i can understand why you would be suprised. outside of strat pad, madden 11 is outstanding. AFTER the ball is snapped, i absolutely love the game. but strat pad ruins it for me.
if strat pad doesnt bother you, i can see why you'd love the game.
as far as NCAA, im a big fan
I wouldn't ever call NG Madden outstanding with the way tackling is handled....but it is a very solid game that I was looking forward to playing this year......but this Strategy Pad business is sucking all the fun out of it for me
I keep going back hoping the thing will finally click with me, but it just doesn't with the types of changes I like to make on the defensive side of the ball.
This game is already slanted toward the offense as it is....Its really upsetting me that they handicapped what little power/style on the defensive side we had
Maybe this would gel with me better if they had adequate playbooks for defensive schemes........
As we move further into "Next Gen" a teams Defense should be getting more personality,soul,style................instead its become more lifeless
I can't believe so many people are throwing tantrums about the strategy thing, which takes 2 minutes to learn, and nobody is talking about the horrific pass blocking. Before I can even read the defense I'm getting destroyed. I look at the replay and 2 or 3 linemen are getting beat clean. It looks like my tackles are wearing grease because DEs are just sliding off them. I changed the CPU pass rushing to 15 and the 1st play of the game I got sacked and fumbled. Looked at the replay and the NT was on the outside shoulder of Mangold and a LB was showing blitz on the outside shoulder of Moore (RG). Common football sense would have Mangold take the NT and Moore take the LB. Instead Mangold took nobody, Moore took the NT and the LB took the ball.
Gamepad is quicker and more intuitive than the buttons. I like it. Good job ea! Took no time at all to learn this "game killer" change. If ea does anything I hope they just give those that like the old way the option of using the old way but don't get rid of the pad!!
man u guys are hard to please last year it was the bad run animations and the player models and all their accessories and cleat colors now this year ur not impressed with locomotion and the player models sucked. Wow tuff crowd
liking the demo so far, ya gotta love that its 4th and 3 for the computer as the Jets, and out of nowhere they fake punted. i'm like are you serious!! even in a demo rex ryan has guts.
Just played another game of the demo with all of the features turned off and set to realistic. It is not a bad game, definitely not geared for the real players in my opinion as it is seriously dumbed down for anyone to pick up and play. I know it is just a demo but I think it is probably better if I don't buy this year's Madden.
With that said, if anyone wants to sell me their crappy copy of Madden 11 after week one for say $20, just PM me
I hate it 2 much like last year. Where is the half time and post game show??? I hope the final version isn't as bad as the demo. College finally gets it right and madden half steps can we ever get both good in the same year!!!
Gamepad is quicker. think plenty of people will use gameplanning. Well those that actually know what its all about. The main issue is most of the gamers who've only known Madden are not aware of what a game closer to FB looks like. You dont want to play football, you want to play Madden.
Really like how they have improved the replays from last year. I love the fact there are replays after almost every play and from multiple angles. Last year they were so rare even after touchdowns. It makes the presentation so much better.
Gus Johnson is a big improvement over Hammonds. There are some notable audio issues with Johnson and the flow of his commentary. The lack of crowd noise at times is also very strange. Hopefully, those have been ironed out for the retail version.
I can't see myself using GameFlow too often. I prefer to call my own plays.
Ok, I was very harsh at first but this game is growing on me.
On All Pro Setting which is what ranked matches and most leagues are run at, this game plays a decent game of football. What they have done is taken Madden 10 and made it smarter or at least I can't exploit it as easily... Yet. I used to be able to run a heavy sweep right and left all day long against the AI, but I'm finding that this AI adapts and will shut down a play completely if you run it too many times.
Earlier I was skeptical of the gameflow, but Skyboxer pointed out that if you set up a game plan, and turn off gameflow your gameplan preparation will be where Ask Madden use to be, to me that is really innovative. Now my 9 year old loves the gameflow because he can press A and not have to chose a play, and for people like him the preset gameflow plays are perfect, for most of us I think if you want to use the feature you are best to customize it and chose from the plays you have hand selected. If this works online and in league play, as well as I think it will, this will be AWESOME.
The strategy pad will be ok, even though it's going to be like learning to ride a bike again, but again I say, take a step away from the ledge people, don't jump it's not that bad. I guess the worse part is like ODOGG pointed out, if you are playing NCAA and Madden this year you will be totally confused since NCAA went with the old way of adjusting players and hot routes pre-play.
Unlike what many here have said I have less problem with the player models, to me they look better than Madden 10, what really is a downgrade though is the crowd which look 2-D, really I can't believe no one has commented that the crowd looks worse. The sidelines really look unchanged, and the players stand and clap even if the opposing team is running for a TD, kinda weird. I think the running animations looks better than 10 and seem to have slightly less skating around. I've also seen some new catching animations. But all in all I'd say 90% of the catching and tackling animations look the same.
Passing really seems like it's favoring the offense this year. Receivers seem to get open easier (separation) and DB's seem to swat and bat balls more this year than in 10. But still not as bad as the brick handed DB's in NCAA 11. I wonder if online games are going to be high scoring passing duels.
All in all, if you liked Madden 10 you will be ok, it's not a drastic change but it seems to play a good game of football.
Why cant the commentary have small talk in between plays ..those of you that played that other title know what im talking about..loosen up gus and chris and let them joke a little..just saying...lol
madden 11 isn't bad, its just not a huge improvement of madden 10 (which is a solid game)... I honestly think they have been working on madden 12 since January or February
So I have a few complaints that really have made my first few games with the demo not fun at all.
**I am playing on All-Madden as the Colts
1. All-Madden difficulty:
Dropped passes: Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne are constantly dropping passes put right in their hands. CONSTANTLY.
Peyton's terrible accuracy: Simple slant route to the left across middle, I precision-pass left after the receiver gets past the LB in zone and Peyton throws it wayyyyyy ahead of the receive and its in INT. This happened multiple times during my couple games and Peyton wasn't even under pressure. This is PEYTON MANNING I mean ca-mon have they really just turned All-Madden difficulty into "lets subtract 30 from all ratings"??
2. Announcer keeps saying Garcon is back to receive kickoff.. Oh really?
3. Strategy Pad: Yup it really is kinda annoying.
4. Replays: Bad stuttering in the first few seconds almost every time.
5. In the first two games I got two bad Booth Reviews. One was a TD I threw to Dallas Clark in the back of the end-zone, he got a foot and then the other foot before his knee was out. The reply clearly showed this yet the call was upheld as out of bounds. MEH sometimes the ref's mess this up in real-life so I'll let that go. BUT the next game the Sanchez threw a side-line grab to the TE and he made the side-line animation and BOTH feet were CLEARLY out of bounds, I am talking half the length of his feet. The ref's reviewed and called it a CATCH. Ridiculous.
I hope you guys are having more fun than I. I'm sure I'll buy it even with these problems...
the only issue with madden 11 is the strategy pad. i got used to it as i played more but it's very annoying. audibles used to be as easy as walking. now it takes forever.
hopefully i'll get used to it but I just wish they would remove it completely. it's pointless.
I'm really loving the game so far. Played 3 games and I'm 2 and 1. Love the game flow and gameplan. I like how I can use the plays that I want to with having to go in the entire playbook.
I know it's the demo so I'm not concerned about crowd audio or commentary. I think they put a little in just to show us the example of Gus being in the game. IMO, he puts another level of excitement into a game that was lackluster in that dept for a loooooooooooooong time.
Alot has been said about the strategy pad. I'm not one for doing a lot of moving around. I'll blitz a LB or press every now and again but, I'm not worried about it. On O, after a couple of clicks I knew exactly were everything was. It's not that big of a deal to me. I can see how some would be upset though. It's like when Fight Night went all analog and people wanted the button controls. Hey, whatever, it's not a big deal to me.
Can't wait until the embargo is over so we can get some impressions from the retail copy and see how much different is then the demo.
To anyone on the fence. Don't read impressions. Make up your own mind and go from there. To the people not liking the game, it's the demo. To the people who like it, I'm with you 100%.
liking the demo so far, ya gotta love that its 4th and 3 for the computer as the Jets, and out of nowhere they fake punted. i'm like are you serious!! even in a demo rex ryan has guts.
I was playing as the Jets, it's late game and Colts are trying to burn the clock. It's 4th & 4 ... they line up to try and get the first, Peyton calls a couple of fake snaps ...
... then drops back as they audible to a punt formation and he drops this pooch punt that goes like 30 yards.
Ok played a game. I have figured out strat pad and on defense too. Love it. Just have to know what u want to do before the play.
Good: I like the locomotion. Run game feels like you have to earn it and sometimes a counter is too easy. Passing seems to work well. Revis had gonzales step for step and was incomplete.
Medium: I think the cpu main ways to stop the pass are an overthrow and sack... May be to easy. On the one play Ive run on d I strat padded right into an int. And got the ball back. Makes me leery of more nanos etc. I'm not someone who tries to find exploits, but I do the simple ones. Shirft dl right, crash right... Stuff like that.
Bad: near as I can tell , play action is very very broken, unless I move my qb out of the pocket with a bigger drop than needed, I can't get time to throw, and thats on all pro no sliders. Also kick returners slide into position. For me that's an oh well... I think the horribly negative impressions here are off base this is game is fun... And I didn't like ncaa lol
I must be the minority .. I am really enjoying this demo ..
I've already learned every option in the Strategy Pad, so I do most audibles as the offense to coming up to the line .. yes a little different, but takes some getting used to (hated Auto Sprint in NCAA, but once I got the hang of it I couldn't even go back to a sprint button) ..
Love the gameflow, I'm looking forward to putting a gameplan together ..
I did notice on kick returns the returner seems to be slow, don't know why that is ..
And hoping we get Player sliders, only saw CPU ones in the demo ..
Have only played two games, one with each team .. and I can honestly say I can't wait for August 10th ..