Will anybody in the UK bother playing Madden 10 online? After all, American football is perhaps more maligned that any other major sports over here, launched at by rugby fans and unjustly cast aside as complicated and boring. Spend a little time with EA’s increasingly accessible Madden Series, however, and your tune may change. It’s the sporting equivalent of a turn-based RGP, with both players identifying and experimenting with the best plays in order to outfox their opponents. And in respect, Madden 10 online is superb.

As is fast becoming the norm, Electronic Art’s servers are more than capable of handling two teams worth of hulking Americans decked out in pads, and the stop-start nature of the game is ideally suited to semi-relaxed online play. Perhaps surprisingly, too, given its immense popularity, the community on the whole is more intelligent and less obnoxious than the usual US teen crowd. Perhaps the lack of guns lends itself to a slightly more mature audience. Much like the offline play, both teams select moves from a sizeable list, then the offence attempt to execute theirs before the defence can react. As ever in Madden, attacking is more fun, giving you more control and sense o participation, while defending involves guesswork and intelligence, but that’s the Madden template – it’s been working for years, and its not about to change.

Unfortunately, the lack of online leagues (again) and the relative lack of customization options when compared to FIFA is disappointing, but for those in the know, Madden is first class videogame sport, and its online mode matches this. Just don’t expect to be able to hold your own against our Americans cousins without some serious practice first.
[via IGN]