Madden 10 Patch #2: Did It Save the Franchise? Inital Impressions About Patch #2

I just got finished with a game of Madden 10 (on PS3) and I have some good news and bad. The good is EA has done a decent job with this patch. However, the same issues that many gamers have with Madden on higher difficulties (and not as much but happen less frequent on lower difficulties) still exist (holding cells, lineman getting beat off the snap, defensive backs swatting the ball and tackling at the same time, and the dreaded jumping airwalking catch just to name a few). Here's the link about the second patch and what it updated: Madden 10 Second Patch.


The Good:

• Flats are no longer as abusive: Linebackers and Defensive Back cover the flats pretty good. LBs (and DBs to an extent) break toward the running back and snuff out flats. *Side note: I had the Philadelphia Eagles and the CPU was the Tennessee Titans with Versuz2's settings Pro difficulty and CPU skills all at 100.* My stat line with Brian Westbrook, 10 catches 150 yards and a touchdown (that came on a 67 yard play to the flats). The flat routes that I normally would check down to weren't available (nice zone defense and the patch to thank) and I made throws that I normally wouldn't attempt.

• CPU runs a hurry-up offense under 4 minutes: I think that available on day one, but whatever the case, Vince Young had his men up at the line around the 30 second point on the play clock and hike it at between 25 and 27 seconds.
  

• QB sacks before the ball is thrown: This is great on Pro setting, however on All-Madden they still throw the ball down with zen-like precision. *Side note: Second game was between Colts (me) and the Seahawks (and their hideous lime green jersey).* I have yet to throw a ball out of a sack yet. I know that it can be done, but I need to figure out the timing and animation to do it from.

• Replay Length Increased and More Key Play Replays: This was something that I had wanted fixed in Madden 09, but it's better to have it now than not to have it at all. If you have a breakaway touchdown, then this is awesome. My (somewhat) minor complaint is when a tackle is made when the player is tackled while crossing the goal line. It still has the cutoff and looks unnatural (from a broadcast perspective). The other fix to replays was to add more 'big' play replays (i.e. converted 3 downs, sacks, and interceptions). It adds a little more to the presentation, I could have done without it, but it's there.
  

• Pursuit Angles "Fixed": CPU Players still take 'the less optimum' route to the ball carrier. For instance (referring to the Eagles/Titans game), I was running an inside zone running play and when I break to the outside there's the safety and a corner back (it's hard to picture without picture, so bare with me). In a real football play the lead corner would come down at angle and force the RB toward the sideline (in effect ending the play without giving up more yards) and give the safety a chance to finish the play (best case scenario). Instead, he and the safety are running parallel with each other (the safety is ten yards ahead of the play) and the corner runs toward the safety giving me more room to turn up the field. However, on All-Madden they make the 'correct' football play, with motion-shifting, time shift tackles, etc.

• Chain Gang Cutscenes Reduced: Pre-patch, the chain gang comes out on EVERY close play and measures the yards gained. We know that there's two sets of first down markers (the 'official' first down markers and the 'ones Madden acknowledges'.) Sometimes, you know that you've gotten the first down by clearly crossing the marker, but the 'Madden' first down marker says otherwise. Now, the chain gang appears on plays that are too close to call (even though I know the outcome based on what cutscene is shown).

• Players 'actually' blocking: This shows up on the Pro setting (players maintaining their blocks), however those who know about All-Madden know that blocking does not exist.
  

The Bad:

• Hitched animations for Wildcat: In goal line QB draw situations, I can understand that. Now EA has ruined the Wildcat formation. The HB Direct Snap is pretty abusive and I think that they should have focused more on that than the Wildcat. I wanted to see what changes were made to the Wildcat (referring to Eagles/Titans game), so I called two plays; one was QB Power which I ran successfully, the other QB choice was effectively blown up before it was snapped. Without that hitch animation, Jeremy Maclin gets around the DE and gets a nice 6-10 yard gain, instead hit for a loss. I'll do some more testing with Miami's Wildcat and let y'all know if it hurts or helps it.

• Best of Both Worlds Not Fixed: This animation can be fixed, as evidence see the hitched animations topic, but we know EA is busy with Madden 11, so I had hope that it would be fixed, but it wasn't. Apexisfree is probably gonna made a video about this not being fixed.
  

• The Airwalking Catch Still Exists: I really hate this animation, even more than BoBW. We know in real life that catch is impossible to perform, let alone attempt. Again something else Apex is gonna talk about.

• Holding Cells Still Exist on All-Madden: If you don't know what a holding cell is look at my blog about fixes madden needs to make.

Conclusion:

I haven't tried out the franchise mode stuff yet, because of the issues with the core gameplay. I'm pretty sure it works, I'll probably try within the coming weeks. Madden 10 is still needs some things done to make me stomach playing All-Madden once again. All I want is an accurate simulation of football, and apparently EA is STILL attempting to simulate football (since Madden 06 at least to me). I'm pretty much done with Madden and I won't be getting Madden 11. I would reserve judgment to when the demo comes out, however I've seen this story before and the outcome is going to be the same. Lies about EA Tiburon improving the game, only to find out more flaws are exposed. I'll play some games of Madden to get my football fix in. Until Backbreaker comes out, my football fix will be watching games on Sunday with my folks. The last Madden that I bought was Madden 08 (with Vince Young as pitch man) and it was completely different from the 360 version. Madden 10's very slow might be the equivalent of how Madden 08 (on PS3) ran. That was maybe the most fun I had in a football game since the 2K days.

This is Kennedy singing out and remember the power that we consumers have can have an impact on everything. Also anyone who makes Ian Cummings or his team go into depression is a good guy by me. Later!!!