Last year was the first year Madden shared the cover with multiple athletes. Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald reprised their Super Bowl roles on the Madden 10 cover. Unfortunately Troy Polamalu was injured in week one against the Tennessee Titans. He made a spectacular one handed interception and a tackle for a loss on Chris Johnson but later in the game he sprained a ligament in his knee trying to recover a blocked kick. He wasn’t quite the same for the rest of the season. Larry Fitzgerald on the other hand was lucky to start all 16 games and posted another Pro Bowl year.

When Drew Brees was asked about the Madden Curse he smothered it:

The Madden Curse has really taken on a life of its own. People just love talking about it and it is what it is, but I look at it as a challenge. I also feel like we’re still destined to do great things in New Orleans. Our work is not done and we still have a lot to accomplish. Our time is now and destiny is still pulling on us, so I feel like destiny is stronger than any curse.

This is football. A high percentage of athletes will get injured. Coincidentally the same year a player is pasted on the cover of an annual video game they do get hurt. I hope for Drew Brees’ sake he has another spectacular year.

Madden 10 screenshot from PastaPadre.com

I haven’t written a Dolfan post for some time now. I even held my tongue when Joey Porter got let go and Karlos Dansby was picked up. This time I can’t resist. The acquisition of Brandon Marshall is the Miami Dolphin’s biggest off-season transaction and arguably the splashiest in the NFL, right up there with the McNabb deal.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t believe Marshall is the silver-bullet. I’m not crowning the Dolphins the Super Bowl Champs like some crazy fans are, but you can’t deny that Marshall adds that deep threat the Dolphins have been missing. He has the size, experience and all around aggressive nature to go up and snatch the ball and break tackles for a touchdown. At 6′ 4″ and 230lbs his size makes him a viable target in the red-zone where he can grab jump balls over just about anyone. Marshall will make Chad Henne look like a much better Quarter Back than he really is.

Brandon Marshall is one of the top three receivers in the NFL with Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. He has been consistent in his four years in the NFL making it to 2 Pro Bowls and piling up 100 receptions in three of his four years. The only problem is that he comes with baggage. He is the very definition of a “Diva Receiva”. He caused havoc last year for Denver and Josh McDaniels while still maintaining a productive season on the field. He’s had problems with domestic violence and driving under the influence. If the Dolphins can hone his skills and drop the drama like the Patriots have done with Randy Moss the future will be bright.

Getting Brandon Marshall was expensive to say the least. Giving up this years second round pick and a 2011 second round pick is like giving up two high potential starters. When it comes to the draft though there are no guarantees. Potential is not the same as proven NFL productivity. Is Brandon Marshall worth $50 million over the next five years? If he stays healthy and stays out of the papers maybe he will be. Acquiring Brandon Marshall is a high-risk high-reward scenario that baffles anyone who follows the Bill Parcells mantra but this move pleases the all important fans.

For the upcoming draft, being without a second round pick I’d say the Dolphins are forced to get a Nose Tackle in the first round so I’d lean towards the Dolphins selecting Dan Williams out of Tennessee. He fits the prototype and played well under the Dolphins coaching staff in the Senior Bowl. In the third round the Dolphins will need to try to get a Free Safety or an Outside Linebacker. If the Dolphins can agree to a deal with Jason Taylor now rather than later they can draft a Safety in the third round. Then try to get an Outside Linebacker in the fourth round. The draft looks grim right now, losing the second round pick definitely holds them back from filling the holes in the defense.

I hate to be undecided about the whole Brandon Marshall thing but it really is a wait and see kind of thing. Of course I like to see the Dolphins front office be aggressive but at the same time if this doesn’t pan out the Dolphins could be reeling from this move for years to come.

*UPDATE – This roster update is now available (02/20/2010).

To recap, the latest Madden 10 roster update removed this years retiring players from the game completely. This includes Kurt Warner, Bertrand Berry and Junior Seau. The roster update created an uproar in the Madden community being the first time players were removed for retirement in the same year they were active. Normally retiring players are simply not including the following years version of Madden. EA Sports simply thought being accurate going into the summer was the best choice but it turns out they are flipping the script in favor of the community decision.

Due to the overwhelming response, we are going to release another update that adds the retired players previously removed back into the game. Our fans have spoken and we’ll do our best to have this update done before the weekend. We also plan to push this update to Online Franchise shortly after it’s ready.

It’s great to see that EA Sports is listening to their fans. We’ll see if this continues with features and fixes going into Madden 11.

Full Story

Twitter users at the game and watching from home and bars around the nation have overloaded the Twitter servers.

The last Madden 10 will be released for Xbox Live and PSN tomorrow (Feb 6th 2010) in time for the big Colts vs Saints game. As you know EA Sports has slacked off this year with their roster updates. In the 20 weeks of NFL football only 12 Roster updates have been released. A couple of the roster updates were actually released prior to the beginning of the season but EA soon retired to their old ways. While this year’s basketball games have seen an increase of roster updates (daily), the uncontested Madden series has regressed.

This final update will close the book on another year of Madden. A year that saw the birth of online franchises (still flawed) and Madden Ultimate Team. I still feel that the Single-player Franchise Mode stats are terrible, and would benefit from adding a simulated game slider. The addition of gang tackling was nice but didn’t seem to play a huge role, not enough to be part of every commercial and advertisement. Sometimes I still see players just fall over instead of joining in and tackling. Here’s to hoping Madden 11 will be a good year. Go Saints!

To get the updated Rosters select Xbox Live or PSN from the Madden main menu then select Depth Chart. Instructions.

Link to roster details

In late 2009, Madden Ultimate Team was announced for Madden 10 as an add-on. The good news is that its finally ready and its absolutely free!

So what is Madden Ultimate Team? Basically its Madden 10 fused with Magic The Gathering. Yea that’s right the 1990s card game. Lucky for you, you won’t have to deal with physical cards. When you start Madden Ultimate Team you will receive a Starter Pack with random cards. Your starter deck includes everything from players and coaches to stadiums and uniforms.

More cards can be purchased in the form of Booster Packs using the virtual coins you receive from playing games with your team. You can even buy and sell cards from other players through the online auction system. EA hopes this brand new feature will breathe new life into the game and add more interest to playing Madden 10 online.

I honestly think this is a unique and interesting endeavor for a company such as EA, however I’m not too sure if the results will be what they are expecting. Turning Madden 10 into a card game doesn’t exactly target their core audience who would probably prefer to just play quick games with their buddies. On the other hand the hardcore audience could really appreciate something like this.

…
We don’t have an exact timeline on when the 2nd title update it will be released, only that it won’t be in October.
…

The only line that really matters is the most disappointing. So hopefully in November we’ll get the second patch.

Patch #2 Details:

• Improvements in covering of the flats
• Improved pursuit angles
• CPU takes sacks more often instead of the last second throws while getting hit
• Worked on eliminating various exploits such as with the RB Direct Snap
• Fixing of problems caused by first patch such as black squares for numbers on some helmets
• Addition of Seahawks alternate uniforms
• Improvements to simmed stats in Franchise mode
• Other updates not specified yet to online, replays, uniforms, presentation, and more

Link

Get your free PS3 download code here

General fixes:

• Added Super Bowl and Playoff Field conditions for Online Franchise
• Fixed False Start Grieving issues with Online games
• Fixed video player issue where video would hang on latent connections
• Improved uploaded highlight quality
• Switched ranked online games to 7 min Q’s
• Fixed random stability issues
• Added Broadcast Cam!

Gameplay Specific fixes:

• Tuned slider effectiveness (Run blocking and broken tackles esp.)
• Changes run blocking slider to not effect special teams
• Made fatigue effect ratings more
• Fixed WR release to where receivers release to both sides
• Fixed incorrect spotting on punts out of bounds
• Reduced/removed holding on kicking plays
• Improved toe drag catch logic
• Improved pursuit angles for outside running plays
• Fixed defenders in pursuit running away from O-Line
• Better play recognition in man coverage
• Fixed double pass online exploit

More info on the official blog

The third Madden 10 roster update will be out next week following team cuts. All NFL Teams must finalize their 53-man roster by 4pm EST on Saturday September 4th. Most likely the new roster will be released Tuesday before the Thursday night NFL season opener.

The rosters should be accurate for the most part unless the NY Jets pull off their deal to acquire the disgruntled Brandon Marshall from the Denver Broncos.