Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

[TreyIM2]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

These are my impress-shuunnnss...of the PS3 demo:

Pros
- Dual controls feel almost as good as in NCAA 11

- WR separation seems to be on point but the jury is still out on that one

- 2D crowd looks much better with more detail and not always looking like a full stadium of people.

- Stadium sounds are great

- Face scans are pretty darn good

- Gameflow is OK but I can't see myself using it.


Cons
- Strategy Pad is a WTF feature. I'm getting used to it by making it more intuitive in my own mind but it is not an intuitive feature and changing the pre-snap controls from the way they used to be to this was not a good idea.

- Kick meter is a regression. The kick stick was just fine. It added an extra, more realistic element of pressure of making a kick and especially in this day and age, the kick meter really looks like a dinosaur.

- QB getting off far too many passes in the nick of time and even some passes are completed such as 40-50yd bombs by Manning while in the middle of getting hit.

- My playaction plays seem to net sacks or hits, immediately, on my dearest Sanchize. I don't get that.

- Locomotion is not as good as in NCAA 11, to me. U don't have to properly line up your hits and tackles like in NCAA 11. That element in NCAA 11 is what adds a fun factor and skill level. Strafe is more important in NCAA 11 because of that, too. I feel more like a defensive player when it comes time to tackle someone. Madden is still "automatic" with tackling. I just don't like that now that I've been exposed to what NCAA 11 has going on in that department.

- I need the right stick to be used for pump faking like in NCAA 11. That is a GREAT move by the NCAA 11 team PLUS it actually can and does work! U can pump fake in the direction OF YOUR CHOICE and the D bites! That little diddy makes me really feel like a QB in NCAA 11. R1 just doesn't do it for me in Madden.

- False starts becoming THAT problem again, mama!

- Cutscenes seem to start at the wrong time or awkwardly and that Gatorade deally at the 2 min warning is ridiculous, just bogarting whatever greatness that may have happened on the field, at times.


Eh, I'll leave it there because it's just a demo. I know some of these things won't change and maybe certain things will be polished in the final version but as of right now, being an NFL guy, I have to say that NCAA 11 has me hooked and Madden isn't looking great against it, thus far. Still picking it up, though

[RaiderKtulu]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

I'm not praising it as the holy grail lol. I actually think that the loco on Madden is slightly better, because 180 degree changes in direction are met with the player actually coming to a stop in Madden. I never saw that in NCAA.

If anything the holy grail of locomotion is 2K for me. Like we discussed before, to me, the more realistic, the more fun the game is. I am liking Loco in Madden/ NCAA, but I'm not loving it by any stretch. Still too arcadey for my tastes, but a definite improvement.

Yeah... locomotion is a step in the right direction, but I'm not about to praise them for finally doing something that another game did better 6 years ago.

That's really why there's so much negativity towards this game in the first place. On it's own, it's a pretty good game. I mean, if Madden is the only football game you've played for the past decade, this year is going to be another improvement and all is well. Unfortunately, if you played 2k5, Backbreaker, or Head Coach (seriously why the heck isn't this game merged with Madden's franchise mode?) then it's incredibly frustrating to see Madden still lagging behind in certain areas.

[dannyheck]

LOVE the SLOW speed setting. Although game defaults to Pro level, I prefer SLOW on ALL PRO level. Makes running the ball seem more realistic. Graphics are amazing, especially helmets. Cannot wait for game to come out. I may finally do a midnight run, instead of waiting until the next day.

[masterdre]

I personally LOVED the demo. I like the running styles better in Madden, then NCAA. In NCAA, it looks like they slide across the field. I don;t like how my receivers are ALWAYS open in Madden, though. In NCAA, my receiver won't be open, but I'll user catch it for a big gain. Other than that. I have Madden above NCAA.

[GiantBlue76]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

Yeah... locomotion is a step in the right direction, but I'm not about to praise them for finally doing something that another game did better 6 years ago.

That's really why there's so much negativity towards this game in the first place. On it's own, it's a pretty good game. I mean, if Madden is the only football game you've played for the past decade, this year is going to be another improvement and all is well. Unfortunately, if you played 2k5, Backbreaker, or Head Coach (seriously why the heck isn't this game merged with Madden's franchise mode?) then it's incredibly frustrating to see Madden still lagging behind in certain areas.

Could not have said that better myself. My sentiments exactly.

[Only1LT]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

Yeah fight for the fumble is still there. Continue playing the demo, you'll see it. I don't hate it myself; I just opt to turn off the button mashing of it.



Oh, but I wasn't saying you were praising NCAA as the holy grail LOL. I was just pointing out that people here (at this point) seem to like NCAA's locomotion a lot more than Madden's b/c it's more loose. I didn't think that would be the case at OS. I thought people would like Madden's more like you and I do.

I think that illustrates why Madden will never imitate that APF2K8-ish locomotion. Most people won't have fun with it.

Ah, ok. Now I got you. Maybe that is it. I said before when I was giving my impression that I couldn't understand why people loved NCAA's and hated Madden's. They are pretty much the same other than the fact that, as I mentioned, changing direction has more of a penalty on Madden than on NCAA. To me that's a good thing.

I liked the way 2K handled change of direction. It was tied into how far off center you moved the stick. If you didn't want to be severely slowed down when changing direction, then it was in your best interest to gently and slowly go from left to right. If you went from all the way left to all the way right too quickly, then you would basically just stop. This is control scheme mimics real life and I wish they used this in Madden. I thought that they were going to when I heard they added analog control, but alas, they didn't.

I don't know. I really value realism. Like I said, to me realism equates to fun. I don't mind being punished for doing something that isn't humanly possible. Punish me baby lol.

[popo324]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

Best madden I've played so far

[RavensALLDAY/Niners]

The cpu breaks way to many tackles..but overall the game is decent and a little improved from last year

[sanders]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

I've been playing NCAA non-stop since it came out.

First thing I noticed witht the Madden Demo is that the camera seemed to be higher and looknig down more. Felt off. In NCAA you see it some but its not bad but in Madden its like any defender in 5 yards of a tackle falls down. It's pretty aweful. I played a game of the demo until the 4th quarter and immediately put in NCAA. I don't watch college football or have ever owned NCAA in the past but the game just plays fun football.

I went from definitely picking up Madden because NCAA was so good and now after playing the demo I'm back to not buying Madden. Just seems like at least a step down from the game I already have.

[JayInSaratoga]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

I finally had a chance to play a game on the demo last night and I didn't find the strategy pad to be as big a problem as others did. I only really had one issue, and it's regarding game flow. While I really enjoy the game flow feature and am looking forward to putting together game plans in my franchise, I don't like that the only way you can see the play art is by viewing it on the field after you committed to using the game flow selected play.

Being colorblind and the game using what I believe is a shade or orange/red to show pass rush angles on defensive plays make it very tough to see who is rushing the passer on defense. One advantage to choosing plays from a list is that they are displayed in those little boxes where the color of the lines stand out very well from background of the diagram.

[Danimal]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

Anymore console BS from anyone is going to lead to your exit.

[speels]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

Played my second game last night and really only have one issue, which can probably be solved if I play the game more, but on every 3rd down, or any play for that matter, that the CPU ran a cross through the middle, they always, always made a completion. Then I would run the same plays and their DB actually made it to the spot of the throw before my player did. I tried Man and zone d-fence to stop this but it didn't seem to matter.

Other than that, which was quite upsetting as they had a drive of 5:58 with 16 plays that went 4/5 on third down conversions, I think Madden looks like it could get a lot of playing time this year.

[Gocats11]

Im really impressed by the demo,player movement is smooth overall game play is great.Cant wait for the full game,im ready to play as my Cowboy's and whip up on some Giant,Eagle and Redskin tail.

[xylocaine]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

I'm surprised more people aren't complaining about the Drew Bree's huddle pregame ritual for EVERY team this year???

[monkeybutlerz]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

<hr style="color: rgb(57, 57, 57);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> From my experience with the demo, here is my quick review (All-Pro settings):

Pros:
+IMO the running game is improved mainly due to blocking AI upgrades. I found it to be more enjoyable than in the past.

Cons:
-Play-action pass is nearly an insta-sack (and yes I set up the play action, I run a lot).

-Extremely hard to get sacks. I used varied blitz packages and sometimes even when unblocked and laying a hit on Manning, he would still make extremely accurate throws pretty far downfield. I probably have 2-3 sacks total in 5 or so games on the demo. I understand Manning delivers the ball quickly and has great awareness, but he's been getting off throws where I have him dead to rights.

-DBs drop too many balls.

-Strategy Pad

-Quite a few stutters when transitioning between animations. Game seems to struggle at times with selecting which animations to use, which gives it a somewhat herky-jerky feel IMO and it yields results which look very unnatural. Proper physics based collisions and proper multi-player tackles would be a very welcomed addition IMO. Suction blocking and tackling are still prevalent and they will continue to be a problem until a new physics engine is implemented.

I also had an ugly onside kick attempt experience, where, upon review, the kicker never actually came into contact with the ball, which then defied the laws of physics and did not touch the ground (floating about a foot off the ground after an initial downwards trajectory) and then suddenly warped upwards straight into the receiver's hands.

Being exclusively an offline franchise guy, the gameplay did not blow me away to the point where I feel like I need to pick the title up and will most likely wait and see what they do with my favourite mode for next year's game.