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"PLAY NOW"

Selecting "Play Now" will allow you to quickly start a game against the computer or a friend with parameters you set. You can control the time, the weather, time of day, and of course, which team you play as and against. Otherwise, "Play Now" has little use to the Madden player who really wants to immerse him or herself in the truly epic parts of the game. Use "Play Now" for a quick scrimmage, to test out a team or a player, or to get a feel for a particular field, weather condition, or other controlled variable that you may want to try out for size.

"FRANCHISE"

This is the reason many people purchase Madden year after year - so you can have the chance to play as your favorite team through many seasons. Once you select this option, you will be asked to load a franchise or begin a new one. Choose your poison, then continue on to playing what is arguably Madden's deepest feature.

"NFL SUPERSTAR"

If you ever imagined playing as just one particular player, a player which you create and control the ultimate destiny of, than this feature is what you want to explore. You can literally pick any position, create a player at that position, and then play only as him in-game, without even calling any of the plays on your team's behalf. Remember, this can be on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. But you don't only control the player on the field, but also off the field as well. Give it a go, and you'll see exactly what we're talking about. Madden veterans will be more familiar with this style of deep gameplay. What's more, if you cultivated a player in EA's NCAA Football 10, you can import that character into the world of Madden!

"PRACTICE"

It is what it says it is. What did you expect?

"PLAY ONLINE"

There's really little to explain here - if you're a person who loves to play Madden online, then this is the option for you. Selecting this with an internet-ready gaming console will allow you to join other Madden players on the network, where you can putz around with friends or make some new enemies by showing them just how well you play the game. Remember, things get competitive online, so it's only for the well-prepared!

"FEATURES"

The Features part of the game is a little more straight-forward than Game Modes, simply because it's all about unique creations on your part, as well as a look into team rosters and historic teams. The real intriguing part of this section is creating your own player, team, playbook, or roster - this might be confusing, or even useless, to some, but we highly recommend you give these features a go at your earliest convenience. They add some depth that you'd be surprised to find in a football game.

"MY MADDEN"

The My Madden section is where you can find all of the Madden Cards you won in the game by accomplishing certain tasks in your various games. For instance, you get points for a long touchdown throw, a shutout, a blocked kick, or a quarterback sack. These points all go towards your Madden Cards, which is a collector's dream.

On the other hand, you can also find a stat book, as well as coaching strategies, gameplay settings and system settings. This is the section where you can also load and save various in-game "personalities." In other words, you can load a franchise here, or save it. You can do this for all of your Madden saves at this very location. You can also find the Ring of a Champion here, which will chart your save file's progress through the annuls of Madden completion. As usual, depth, depth, and more depth.

"SKILLS DRILLS"

Skill Drills is an option featured in Madden NFL 10 which allows you to work on some in-game fundamentals to become better at the game. The better you are at the game, generally, the more worthwhile your Madden experience will be. Therefore, Skill Drills may be a part of the game you will want to spend some time with, especially if you're new to the series. However, even veterans will find worthwhile exercises in Skill Drills, considering some rare plays and rare occurrences happen with regularity in Skill Drills.

"EA SPORTS EXTRAS"

This section can be explained with the utmost simplicity - you can check out all of your in-game extras (both unlocked by you and automatically unlocked) featured in Madden. In the beginning of the game, all that will be available to you is the Season Preview and the game's credits, but as you unlock things, so too will features be unlocked here.

I cannot take credit for this guide. Please visit IGN.com, for continued coverage for this MADDEN 2010 Game Guide.