Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

[fillyfill]

This seems like a big upgrade from last year. It feels much smoother. But the replays don't start from the LOS. I hate that. They should have figured that out. It seems small but if I make a good move early in a long run, I can't see it.

[big_larry]

This demo is lame, Ncaa Football 11 is way better. First off they run way too slow (I know you can change the speed), auto sprint doesn't even work! They dont accelerate through the holes, they just jog through them, the new kicking meter is lame, I thought the more power you give it the faster the accuracy is suppose to go?! Not in this game, the bar goes the same speed up and down. The defensive backs and line backers got rockets up there butts, the line does not form a pocket like in NCAA football 11, and I hope there is a way to shut the offensive coordinator the heck up!

The best thing about this game is that it seems like the db's do not run the route for the receivers like the do NCAA Football 11. And im not a NCAA Football fan-boy, I haven't bought that game since 2005, ive been wasting my money on Madden, looks like this year ill be buying NCAA Football, but I wont give my final judgment till the real game comes out, ill rent it, play with my Cowboys a few times, and see how I feel then.

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dirtybird52

i will never try game flow cuz tha only reason i play madden and ncaa is to prove i could be a deffencive cordinator in the nfl gameflow is the wortst idea ever. the game play is alittle better there is finaly timing in the passing game and run blocking but there is still poor oline dline interaction and no double hit tackles i give it a b- and 2010 got a f

You do know YOU can set up the gameplan that gameflow would then use.
So it would be based off your plays for each particular situation.
I love the gameplanning and it's been a loong time coming since the days of FPSFB.
Hopefully it gets deeper and deeper each year.

Not going to base my purchase on demo though.....

[gusjohnson]

I don't think I will ever use gameflow. I did notice they call unsportsmanlike conduct on hits out of bounds though. The game is solid. The presentation is spot on and the framerates are smoother than NCAA. EA did a good job capturing the feel of the NFL with the sounds and the fans. This game is still lacking a soul though and is pretty cookie cutter Madden. Nothing really creative here. The kick meter change and the d-pad are just kind of changes for the sake of it. There is nothing wrong with the game. It plays fine. IT's as solid as ever. But just something about it. The gameplay isn't what i would consider kiddy, but it is lacking that extra something. If you like Madden this is probably the best iteration of it, but I'm not sure if the improvements really warrant a purchase. NCAA this year has problems with framerates and their online ranking system. I'm wondering if EA has removed certain plays this year as well. The graphics really aren't that much better. Last years game looks and plays fine. Why pay more money and have all these features locked out so EA can charge you more for a game that really isn't doing anything creative whatsoever? EA is basically a machine. Where is the soul in this game? Where are the creative juices?

[GiantBlue76]

I'm going to be as objective as I can here.

Being a harsh critic of Madden (And rightfully so the past 6 years), I was actually excited to play Madden after playing the NCAA demo. The fluid gameplay in NCAA impressed me and the game felt exciting. After playing the Madden 11 demo, I am completely deflated. Felt exactly like past games and it was incredibly boring. There are times when the crowd noise just goes away entirely, even if the score is tied or you are winning as the Jets. The commentary is very disjointed and disappointing. The animations are very jerky and stutter a lot. The strategy pad is an **** fail on defense because once again, the cpu QB snaps the ball immediately after getting to the line. An embarrassing flaw since it was a problem for the past few years. Now it's back. The warping WRs and LBs ARE still in the game. To be honest, I didn't find much of anything good to say about it.

Like I said, I really thought the NCAA gameplay was outstanding so I was really excited for Madden. Played nothing like it. Not smooth like NCAA and the player models didn't look nearly as good. Considering this was the year of gameplay I find that pretty frightening. Maybe they did some work, but the game doesn't feel any different and it doesn't show in the final product.

quick summary:

- CPU quick snap
- impossible to get to the QB without him getting rid of it
poor throwing animation from Peyton Manning (looks like he is throwing off his back foot every time)
- Stuttering animations
- no fluid control like NCAA has
- disjointed commentary
- moon ball still there when passing
- leaping LBs are back

I might jump on the NCAA bandwagon even though I'm not much of a college football fan. Great job by the NCAA team this year. Madden team, not so much.

[HittinAgenda]

Quote: Originally Posted by JWO35

The demo gets a 4/10 from me man.......man!

LOL! I think we're going to be hearing a lot of this man-man stuff this year. Funny at first at least....

I started my first game on All-Madden since that's what I use in my online franchises. After going down 28-0 in the first half to the Colts, I switched to All-Pro. I've got the same feeling as last year with All-Madden being too hard and All-Pro being WAY too easy. I guess that's what sliders are for.

Too early for me to present my full impressions, but I'll comment on a few things:

-The strategy pad won't be a bad thing once you get used to it...at least that's what I hope. It seems like EA's been tweaking pre-snap controls every year, so there's always some learning curve. This is the steepest learning curve to date, but I think once you get used to hitting →↑↓ then ↓→↑ then ↓↓→ on each down, you'll be right back into the flow (yes, a tinge of sarcasm here...sorry, mods, don't tase me).

-Defensive ends continue to be amazing in zone coverage. I like reading defenses and exploiting the holes, but even with Mark Sanchize's LAZER ARM, I was unable to get the ball past Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis when they dropped back.

-The batted ball is LIVE! I had a nice user controlled play on a deep corner endzone route that Manning had nicely dropped to D. Clark. I'd user controlled the LB into coverage for a good attempt at an INT, but found that while my LB can't catch, Clark's great hands were able to swipe this up while keeping his toes inbounds. Frustrated at first...but this looked very real and believable. If my LB never catches the ball though...that'll be a different story.

-GameFlow is worthless without gameplanning. Granted I was down big going into the 3rd quarter, but calling streaks and corner strikes on every play makes me think that EA used "telemetry" from lobby games instead of watching film and talking to NFL players and coaches when they were putting this feature together.

[permanent1]

Quote: Originally Posted by bms715

First two games on all star and lost both of them..probably because I haven't played in a while but w/e. The gameplay, for the most part, is like Madden 10. The running animation and catching animations are slightly improved. Seeing way too many motion shift catches though. Also, the blocking on kickoffs and punt returns still seems to be flawed. Presentation is also slightly improved...the field looks very realistic. The commentary, well let's just say that the game is better played with commentary off.

Completely disagree on pretty much all of what you said but really disagree on the commentary.

[CcAaRrSsOoNn3]

Pretty solid for me thus far.

Just waiting on the Online co-op