There’s a new weekly recap show inside franchise mode which gives a quick rundown of the week’s games, which is a nice addition but to really go that extra step there needs to be highlights from the other games – much like what NFL 2K5 did back in the day.

Finally, one last gripe – and it’s something that I have wanted to see in Madden for years: the way the ratings matter now is a big, big deal – so why is it so tedious to find the ratings you need for the position you are viewing? The interface designers at EA need to make it so that when I look at, say, a defensive back I should immediately see every relative rating for a DB. I don’t care what his Throwing Accuracy is or how well he kicks. I want to see speed, awareness, tackling, coverage abilities, etc. And it needs to all be immediately visible.

On the presentation side, the game looks great – the animations and gang tackling and even the physics are all vastly improved. The play by play grates after a few games, but the crowd is clearly into it this year and if you have surround sound you’ll be treated with a lot of banter from fans.

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.

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