With the NFL draft happening this weekend, many fans argue that the football season has officially begun. With that in mind, EA likes to release the first trailer for their next Madden installment around this time every year. With that said, we now have the 2010 trailer embedded above.

According to Peter Moore, Madden 10 promises the player will experience how hard every yard is to gain in the NFL, as well as defend. Once of the big things I noticed while watching, was the gang tackles. Sure, last year’s version introduced them to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, however, more players can now tackle one player. Last year, if I remember correctly, only allowed two players could stop an offense player to continue gain yards. While it might not seem like a lot more, in football, you usually don’t see more than three players tackling one, which is how many we’ll see in Madden 10.

Another thing that I found interesting in the clip were the animations, especially when a player was hit. As one player smacked into another athlete, the impact looked real. I really thought how each player slowed down gave it a much more realistic feel, and I liked how you could see the offense player fight for extra yardage. It was also refreshing seeing the ref jump into the action and start giving the 1st-down signal.

Overall, I’m impressed but hope to get a better feel for the game in about a month at E3.

I guess inside EA headquarters, the big wigs running the company just couldn’t agree which athlete would grace the cover of this year’s Madden. Today, the publisher announced that both Super Bowl Champion and Steelers safety Troy Polamalu will share the cover with wide receiver and runner-up Larry Fitzgerald, from the Cardinals. You can see the box art up top.

”Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu are exemplary examples of the epic battle between offense and defense in the NFL,” said Product Manger Anthony Stevenson. “Madden NFL 10 showcases the Fight For Every Yard, and nobody fights harder than Troy and Larry, making them the perfect athletes to grace the cover.”

This isn’t the first time EA has used two athletes to be on the cover of one of their sport games. In 2003, EA Sports decided to use both Randy Johnson and Miguel Tejada for MVP Baseball 2004’s box.

Overall, I think the cover could easily be the best looking box-art for the Madden series, thus far. I not only dig having a defense and offense players on the case, but really find the art surrounding the football players magnificent and not generic like the previous installments.

Madden 2010 will be released on August 14th and it will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP.

[thanks to Luke & Edgar]

The Madden franchise always makes the news when they reveal which professional football player will grace the cover. This year, EA has selected a group of candidates and have unveiled them to the world. Like every year, the publisher will announce the athlete during the highly anticipated NFL Draft, which takes place on April 24, 2009.

The players who have been chosen are: TroyPolamalu (73 tackles, 7 INT), Peyton Manning (4,002 yards, 27 TDs, 11 INT, 95.0 QB Rating), Larry Fitzgerald (96 catches, 1,431 yards, 12 TDs), Matt Cassel (3,693 yards, 21 TDs, 11 INT, 89.4 QB rating), DeMarcus Ware (84 tackles, 20 sacks), Ben Roethlisberger (3,301 yards, 17 TDs, 10 INT, 80.1 QB Rating), Brandon Jacobs (1,089 yards, 15 TDs), Adrian Peterson (1,760 yards, 10 TDs) and Ed Reed (1 tackles, 9 INTs).

Unless Madden 2010 is focusing on defense, I doubt we’ll see a player on the D. If Madden does spotlight defense, I’d figure they would choose Polamalu, who won the big game with the Steelers. However, if the company decides to pick an offensive player, than my guess would either be Super Bowel champion Roethlisberger or runner-up Fitzgerald. I would probably go with Ben Roethlisberger because the very first picture that was shown, was Big Ben in the ‘pocket ‘ (photo above).

Three new screenshots for Madden 2010 has been released to the internets, thanks in-part to EA Sports. The pictures are showing off that the next installment is adapting to some of the newer plays, and one specifically which was ‘re-introduced’ last year, by the Miami Dolphins. Of course we’re talking about the Wildcat formation, and it had Ronnie Brown setting up as the QB.

The picture above shows Brown throwing the Ball, and as a running back — this is something he wouldn’t normally do. However, we also notice one other thing. Behind him is a referee, which were noticeably absent since Madden debuted on the next-generations. Not only is the referee featured in the picture, it looks like he interacts with the plays on the field. Notice how he is knocked down?

IGN has another screenshot for Madden 2010 for the next-gen consoles. That brings the total number of screens for EA’s next football installment to, just two. However, looking at the screen, I’m pretty sure this is a capture from a trailer, which if this is the case, should be out soon. Already you can see how the this year’s game is really starting to focusing on the finer details. Matt Hasselbeck is the quarterback holding the ball, around his waist you can see a hand warmer as well as a towel. Deion Branch, who is on the left, is wearing his famous neon green receiver gloves.

Another thing I noticed is how completely each players bodies look. Check out the Rams lineman on the right side of the picture, his stomach is hanging over, and the wrinkles on his jersey are reacting to his fat. That’s a feature I didn’t want to necessarily see.

EA Sports big wig Peter Moore, revealed a single screenshot of the next installment of EA’s popular Madden series. First, I want to write that even though I enjoy the series, I haven’t loved it, as of late. It is not because I’m not a football fan, nothing could be further from the truth. For me, the series had taken a downfall since it debuted on these current next-generation systems. The innovations we had seen year-after-year, seemed to have slowed down a bit since its arrival on the Xbox 360 in 2005. Although, last year’s version was a step in the right direction, we felt there was still PLENTY of room for improvement.

Now, back to this new screenshot. Again, it was posted on by Moore on his own EA Blog. He also wrote, “the Madden team is taking such dramatic strides this year that we’re in the position to go deep on features and details earlier than we’ve ever done before.” And added, “it’s abundantly clear that this could be the deepest, most graphically-rich Madden ever, and a stunning testament to the talented development team who have had a maniacal focus delivering a landmark title to Madden Nation in 2009.”

Now after viewing the shot above, it’s hard to argue. If you played these last few Madden games over the years, you would know the games felt empty. However, the picture above looks to have maybe changed that barren feel. For one thing, you’ll see an on field ref…during gameplay, which has been missing for the last 5 years. On top of that, you’ll notice other small things included for 2010 like, towels on the players, the ‘chain gang’ and lively sidelines. I know, I know, some critics might argue those are little things and don’t affect the gameplay outright. Maybe they are right, although, I’m a believer that a bunch of little problems can added up to one HUGE issue. Hopefully the Madden team can address those little things, of course, I’ve been saying that for years now.

At least the screenshot above gives me a positive outlook for the future of the series.

*Not the actual cover*

Now that the NFL season is over (does anyone watch the Pro Bowl?), and I’ve finished my 6th franchise season in Madden ‘09, I’ve been thinking of the things that need to be added, changed, deleted, and tweaked for Madden 2010. Even though this year’s product was better than last year’s, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

So in no particular order, I give you 25 things that should be fixed for Madden 2010.

Use the ESPN License! – Why pay for a license you will never use? ESPN could be used to significantly improve the presentation. Imagine: pregame, halftime, postgame, and weekly wrap-up shows, complete with highlights and stats, presented by the NFL Live hosts. Play by play from the Monday Night Football crew.

See more after the jump…

Use created/franchise/fantasy draft teams online – We can export our franchise teams to play an exhibition against our friends on the same console, but what about online? I’d like to see how the 2012 49ers that I have built match up against Jon’s 2012 Patriots.

Online Lag – Due to continuing lag issues that it seems EA will never fix, there are too many times that either a fair catch is not called even though I’ve hit the button 64 times and my returner fumbles the ball when hit, or my opponent has called a fair catch but didn’t actually go into the waving animation, so I get a penalty for fair catch interference when I drill the guy. Same issues with kicking. Online strategy changes so mush because the kick meter is near impossible to time because the lag is always different. Short kickoffs, punts, and the inability to even think about trying a moderately long field goal are issues we should not have to worry about.

Celebrations – I actually liked the celebrations this year: team specific celebrations, the ability to steal your opponents celebration, and area specific celebrations. However, the ability to choose and map celebrations to specific buttons would allow me to do the Ocho Cinco river dance or Dirty Bird on demand.

Commentary/Ask Madden – as always, it gets repetitive in a hurry and is sometimes completely inaccurate. How many times have you used the Ask Madden feature to pick your play, you hear something to the effect of: “You just need to run some clock. Remember, the other team still needs two scores”, and the score is 13-10. Or: “The running back got blasted in the backfield” after a 7 yard gain. How hard is it to record some more dialogue? Every game I hear about how Frank Gore overcame his injuries in college to become a superstar type of running back, or my receivers didn’t have great combine workouts, etc.

EA Backtrack – I think this feature is very interesting and can especially help gamers new to the Madden series. My issue with it is that the breakdowns are not usually all that accurate. I’ve been told that a receiver was open, which he was, but only because the DB covering him broke off the coverage after I threw the ball. I think EA can definitely tweak this to really teach people about coverages and timing.

Free Agents – How is it that your offer is only accepted for consideration if its in the top 3, but you can’t see what the best offer is? When’s the last time an agent kept his client’s other offers secret? Some sort of help that allows for educated offers would be much better than blindly increasing the offer in the hopes it gets accepted. Why are there players that I was outbid for available as free agents at the start of the next season?

Trades – I shouldn’t put a player on the block, be offered a draft pick, and then have the trade rejected once I accept it because the other team’s roster is full. A player needs to be included in the deal to come my way, or the other team needs to drop a player to execute the trade.

Salary Cap – Other than my first season, I have not come close the cap. Either I’m the greatest GM ever or the player salaries should increase proportionally to make it challenging.

Salary Negotiations – All contracts should not automatically be back loaded. I should be allowed to front load it or balance it if that fits within my strategy and cap situation. There should also me some mechanism (like a meter) to show how likely the offer is to be accepted. At this point it’s easier to just offer what the player wants rather than try to negotiate to save cap room.

Receivers Running Sideline Routes – Receivers run out of bounds on their sideline routes far too often, or go into some wacky animation where they jump, slide, or don’t put their foot down in bounds. When a receiver runs out of bounds and then comes back in to catch the ball, it’s a penalty. It’s not right when you use the Playmaker to adjust the receivers route and he runs 10 yards out of bounds and ends up wide open when he comes back.

Forward Progress – The ball spots need to be more accurate. When a receiver makes a catch a yard past the first down marker, gets hit and driven back 5 yards, the first down should be awarded. When a receiver runs a comeback in the end zone, catches the ball 3 yards deep but his momentum carries him out of the end zone, it’s a touchdown, not 4th and goal from the one when he gets tackled. Pretty basic stuff.

EA Highlights – Not a bad feature, but I want to be able to just save the replay and adjust the camera as I see fit to better see the play. I frustrating to want to save some wacky play but none of the camera angles give you a good view.

Custom Soundtracks – I really like the idea of having specific songs play in my home stadium. For example, when my team creates a turnover, I want to hear “Been Caught Stealing” or “Give It Away Now”.

Challenges – At this point we should be able to select what we want to challenge. It’s such a waste of a timeout when you challenge a play because you want the fumble reversed, but the game shows a replay of the ball spot. Let’s take the guesswork out of challenges.

Rewinds – Eliminate rewinds entirely. It’s not football when you get do-overs.

Animated Sidelines – I want to see coaches, players, and assistants roaming the sidelines. I want to see players catch errant throws out of bounds. I want to see a coach bet bowled over when players go flying into the bench. I don’t want to see generic 300 pound players wearing number 12.

Super Bowl – This should be an event, not just another game as it is now. We need to see celebrations, confetti, the trophy, the MVP award. It’s just not satisfying to watch three players celebrate by putting their hands in the air and then exiting the game. Let’s change the stadium each year too. I don’t want to play the game in Tampa forever.

Game Saves – Why can’t I save a game in progress? Even if it’s just at the end of each quarter or the half, it’s better than losing the game entirely when you get an invite to play another game or your wife insists that you pay attention to her RIGHT NOW.

Practice Squads – It’s hard to keep rookies on your bench. They end up as a backup, and thus don’t improve because they never play. Give us the option to keep a practice squad where players can improve slightly and let us more easily replace injured players. An option would be to increase player ratings similar to the bumps players get from certain coaches. For example, if you keep a WR on the practice squad, his awareness and route running get bumped up because he has knowledge of your team’s system.

Player Names – Record as many name combinations as possible. I don’t want my entire team to be referred to by their numbers because I’ve played so many seasons that all my players have been made up.

Classic Uniforms – I want every uniform for every team. I want the Patriots uniform that only has the three pointed hat on the helmet. I want the 49ers old silver helmets. I want the ridiculously ugly blue and yellow Eagles uniforms. I want the Steelers yellow helmets and the old, plain Green Bay and Detroit jerseys. While where at it, I also want the ability to change the uniform for the CPU controlled team so I can have a true throwback game and the ability to use these uniforms online.

Adjust Sim Game Length – It’s unfair that I play 5 minute quarters and the rest of the league gets simulated 15 minute quarters. The stats just don’t match up when it comes time for awards. Let us adjust it.

Crowd Noise – The crowd does nothing for me in this game. I want them loud when I’m on defense. I want them to boo when I turn the ball over 4 times. I want team specific chants such as Denver’s “In-com-plete, (Wah-Wah-Wah)” and New England’s “That’s good for another Patriots… FIRST DOWN!”

Franchise Score Ticker – I want to know how the other games are going in my franchise. If I’ve got the 49ers in fight with Arizona for the division in the last week of the season, I want to be updated on the Cardinals’ score throughout the game. Give us sense of urgency and familiarity with what’s going on throughout the league.

I know it seems like a lot to ask for 25 updates in one installment, but it’s not. If you’ve been playing Madden for a while, you’ll notice that almost everything on this list has been done before in some fashion. It’s pathetic that so many quality features that have been in football games before have been dropped out of laziness. There is no excuse for dropping a quality feature for a game and then bringing it back a year or two later as an “update”. These features should be in every football game from now on, period. Implementing these features will get Madden on the right track, proving to fans that EA and Tiburon care about more than yearly roster updates.

Discuss: What changes/improvements would you like to see in the upcoming Madden game?