“Madden NFL 10″
Genre: Sports
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
Platforms: PlayStations 2, 3 and Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS, and iPhone
ESRB rating: “E” for everyone
Release date: Friday, Aug. 14
Price: $59.95
Grade: A

The most aggravating, frustrating aspect of August, besides its high heat and humidity, is its lack of a national holiday. For many of us, the month named in honor of Caesar Augustus, first emperor of the Roman Empire and all-star nose tackle, merely fills a sweaty block of calendar space between the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

That’s why the release of “Madden NFL” about this time is so welcome, because its annual debut gives separation-anxiety-suffering football lovers and sports game fans something to cheer about — and maybe skip work one or two days to explore.

This year, “Madden NFL 10,” the 21st installment in the great sports series, has plenty to explore. Besides the overall look of the game, which improves each year and now is as close to mimicking reality as ever, there are assorted player-control upgrades, expanded franchise features and a whole lot of eye candy, the latter mainly for folks who prefer flash to substance.

Among the control upgrades, most noticeable is Pro-Tak, an animation boost making gang tackles and quarterback protection in the pocket better resemble the real thing. EA Sports also slowed down each play’s action a bit from previous years’ “Maddens” to give gamers an accurately paced playing experience with fewer inconsistencies and smoother play execution. (As an example, now the playing field scrolls beneath an athlete’s feet in better rhythm with each running stride. In past “Maddens,” the athletes appeared on occasion to skate instead of run their routes.)

In franchise mode, online gamers can marshal up to 32 players through real practice sessions, playing schedules and drafts, and the online co-op mode allows two gamers to do this simultaneously (though the on-screen rendering can be a tad jerky if the players run distinctly different patterns). Draft trading, perhaps the dullest feature for anyone who’s interested in just the game, has been streamlined and is less onerous. And as for the eye candy, EA Sports has added more sideline action, stadium ads, bouncing cheerleaders, Super Bowl uniform patches and field decorations, screaming coaches, postgame interviews of players and enough simulated TV coverage to make the real TV networks probably wonder how many more “Maddens” before the real and fake games are indistinguishable.

Therein lies a contradiction: The more things that are added to “Madden,” the more that things can go wrong. Sure, it’s great to gang-tackle a distracted quarterback who botched the play, but Game Guy noticed a couple of times when this happened the gang’s feet didn’t all move in the same direction on the ground, or on the ground at all. Occasionally too, players toeing the sideline stumble out of bounds for no apparent reason. And it’s kind of funny to sometimes see a coach appear to scream into a phone when there’s no phone in his hand, or a player talking to a colleague on the sidelines who suddenly vanishes like a cast member of “Bewitched.”

Worse, the simulated TV play-by-play and halftime/postgame shows lack vibrancy and flair, with Chris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond returning to offer in-game analysis and again sounding as if they’re reading from high-school book reports. (Points for consistency here though: The game-calling by Al Michaels and John Madden in previous editions tended to repeat line for line across several seasons, so it’s clear that audio realism isn’t high on EA Sports’ list of priorities.) Off the field, the wrap-up show with Fran Charles and Alex Flanagan is stiff and uninspired. No offense, but EA may want to work harder on polishing these presentations if it insists on adding more of them each year.

Overall however, the good outweighs the bad in “Madden NFL 10″ by a considerable amount. The quality of the graphics (except on WII and DS) seems yards ahead of last year’s “Madden,” and the advanced strategy controls (for example, an on-screen button sequence eases player recovery of fumbles) allow gamers to tweak plays in ways previously unimagined — sauce for the goose among football lovers.

Better still, an iPhone app of the new “Madden” will debut shortly after the title’s initial release date, so fans can make calls, take calls and call plays with equal ease.

Suddenly, August is starting to look a lot cooler.