Madden NFL 11 Demo Available Now, Please Post Impressions Here

[hlhbk]

Love the demo, will be picking up Madden day 1. That being said I love Madden 10, and this just feels like a better version of that.

[K_GUN]

Quote: Originally Posted by tazdevil20

Actually, Phil Frazier confirmed that the retail build was only 2 weeks after the demo. Sorry to dissapoint, but gameplay-wise, there won't be many changes between the demo and retail. I really didn't care much about the strategy pad. To me, it would just be something to learn and get used to. I have zero issue with that. I do have an issue with the gameplay. It didn't feel very good at all. I was really disappointed. It still feels very unpolished. I've never purchased an NCAA game before as I am a big NFL fan and not much of an NCAA fan. However, playing the NCAA demo, I felt a polish on the game like I have not experienced in years from an EA Sports title. Madden still feels very unpolished. lots of things that show little attention to detail. Things like the cut scenes, Chris calling Gus Tom, the poor audio dying in between plays, the silly animations, guys running out of bounds, the synchronized running, the lack of a real challenge system, refs stll not throwing flags, the size of the football, sliding, the warping to the ball by receivers and DBs, etc. etc. Admittedly, I'm a converted Madden player. I was a die hard fan until I played 2k football in 2002. I haven't bought a madden game since. I've played all of them and I thought Madden 2005 was an excellent game. I enjoyed 2k5 much more, but still doesn't take away from what the Madden team did that year. So far on this generation, I keep seeing all of these same issues crop up again and again. When I see so few features added, no new innovation, continuous problems with animations, nothing added to highly touted items like pro-tak, adaptive AI and online franchise... I get discouraged. Madden has zero focus. It's ADD each year. Focus on something and really make it polished. Considering this was the year of gameplay, it's rather disturbing to me that they spent over a year on a lot of the gameplay. Really? It's really not very noticeable, at least from the demo. Very stuttery with player movement, the QB passing is still not right. Same problems as before with getting to the QB. He ALWAYS gets rid of the ball before you get him, and you can be dragging him down and he still throws a 100mph rocket right to the receiver. Sorry to be such a downer, but these are just things that can't be ignored. At this point in football gaming I would have liked to have seen an incredible online league/franchise system. The ability to be a spectator of other games being played in your online league. Fantastic physics based animations with signature styles by players. Massive depth in the ability to manage your team, create/manage playbooks, add a personality to your team. Adaptive AI that follows your tendencies much like the AI did in 2k5, but even better. Make the players look and feel alive, scuffles after the play (see APF 2k8), guys tripping and stumbling from blocks/shoves, guys kneeling down or bent over from fatigue. When it rains/snows, uniforms being torn/dirty, helmets scuffed, etc. etc. A lot of this stuff isn't even necessarily unprecedented. Not trying to wage comparison war here, but 2k8 has a lot of this. This brings a lot of life to the players. It makes them appear to be living beings. When I see the entire special teams crew of a team all getting up and walking in sync to the sideline, it feels robotic to me and reminds me that this is just a video game. Commentary. How often do you watch a game on Sunday and the commentators don't talk to each other? I mean, it's obvious that Chris Collinsworth wasn't even brought in to work with Gus Johnson. This is the exclusively licensed NFL game. No "an" NFL licensed game. It's also EA, the endless resource company. Is there really an excuse for this? I can pop in much older games and feel like I am really watching a game on Sunday. How about using the Telestrator to draw on replays and highlight a DB out of position or show how Peyton Manning beat the blitz? That would blow people away and add to the immersion. Madden wreaks of complacency. It's disappointing to face that fact, but it's there. Even the game's biggest apologists and fanboys cannot deny that fact. The question to be asked is what can be done to change it?

haha LOL...try harder!


and i would challenge some of your comparison lists...i have seen guys...scrum after plays...linemen breathe heavily during a hurry-up attack....guys tripping & stumbling.....uniforms dirty in the rain....sideline catches..adaptive AI....signature styles

[twigstudios]

Wasn't bad. I played with the Colts and won 23-14 (thank you 5 min quarters).

Gameflow was OK. Got annoying a couple of times but overall nice addition. Can't say I'll be using it that often in the retail version though.

Player models were decent. Presentation was nice. Commentary was better but still didn't quite click. Gus Johnson was a welcome breath of fresh air from Tom Hammond however.

I couldn't run the ball to save my life but got 29, 34 and 40 yds passing plays. Garcon was a beast 7 catches for 125 yds!

Kinda reminded me alot of 10 but it looked much cleaner and smoothed out.

All in all I give the demo a 7 out of 10. I'll wait until Madden goes down from 60 bucks maybe catch it on eBay, half.com or something.

Anybody else thought Peyton Manning looked like Frankenstein's monster when he stepped off the bus? I mean it looked like he was wearing his shoulder pads under his suit.

[Ceothachosen1]

im sorry I was really looking forward to madden cause im loving ncaa but this demo is horrible and all these new features are a disgrace to serious gamers. defensive auto assist are you kiding me?

[hokupguy]

is it me or this game easy out of the box played the demo twice .1st time as jets blew colts for 49-7 game picked off manning 6 times. Then played again won as the colts 35-14 and got 20 sacks on there QB's.

The only reason i ask if this game is easy because i havent played madden or any football game in early march...

But i do like the improvement in the players speed and there motion captured running. Alot better from the last few try at fixing the players running.

[blklightning]

^^^ might want to play on a higher difficulty. "out of the box" is defaulted to pro.

however, i have seen manning do some very dumb things on all-pro. once, while protected by a wall of a pocket, he decided to roll to his right where there were no receivers present. then he stood there for 2 seconds until revis, who was in a flat zone, finally decided to take the two steps forward that were necessary to sack him.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ceothachosen1

im sorry I was really looking forward to madden cause im loving ncaa but this demo is horrible and all these new features are a disgrace to serious gamers. defensive auto assist are you kiding me?

what's the big deal with auto assist. if you just don't do anything when the ball is snapped, the cpu will move your player for you, right? haven't done this in the demo, but i know that's how it worked in past versions. so this seems like a slight step up from that.


my complaint right now is the "i just got unplugged from the matrix" death animation that is triggered when you hit square to dive at the QB. the heck is up with that? i suppose that's yet another odd adjustment made to get more sim results.

[hlhbk]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ceothachosen1

im sorry I was really looking forward to madden cause im loving ncaa but this demo is horrible and all these new features are a disgrace to serious gamers. defensive auto assist are you kiding me?

Most if not all of these new features can be turned off.

[PacMan3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by tazdevil20

Actually, Phil Frazier confirmed that the retail build was only 2 weeks after the demo. Sorry to dissapoint, but gameplay-wise, there won't be many changes between the demo and retail. I really didn't care much about the strategy pad. To me, it would just be something to learn and get used to. I have zero issue with that. I do have an issue with the gameplay. It didn't feel very good at all. I was really disappointed. It still feels very unpolished. I've never purchased an NCAA game before as I am a big NFL fan and not much of an NCAA fan. However, playing the NCAA demo, I felt a polish on the game like I have not experienced in years from an EA Sports title. Madden still feels very unpolished. lots of things that show little attention to detail. Things like the cut scenes, Chris calling Gus Tom, the poor audio dying in between plays, the silly animations, guys running out of bounds, the synchronized running, the lack of a real challenge system, refs stll not throwing flags, the size of the football, sliding, the warping to the ball by receivers and DBs, etc. etc. Admittedly, I'm a converted Madden player. I was a die hard fan until I played 2k football in 2002. I haven't bought a madden game since. I've played all of them and I thought Madden 2005 was an excellent game. I enjoyed 2k5 much more, but still doesn't take away from what the Madden team did that year. So far on this generation, I keep seeing all of these same issues crop up again and again. When I see so few features added, no new innovation, continuous problems with animations, nothing added to highly touted items like pro-tak, adaptive AI and online franchise... I get discouraged. Madden has zero focus. It's ADD each year. Focus on something and really make it polished. Considering this was the year of gameplay, it's rather disturbing to me that they spent over a year on a lot of the gameplay. Really? It's really not very noticeable, at least from the demo. Very stuttery with player movement, the QB passing is still not right. Same problems as before with getting to the QB. He ALWAYS gets rid of the ball before you get him, and you can be dragging him down and he still throws a 100mph rocket right to the receiver. Sorry to be such a downer, but these are just things that can't be ignored. At this point in football gaming I would have liked to have seen an incredible online league/franchise system. The ability to be a spectator of other games being played in your online league. Fantastic physics based animations with signature styles by players. Massive depth in the ability to manage your team, create/manage playbooks, add a personality to your team. Adaptive AI that follows your tendencies much like the AI did in 2k5, but even better. Make the players look and feel alive, scuffles after the play (see APF 2k8), guys tripping and stumbling from blocks/shoves, guys kneeling down or bent over from fatigue. When it rains/snows, uniforms being torn/dirty, helmets scuffed, etc. etc. A lot of this stuff isn't even necessarily unprecedented. Not trying to wage comparison war here, but 2k8 has a lot of this. This brings a lot of life to the players. It makes them appear to be living beings. When I see the entire special teams crew of a team all getting up and walking in sync to the sideline, it feels robotic to me and reminds me that this is just a video game. Commentary. How often do you watch a game on Sunday and the commentators don't talk to each other? I mean, it's obvious that Chris Collinsworth wasn't even brought in to work with Gus Johnson. This is the exclusively licensed NFL game. No "an" NFL licensed game. It's also EA, the endless resource company. Is there really an excuse for this? I can pop in much older games and feel like I am really watching a game on Sunday. How about using the Telestrator to draw on replays and highlight a DB out of position or show how Peyton Manning beat the blitz? That would blow people away and add to the immersion. Madden wreaks of complacency. It's disappointing to face that fact, but it's there. Even the game's biggest apologists and fanboys cannot deny that fact. The question to be asked is what can be done to change it?

From top to bottom, you nailed my issues with the demo and state of football gaming. Very good post.