Madden NFL 2010

So it's Sunday and it's the Superbowl and I'm going to play a short bit, so here goes Madden NFL 2010.  Developed by Electronic Arts and published under their brand of EA Sports, Madden 2010 was released in August 2009, in preparation for the 2010 season.  It is the first Madden game with two plays on the cover: Pittsburgh Steelers Strong Safety Troy Polamalu and Arizona Cardinals Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald. 


The Madden franchise has been releasing NFL football games since 1990 with updated rosters each year.  Instead of just playing one of the game's many features (from Superstar Mode to the Franchise Mode), I'm starting the simple Exhibition between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers.  The Steelers are a much stronger team in the game (seeing as they won the Superbowl the year this game was developed) while the Packers are a good, but not great even though they got to the playoffs.  Here we go!

So I win the coin flip and get the choice of kicking or receiving and seeing as I'll be playing for a short time, I'll be receiving.  As the fact that we're in Green Bay, it's snowing in the game, which should make the passing game more difficult.  It makes me wish that Green Bay had a better running game or at least that the Steelers didn't have such a strong defense.

But anyways, I get a good return: my blockers open a large space and I'm able to get to the thirty-three before getting taken down.  At this point I have to call my first real play, but the game has the Ask Madden feature where the computer chooses a set of plays for you to decide from, so I can very plays without having to worry too much about it.  That in fact doesn't make the game any easier as my drive still stalls out with some incomplete passes and a halted run force me to punt it away. 

Perhaps I'll be better at defense.

Nope!  Roethlisberger throws a great pass to a wide open Hines Ward for an easy touchdown and they are up by seven.  So I try again for a better drive but I actually do worse, the first play is an interception that gets them close to another score.  But the bad news isn't up yet... they hit Aaron Rodgers as he threw the pass and he's injured.  So doing my best, I hold the Steelers from a first for the first two downs before getting the bad news that Rodgers will in fact e out for the rest of the game with a lower back strain.  It isn't all bad though, as I'm able to sack Big Ben on the next play to force a field goal and only be down my ten.

So the next drive starts and my quarterback is now Matt Flynn, so my options are highly reduced.  I decided at this point to go to what I'm good at and start throwing lots of short passes, picking up small chunks of yardage.  After five in a row, I'm feeling good, but then three misses causes my drive to stall out yet again.  Another pick and the Steelers are now up 17 to zip as the first quarter ends.

So it's time to go now as I'm off to see hopefully a much better game.  Adios for today though.