Madden NFL 11 Review

[MATRIXakaCHAMP]

look either you are going to buy madden 11 or you are not if you think it plays too much like M10(which i thought was very good) then dont buy it and keep playing M10 but trust me yo will go buy it when you keep hearing others talk about how good it is and if you decide not to trust me you are not hurting EA it will sell without you

[Scottdau]

Great review Steve. Can't wait to this get this game tomorrow. I was not so hype for it last night, but after reading this article I am hyped again!

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

Here is my review of Madden 11. It is better than Madden 10. The gameplay does feel to be more improved, but after I played Backbreaker, I feel like I am missing come realistic collision detection.

The bad:
1. Players slide off of each
2. Ball physics are terrible and look ridiculous
3. Poor collision detection
4. Same 5 tackle animations
5. I hate the camera shaking when players get hit
6. I hate the camera stoppage during INT's (Just let the INT's play out like in real life and stop swirling the camera)
7. Where is the player lock that NCAA 11 has on defense?
8. Animations are too robotic

The good:
1. Graphics are good
2. Player models are better than last year
3. Slightly better gameplay
4. My copy will remain on the store shelves this year (How can this be good you ask?) Well, I save $65.

Surprising and shocking.

/sarcasm.

[bears5122]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

You guys have this rated higher than NHL, NBA 2K, The Show, and FIFA. So is this the best sports game of the year at the moment?

[stlstudios189]

I will agree the reveiw is still super positive I am pumped for this game for the first time since 2005!!! No way the game is a 9 with little franchise improvement but what ever man. Only 4 hours to go

[pietasterp]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

I will preface this by saying I have only played the demo, not the entire retail release game. I can't agree or disagree with the reviewer re: the game content, but it seems to me that the review was much different than what I generally expect from an OS review. I don't want to say it was better or worse, and this is not a criticism per se, but it does seem that the overall tone was much more "IGN" than "OS". There seemed to be a lack of hard-hitting analysis of the minutiae that only OS'ers would care about, such as the already-mentioned near complete lack of detail about the defensive and special teams aspects of the game, and a lack of attention to detail about the mechanics of gameplay. Does the defensive AI start taking away flats/slants if you go to the well too often? What kinds of averages per carry/per game is he seeing over the course of a season? I'd like to hear more about how the blocking has been revamped; is it still "big-on-big", or do the lineman truly zone block?

Of course, no review will address every question people will have about a game, and someone is always going to disagree with whatever number someone puts on the game (which is why I think in-depth reviews should leave out a number...After all, Pauline Kael never finished a review of a Scorsese film with "8.5 (good)"...). I'm also not arguing about the overall tone of the review - after all, if a game is good, the review should have a positive tone. I understand reviewing this game is a thankless job; I mean, you might as well put a big target on your a**, especially in a place like OS, the second you even say anything about Madden. But I feel that on the whole, the review lacked a certain incisiveness and "next-level" depth that I expect from OS. Perhaps the reviewer was under time pressures that we aren't privvy to (don't OS reviews usually take a while to come out, giving the reviewer a chance to thoroughly play-test the game?) or else he was under space constraints (thus not allowing him to go in-depth on every detail). Or maybe he just thought the game was really good and reflected that in the review. I just wish the hard-core sports nerd aspect wasn't given such short shrift in the one place I can normally come to see someone get legitimately upset about improper blocking technique from a fullback on a 1-yard gain. I want OS to be more Tim Kurkjian and less Stuart Scott. But I guess that's really my problem...

[DLaren]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

"The run blocking has been tuned so well that I hardly ever want to throw the ball."

"The locomotion and momentum improvements in Madden 11 feel like a throwback to the Playstation 2 days"

"With the new locomotion engine, the player differentiation is now greater than ever."

"the route running appears to be refined this year."

I am in complete agreement with these observations and these are the primary reasons why I am enjoying this Madden'11 title so much.

[kr3w]

I respect peoples opinions, and I expect the same to be done to mine as well. With that being said; of course you guys give Madden a 9. After playing Backbreaker, and playing the Madden 11 demo, I have no idea how the hell anyone could like Madden 11. The game felt, looked, sounded, and played like complete crap, objectively speaking.

I HOPED Madden 11 would have been better, and I'm disappointed, again.

[bullitt_711]

Well to me just going off common sense the game has to be an improvement over last years game. Why? It's the same game in the core, it looks exactly the same. All they did was do a major patch for it. That patch included gameflow, locomotion, the presentation was tweeked it seems better, protak seems improved, stadiums look better, graphics look tighter, rosters obviously changed.

To me personally the exciting adds for this game is the new rosters and locomotion, the rest of it is nice, but really those are the two that pull at me the strongest, and my Ravens finally getting a stud WR to go along side the cool as hell D Mase.

I think last years game was rated too high though, neither one of these games 10 or 11 is a 7 and neither one I assume (havent played 11 other than the demo) will be a 9 or 10. There both 8 somethings, but again i think it's only common sense this years madden will be better than last years.

I just really dont want to pay $60 bucks for it but Amazon hhas a $20 gift card with purchase that makes me anxious.

The other thing is I know in a month and a half I'll be 24/7 Elite and NBA Jam.

[TombSong]

WOW. I am indeed shocked. Man, the irony. I thought having the devs here was a good thing. This "review"
has shed some new light on that. Is this the price a site must pay to have these guys speak here ?

I have been playing Madden 2011(THE RETAIL VERSION) since Saturday. There are some things I like about the game but man even if I was high on happy juice and promised King Solomons mines, I could never bring myself to write a review of the game like the one I just read.

Pro-tak, locomotion, animations, players skills(abilites) are STILL behind that of older games. The Franchise mode is last years franchise mode, and THE hyped gameplay feature game flow cannot even be used in mulitplayer games online because if you use it, you might as well be letting BOZO the clown call plays for you.

Defensive backs mirroring WR routes and running the route before the WR's(not as bad as NCAA but its there)
You not being able to add on to a tackle and are essentially reduced to being a spectator as pro-tak allows the RB to steam roll through your defense. This is the pinnacle of football greatness ?

There are two old games that already do 99% of what madden has just accomplished and do it better in a lot of aspects and a new game that has those "physics" applied to it for real that the madden guys said could not be done this gen.

With all that said how on earth can the review I just read even be possible ? It aint even about the score, or whether you like the game or not. This goes beyond that. Truth is truth and that review read like one of those late night commercials you see about some 19.99 home gym that will let you look like the Hulk in 4 weeks.

[haljordan73]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

I respect peoples opinions, and I expect the same to be done to mine as well. With that being said; of course you guys give Madden a 9. After playing Backbreaker, and playing the Madden 11 demo, I have no idea how the hell anyone could like Madden 11. The game felt, looked, sounded, and played like complete crap, objectively speaking.

I HOPED Madden 11 would have been better, and I'm disappointed, again.

I have both, and for me it's really no contest, Madden is leagues above Backbreaker

WOW. I am indeed shocked. Man, the irony. I thought having the devs here was a good thing. This "review"
has shed some new light on that. Is this the price a site must pay to have these guys speak here ?

I have been playing Madden 2011(THE RETAIL VERSION) since Saturday. There are some things I like about the game but man even if I was high on happy juice and promised King Solomons mines, I could never bring myself to write a review of the game like the one I just read.

Pro-tak, locomotion, animations, players skills(abilites) are STILL behind that of older games. The Franchise mode is last years franchise mode, and THE hyped gameplay feature game flow cannot even be used in mulitplayer games online because if you use it, you might as well be letting BOZO the clown call plays for you.

Defensive backs mirroring WR routes and running the route before the WR's(not as bad as NCAA but its there)
You not being able to add on to a tackle and are essentially reduced to being a spectator as pro-tak allows the RB to steam roll through your defense. This is the pinnacle of football greatness ?

There are two old games that already do 99% of what madden has just accomplished and do it better in a lot of aspects and a new game that has those "physics" applied to it for real that the madden guys said could not be done this gen.

With all that said how on earth can the review I just read even be possible ? It aint even about the score, or whether you like the game or not. This goes beyond that. Truth is truth and that review read like one of those late night commercials you see about some 19.99 home gym that will let you look like the Hulk in 4 weeks.

My goodness, you think an awful lot of your own opinion, huh? Who are you to say what the review should say, we are all entitled to what we want to think of the game
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[Nza]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

I think the argument there is more to do with the review being overly positive than not accepting another opinion. M11 had plenty of short comings and disappointments known well before release, but the review seems to keep the mention of these to a minimum. I'm sure much of the positive observations and impressions in the review are valid, but there is more to Madden than the good parts.

I use to review games for a living - it was not easy to write a balanced take on a game with the depth hardcore fans of its genre expect. It's also true that pressure exists in the industry to give good scores to big releases - gaming review scores now days hover somewhere between 7-9 out of 10 for probably 90+% of reviews. The pressure the industry applies forces 4/10 games to become 7/10, and 6/10 games to become 9/10. To portray actual 9/10 games, media started adopting .5 scales, i.e. 9.5. It seems the difference between 9 and 9.5 these days is massive when it comes to actual game quality - more than 6/10 vs 9/10.

Combining the two, I find it hard to believe the consensus of OS Madden gamers would see M11 as a 9/10 game, if only because there is so much more that could be done in Madden to only allow for 1 more point to perfection. If everyone tried really hard to outline what they want in Madden and didn't compromise, and compared that to what actually is in Madden, 9/10 seems a little silly.

[SGdirtyburt]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

I thought this reviewer summed things up nicely here:

The EA team has added a new 3 vs. 3 Team Play modes that lets any combination of up to 3 players on each team take on each other head to head. Each squad will be in control of a single offensive and defensive unit. On offense players would control the skilled players like Running Backs, Quarterback, and Receivers, and on defense you can choose the Lineman, Linebackers, or Secondary. While he team play is a cool feature, how many people have really asked for this when the online franchise has virtually been left untouched with little support added to a mode that lack any real depth. The Locomotion engine is great, but will see players “skate” across the field at times causing great tacklers such as Ray Lewis miss tackles on easy plays. The two main problems with the GameFlow feature is plays that are not working being called too often, and the player not knowing which specific play is called on offense or defense. I’m all for EA Tiburon making the game more accessible to the casual gamer, but what are they really learning by using the GameFlow feature if they don’t even know what play is being called? If EA could patch in the name of the play into both the offense and defense it might have a really good feature to teach the casual fan about the real NFL game. In years past, the NCAA Football series has always been the red-headed stepchild to the Madden series, but with all the improvement made to NCAA this year, will Madden NFL11 finally feel what it is like to have the shoe on the other foot this year?

Thanks for the kind words Taz

[sportyguyfl31]

I like the review. I don't see the problem with defense in general. I have used the Texans for most of my games and have kept the offenses in check. Sure I give up big plays from time to time but the major difference from my point of view is I don't feel "cheated" when it happens, unlike Madden 10 when players were warping all over the place. The thing that guys are not keeping in mind is this. Great players play good, and Bad players play bad. There seems to be a misconception out there that everybody can play at an elite level at every position and that simply isn't so. If you have marginal corners and safeties you will get marginal coverage. Ditto for ever other position. You must play to your teams strengths. No more hiding in a cover 4 all game and letting the CPU get cheap interceptions for you. You have to earn them now...

Thats all I got for now fellas

That's music to my ears.

[Blitzburgh]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Review

I understand where you are coming from, but this is a discussion forum. We post things for discussion and discuss what is posted. Now, I agree to come on here and write one sentence that says, "Meh...Madden sucks" is ridiculous. However, rather than it being the hopes of seeing Madden score bad, I think it's more along the lines of a strong number of football gaming fans that are certainly displeased with what this title has done this generation, and from that they would like their thoughts and judgments to be affirmed. There's nothing wrong with that, and seeing this game score a 9 on a site that has traditionally held sports games on a high level of accountability is a bit frustrating.

I couldn't agree more....