Here are some impressions from someone who played the Alpha build. Keep in mind some of the things that are faulty with the build will be cleaned up before launch.
Now that the info is out - Madden 10 QB play - Impressions
Posted on May 2, 2009 at 11:39 AM. (34) Madden 10 QB Play
Madden 10 QB play from the build we played was the best in the series. Now I’ll go ahead and say this up front so I can get this out of the way. I didn’t have a problem with it, but you were locked in for drop back passes and could not control the QB until he finished his drop. This will most likely be changed. You will be able to control the QB after his third drop step. I really did not have a problem with this at all though. I know it will piss off a number of the tourney guys as well as other style players. However, it is really not as bad as it sounds.
The stretched ratings and signature throwing styles and new QB ratings make a huge difference in the game. With Flacco I overthrew quite a few deep passes, but he had tremendous zip on his out routes. Probably one of the best out routes throwers I played with. Pennington on the other hand has a very slow release and does not get the ball down the field with as much zip as Flacco. I played with Eli Manning and he felt a little different than both Flacco and Pennington. Big Ben and Flacco felt similar because of their sheer size. I did not get a chance to test every QB but I played against some others. Before talking about the ones I played against let me just give a complete list of those that I did play with:
Joe Flacco – had a strong arm and I loved how he zips the passes on the out routes. Overthrew three deep passes on receivers who were open. I even overthrew two screen passes.
Big Ben – has a big arm as well, but release is not really fast. It’s not slow either. Best route I threw with him was deep post routes. Flacco was a little off target. That might be due to throwing to much smaller/shorter WR’s.
Kurt Warner – not as big of an arm as Flacco and Ben, but the touch to Fitz on streaks was pretty. Btw, Fitz is a monster in this game.
Drew Brees – very accurate on every throw. Felt a bit funny moving to a much smaller guy after playing with Flacco and Ben so much.
Chad Pennington – very slow release. Some throws he will make well, but to me he is limited.
Eli Manning – good arm, had some accuracy issues especially when the rumble feature starting kicking in when the Dline got close. This actually was probably what made Flacco overthrow the passes that went to far.
Now let’s look at those I played against:
Matt Cassell – Did not go deep.
Tavares Jackson – he is very inaccurate. I picked him off 3 times in the first half and the backup was in out of the half lol. Deepest pass was an intermediate pass for 17 yards to Rice.
Big Ben – Went deep a couple of times but was defended. Looked a lot in the intermediate areas. Tended to scramble a lot when under pressure. Also did a good job of stepping up.
David Garrard – was used in head to head game with Kane. Was pretty accurate on everything short. Can’t remember him going for the long ball.
JaMarcus Russell – big arm, but inaccurate.
These are the only ones I can remember. The great thing is, EA has nailed some things really well from signature style release animations to accurate stances under center and from the gun, and they have nice drop back animations.
The stretched ratings give the players a different feel in terms of sheer control and strengths and weaknesses. The rumble feature probably needs a little more work but is a very solid addition to let you know when defenders are close by. QB evade has been added, however, I did not get a chance to use it. But from the demonstration it looks really good. You can also throw the ball while being hit, although I did not do that. There were a couple of bugs here in the alpha build that they said they would clean up quickly. Joe Flacco for instance was one of the only QB’s that would throw the direction opposite he was looking. We were promised that that would be addressed.
The slower pass speeds makes a difference, however I think I want them to make this even more prominent on guys with low THP, like Pennington. I also would like the rumble to be more pronounced especially for lower rated QB’s.
In the build I played I was able to scramble out a great deal (from the shotgun) and this was something I was specifically looking to do purposely. This is where we began to talk about the pocket with the developers and emphasized that the pocket needs to set up faster. Scrambling backwards was sorta hard to do (felt very slow and lethargic) and did not feel natural. This is a good thing.
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