One of the major new features in EA Sports’ Madden NFL 10 is online cooperative play -- in fact, it’s new to the Madden franchise as a whole. It’s a pretty big deal; until now, you could only play competitively online, and losing to an experienced player by five touchdowns in the second quarter is no fun.
But don’t take it from me. The game’s Lead Designer, Ian Cummings, was gracious enough to speak with me at the EA booth on the E3 show floor. He explained why online co-op is so important, and he also discussed numerous other improvements and additions in Madden NFL 10. That includes 32-player online franchise and the much-heralded Pro-Tak animation system, two more firsts for the series.
Hit the jump to check out my interview with Cummings, which was shot and cut by our resident video wizard, Rey Gutierrez. Sadly, he didn’t forget to include the long touchdown run that I gave up to the Eagles’ Brian Westbrook. *sigh* For more on Madden NFL 10, which launches on August 14th, check out my preview from April. (I’ll soon be putting up some hands-on impressions as well.)
Samit Sarkar is a founding Destructoid editor and go-to Sports guy. Samit was the son of the Duke of Knees, rescued from a burning village in the afghan desert by a golden condor. He is an ace Backgammon player and lost both legs in a whaling tour. He lives for free in a nursery in Scotland where he teaches monks how to capture butterflies without hurting them.
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Goddamn, this is looking more impressive each day. Been a while since I've been truly hyped up for a Madden release, but this might be a preorder and day-one purchase.
And did I hear a hint of 11 vs. 11 at the end of the video, possibly at some point in a future game? So long as they can put in some effort to make the lineman positions more interesting. that could be fucking sweet.
This actually looks pretty cool. Also, no matter how many game devs I meet or read about online, I'm still consistently shocked at how young this industry is.
I hope that all future videos with Samit feature either:
(1) A ticker at the bottom full of horrible grammar; or
(2) Everything Samit says subtitled in leet speak.
The biggest thing Madden needs to do, like most other sports games, is at least teach the uninitiated how to play the game. I don't mean press X for hurdling the line or right thumbstick to juke...I mean teach actual strategy. Many sports games come with steep learning curves that I believe is the biggest cause to people disliking them so much.
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12:00 PM on 06.11.2009
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Also, thanks for more Madden 10 coverage. This game is actually getting me excited for a Madden game, something that hasn't happened in awhile.
But off course, people will always ruin it.
And did I hear a hint of 11 vs. 11 at the end of the video, possibly at some point in a future game? So long as they can put in some effort to make the lineman positions more interesting. that could be fucking sweet.
I hope that all future videos with Samit feature either:
(1) A ticker at the bottom full of horrible grammar; or
(2) Everything Samit says subtitled in leet speak.