Both Chris and Christian got to play the Madden demo just a little bit early and sat down to talk through the demo and what they thought. Discussions centered around likes, dislikes, thoughts on the new commentary team and where we see Madden going this season. Check out their thoughts after the jump.

1)Best thing in the demo?

Christian: The passing game. For the first time in a Madden title receivers seem to gain realistic separation on their defenders and are aware of the sidelines. On my first drive of the demo I managed to hook up with Braylon Edwards in the corner of the endzone on a beautiful out route. Upon further inspection via instant replay, Braylon was able to shake his defender, pull away, and slip underneath the Colts zone coverage to make the catch. The days of predetermined route running and defenders glued to your wide-out appear to be a thing of the past.

Chris: One thing really stuck out at me -- the passing game is much improved over last year. Christian already used that one so I'll just say I thought the playcalling screen (Gameflow) isn't as big of a problem as some are saying it's going to be. Of course, I've been behind the idea of a change like that for a long time now. It's completely unrealistic to be able to pick any play out of a 500 play playbook at any given time -- if you want realism then you'll love Gameflow's approach. If you want something that isn't attempting to be realistic -- then picking from hundreds of plays at any given time is exactly what you can do.

2)Biggest Disappointment?

Christian: To me it's the demo's locomotion. I'm not quite sure if it's just me being used to playing football games on the 360, or logging so many hours into NCAA, but the locomotion in Madden demo feels a bit off. I'm just not feeling the "explosiveness" once I get into the open field with a player like in NCAA, and stringing together special moves with my ball carrier with the dual stick controls is not as responsive as I was expecting. This definitely was not the case with the early build of the game I played back in April, so here's hoping the demo isn't representative of changes made to the final build. (This is based on playing on the "Normal" speed setting)

Chris: It still feels like Madden. Funny for me to say I know considering I am playing Madden. But I really was hoping the locomotion and other improvements would at least make the game seem like it was different enough this year. It's the same thing as NCAA really, the game is better overall for sure, but it's still the same brand you've been playing all these years and not that different from NCAA 11. I guess I was hoping for a pretty noticeable quality jump up from NCAA on the field.

3)The gameplay is _______ (fill in the blank).

Christian: Stale. To be perfectly honest the game feels a lot like Madden 10. As mentioned above, I'm not getting a good feel for the locomotion system like in NCAA 11. I'm seeing a lot of the same tackle animations as M10, running backs still flail their arms wildly exposing the ball like M10, and there do not appear to be any graphical/player model updates from M10 based on the demo. I guess I was expecting a much bigger leap for M11- here's hoping the retail copy is a much more recent build.

Chris: Solid, above average even, but it doesn't feel groundbreaking after NCAA 11 hit store shelves a couple of weeks ago. Madden fans will find plenty of reasons to love the new additions -- those who blindly hate Madden because they woke up on the wrong side of the bed five years ago will find plenty of reason to hate it. Overall, it plays closer to NCAA 11 than last year's Madden to this guy, which I guess directly contrasts Christian's point above.

4)How do you like the new commentary team?

Christian: I'm a big fan of Gus Johnson, and Collinsworth seems to compliment him nicely. Being that this is only a demo it's pretty tough to gauge how well the duo will work in the final game, but from what I hear so far I am enjoying both in the booth.

Chris: They're a welcome change to the alternatives of the past few years. Gus adds some flair to the whole presentation that wasn't there before. But I heard some repeated lines in the demo -- so I'm fully expecting the commentary to get very repetitive pretty quickly. That's just too bad because the new crew adds something to the game other announcing teams haven't in the past.

5)Any other things catch your eye?

Christian: Playing as a D-Lineman is an exercise in frustration. If you thought it was tough to get to the QB in NCAA11, you haven't seen anything yet. The rewritten line AI works great by eliminating suction blocks, but it is down right impossible to sack the QB. If you manage to get past your offensive line assignment, be ready for the opposing QB to magically ditch the ball as your defender is draped all over him -- every single time.

Also, after using Gameflow for an entire game without creating a custom gameplan first, I began noticing that my coordinator was a complete moron. On defense I was being shredded like taco cheese by Indy's offense (all out blitzing on 3rd and 17), and when I was on offense I learned that the sweep is the Jet's favorite offensive play call- especially on 2nd and 14. Final note on Gameflow: if you are a veteran of the series, I have a feeling you are going to hate the amount of control that the feature takes out of your hands -- even if you decide to implement a gameplan.

Chris: The blocking in Madden seems to be around the same league as in NCAA. I'm not sure I really want to call it better or on par yet without getting some more time with the game, but I'm certain it's cut from the same mold. Playing defense is still boring, just as it is in NCAA. I just don't see the variety or desire to play that side of the ball right now with nothing really being done to enhance playing there. There are some differences between Madden and NCAA at this point, but I'm not sure I can easily say which game really is going to come up the winner in the end.

6)Overall is Madden's stock up or down?

Christian: Right now, based on the demo, I'm calling it a push, teetering on the brink of going down. I'm really not liking Gameflow but thankfully that option can be turned off. Outside of that personal preference, there really are no glaring issues that would make me believe the retail version of the game will not be a solid NFL experience, I'm just not sure what was added to the game is enough to really differentiate it from Madden 10. I was really hoping for the NCAA10-NCAA11 type of leap for Madden this season, and based on the demo I'm not sure that's what we will be getting in a couple weeks.

Chris: Madden's stock is mostly flat today. It's not going down anymore like it has steadily been doing the last month, but it's also not breaking out to the upside. Really, I think it's easy to see where Madden haters will be able to hate this year while Madden fans will enjoy the game this year. A lot of the things I want to see won't be seen until the final product, so I guess I'm in a full wait and see mode on Madden's final quality. It plays pretty close to NCAA, which I still think is the best playing football game ever. So that's a good start for the franchise to build off of. But I can't make any final judgments here in the last week of July. If I were questioning buying this game off the demo, I think it'd soothe some fears while raising others.