Madden NFL 10 reviewed rather well this season, with most critics hailing the game as an improvement over last year's effort, particularly in the realm of animation and graphics. The game's poor commentary was a sticking point that bothered some more than it did our own reviewer, resulting in lower review scores from a couple publications.
The Critics Agree
"This is the best looking Madden game yet. From the look of players on the field to new presentational elements, you've never seen a football game like this before. EA Sports has gone to great lengths to make the experience of playing a standard game of Madden as close to the real thing as possible and it shows." – Nate Ahearn, IGN
"After enough snaps, it's safe to say that Madden 10 eclipses last-year's effort in content, realism and value. Gameplay? Well, that's more of a wash when compared to last year, and gameplay holds a lot of weight. Regardless, Madden 10 is a very complete football title worthy of its own bust—alongside Mr. Madden—in the Pro Football Hall of Fame." – Dale Nardozzi, TeamXbox
"In the end Madden 10 is the kind of game that I am willing to look past the shortcomings because what's good is really, really good. It's worth putting up with the faults in order to experience what works. It's a landmark game for the folks at EA because even though Madden 10 is a very enjoyable game on its own it gives you a glimpse of how good this series can be further down the development road." – William Abner, GameShark
The Critics Disagree
"The commentary is by far the weakest aspect of Madden NFL 10's presentation. As always, Chris Collinsworth tries his best to make some interesting comments in certain situations, particularly on the special Backtrack replay segments where he breaks down the play and shows you what went wrong. He's not really the problem, but his play-by-play man, Tom Hammond, is absolutely terrible. His commentary is completely bland and lacks any sort of dynamic that gives context to on-field action aside from the most basic observations. And because he's terrible, there's rarely interesting second-to-second commentary or back-and-forth chatter between the two." – Giancarlo Varanini, Gamespot
"It's no doubt the most authentic. The biggest problem is how inaccessible it is. As a Brit who understands how the sport works, and who played Madden back in 2000, the game can still be a mind-bending, frustrating exercise in trial and error." – Wesley Yin-Poole, VideoGamer
The Word on Twitter
"Madden 10 came in the mail today. There goes the rest of my evening" -- Bonethug
"Hopefully about to score my first Madden 10 victory… against a 10 year old. So for either party, a loss will result in a tantrum." -- blindxbrigadier
