Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

[benjammin237]

first post here and my imprressions of madden 11 demo.
The good....
Detail: the player detail is great with eye black, the addition of the nasal strips, the different qb throwing styles, and the stadium music and chants. also, the player models look really good!
yeah ncaa looks a little better but the player models are generic!
Locomotion: i have played both and ncaa does seem a little crisper, but that is because the speed difference in college football is so much greater than the nfl. it still feels great accelerating through the first line of defense into the secondary.
Commentary/presentation: i really like the team of johnso and colinsworth. yes colinsworth isnt great, but he has good input and gus is enthusiastic and fun. Also, the pregame and cutscenes at timeouts are a welcome addition. For example, i was up by 3 with the jets with a minute to go, and i see my offensive linemen kneeling with their arms locked and sanchez crouching looking eagerly at the colts drive. it is cool that little stuff like that adds to the presentation and emotion.
Gameflow(offense): i can see myself using this feature as it is realistic and adds strategy to the game. BUT the organization of finding plays and not being able to make packages is dissapointing. it makes it hard to navigate when everything is categorized as "single back" or "i-form" and without adding pacages takes away from a full gameplan to exploit mismatches.
The bad.... (some really bad).
Gameflow(defense): its bad. i audibled out of everyplay and they were bonehead calls. even audibling is a pain!
STRATEGY PAD: My goodness this is soooo bad! it actual takes out any strategy that you had at the line of scrimmage. There is no time to adjust and it is just goofy. what is going on ea??? (my thoughts on that later)
Coordinator audio: this is bad and annoying. They say the same thing over and over. and ea must have thought everybody would love that a guy would talk to you, so they decided to completely cut the crowd and commentator audio before a play. this is a big thing that needs to be addressed and fixed because it is so awkward.
difficulty: it seems that ea has dumbed down the competition. I played the demo and on my first try i did all pro. Now the game was close, with me winning 27-24 jets. But sanchez threw for 330 yards on 17 completions. WHAT?!?! lets make it realistic ea. Sanchez has the weapons now but its not gonna happen like that this year.

Overall opinion + message to ea: This game has the potential to be sooo great. The atmosphere is coming out and the presentation is sweet, as well as locomotion and the majority of the gameplay. But parts of audio and ai seem really off. It is like the dumbed the game down to attract more people. not good. the strategy pad is the worst of all, and there is a dire need to get that fixed very very soon.

[slick589]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryan36

No if you look at the description...auto sprint allows the computer control as to when the QB scrambles, in addition to normal ballcarrying duties. Now you can still scramble, but it takes you forever to get anywhere, unless the cpu gives you permission to take off

oh thanks man. i turned it off in ncaa and the madden demo. i like having more control idk why they are making these "auto" things default

[SA1NT401]

Quote: Originally Posted by slick589

its not like ncaa where you hold sprint button to scramble?

How do you scramble then? On a few occasions i could have ran with Sanchez, but he just shuffled around.

[wyrm187]

well gameflow just does not work with 2 players offline period. Without the playart you have little idea of what you are running.

I was thinking though - to tweak the way the computer calls plays .. . .is there any way to preload a gameplan for the AI if your playing single player??

that would be cool cause then we could set them up how we like and think they should be. . .some of the play calls , especially Defensive calls the AI make are just plain stupid

[ryan36]

Quote: Originally Posted by SA1NT401

How do you scramble then? On a few occasions i could have ran with Sanchez, but he just shuffled around.

That's how you do it. Or turn auto -sprint off. That's what I'm saying, it's a cool feature, except that it overrides the QB too.

[SA1NT401]

Quote: Originally Posted by wyrm187

well gameflow just does not work with 2 players offline period. Without the playart you have little idea of what you are running. I was thinking though - to tweak the way the computer calls plays .. . .is there any way to preload a gameplan for the AI if your playing single player?? that would be cool cause then we could set them up how we like and think they should be. . .some of the play calls , especially Defensive calls the AI make are just plain stupid

Yes, you can alter the Gameplan for CPU teams in the retail version.

[MAzing87]

Quote: Originally Posted by Neo79

Madden 11 is by far the best in the series!!

Isn't that how it's suppose to be? The most recent version of any game is suppose to be that way?

Quick impression-The gameplanning, and gameflow are great additions, on offense, that is. On defense, I tried using gameflow, and Manning went 15/15 for about 193 yds, 2TDs by halftime. Most of his assault was done against zone coverage, which makes sense, but I find it hard to believe that even in zone coverage, Revis, the best corner in the game (my opinion), had 0 awareness on covering his area of the field. He made Garcon look like Jerry Rice! The running game is good, nothing cheap, nothing out of the ordinary. The passing, even better. With Sanchez, who isn't an elite QB, I made some very nice touch passes. Locomotion was much needed. Players look and run a bit more realistically than in previous years passed, didn't have that robotic like running.

What I didn't like is the lack of gang tackling or whiffs on ball carriers all because of one defender already triggering a tackle animation while other defenders just falls and rolls over. It's like the animation will play out and never gets interrupted. Too many change of direction animations for defenders. It's not natural. My gripe. Gameflow on defense, I mentioned earlier seems to favor the offense more since it's tough to get a sack or get much pressure. Strategy pad, might be my next biggest gripe. I felt that using the shoulder/face buttons had that on the fly feel whenever adjustments were needed in previous Maddens. It feels strange having to use the d-pad. I hope this can be turned off.

Madden would be a rent for me.

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by MAzing87

Isn't that how it's suppose to be? The most recent version of any game is suppose to be that way? Quick impression-The gameplanning, and gameflow are great additions, on offense, that is. On defense, I tried using gameflow, and Manning went 15/15 for about 193 yds, 2TDs by halftime. Most of his assault was done against zone coverage, which makes sense, but I find it hard to believe that even in zone coverage, Revis, the best corner in the game (my opinion), had 0 awareness on covering his area of the field. He made Garcon look like Jerry Rice! The running game is good, nothing cheap, nothing out of the ordinary. The passing, even better. With Sanchez, who isn't an elite QB, I made some very nice touch passes. Locomotion was much needed. Players look and run a bit more realistically than in previous years passed, didn't have that robotic like running. What I didn't like is the lack of gang tackling or whiffs on ball carriers all because of one defender already triggering a tackle animation while other defenders just falls and rolls over. It's like the animation will play out and never gets interrupted. Too many change of direction animations for defenders. It's not natural. My gripe. Gameflow on defense, I mentioned earlier seems to favor the offense more since it's tough to get a sack or get much pressure. Strategy pad, might be my next biggest gripe. I felt that using the shoulder/face buttons had that on the fly feel whenever adjustments were needed in previous Maddens. It feels strange having to use the d-pad. I hope this can be turned off. Madden would be a rent for me.

I think this was sorely needed. It prevents defenders from being able to get to everything like in the past. I've had my fill of Safetys coming from the other side of the field to tip passes on the opposite sideline lol