Madden NFL 10: EA Answers Your Questions

Today marks the end of our coverage of the New York City Madden NFL 10 unveiling from a couple of weeks ago. First up, we've got a video feature that Homer put together from the week's fun, including a conversation with fifty percent of Madden NFL 10's cover, Arizona Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald:

You might notice another well-known NFL player in that video, Baltimore Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis. My completely irrational fear of that man proved to be unfounded, as Lewis is as personable as can be. Still, I'm quite certain that he could chop me in a half with a single tackle.

Next up, following on the heels of our NCAA Football 10 reader Q&A, we've got some reader questions answered by Madden NFL 10's Phil Frazier.

I noticed on Madden 09' my WR's tend to stand around when I roll out of the pocket. Unless I hit up on the right stick and create a play-maker my WR stops running at the end of their route or if i roll out before their route ends Its very frustrating seeing my WR covered by CB's and they're both just standing there. (Submitted by DarthxBetonator)

"I think there's two bits of phenomenon that are happening there. One, there are some routes in the game that are designed to stop when they're over; routes like hitches, curls, they're designed to get to an end point and they're supposed to hang out. And, then there are routes like a post, where a guy's going to run a post route and probably continue going or until he gets into what we call a 'get open' phase.

"The cases he's probably talking about are the routes that were designed to go that way and he's right, you can play-maker guys and make them run to a different spot on the field, but what we'll do is, I'll make sure that we don't have any routes that would typically not be an end route. Routes like a post, routes like a cross, but typically they should be broken down into those two different categories, which is realistic to what they do in football."

ARE CUSTOM GAME SLIDERS RETURNING!!!???? We need full customization for Madden Nation!!! (Submitted by Carmen279 and many others)

"Yes, absolutely. We're actually adding more than we had before. I know there was some controversy--internally we called it 'slidergate'--last year. That was an intentional change; we went from a slider solution to an adaptable solution with Madden IQ. This year, we still have Madden IQ, that's still going to be there, but we are going to allow the fans out there that really care about tinkering with their game and really want to customize the experience in the way they like, we're adding things like game speed, which we've never supported before.

"You can actually speed up or slow down the game play experience to your liking. We're adding all the AI sliders back into the game, so you can control how the AI reacts to all these different scenarios. We're adding visual sliders as well, so if you don't want to see the hot spots in the end zone, you can turn them off. If you don't want to see the pre-play minis, you can turn those off as well. The game's highly customizable this year."

What are they going to do about creating a better atmosphere? When my team gets to the Super Bowl, it should feel like a Super Bowl. Also, I would like to see some changes in the crowd reactions. Maybe a little more animation or reaction in regards to big plays. (Submitted by hunter8man)

"Yeah, it's very important to the game experience. We've heard this feedback a lot, that the game play is a lot of fun, but sometimes… they're not into the game because we're not hyping up that moment. Unfortunately, I can't go into all of the details for presentation right now, we are going to blow that a lot out at E3, but I will say that it is a priority for us. We are looking to make sure that games like the Super Bowl feel like the Super Bowl, both from a crowd perspective, from an intensity perspective, from a camera perspective. We are looking to make that a big focus."

Will the artificial intelligence playcalling in Superstar mode be a bit better...A little less repetitive, less plays being called in the wrong situations, etc, etc. (Submitted by metaljeff)

"AI play calling [in] Superstar, and throughout the rest of the game, is getting a major overhaul this year. It's really important that teams run plays like they do in real life. So when teams run the ball a lot, which has been a bit of a weakness for Madden, we want you to feel that way when you're playing Madden. So, when I'm playing against the Giants, I want Brandon Jacobs to be running the ball against me non-stop. That's going to be a focus in all modes, outside of Superstar as well and you'll definitely see those improvements bleed into modes like franchise and Superstar."

Have Madden annoyances (glitches) been fixed i.e. WR running out of bounds and back into play to catch the ball. User defense lining up in the neutral zone without penalty. (Submitted by muvon)

"Well, we're very aware of the glitches that are out there. I'll be one of the first to admit that there are glitches in the game and sometimes--that's kind of a no, no. But we're aware of them, we actually patched a lot of them in the game in September of last year. I know there was a bug where running backs, wide receivers, they would just run out of bounds for no particular reason. We are aware of other glitches as well that we have addressed in the game. All the issues that have been reported by the community, by the hardcore fans out there, we're aware of as well and our QA team is working very hard right now to make sure we don't have any glitches in Madden NFL 10."

The juke, big hit, and truck stick movements are easily some of the best controls, which made me wonder -- Have they considered following the successful model of EA's NHL series, and tried to tie as much of the controls as possible to more intuitive analog stick movements? (Submitted by snake3rules)

"We are doing more with the right stick. As a defensive lineman this year, thanks to our Pro-Tak technology, you can actually do all your moves with the right stick instead of having to use the triggers and the bumpers. All the juke functionality is still on the stick. So, we're almost to a place where you can do virtually all of the different skill moves, with the right stick in the game. There's still a few things like passing that you can't execute without hitting a face button. But, a lot of the functionality you can do, you can do on the stick."

Can I get right into adjusting expences of food, jerseys, ect., in Franchise Mode?
In Madden 09, u had to wait til the end of the season to adjust the stuff. (Submitted by Crazy_Kid314)

"We're talking about one of our bigger franchise enhancements around E3, but I will say this: We're spending a lot of time with what we call the fundamentals of franchise, things like player progression, what we call "stat-gen", which is a result of the games that get simulated.

"That question is referring to our owner mode options. Right now those are reserved for the post-season. It sounds like he's wanting to do a lot of his options pre-season. We're not going that way this year, but you still can adjust all those different things in your franchise mode, as part of owner mode. We have some big things in store from a presentation perspective, that will be announced [soon]."

Will you revamp the Superstar mode? (Submitted by allanjohansen and others)

"You know, Superstar is a great mode because it's allowing you to play from the perspective of a player and we're constantly looking for ways to improve it. We've done a few things this year to kind of streamline that experience. Looking forward, we are looking at the Be a Pro mode that you see in NHL and FIFA. We definitely think they have some strengths there and we are going to look forward to taking some of those enhancements in our game down the road."

I dont know if anybody asked yet but, is madden nfl 10 going to be released on PC and if yes its going to be a xbox 360 port. (Submitted by lucasc130 and others)

"I think [EA Sports president Peter Moore] said it multiple times… there's a lot of PCs out there. We know there's a market for a PC title, so we're looking at that experience, we're looking at the PC market, trying to design a game that would appeal to that audience, as well as solve some of the piracy issues that we see. The fact is that it just wasn't a great business for us [in the past]. So, we're looking at it and we're working on it right now and once we have a solution, we'll be sure to announce it to everybody."

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Finally, if you can't get enough Madden information, check out the Inside EA Sports blog today, where EA Sports' Ian Cummings breaks down Madden 10's Pro-Tak technology to levels beyond scientific. Here's a snippet:

At its core, PRO-TAK is actually a collection of a few animation technologies. Though it stands for 'procedural tackling', we were able to create some new features sharing the technology (that we are also putting under the can PRO-TAK umbrella):
1. Dynamic gang tackling: New never-before-seen tackling engine in a video game that allows up to 9 players to be involved in a tackle – including offensive and defensive players pushing the pile forward / backward.
2. Steerable tackles: Dynamically manipulating tackle animations based on player ratings means the difference between a first down or a punt.
3. All new OL/DL Interaction system: With steerable and branch-able animation technology, we can now create a true dynamic pocket around the QB as well as a true "flow" to the ball on run plays.
4. QB avoidance: Branch-able animation technology allows for QB's to shift around the pocket as well as break out of sack animations after they have already started.
5. Fight for the fumble: Dynamic fumble pileups allow possession to change hands while at the bottom of the pile.

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Got more questions for the Madden team? Leave them in the comments below and I'll do my best to get them answered when I see the game again this week.