Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

[ryan36]

Quote: Originally Posted by slick589

i like the zoomed out camera and smaller player models. i think it makes the field feel bigger which was something we needed. just my opinion though

I feel the field still plays a little smaller than I'd like, but I have no problem with the camera

[SA1NT401]

Made a few impressions yesterday...Just thought i would update after about another 4-5 games last night.

-Strat Pad blows...Sure you can figure it out...Sure, with practice its workable. Just such an unnecessary addition. Plus, unless you turn the Strat Pad icon OFF...You constantly have that annoying box in the top left corner...Such an eyesore.

-I hate the commentary. I feel both Gus and Chris are wasted. The dialogue between them(or lack there of) is edited in such a horrific way. Did Chris even record anything new for M11? He sounds totally patched in. Gus is just ...wasted. Shame really.

-Played with some CPU sliders (are they actually funtional?). Seem to work, as i was able to tighten up the CPUs run D. All in all, good to see results....IF they wrok in the DEMO.

-Lighting is second rate compared to NCAA. I feel it is actually a step back from last year.

-Not being sarcastic, but the Grass looks the best its ever looked. Great work there honestly.

-Passing is the same overall. Play 11 then play 10...I feel really no differance really.

-Catch animations are nice overall, but tackles seem less varied. Might just be the DEMO.

-Player models are inferior to NCAA IMHO. Seems like there are only 3 base models overall....1 for skill positions, 1 for OL/DL and then a medium build (LB/TE). LT looks like he has been recovering from anorexia...He isnt that thin folks. Minor viosual gripe.

-Gameflow....I could give or take it honestly. With the time to set up a gameplan, it could work out....But it is optional.

-Stadium sounds and crowd are adsent...Just the DEMO?

All in all....Unimpressed and actually not surprised really. Once the retail hits and there is reliable feedback 2-3 weeks after release, i might grab it. But that all depends on how many new bugs and old are there....What glitches turn up in Franchise and simmed franchise stats. We know they are gonna be there, just how bad is TBD.

But i can say this...Lame as it is...If players uniforms do NOT get dirty or it doesnt show up, i am passing 100%. That ticks me off in NCAA so much i refuse to play as or against a team if its on grass(if its raining)...Like i said...Lame i know, but a HUGE annoyance to me.

[Only1LT]

Played 5 demo games on PS3 last night. My overall impression is not as bad as most people's. Maybe because I have lower expectations and the fact that I wasn't all that fond of 10 are the reasons why.

Locomotion:

I'm not a big fan of the Locomotion engine that is in either NCAA or Madden. I don't think they went far enough to convey the sense of realistic motion. The difference is there from the way it used to be, but still too tame in my opinion. Having said that, I don't share the opinion of most people that the Loco in NCAA is so great and the one in Madden 11 is terrible. To me they feel largely the same. There may be more animations in NCAA to convey change of direction (have to play NCAA demo again to be sure), but in terms of how the players control with respect to change of direction is largely the same. In fact, if anything, the control of change of direction in Madden is a little better than NCAA. Here's why. In the Madden demo, when running in one direction and then turning back in the opposite direction, my player actually came to a stop an then had to start back up. This was most evident when I would try to reverse my field on a run when no hole was there or on punt returns. I never once remember having my player stop in the NCAA demo. I thought that NCAA was too zig zaggy still, as Madden is as well, but at least there are some occasions when you can't zig zag in Madden. It still isn't done properly, but I really don't see how someone could think that NCAA loco is great and Madden's is terrible. To me, they are both lacking, but if anything, Madden's is slightly better for the fact that at least every now and then, it does what it's supposed to do, which I never saw in NCAA.

Passing:

There actually seemed to be some improvement in this area. As others have mentioned, the deep ball is viable on this game, due to a combination of Loco, the new emphasis on Acceleration ratings, and either better passing trajectory or faster pass velocity. Not positive which yet. I need to play it more. I also didn't see any evidence of Super LBs like some have said, but again, maybe I need to play more. In my time with the demo though, I found it much easier to pass over players heads than any Madden I can think of, beside Madden 99 and 07. And on the occasion when a LB did try to do a swat of a pass that was intended for a player behind him, the swat was missed most of the time. Again though, maybe I need to play more, but I liked what I saw of the passing game so far.

Player Interaction:

The tackling is still an eyesore. I think I saw 2 "Pro-tak moments" in 5 games when there were many more chances for it to realistically happen. Tackling is a huge issue on this game, but I guess we all already knew that didn't we lol? I also broke off a couple of huge 70 or 80 yard runs, because of a tackle animation being triggered and having other CPU players try to help, only to fall down, and then I would subsequently spin out of the one tackle and there was no one left to tackle me. I don't care if I am the beneficiary, this is a big issue and it hurts the competitiveness of the game to be game to have someone be the beneficiary of a gift 80yd run because the of the archaic tackling engine. Unacceptable. One small positive note on interactions. It seems that the "force fields" are smaller on this game than on any other Madden I can remember. On several occasions I took control of a receiver on a Go and was able to easily slide by the DB to try and position myself for the catch when we were even or if I was a step behind. Usually in that situation, I am met by an impenetrable wall that I have to make a detour a couple yards off target just to try and get around a DB.

Player Models:

I can't stress enough how bad they are lol. The faces look decent, if not creepy, but these Giant heads and skinny alien bodies need to go. These players are as disproportionate as... I don't even know what to compare it too. Super deformed Gundam characters maybe. This is something that EA Sports as a whole, struggles with to some extent. The player models on Live have always been weird. Even the ones on FIFA are not right, but much better than Madden. I implore you all to play the demo again and look at the pre game intros. Pay attention to Peyton when he is getting off the bus. He looks like the Hulk. Then they flash to him throwing warm up tosses and it looks like he lost 50lbs. Serious question. How is it possible that Peyton could be bigger in a suit than he is in full pads? I just have no words for the Player Models in Madden, except to say that they have always had, and when I say always, I mean from the beginning, they have always had the worst Player Models of any Football game that I have ever played. The Player Models are hi-res. They have tons of polygons, but the shape is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Graphics:

Were largely the same. Textures looked slightly muddier, but I suspect that this is due to a lot of compression going on in the demo that won't be there in the retail. The 10 demo was also similarly muddy. I do notice the lighting changes, and they do look good. I think that NCAA looks better in this dept, but Madden did a better job than before though. Also keep in mind that we are seeing an outdoor game played in bright sun in the afternoon. I have to see how other venues and weather and times of day fare.

Overall, again, I came away with a better opinion than I had going in. I don't think there are as many improvements as there should reasonably be, but I did come away liking it more than 10 at least. In that respect, it met my low expectations.

[Ronnie brown23]

some ratings still dont matter. why is lowery from the jets with 68 man coverage locking down reggie wayne. smh

[ryan36]

There is more than one rating which influences this.

What's so wrong with the player models? They look like football players to me...am I just going to easy on EA here?

Can someone repost the vid of play action working Skyboxer mentioned? I've tried but unless I basically sprint backward I'm hosed. Can't slide protect or anything. Even if does "work" , I don't think the "not working" i.e. sack, should be so frequent.

[djphleks]

Ok I played about 4 single player games and 1 two player game on the demo.

Here are my reviews:

Pros:
Graphics look really good.

Lighting is great.

Gameflow is good. I felt that the OC's were calling a taylored gameplan for the team.

Although the Colts did run a lot of streak plays, they also ran a lot of dig routes. This is a favorite for the Colts in real life so that's cool. The Jets ran a lot and a lot of the pass plays were not complex.

Running game feels fluid enough. Although I have to get used to the auto-turbo. The O-line and FB actually lay good blocks on people.

The deep ball is nice. The catching animation look good. Receivers will turn back to catch balls on time. It's not like the rocket catch but it remains to be seen if this will be exploited.

Cons:
The Strategy Pad- I agree with everyone else. The strategy pad is a game killer. Playing against the CPU, I as able to get one to two adjustments. Usually just press coverage or moving my d-line. I think the pad doesn't give you the freedom to make your adjustments pre-snap. I felt like I was at the mercy of the offense when I couldn't make the proper adjustments. I don't think getting used to it will help. The main problem I saw is that you have to activate the strategy pad then select what you want to adjust. It stays activated after your initial adjustment but with the clock clicking down and the ball about to be snapped and if you are trying to make adjustments like you first tried to do, you wind up making two secondary adjustments. I don't have time to look and see exactly what are the options before snap. They need to patch the original adjustments. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I'm not sure how they thought this would speed up the game unless they were trying to cut down the # of adjustments a defensive player can make.

The S-Pad on offense is a little better but the audible is terrible on offense for a two player game. On the first audible screen, the user has to move to a highlighted option where it shows you run, quick pass, deep pass, etc. This is stupid. Your opponent can see exactly what type of play you are running. It's like Drew Brees changing the play at the line and yelling out, "Hey guys, I don't like this defense so we are going to run OK!" Going to the second screen does give you a button option but why isn't this on the first screen? Changing the audibles back to M'10 would be easier.

Gameflow is great for a 1P game. It absolutely sucks for 2P games. First you need a headset playing with a two player game. Understandable because you wouldn't want your opponent to hear your strategy coming from your external speakers. But now you don't see the play art at all. You just get the OC telling you who to look for. Same thing on defensive. You have no idea what play you are going to run without showing the play art.

Also in the two player game, if one player chooses gameflow and the other player doesn't, there was no indication if a play was selected at all. The other player literally has to bring up the call play screen to see the other teams formation. We also acidentally went to game flow trying to advance the game by pressing A. I can see how this will make a coupule of disgruntled because they were trying to advance the game and instead called a gameflow play.

Conclusion:

Not being able to play with the Saints on the demo sucked but the game is still good. The S-Pad needs to be taken out and replaced with the old method. I think this will work better and allow more pre-adjustments before snap

[KCsFinest5]

This strat. pad is a big problem. I really enjoy being able to audible on the fly very quickly. This limits me. Also, I'm undecided on the GameFlow feature because I don't think I will ever use it.

Will someone answer me one question; Why did Madden go "simple" this year? Have there been issues with people not getting the hang of things?

Thanks in advance!

[slick589]

i still feel player interaction is lacking. besides all the pro-tak problems, i hardly see any wr/db interaction. there still needs to be more interaction after the a play. on sundays you see guys talking trash or joking around with each other, or trying to fire up teammates after the whistle blows