Bill Abner's Review

[roadman]

Most people know who Bill Abner is, but in case you don't, a bit of history. I've been following Bill's reviews since HH baseball. He looks out for the sim gamer and will let everyone know the good, bad and ugly of each game.

He has gone on record criticizing EA's game and praising other games. He is probably one of the most fairer reviewers since the internet age.

As a respect for Bill, please don't copy and paste in this thread.

Thank you.

http://www.gameshark.com/reviews/3589/Madden-NFL-11-Review.htm

[BobbyColtrane]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

He is the man. One thing that bothered me was the fact that peyton manning didnt decline at all. I wonder if this happens in every franchise and if it can be patched.

[joec63]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

very fair review

[ab2c4]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

He is probably the most honest reviewer I have ever come across. Good read.

[MAzing87]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Nice and very fair review. I liked this review far more than that destructoid review. Franchise mode is what I always liked about Madden, and still, I'll rent it.

[UNC_Pete]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Does Madden included tuner sets like NCAa? If so I wonder if progression can be tuned?

[ChicagoChris]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

I don't have the game yet but after reading Bill's review, it confirms what I thought. The game is tuned out of the box for the casual player.

Bill goes on to say that sliders will help the overall experience.

[Only1LT]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Not saying that this review was bad, but again, it looks like another case, to me, of the written review and the score, not going together.

To me, you can't lament the fact that Madden doesn't play a realistic game of Football (the reviewers words) and then give it a B+, which is close to a perfect score. Maybe I'm missing something, but as a supposed simulation Football game, isn't playing a realistic game of Football, Madden's job one? And if the reviewer thinks that it fails at THE most important part of the whole entire game, by what logical conclusion do you deem it worthy of an almost perfect score.

I'm not even bashing the game, I just don't understand how these reviewers... review.

[pdawg17]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Not saying that this review was bad, but again, it looks like another case, to me, of the written review and the score, not going together.

To me, you can't lament the fact that Madden doesn't play a realistic game of Football (the reviewers words) and then give it a B+, which is close to a perfect score. Maybe I'm missing something, but as a supposed simulation Football game, isn't playing a realistic game of Football, Madden's job one? And if the reviewer thinks that it fails at THE most important part of the whole entire game, by what logical conclusion do you deem it worthy of an almost perfect score.

I'm not even bashing the game, I just don't understand how these reviewers... review.

That's why I always take the time to read reviews rather than look at scores...it gives me a much better idea of what I will like/dislike...

[Bill_Abner]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Not saying that this review was bad, but again, it looks like another case, to me, of the written review and the score, not going together.

To me, you can't lament the fact that Madden doesn't play a realistic game of Football (the reviewers words) and then give it a B+, which is close to a perfect score. Maybe I'm missing something, but as a supposed simulation Football game, isn't playing a realistic game of Football, Madden's job one? And if the reviewer thinks that it fails at THE most important part of the whole entire game, by what logical conclusion do you deem it worthy of an almost perfect score.

I'm not even bashing the game, I just don't understand how these reviewers... review.

First off, Roadman I appreciate the kind words but quoting the review isn't a big deal. Quoting the whole thing would be, but cut and pasting snippets of any article isn't something to get worked up over.


LT, I lamented that Madden doesn't play a realistic game out of the box. It doesn't. The default All Pro game I find heavily slanted to the offensive side of the ball.

The review does say in many places, however, that if you spend time adjusting the game settings that it plays significantly better. Many of the most frustrating game elements can be rectified to some extent after messing with the sliders. So I think it would be disingenuous of any review to completely slam the gameplay without offering up the other side of the coin -- that you can alter it.

[roadman]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Not saying that this review was bad, but again, it looks like another case, to me, of the written review and the score, not going together.

To me, you can't lament the fact that Madden doesn't play a realistic game of Football (the reviewers words) and then give it a B+, which is close to a perfect score. Maybe I'm missing something, but as a supposed simulation Football game, isn't playing a realistic game of Football, Madden's job one? And if the reviewer thinks that it fails at THE most important part of the whole entire game, by what logical conclusion do you deem it worthy of an almost perfect score.

I'm not even bashing the game, I just don't understand how these reviewers... review.

I understand what you are saying. He also said that playing 11 makes 10 obsolete.

He also said with slider tweaks, the game plays a good game of football.

There isn't a sports game in console or pc history that I haven't tweaked sliders to play a more realistic game. I think that is the norm for offline franchise players.

Just my thoughts.

[dubz]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

First off, Roadman I appreciate the kind words but quoting the review isn't a big deal. Quoting the whole thing would be, but cut and pasting snippets of any article isn't something to get worked up over.


LT, I lamented that Madden doesn't play a realistic game out of the box. It doesn't. The default All Pro game I find heavily slanted to the offensive side of the ball.

The review does say in many places, however, that if you spend time adjusting the game settings that it plays significantly better. Many of the most frustrating game elements can be rectified to some extent after messing with the sliders. So I think it would be disingenuous of any review to completely slam the gameplay without offering up the other side of the coin -- that you can alter it.

Care to share any of your slider changes in the Slider forum? I would love to know what you came up with.

[roadman]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

Care to share any of your slider changes in the Slider forum? I would love to know what you came up with.

He does mention sliders that need arranging in one of his blogs on Madden.

[PGaither84]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

One thing he has been way off base with is the kick/punt returns. They are CRAZY easy this year. Defenders don't stay in their lanes to contain you with default sliders. Theere are a number of videos exposing the weakness in the return game. i have had MANY returns against the computer, and last night I was playing a ton of OTP and returned one kick and or punt per game with the exception of one game.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Re: Bill Abner's Review

One thing he has been way off base with is the kick/punt returns. They are CRAZY easy this year. Defenders don't stay in their lanes to contain you with default sliders. Theere are a number of videos exposing the weakness in the return game. i have had MANY returns against the computer, and last night I was playing a ton of OTP and returned one kick and or punt per game with the exception of one game.

Has anyone figured out any good sliders that fix this problem?

For me Madden has always had the opposite problem: user returns were always swallowed by the CPU (this is old gen Madden I'm talking about).