I like Madden and buy the game every year, but I still see the same flaws year after year, and have begun speaking out about it on forums, such as operationsports.com.

The reason why 2K football is put on a pedestal is because the 2K series had elements that games wanted to see in Madden. The Madden engine(s) probably aren't capable of doing what 2K's engine(s) were, but the dev team should at least put more emphasis on gameplay, and not things surrounding the game.

This year I'm a bit disgruntled that EA decided to use many working hours on improving ask madden (sorry, gameflow), audio commentary and dual stick controls and more, when the biggest improvement IMO has been sideline catches (the work of one software engineer). When playing the demo I felt disappointed that the new dual stick controls are mostly just a feature to manipulate animations. After a short while you learn that doing a juke at a certain point triggers a missed tackle animation (which there are too many of in Madden).

However, the good news is that Visual Concepts are working on CFL 2K12, so we will get the opportunity to make sort of a comparison next year. Also if Visual Concepts decides to pick up the NCAA College Football 2K series after EA's license expires, then we'll get amble chance to compare features and more.

@Dirk504

I feel that when I play the Madden 11 demo that the players have no weight or momentum and I can't stand watching the same wrong tackle animations over and over all game long, but for some reason, I still have the itch to get it because I am a fan of the NFL.

I have decided to take a stance this year and not get Madden 11. It simple is not worth the plastic it is being written to. That's my personal opinion and my experience with the Madden series tells me M11 will be slightly different than M10.

I would rather play M10 on PS2 because it is a much better game on a lesser console.

I dont agree with 2k5 playing like 2k4 and 2k3 thoes games where fun but they where wwaaaay more arcady you could stop on a dime at any moment and also if they released 2k6 with something like gameflow and IGNORED major problems in the game then I personally would be critical of them and Im sure others would too..

It may seem old and tired, but I really believe that the proliferation of "Madden Bashing" stems from the fact that people have very limited options. If you want professional football in a video game it's Madden and nothing else. The fact that EA locked up exclusivity with the NFL still wrankles the nerves of quite a few people (including myself). When people had the option of playing a 2K or an EA game there was never this level of hostility. Most people played one or the other based on preference and left it at that. Some took full advantage of the opportunity and played both games. There was also constant innovation because both companies had to improve their games in order to keep pace with the competition. Elimination of the competition has permitted EA to rest on their laurels and to dole out new features when they get good and ready, despite the frustrations of the football gaming masses. People have been complaining vehemently since their football gaming choices were scaled back to a single option. It's that simple.

I've been playing madden for quite a while now but I don't have the money to drop on it if I don't see a big enough change. I'm not saying that the changes they made are good or bad, but they aren't the changes I would like to see. Once they make some changes to franchise mode I'll be buying for sure. I mean I have madden 10 and the gameplay is still good. So I'll wait a while.