time," Frazier said. "My eyes want to look at the receiver, but then you also have four or five defenders trying to sack your quarterback. It's a tricky situation when you're trying to throw a pass. So now, when your quarterback is under pressure, your controller will actually start to rumble. And now, when you feel that pressure, you feel that rumble, you can flick the right stick and do an automatic avoidance move. You don't have to think too hard, you just flick the stick, and he'll try to avoid whatever pressure is there. And it is direction-sensitive, so if you press to the right, he'll try to move to the right. And hopefully that avoidance will give you that extra second you need in order to get the pass off.

"And this is all based on player ratings, so if you have a guy like Ben Roethlisberger, you hit the QB-avoidance stick, and he is going to break out of more of those situations than the average quarterback. But the goal is to give most players that extra second to get off that pass, and while that extra second or third attempt might not work for everybody, we typically want people to have success. When they hit that stick during pressure, they will typically have success the first time, but if you keep holding the ball and try to hit the stick a second or even a third time, it's going to be tricky."

3. The Wildcat will not break the game.

When I first heard that EA Sports was adding the Wildcat formation to the game this year, the first emotion I felt was panic. If anything will break the game this year and become the most overused formation at the Madden Challenge, the Wildcat is it.

Not to worry, Frazier promised. "I understand the concern, and if we were adding it as a part of downloadable content or something after the fact where we didn't have the time to fix the AI [artificial intelligence] to go with it, then the Wildcat could be a real problem. But the fact that we're adding it during our developmental cycle and we have a chance to take a look at those AI issues that you're concerned about, I don't think it's going to be a problem.

"Just as we're adding the Wildcat, we're also making sure our defenses are ready for the Wildcat. Just as you saw with the Dolphins, they had great early success with it. Ronnie Brown was putting up huge numbers with it. But then throughout the season, teams started to adjust and they figured out ways to stop it. We had to program that same logic into our defense as well, so you don't see the same five-touchdown performance out of the Wildcat like the Dolphins had early on.

"We have a guy by the name of Anthony White, and he does all our playbooks. He is kind of a playbook hobbyist and he buys coaching books, coaching schemes, and he tries to get his hands on black-market copies of playbooks. All he does is watch NFL tape and read playbooks, and he really nailed the Wildcat."

4. If Troy Williamson was mad about his 78 rating last year, wait until he finds out he's a 52 in the new game.

The more I talk to players, the more I realize how important these video game ratings really are. These numbers are talked about in the locker rooms and even on the practice field. When somebody misses a block, guys will joke about how his rating just dropped five points.

But nothing has prepared the NFL for what's about to happen with "Madden NFL 10." The producers of the game have decided to create a bigger gap in the ratings between the elite players and those who ride the pine.

That means that although quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning still strut around with a 99 overall rating, backups such as Matt Leinart can only watch as their overall rating drops from a 85 to a 62. Ouch.

"Quite frankly, we were getting to a point in the game where elite players just felt like every other player in the game," Frazier said. "Brandon Jacobs, who is just a beast, wasn't able to break that many more tackles than the average running back because almost all of the ratings ended up between 80 and 99.

"Our intention this year was to make the elite players stand out. We're pretty sure a lot of players are going to be extremely unhappy about this, but the result is, there are a lot of guys who are coming down in ratings across the board. Every single rating is being adjusted. The elite guys, they're safe. Peyton Manning, Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, guys like that are going to be saved. But the average guy is certainly going to come down. Guys in the 70s are now average. You may even see some guys in the 40s.

"And the game-play impact is absolutely huge. Now the teams actually feel like they have a personality. When you're playing as a team like the 49ers who don't have that elite quarterback, you're going to have a hard time throwing the ball. It's going to feel like you have a problem at that position, and that's a great change."

5. You can't hit stick officials.

One look at the new screens of "Madden NFL 10" tells you the differences are almost too many to count. "Green gloves in Seattle, all the new jerseys that have been announced, Super Bowl patches for the players -- it's all about authenticity," Frazier said. "We're even looking into fixing Troy Polamalu's hair. Little things like that, we're really trying to bring home. We want everything you see on Sunday to be seen in 'Madden NFL 10.'

"If you see a kicker warming up on the sideline, that's the type of detail we want you to see in Madden as well. All those details, from little things like the right stripes on uniforms to the kickers warming up, that's what you're going to see in the game. We've also slowed the game down a bit this year, and when people first hear that, they don't understand what that really means, but I think that now, it just feels right. When you're running the ball, you can see the holes and you have time to react and hit those holes. When you're going to turn upfield, you actually need to plant your foot and turn upfield. You can't just turn on a dime. There's no more Mario running. I just think the game is really starting to feel like an NFL simulation should feel, and that's really what I'm most proud of.

"And as much as it would be fun to Hit Stick the referees, I don't think our league insiders over at the NFL would be too pleased. Although we did plan to have an achievement in the game if you were able to play an entire game of Madden without knocking over an official. But it's so hard to do, we had to take it out. But no, you can't Hit Stick them, and even when you run into them in the game, they won't stop your progress, you just knock them over and keep going.

"This year, the focus was just getting the officials on the field. We've never had seven officials on the field before as in the old days, we only had five. So we have more officials on the field, and we're running at 60 frames per second. Maybe in the future you'll be able to knock their hats off with passes or something like that, but we're not quite there just yet.

"And here's the thing, we're not even showing everything about the game just yet. This is just a taste. We have some pretty big online features that will appeal to both competitive gamers and cooperative gamers, we have a lot more presentation features to come, as well as new Dynasty features.

"Everything I just told you, that's only really scratching the surface."

ZootedGranny · 05-29-2009, 08:22 PM

EA wasn't on the ball with their video releases, because in one of the online co-op announcement videos, he says there will be online franchise.

kcxiv · 05-29-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

What would you like them to fix? They've actually fixed a ton of things, they completely changed the pass blocking so it looks like the guys actually block and form a pocket.

The injury system is completely changed they can't just drop an entire new game in there in 1 offseason.

The momentum system and footplanting should have been the first thing along with a new animation engine. None of that was fixed. They made it look prettier no doubt about it, but its still going to play the same.

I have to wait until some guys i know play and break it down for me before i even consider purchasing the game. Hell, before i even rent it.

Mecca · 05-29-2009, 09:06 PM

I don't think they're going to make a new engine, they'd have to completely start over and I don't believe they want to do that.

**Shaid** · 05-29-2009, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCChiefsMan

nope, don't do much spinnin or juking. I never have time to, as soon as I hand the ball off they are on him or tackled at the line of scrimmage and he fumbles a lot. I think in the season I am playing right now he has 300 yds on 250 carries.

WTF, I pretty commonly break off 10 yard runs. Of course, it's on the original XBOX.

**kysirsoze** · 05-30-2009, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detoxing

I dig the Quarterback awareness idea and the lower ratings. The fumble thing just seems like another stupid idea that won't function properly, just like the instant replay.

I can only imagine: My player falls on the ball with no one else around, whistle doesn't blow, and next thing ya know, im in some stupid animation wrestling for the ball when my player already had it in his possession.

With the new lower ratings, the Chiefs are going to be awfull.

This... It might keep me from buying the next few Maddens. I already play baseball games with the handicap of being a KC fan. I don't know if I wanna spend 60 bucks on a monument to the worst Chiefs team in the history of the franchise.

Mecca · 05-30-2009, 02:29 AM

So rebuild the team, it's part of the challenge.

kcxiv · 05-30-2009, 04:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

I don't think they're going to make a new engine, they'd have to completely start over and I don't believe they want to do that.

Of course they dont want to do that, IF they did, they would have done it. The lead animations guy went with the 11 man gang tackling over a new animation system which he wanted to do because his bosses knew it was another gimmick to sell the game.

EA may make a shitty ass football game, but they know how to sell gimmicks and stuff that really do not impact the gameplay all that much.

I just its not going to be where it needs to be this coming year. If you have no route base passing, footplanting, momentum then the game just isnt going to be to the level of a game that came out in 2004. It will look prettier because its in HD, but thats about it.

**kysirsoze** · 05-30-2009, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

So rebuild the team, it's part of the challenge.

I guess so, but multiplayer is the main thing I use sports games for. My single player VG time (which isn't much) is usually reserved for RPGs.

MoreLemonPledge · 05-30-2009, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kysirsoze

I guess so, but multiplayer is the main thing I use sports games for. My single player VG time (which isn't much) is usually reserved for RPGs.

This.

meStevo · 05-30-2009, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZootedGranny

EA wasn't on the ball with their video releases, because in one of the online co-op announcement videos, he says there will be online franchise.

Yeah I think a lot of people missed this. I expect it to be announced at E3.

The guy who was the lead for Head Coach last year has redone much of franchise mode, the cap is going to be more meaningful, 100m contracts can happen, players who are starters will want starter money. There's a lot to look forward to this year.

Ultra Peanut · 05-30-2009, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meStevo

The guy who was the lead for Head Coach last year has redone much of franchise mode

literal gasp

irishjayhawk · 05-30-2009, 08:45 PM

Five things you need to know about Madden 2010:

1) Same game as old with one new gimmick feature and a "retooling" of others.
2) Basically a Roster update.
3) Whereby "retooling" in item #1, it actually means the engineers talked about retooling it and press releases were released exclaiming this talk but nothing materialized.
4) EA still has a monopoly.
5) Still $60

Thig Lyfe · 05-31-2009, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut

literal gasp

What kind of gasp?

MMXcalibur · 05-31-2009, 02:30 AM

Wow, the Chiefs are going to suck hard.
Oh well....I still get a kick playing as them and pulling off epic upsets.

meStevo · 05-31-2009, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

Five things you need to know about Madden 2010:

1) Same game as old with one new gimmick feature and a "retooling" of others.
2) Basically a Roster update.
3) Whereby "retooling" in item #1, it actually means the engineers talked about retooling it and press releases were released exclaiming this talk but nothing materialized.
4) EA still has a monopoly.
5) Still $60

Then why post? The same drivel every year from the haters. Have you read anything about this years changes? Seen the videos on EA's own blogs (http://insideblog.easports.com/defau...ts&PageIndex=1) complimenting how well 2k did some things, and showing how 10 improves over 09 with video, not a press release?

Only gimmick announced so far is the Thunderbirds flyover, everything else has been pretty worthwhile press... from more realistic FB handoffs, to reworked pass blocking, and player ratings. This week the co-op was announced, and in that slipped a mention of online franchise that will probably become official at E3.

Some years do feel like more subtle iterations, but last years was decent and this year should be even better.

05-29-2009, 09:54 AM
The Franchise Most Valuable Villain Join Date: Dec 2006 Casino cash: $2555047	Five things to know about Madden 2010 http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames...ory?id=4105808 'Madden 10': Five Things to Know ESPN Video Games' Jon Robinson takes an exclusive first look at "Madden NFL 10," the most anticipated sports game of the year. As I was previewing the upcoming "Madden NFL 10," one question kept crossing my mind. What really happens at the bottom of a fumble pile? According to the NFL players I've talked to, it sounds as though the craziest action of every game doesn't even make it onto cameras. Ronnie Brown of the Dolphins simply described it to me as "a scuffle." Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald told me, "Spitting, stepping on your hands -- whatever it takes to get the ball out of your hands, they'll do it." Rookie Mark Sanchez even broke down how USC practiced the mayhem: "When you're coached on it at any school, they call it a dog pile, and anything goes -- pinching, scratching, biting -- that's the way it is. And if you're not good at it, then you're not protecting the football, you're not competing to get it back. And then it's about the guys on your team when they know you have it, pulling guys off the pile and stalling the refs so you can get it if you don't have it. There's a right way to go about it, and I think they taught us that at USC." Luckily for Madden gamers, they'll be able to experience the chaos without the controller poking them in the eyes, as the fumble pile is one of the new features in the game. For the first time in series history, when the ball hits the ground, it doesn't just go to the guy who randomly touches it. In "Madden NFL 10," players will pile on the ball, and gamers will need to pound the button that is shown on the screen to try to wrestle away the rock. As the button commands change on the screen, the ball can switch hands numerous times until the refs actually dig through the bodies and declare a winner. "That sounds a lot more fun than being in a real pile," Brown says, laughing. "Guys will do just about anything to get that ball." But the fumble pile isn't the only new addition to "Madden NFL 10," and ESPN sat down with the game's senior producer, Phil Frazier, to get all the dirt on the new game. Click to the next page to see the five things you need to know about "Madden NFL 10." 1. If I can't tackle you, how about I bring seven friends to finish the job? "Madden NFL 10" introduces a new technology system called Pro-Tak. The biggest addition this advanced technology brings comes in the form of gang tackles. In "Madden NFL 10," up to nine-man gang tackles can take place (up from three in last year's edition), and they can be played out in any fashion, as in eight defenders versus the runner, or even four offensive players trying to push four defensive players as they try to move the pile toward the first down. On some plays, the running back gets stood up by a couple of defenders and pushed back to the point where the refs on the field blow the whistle even though he never went down. And on the goal line, if a runner looks to be stopped before reaching pay dirt, you will even see offensive linemen try to hit the pile to help push the ball into the end zone. It's all based on size, strength and the number of guys in the pile. This might be the most significant difference to the way the game looks and plays this year, and it's a change that definitely helps improve the franchise's realism. "Pro-Tak is a new animation technology that helps drive several new features in the game," Frazier said. "This includes nine-man gang tackles, a brand new pocket for the offensive line, steerable blocks, steerable tackles and the fight for the fumble feature that really lets you fight for that ball at the bottom of the pile. "This technology is amazing. It allows us to procedurally move players into gang tackles, it allows us to procedurally move the pile, and the nice thing about it is it's not just one offensive guy against eight defensive players. You can have two guys try to wrap the ball carrier on defense, then have an offensive lineman hit the pile from behind and try to move the pile. It's all dynamic, all procedurally done, and it really allows us to blow out the animations." Frazier broke down how Pro-Tak handles those fumble piles. "You don't literally try and bend a guy's fingers back or anything like that, but that's the background intent. You hear all these stories about what goes on at the bottom of the pile, and we like to think of the button-mash for the ball as one of those things that you're doing. It's not like the X button is twist the wrist, but you have to pound the buttons in order to fight for the ball. "The ball hits the ground, and this doesn't happen with every fumble, but if there is a situation where two or three guys are right there, then they'll jump on the ball. You're unclear over who has the actual possession, so we cut to a cut scene, and that cut scene will show players jumping on the pile and fighting for the ball. Then, during that cut scene, we are going to flash a button, and that button you have to button-mash as fast as you can. We are also going to show a meter, and that meter represents possession, and it will either point one way or the other. You basically fight throughout the cut scene, then when the referee comes in and pulls the players off, we finally reveal who recovered the fumble." 2. Eyes in the back of your polygonal head. One of the toughest aspects of playing quarterback in Madden (or real life) is trying to look down the field during a heavy pass rush. You're trying to spot the open man while at the same time watching the pocket collapse around you and looking for someplace to run. "Madden NFL 10" introduces a new quarterback avoidance system that should go a long way toward helping solve this issue. "When I play the game, I have a hard time looking in two places at the same time," Frazier said. "My eyes want to look at the receiver, but then you also have four or five defenders trying to sack your quarterback. It's a tricky situation when you're trying to throw a pass. So now, when your quarterback is under pressure, your controller will actually start to rumble. And now, when you feel that pressure, you feel that rumble, you can flick the right stick and do an automatic avoidance move. You don't have to think too hard, you just flick the stick, and he'll try to avoid whatever pressure is there. And it is direction-sensitive, so if you press to the right, he'll try to move to the right. And hopefully that avoidance will give you that extra second you need in order to get the pass off. "And this is all based on player ratings, so if you have a guy like Ben Roethlisberger, you hit the QB-avoidance stick, and he is going to break out of more of those situations than the average quarterback. But the goal is to give most players that extra second to get off that pass, and while that extra second or third attempt might not work for everybody, we typically want people to have success. When they hit that stick during pressure, they will typically have success the first time, but if you keep holding the ball and try to hit the stick a second or even a third time, it's going to be tricky." 3. The Wildcat will not break the game. When I first heard that EA Sports was adding the Wildcat formation to the game this year, the first emotion I felt was panic. If anything will break the game this year and become the most overused formation at the Madden Challenge, the Wildcat is it. Not to worry, Frazier promised. "I understand the concern, and if we were adding it as a part of downloadable content or something after the fact where we didn't have the time to fix the AI [artificial intelligence] to go with it, then the Wildcat could be a real problem. But the fact that we're adding it during our developmental cycle and we have a chance to take a look at those AI issues that you're concerned about, I don't think it's going to be a problem. "Just as we're adding the Wildcat, we're also making sure our defenses are ready for the Wildcat. Just as you saw with the Dolphins, they had great early success with it. Ronnie Brown was putting up huge numbers with it. But then throughout the season, teams started to adjust and they figured out ways to stop it. We had to program that same logic into our defense as well, so you don't see the same five-touchdown performance out of the Wildcat like the Dolphins had early on. "We have a guy by the name of Anthony White, and he does all our playbooks. He is kind of a playbook hobbyist and he buys coaching books, coaching schemes, and he tries to get his hands on black-market copies of playbooks. All he does is watch NFL tape and read playbooks, and he really nailed the Wildcat." 4. If Troy Williamson was mad about his 78 rating last year, wait until he finds out he's a 52 in the new game. The more I talk to players, the more I realize how important these video game ratings really are. These numbers are talked about in the locker rooms and even on the practice field. When somebody misses a block, guys will joke about how his rating just dropped five points. But nothing has prepared the NFL for what's about to happen with "Madden NFL 10." The producers of the game have decided to create a bigger gap in the ratings between the elite players and those who ride the pine. That means that although quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning still strut around with a 99 overall rating, backups such as Matt Leinart can only watch as their overall rating drops from a 85 to a 62. Ouch. "Quite frankly, we were getting to a point in the game where elite players just felt like every other player in the game," Frazier said. "Brandon Jacobs, who is just a beast, wasn't able to break that many more tackles than the average running back because almost all of the ratings ended up between 80 and 99. "Our intention this year was to make the elite players stand out. We're pretty sure a lot of players are going to be extremely unhappy about this, but the result is, there are a lot of guys who are coming down in ratings across the board. Every single rating is being adjusted. The elite guys, they're safe. Peyton Manning, Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, guys like that are going to be saved. But the average guy is certainly going to come down. Guys in the 70s are now average. You may even see some guys in the 40s. "And the game-play impact is absolutely huge. Now the teams actually feel like they have a personality. When you're playing as a team like the 49ers who don't have that elite quarterback, you're going to have a hard time throwing the ball. It's going to feel like you have a problem at that position, and that's a great change." 5. You can't hit stick officials. One look at the new screens of "Madden NFL 10" tells you the differences are almost too many to count. "Green gloves in Seattle, all the new jerseys that have been announced, Super Bowl patches for the players -- it's all about authenticity," Frazier said. "We're even looking into fixing Troy Polamalu's hair. Little things like that, we're really trying to bring home. We want everything you see on Sunday to be seen in 'Madden NFL 10.' "If you see a kicker warming up on the sideline, that's the type of detail we want you to see in Madden as well. All those details, from little things like the right stripes on uniforms to the kickers warming up, that's what you're going to see in the game. We've also slowed the game down a bit this year, and when people first hear that, they don't understand what that really means, but I think that now, it just feels right. When you're running the ball, you can see the holes and you have time to react and hit those holes. When you're going to turn upfield, you actually need to plant your foot and turn upfield. You can't just turn on a dime. There's no more Mario running. I just think the game is really starting to feel like an NFL simulation should feel, and that's really what I'm most proud of. "And as much as it would be fun to Hit Stick the referees, I don't think our league insiders over at the NFL would be too pleased. Although we did plan to have an achievement in the game if you were able to play an entire game of Madden without knocking over an official. But it's so hard to do, we had to take it out. But no, you can't Hit Stick them, and even when you run into them in the game, they won't stop your progress, you just knock them over and keep going. "This year, the focus was just getting the officials on the field. We've never had seven officials on the field before as in the old days, we only had five. So we have more officials on the field, and we're running at 60 frames per second. Maybe in the future you'll be able to knock their hats off with passes or something like that, but we're not quite there just yet. "And here's the thing, we're not even showing everything about the game just yet. This is just a taste. We have some pretty big online features that will appeal to both competitive gamers and cooperative gamers, we have a lot more presentation features to come, as well as new Dynasty features. "Everything I just told you, that's only really scratching the surface."
Posts: 92,316

05-29-2009, 08:22 PM	#16
ZootedGranny Chump Steamroller Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: . Casino cash: $10015042	EA wasn't on the ball with their video releases, because in one of the online co-op announcement videos, he says there will be online franchise.
Posts: 3,974

05-29-2009, 09:06 PM	#18
Mecca Hockey Town Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Kansas City, Missouri Casino cash: $1237050	I don't think they're going to make a new engine, they'd have to completely start over and I don't believe they want to do that.
Posts: 112,443

05-30-2009, 02:29 AM	#21
Mecca Hockey Town Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Kansas City, Missouri Casino cash: $1237050	So rebuild the team, it's part of the challenge.
Posts: 112,443

05-30-2009, 08:45 PM	#27
irishjayhawk Feelin' Alright Join Date: Aug 2004 Casino cash: $10004900	Five things you need to know about Madden 2010: 1) Same game as old with one new gimmick feature and a "retooling" of others. 2) Basically a Roster update. 3) Whereby "retooling" in item #1, it actually means the engineers talked about retooling it and press releases were released exclaiming this talk but nothing materialized. 4) EA still has a monopoly. 5) Still $60 __________________ "Think about how stupid the average person is. Then remember that half the people in the world are stupider than that." --George Carlin
Posts: 16,887

05-31-2009, 02:30 AM	#29
MMXcalibur Pessimistically optimistic. Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Denver, CO Casino cash: $1195086	Wow, the Chiefs are going to suck hard. Oh well....I still get a kick playing as them and pulling off epic upsets.
Posts: 16,528