Madden NFL 11 Review

[AndyP]

Quote: Originally Posted by Epiffani

WOW, the Madden series has become a shoe-in to get a 9 or close to on here (Madden 11=9.0 Madden 10= 9.0 Madden 09=8.5). I know different people review certain sports on here, but there should be some consideration of how the other sports games were rated with their + & - and then evaluating how this game stacks up because according to O.S reviews, Madden 11 is a better game than MLB the Show, and in The Show review, it was deducted points because a lot of the gameplay elements and mechanics were tweaked or stayed the same despite some of those elements already being good/great in its current state. A good portion of Madden has stayed the same even by the reviewer's own admission, and that includes the problems that's been in the game for YEARS on in, but yet it isn't a big burden against the game, which would anchor down the score.... I can only imagine what the score will be when they actually start making big changes, and start really innovating .

Excellent points. MLB The Show sets the sports gaming standard imo. That game has recently been criticised (as was NBA 2k10 in the IGN review) for lacking innovation and yet Madden seems immune from that same criticism.

[bigsmallwood]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

One of the stupidst threads I've ever seen. Seriously... a review goes up, and instead of using the review to decide if the game is worth the purchase to them, they go in and review the review, giving it low marks if it doesn't match what they want to feel about the game. Reviews are not written for the purpose of justifying your feelings. It's almost like you guys take pride in seeing Madden get poor reviews. Let me let you all in on a little secret; these reviews aren't meaningless. The are read and taken into account by the higher ups at EA. Perhaps that seems dumb and short sighted, but that's how they look at it. Peter Moore is a big Metacritic fan. So... if Madden's review scores start tanking now, it's good by Locomotion and Real Assignment AI, and welcome back The Ring and Virtual Trainer. Personally, even if I disagree with everything the reviewer says, I want to see good reviews. Madden may be a long ways out from what you want, but at least it's pointed in the right direction the past couple of years. The last thing I wanna see is an about face.

It is not about the review not matching what people want it to say, it is about the review not being objective. Further more people have the right to an opinion about something that seems to be better suited for the back of a box, rather than a review breaking down the game.

Sidenote: I wish folks would stop saying people want Madden to receive low marks....nothing could be further from the truth. We simply want the review to be genuine and the standard to be upheld across the board...no special treatment.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigsmallwood

Sidenote: I wish folks would stop saying people want Madden to receive low marks....nothing could be further from the truth. We simply want the review to be genuine and the standard to be upheld across the board...no special treatment.

This is exactly right.

[joec63]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigsmallwood

It is not about the review not matching what people want it to say, it is about the review not being objective. Further more people have the right to an opinion about something that seems to be better suited for the back of a box, rather than a review breaking down the game. Sidenote: I wish folks would stop saying people want Madden to receive low marks....nothing could be further from the truth. We simply want the review to be genuine and the standard to be upheld across the board...no special treatment.

Maybe not true for you but an element does exist that desires to see this franchise fail. You can bank on that.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

One of the stupidst threads I've ever seen. Seriously... a review goes up, and instead of using the review to decide if the game is worth the purchase to them, they go in and review the review, giving it low marks if it doesn't match what they want to feel about the game. Reviews are not written for the purpose of justifying your feelings. It's almost like you guys take pride in seeing Madden get poor reviews. Let me let you all in on a little secret; these reviews aren't meaningless. The are read and taken into account by the higher ups at EA. Perhaps that seems dumb and short sighted, but that's how they look at it. Peter Moore is a big Metacritic fan. So... if Madden's review scores start tanking now, it's good by Locomotion and Real Assignment AI, and welcome back The Ring and Virtual Trainer. Personally, even if I disagree with everything the reviewer says, I want to see good reviews. Madden may be a long ways out from what you want, but at least it's pointed in the right direction the past couple of years. The last thing I wanna see is an about face.

This does create a bit of a conundrum doesn't it? You can look at it from the standpoint that the execs/devs will see the reviews and say, "we've done it right, everything is good now, we can go back to being lazy and complacent." OR, like you state here, they could take it as the game's more sim direction is not the right direction and we have rings and madden trainer ;-) I think the fear of the former is more apparent on sites like these. Everyone is happy about the improvements and direction, but they are far from where we want them. It seems to be a bit of a crap shoot each year if they build on something that was implemented the year before. It really would have gone a long way if they enhanced pro-tak (which I always thought was a great idea) to have real dual hit tackling. It would have gone a long way if online franchise was actually implemented, rather than half done before being abandoned. Maybe adaptive AI could have been enhanced to actually work. Instead, we get gameflow (not a terrible addition IMHO, as I think gameplanning is very cool), but at the expense of what else? It seems like there is never a complete offering. Something has to be done at the expense of something else significant. Why not make a complete effort? Other franchises do it, Madden USED to do it.

So, I do respect your feeling on this matter as you clearly want this game to progress in the direction many of us do, but does a higher review score really do that when it's still lacking in major areas? Hopefully, you are right and it gives the dev team more leeway to do things how they would really like to.

[Pacman83]

Quote: Originally Posted by joec63

Maybe not true for you but an element does exist that desires to see this franchise fail. You can bank on that.

What he said...Taz/BigSmallz are pretty reasonable, but other posts in this thread are ridiculous. It's like reviewers aren't supposed to like the game. Guys in here want to see the game trashed here and there, because they aren't happy with it. If reviews mean that much to you guys and you don't like the ones posted here, read through the impressions threads. Hang around long enough and you'll get and idea of the posters that are reasonable and realistic in their opinions/expectations and what to disregard (too positive/negative)...and still to each his own

Edit: Many reviews i read seem vague and don't address what i want them too, at this point i kinda expect it to be that way, leaving that incomplete feeling afterwards...seems to be the way now

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pacman83

What he said...Taz/BigSmallz are pretty reasonable, but other posts in this thread are ridiculous. It's like reviewers aren't supposed to like the game. Guys in here want to see the game trashed here and there, because they aren't happy with it. If reviews mean that much to you guys and you don't like the ones posted here, read through the impressions threads. Hang around long enough and you'll get and idea of the posters that are reasonable and realistic in their opinions/expectations and what to disregard (too positive/negative)...and still to each his own

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Blindly hating does zero good. I'm admittedly harsh more often than not, but not because I want Madden to fail. I want it to be the best football game ever, as do many people on OS. Maybe it's because we see the potential of it, and it is not quite being reached. Hell, I'll probably pick it up at some point this year and enjoy playing it, as the gameplay has come a long way. However, discussing the game's positives and negatives with some really smart guys on OS is insightful 99% of the time. The blind haters and blind lovers can be easily ignored.

[joec63]

Madden will always be Sim-Lite, good entertaining game of football. EA will not not do anything to rock the apple cart with the casual fans. The fan base is huge. You would think they would at least throw the diehards a bone and deliver the option of a true sim. Maybe they will, who knows. I don't have the time to invest in it anymore except a few games on the weekends. I'll still buy it because it's a good sim-lite game.