Now, I just got this game but I can honestly say my initial reaction is 10x happier than I was last year. There is no need to hesitate with your Madden purchase or reluctantly rent before buying. I think finally Madden has taken its first huge leap since its debut on the 360. What’s great? #1: fluid and seamless animation. The curse of the choppy gameplay that Madden has consecutively suffered over has officially been kicked to the curb like Chris Brown. I know this is going way back but do you remember when a football game played fluidly (like NFL 2K for instance). You would hit the button to juke left or right, spin move and the player would react instantaneously. And not only that, but animation in general didn’t feel like Vista running on an old computer. In the previous Maddens, delays would happen constantly, so much so that you had to predict a few seconds in advance on what your opponent was going to do be effective. In other words, you had to have psychic abilities or just have plain dumb luck in order to be successful. It would become a button masher frenzy in hopes you’re controlled player would react to one and that’s counting the constant hiccups, delays and overly bad AI on both sides of the ball.

Did I mention the game looks great. So ok, you may not see the closeup shots you saw of later year but what would you rather have: close-ups of sweaty pores or a game that’s fluid and has more playability than Budweiser has drinkability. Don’t get me wrong, the graphics look amazing, cinematic and even on par with the live HD NFL experience. Stadiums are spot on! Crowds and sidelines look and feel realistic. Player’s mannerisms, faces, attributes, play-styles and actions are all on par with their real-life counterparts. Graphics are superb but I’m glad they’ve taken the passenger seat and let controls and gameplay take the pilot seat. All plays pan out the way you can expect them to and for the first time you feel like you have control over what’s occurring on screen. What a concept, its just sad its taken Madden almost 5 yrs on hi-def gaming to figure it out. I’ve bought Madden and i’m actually not in complete disgust that I did. Just the opposite, can I go as bold as to say this year’s Madden is 1) fluid 2) graphically appealing 3) fun 4) ultimately playable and dynamically challenging 5) on par and on same page with the NFL experience 6) realistic 7) gradually challenging. WOW!!

All modes and features from previous Maddens are here: Franchise, Superstar, hit stick, Madden IQ and the whole nine.

Whats different and greatly adds to the realism: scrubs, yards after contact, crowd reactions (very responsive and appropriate to whats going on), ref interactions (during plays and off), broadcasting commentary and realism, cinematic angles and replays.

Online features are VAST and well implemented!

Enjoy Video Game football again for the first time in Five YEARS!! Finally! It’s about time!!

I leave you with this:

“just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this and totally redeem yourself.” Dumb and Dumber

More to come as I play more..

I’m into my six game into the regular season and I’m still enjoying the game. The meat and potatoes of the game work, gameplay is superb. Not sure why some are still being negative. Madden has finally delivered smooth, good-paced gameplay yet people find faults in a few missing non-essential features. What’s lacking, no player progression element with camp, practice or otherwise–only based on performance but no real way to track it. No training camp. Not a huge loss. Better than 09 as 09 suffered from lag and hiccups at times and execution of plays was poor and didn’t have a whole lot of replay value (I went back to 08 on the original Xbox to get quick-paced action).

Fight for fumbles (button-smashing sequence) only happens during a pile up and rarely. It takes you by surprise at first but you get used to it. Yes, its arcadey and doesn’t really belong in a sim but you can turn it off.

Scrubs are fun, especially when they go your way. Sometimes you can even break free from them with a truck move or juke. I love using the truck stick with Brandon Jacobs and using his power to fight through them (so life-like).

I’m progressing nicely and with Madden’s IQ system, challenge is always dynamic to your level of play.