[gpe1975]

So I've been playing NCAA this year instead of Madden. This is a 1st for me. I didn't even purchase Madden. I played them both in the Game Stop and NCAA played a better game of football.

However, a friend of mine brought Madden over to play during the commercial breaks yesterday. I played one game and had the same "meh..." feeling about the game I had the first time I played it. Then I let my two friends play a game while I sat and watched. I don't know if it was because watching instead of playing causes you to look at the game differently or if it was that I had been watching real football all day, but I said to my friends after watching a few series, "Wow, this looks NOTHING like a real game of football!"

The fact of the matter is, other than the field and stadiums, Madden NFL 11 (and NCAA 11 for that matter) look and play almost nothing like a game of football. The players move, look and react nothing like their real life counterparts.

* Chris Johnson looked slow. I repeat, Chris Johnson looked slow. He was faster than the other players, but compared to the real life CJ, his legs looked like they were stuck in cement.

* The players do awkward things before during and after plays.

* Balls are thrown consistently directly into the hands of the defense, but the ball bounces off of the DBs hands so there are not too many interceptions. This has been in Madden for... I don't know... forever? Why not adjust QB accuracy ratings or DB cover abilities? If a ball hits a DB in both of his hands, he should intercept it about 80% of the time, not 10%.

* Once again, if a DB doesn't see the ball coming, he cannot put his hand directly in the path of the ball and knock it down. He actually has to turn his head and see the ball.

* The announcers are simply horrible. I told my friend that if the announcing cannot be improved and continues to sound awkward and forced, they should just take it out altogether and go with a different approach. Why not go with a "at the stadium" approach with only the PA announcer and not TV crew?

I watch a clip of NBA 2k11 and while it is not perfect, it at least resembles a game of basketball. MLB The Show looks a lot like a real game of baseball.

My suggestion for EA to get back in the good graces of football fans would be to scrap the entire game and start for scratch. This game is still suffering from having to build on top of the first Next Gen Madden game, which was absolutely terrible. Since Next Gen, it has always felt "off". Developers have a much better idea of how to use the xbox and ps3 now that starting from scratch and making a new football game from the ground up would be better than building on top of this atrocious mess.