Madden 10 Info Hub

Hats off to Ian Cummings and the guys at EA Sports for keeping us up to speed on the behind the scenes happenings for Madden 10. They have been posting a ton of content regarding game engine changes and more for the last couple of months. We are going to take all of the content and condense it here in an ongoing thread as we prepare for Madden 10 to hit in August.

Procedural Awareness - The ability to procedurally manipulate the spine, neck, head, and eyes on a player in the game; and also add layers of emotion/attitudes on top of those manipulations. So how does this translate into the game? DB’s will have to have a true line of sight on the ball to make a play. WRs will look inside at the ball pre-snap. DB’s will track the WR’s eyes in man coverage and track the QB’s eyes in zone coverage.

Player Ratings Changes - the team took every rating in the game and scaled them up/down in a way that uses more of the scale. They “stretched” the ratings.  The overall rating for an average player will be less now, but superstars still have elite ratings. This generates a more sim-feel for the game play. Progression in franchise mode will be affected by this as well. You’ll see breakout stars and burned-out former start have larger overall shifts.

QB Improvements - the QB has gotten a real overhaul this season which we are very excited about. A new technique called Layered Blending will animate the QB’s throwing motion separately from the rest of his body. The result…QB’s will be able to get the ball off under pressure without “suction sacks”. New sim elements will result as their is a risk/reward for trying to get off that last second pass. You might see a flying duck.

New QB Ratings - 5 new ratings have been added to the QB position. For years we’ve just had Throwing Power, Throwing Accuracy & Awareness. These new ratings should make each QB play a bit differently.

1. Deep Ball Accuracy: Determines the accuracy on deep passes (streaks, deep posts, etc)
2. Medium Passing Accuracy: Determines the accuracy on medium passes (outs, corners, etc)
3. Short Passing Accuracy: Determines the accuracy on short passes (quick smash, flats, etc)
4. Throw on the Run: Creates a modifier to accuracy when the QB is throwing on the run. Every QB will take some sort of accuracy hit when throwing on the run, but a QB that has a high rating here will take a smaller hit.
5. Play Action: Determines the ‘effectiveness’ of Play Action for a QB, i.e. how often they can fake out or freeze the defense (which is obviously weighted against the defenders Play Recognition ratings)

In addition, you’ll see more variety in the types of passes that are throw. You’ll see some incompletes that are overthrown, or put into the dirt (a la McNabb). Good QB’s will try to throw to spots that the DB’s can’t get to. Poor QB’s will attempt to do so, but with less success. Also, if you push down, the throw won’t go over the receiver’s head. It will be underthrown if an inaccurate pass is determined.

Defensive Assignments/Matchups - this feature is back from Current Gen. Now you can assign a defender to shadow a specific receiver no matter where he lines up.

Route Running & Man Coverage - all receiver route animations have been replaced with ones that have more realistic acceleration and movement. Elite/Agile receivers can cut quicker than ones that are less skilled.

Defensive reaction time also has been adjusted the same way. This will be more animation driven instead of having a time delay before the defender reacts. Hopefully this will result in more realistic man coverage, ie. Champ Bailey can shut down a chump receiver in man.

WR/DB Jostling - When I first read about the new ratings philosophy I must admit that I was a bit nervous about how hard it would be for an average corner to cover a guy like Moss on a streak route. If speed alone were the determining factor, the bigger ratings gap would result in Moss being open every single time. However, EA Sports added an additional tool (take from Fifa actually) that should even things up. The defender will use his body to bump and disrupt the receiver so he can’t just run flat out down the field.

Press/Release - this mechanic has also been updated by EA Sports

• Deleted all previous chuck animations, re-added all newly captured ones from scratch
• Extended animation time drastically on chucks. Longer times not only mean smoother looking animations, but also more realistic reactions from WR’s (i.e. they can’t catch the ball while they are being chucked so you can’t fire the ball over to them immediately and expect them to catch it as they aren’t looking for the ball)
• Removed all animation compression on chucks to increase visual fidelity.
• Found and fixed an issue where the players wouldn’t align properly during the chuck animation which used to cause some weird clipping through each other
• Fixed “suction” bug where press animations could start from like 5 yards away.
• Fixed a bug with zone / man chuck animations…in 09 the chucks for DB’s in zone coverage looked just like chucks in man coverage.
• Re-factored the logic for win/loss on chucks based on the route the receiver wants to run. For example, if the WR wants to run inside (i.e. a post), and he “wins” the press, then he won’t just pick an animation that beats the press, he’ll pick one of many press beating animations that actually break inside. Likewise for defensive players…they’ll push the player inside if they “win” the press in like a Cover 2 situation.
• Made it so chucks can now start from stand

Other Route Running Changes

• Added support for slip & fall receiver cut moves in bad weather (chances of slipping come from route running ratings)
• Re-factored all double moves to work correctly, including defensive cut moves that are companions to the WR cuts (chances of defender biting come from man coverage rating, play recognition rating, as well as boosts for correctly timed pump fakes)
• Added all new start play WR animations with more realistic acceleration (should be visible in the videos above)
• Added “pop” animations where say a LB will hit a WR as he comes across the middle through his zone

Pro-Tak Animation Technology

“Utilizing the all-new Pro-Tak animation technology, Madden NFL 10 on the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3, ensures that the Fight for Every Yard doesn’t end until the whistle blows.  This new game changing animation technology delivers steerable tackles, three to nine man gang tackles, as well as the ability to fight for fumbles at the bottom of a pile. In addition, Pro-Tak allows quarterbacks to avoid the oncoming rush to extend a play, or step into the pocket to deliver an in-stride pass.  With Pro-Tak, the authenticity of NFL game days is brought home like never before in Madden NFL 10.”

Madden 10 Wildcat

The Wildcat formation was a hot commidity in the NFL during the 2008 season. Many teams used if effectively, none more so than the Miami Dolphins. With the addition of Pat White to their roster, the Wildcat might see even more play in 2009.  Larry Richart, one of the playbook designers at EA Sports, has put together a preview of the Wildcat.

Larry did a great job showcasing not only the plays from real NFL video footage, but he also included cuts of the motion capture for the plays AND video footage from Madden 10 itself.

He breaks down 4 major plays:

• Power
• Jet Sweep
• Counter
• PA Jet Sweep

You can bet these plays will be burning it up on Xbox 360 & PS3 consoles come August 14th.

Check it out here: Madden 10 Wildcat by EA Sports

More to come…