Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by bomza

I really, really, really would like to know who came up with the "strategy pad" idea and decided THAT would be one of the new things they actually took time out to program into the game this year instead of one of the hundreds of decent actual "football" suggestions I read in the forums this past year.

My assumption as to the intention is that many new and casual players felt intimidated by the many pre-play controls Madden has historically had and EA did their best to try to simplify it. The sound of it is that they didn't fully realize that, however.

Downloading the demo nowish.

[FieldMarshallP1]

It is absolutely sad how far this game has fell from grace. I would buy this game yearly and since 92. When madden get back to where your using skill and football knowledge to win rather than glitches cheeses and exploits due to poor game design is when i will purchase. Its sad for me to say that this is the first year since 92 that i will NOT be purchasing madden; i can get over the hype and not fall into it.

[HittinAgenda]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skyboxer

Quote: Originally Posted by HittinAgenda -GameFlow is worthless without gameplanning. As well as it should be. IMO the whole point of getting Gameplanning was to fix the terrible Ask Madden...(Now called Gameflow to simulate and O coordinator calling plays)..... by letting us pick the plays for each situation. I like the idea and reasoning behind it.

Game planning could have been a completely separate (and sorely needed) feature IMO. With GameFlow being the only way to access your Game Plan, you lose out on control. Sure, you essentially set the frequency of a certain playcall by ranking the play higher when you assemble your Game Plan, but you don't have the option to change this once in game. Thus, your essentially treating every opponent the same unless you have a separate Game Plan for them.

Audibles should come from your Game Plan.....

[str8artist]

Quote: Originally Posted by DaveDQ

This demo is an odd experience. On one hand the pace of players seems smooth and natural, but on the other things seem to twitch so much it creates an unbalanced feel to what's going on on the field. Players are sliding into blocking assignments. I literally watched my guard slide to the left right in front of my QB. It's almost like an "ends justifies the means" scenario. He should get into that position but the manner in which he gets there looks so awful. A good example of how off the movement is is with running the ball. My RB ran 7 yards and then Pro-Tak kicked in. The run to about 6 yards felt ok, but then all of the defenders twitched so quickly into the group tackle and then their response to the motion was way off, bouncing off of a tumbling running back that had no positive motion. It's just a very odd looking scenario. Passing the ball feels good. It still seems that receivers get far too much separation on slants, making it easy to gain big yardage. Having gameflow calling the plays with its very dumbed down language while using Manning is silly. You are telling Manning how important this play is and how it will develop? It's silly and the slightest experienced Madden player will dismiss the feature. Obviously the strategy pad on the defensive side of the ball is broken. By the time you pull up the pad the ball is snapped. This may have to do with accelerated clock. The CPU is snapping the ball when it should, you just approach the line too close to the clock running low. One thing I noticed about the demo (in comparison to the concept of making games playout faster and in half the time) is that maybe the game is playing faster, but it feels so boring and out of place. All the neat things like "J-E-T-S" is in there, but it just doesn't mesh into a seamless experience. Even with Gus Johnson calling the plays, he'll yell out, "He's going fo it all!" and then he casually says, "Touchdown..........Colts." It makes the game fell so sluggish and unresponsive. Overall, I think the demo confirms what many have said. Madden is just in a very stale state right now and while some things have been added to enhance that experience, they just don't flow properly into the game to make it seem like a quality NFL experience.

good write up.. I agree, it is just stale to me.

Both offenses look the same, nothing stands out in the playbook to separate team philosophy

Broken tackles 80% off the time.

Player model look smaller than college players and cartoonish

Gus- "He passes, He runs , He scores, He picks it off"... I guess Gus is not programmed to say names.


Beside that they took everything good from Madden 10 and did not add on enough for me to buy this year.

[tweety21]

im loving Madden this year although not many new features the gameplay is much improved and just feels right. And for the 1st time in a long time theres not many BUGS out of the box. The broadcast cam is a great way to view and play the game. Hope u guys grow to enjoy it also

[Hassan Darkside]

Demo Impressions, played one game on All Pro as the Jets taking on the Colts
The good:
Gus Johnson is 3x better than Tom Hammond, much more exciting and lively

The atmosphere is good, the cheers, authentic stadium music, lots of cool cutscenes

The new locomotion engine

Gameflow really speeds the game up

No fight for fumble

New kicking meter

The bad:
Graphics/lighting are inferior to NCAA. These players look like high schoolers out there on the field.

Locomotion isn't as tight as NCAAs

Gus Johnson sounds like he's having an orgasm on EVERY PLAY

The new audible system/strategy paid SUCKS. It's awful and makes calling audibles and hotroutes more difficult than it should be. It's also useless on defense because the QB always snaps the ball too quickly.

Peyton Manning only threw 2 incompletions the entire game, including jump balls that Revis couldn't touch for whatever reason

This game suffers from cheap DB play like NCAA does, where the DBs run your receivers routes better than your receivers do

Gameflow didn't seem like it was executed real well by the CPU. Perhaps if I actually made a gameplan it would be different.

Pro-Tak/gang tackling didn't trigger as much this year or as it does in NCAA. I think I saw maybe 2 gang tackles the entire game.

[xylocaine]

Quote: Originally Posted by DaveDQ

Obviously the strategy pad on the defensive side of the ball is broken. By the time you pull up the pad the ball is snapped. This may have to do with accelerated clock. The CPU is snapping the ball when it should, you just approach the line too close to the clock running low. .

I noticed this too, in previous madden I could with 6 motions move my DL, LB's and CB's before they even got to the line of scrimmage, now with speeding up the game and adding this ridiculous Dpad "strategy pad" even if you go as fast as you can, and don't accidentally push it in the wrong direction, you still only have time for one adjustment. It's kind of like madden 10 and trying to get players in place for FG or xtra point against the computer.

This isn't simpler or deeper by any means. Really alot of the features this year seem to appeal to the casual fan, and I'm not really seeing what the die-hards that would frequent OS will find appealing other than the AI tweaks and the refined engine etc.

[tweety21]

Quote: Originally Posted by str8artist

good write up.. I agree, it is just stale to me. Both offenses look the same, nothing stands out in the playbook to separate team philosophy Broken tackles 80% off the time. Player model look smaller than college players and cartoonish Gus- "He passes, He runs , He scores, He picks it off"... I guess Gus is not programmed to say names. Beside that they took everything good from Madden 10 and did not add on enough for me to buy this year.

In the retail GUS says names so dont worry!