Madden 11: The Decision - Kushmir's Blog

Kushmir's Blog

Madden 11: The Decision

Posted on September 24, 2010 at 02:43 PM.

(17)

Well. The Day has come. The time has come for The Decision.

We've got to decide if its fruitless to expect Madden to be anything close to a playable football game for the hardcore like myself, and whether its time to pack it in. Or whether this patch has undone many of the Evils of zero defense.
To their credit EA Sports has stayed true to their 9/23 deadline. They've released an 88MB download that is supposed to address the laughable defense more than anything else. Now we have to stay true to ours. We'll test this gameplay extensively to see if it meets our standards on defense more than any other. If not? we'll give them the three words that they've so frequently visited upon us.

MAYBE NEXT YEAR.

Except that "next year" will be three years probation. That's right, we'll be on a well-deserved Madden Vacation. Many hardcore fans are fed up with the gameplay shenanigans and we'll cast the first stone. EA's Madden will go on three years of probation from our blog (and my ps3) if the gameplay is not up to our standards--meaning that the next year we'll even consider picking it up will be Madden 14--and even then, it'll have to include all the features we know we should have in the Next-Gen. If future versions of Madden don't have proper collision-detection, individual coverage audibles, full rosters and all the other features they've had plenty of time to implement? We're gone for good--or until the exclusive license expires. Stay tuned Gang--the patch notes are below.

* Fixes a bug to allow friend invites to ranked games
* Generally making pass defense more effective
* Reducing number of broken tackles
* Fixing user blitz exploit(s)
* Tuning injuries
* Tuning CPU & GameFlow play-calling logic
* Improving play action blocking
* Improving kick return blocking
* Improving online connectivity issues with kick meter lag, media streaming, etc.
* Random stability improvements
* Miscellaneous gameplay balancing

Comments

# 1 Scriptures22 @ Sep 24

My decision came after last year's Madden and playing this year's demo. "Maybe. Next. Year."

# 2 turftickler @ Sep 24

Well, I was so frustrated that I traded my copy in this morning. First it's NBA Elite 11, now Madden 11. What next?

Give me real football!

# 3 stlstudios189 @ Sep 25

EA has to deliver so much next year but, most of you will still be dissapointed

# 4 Beastly Wayz @ Sep 25

Tottally Agree, although, I have already put them on Probation. Next step, banning them like the Reggie Bush "USC" era. I am done, no more pre orders. This year was a complete wack job. Every year I inch further and further away. I can honestly say without changes "Patches" I can no longer support Madden Football. The only part I do not understand is how can the NCAA series and Madden be light years different than one another......

Hopefully EA can win me back with Hot Pursuit, lol

# 5 H to the Oza @ Sep 27

I made the decision after 09, the gameplay hasnt improved much since so why bother shelling out 60 bucks for a subpar football game? not worth it

# 6 aldrichdesigner @ Sep 27

It's funny that I saw this today, I just got done selling my copy of craigslist last night. I didn't even need to try the patch. The patch needed to make the defense significantly better and based on initial impressions, it was very minimal if any. Which is just unacceptable. Not to mention for the hardcore gamer there was absolutely no new feature. Every new featured catered to the grab and go gamer. And frankly if I wanted to play grab and go football then I would play blitz. I want a full featured sim experience.

Franchise needs lots and lots of updated features, this is where much of the replay ability rests besides ranked games. And since the game doesn't feel like a chess match in the slightest, those aren't even fun.

Madden 10 was far from perfect but at least it was somewhat balanced. There is no such thing as a low scoring game in Madden 11 and that's just stupid. Sure my 12 year old neighbor is having fun racking up points left and right but that's not believable. If you want to cater to them, that's what rookie and pro are for.

# 7 bigsmallwood @ Sep 27

I won't be buying Madden again until it plays like NFL football (or 2K at the least...which happens to play a great game of NFL football.

# 8 Stikskillz @ Sep 27

Madden should have done the same thing as NBA Elite 11...go back to the drawing board.

# 9 Kushmir @ Sep 28

cancelling nba elite 11 was the right decision. FACT: madden 12 faces similar scrutiny next year after "going casual" and freezing out the hardcore this year in Madden 11.

# 10 falconfansince81 @ Sep 28

if it wasn't for online franchise i'd be playing ncaa 11, if anything the patch made buzz zones and defensive positioning worse. i'm actually giving up more yards since zones seem to be played closer to the middle rather than patrolling and defending the sidelines. pre-patch & post-patch is comparable to the coke-pepsi taste test...yeah theres a difference to some but for most its placebo.

# 11 vonndaguru @ Sep 28

I just don't understand y ea will not fix the broken tackles to were they are believable n the cpu is still tremendous at getting off blocks and making tackles.

# 12 vonndaguru @ Sep 28

I just don't understand y ea will not fix the broken tackles to were they are believable n the cpu is still tremendous at getting off blocks and making tackles. I'm pretty sure tht my d line is capable of making one on one tackles.

# 13 thbends @ Sep 28

Oh how short our memories are. Madden 11 is not perfect but it's way better then Madden 09. Give them some credit. Last year with Madden 10 EA took a huge step forward. This year not so much. At least it's a playable game of football compared to the past. This is coming from a hardcore 2k5 guy too.

# 14 bigsmallwood @ Sep 28

I will be playing NFL 2K5 until.......