In the world of video games, the annual release of the Madden NFL series has become an unofficial holiday. When we sat down to play this year’s version, we were anxious and pensive at the same time. We felt that this year’s version of NCAA Football 2011 set the bar extremely high, and thus were slightly anxious to see how the Madden team responded. To say it was two steps forward and two steps back, we don’t feel is out of line.
The game features vast improvements over previous year’s titles. From top to bottom the product feels extremely polished and well done. The problem is that it feels almost too polished. We’ll go into further detail, but first let’s discuss some of the new features for the game and what we felt were some highlights.
Brad Jones and Nick Barnett bring the pain.
From the outset, players will see numerous changes to the way Madden handles. Most of these are game play improvements or changes, but some come in the form of extra game modes. The extra game modes come in the form of the previously DLC only ‘Ultimate Team’ mode and a return to year’s past in a Madden Moments mode (giving gamers the ability to play memorable moments from last season, and either change the outcome or relive moments of greatness.)
We really enjoy the Madden Moments thus far, as they are fairly challenging and offer a great way to get in 5 minutes of Madden when time is at a premium. The Ultimate Team mode is a labor of love. The idea is great, but unless you’re willing to shell out extra money for coins to buy cards, plan on spending a significant amount of time playing as a very bad team as the majority of players you get at first are rated in the low 60′s overall.
Andy Reid recreated in stunning 1080p. Sweat Optional.
Other new additions featured in this years Madden are the Online Team Play and GameFlow modes. The OTP mode lets players join up with two other friends in teams of three, and take on other groups of three in head to head matchups. In our experience with the OTP we found that is was both enjoyable and extremely frustrating. Each player is assigned a ‘team’ to be in control of. On offense it would be quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers. On defense it would be defensive line, linebackers and defensive backs. On paper this is great idea. In execution though, we found that while the potential was incredibly high, it takes a constant amount of communication, all players have to be on the same page and working together, and a significant amount of practice was necessary. Add in to this fact that the Madden team overhauled how defensive and offensive adjustments are made (more on this later) and the whole concept felt incomplete and not as good as it should have been.
The GameFlow mode however, is a gem. The idea behind this mode is that instead of focusing on calling all of the plays, the gamer literally takes the role of player only and lets the offensive and defensive coordinator do the play calling. Plays being called are based on the real life NFL counterparts tendencies in particular situations. For the most part the CPU does a good job, but occasionally players will have an ‘all streaks’ called on a 3rd and inches. To combat this, we recommend adjusting the gameplay settings to allow for either total playbook control or GameFlow play calling which allows players to choose whether they want to select a play, or have the CPU do it for them on a play by play basis. Another point of interest in the GameFlow mode is that players can wear their headsets and hear their coordinators talking to them on a play by play basic, shouting instructions and giving pointers.
Different uniform, same result for Donovan.
New to Madden this year, and carried over from this year’s NCAA title, is Locomotion. Locomotion brings with it an increased amount of importance on skills like agility and acceleration over pure speed. Player movements are more authentic and animations seem more realistic and not as canned as they were in the past. Players respond realistically to being tackled and no longer look as though they’ve been hit by a sniper from the upper deck on a shoe string tackle.
Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. A lot of the between game snippets are fun and light hearted, but are all very well done. In regards to play models, player faces are done extremely well. Seeing some players and coaches represented with such accuracy is astonishing. The Packers’ Aaron Rodgers looks perfect, and the Eagles’ Andy Reid is a flat out 1:1 representation. That being said, the rest of the player models could use some work. Every players head, with a helmet on, looks like something out of Madden NFL Arcade. The same can be said for the rest of their bodies to be honest. With the camera zoomed out, everything looks decent enough, but once we’re treated to close ups, everything just kind of has a cartoonish quality about it. One small thing that we noticed was frequent misplayed cut scenes or player animations. On several occasions our team would come up short on a 3rd and short, yet we’d get a cut scene of our players chest bumping. Another rare graphical occurrence was found in our play through when a quarterback would get caught up in a play action hand off, and then be stuck in a passing position facing the wrong way, as though the player model reverted to the wrong side of the field being the target.
Home of the 2010 Super Bowl Champions.
Sound in the game is by and large great. The announce team of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth is stellar. Occasionally the commentary jumps when searching for an appropriate comment but for the most part it rarely skips a beat and really adds an element to the game. The soundtrack for the game is exceptional, with our personal favorites being the team fight songs, and the stadium specific chants or music. In game sound effects work very well, and are all crisp and occur at appropriate times. The GameFlow works fairly well most of the time but we did have some issues with several headsets in getting the audio to come in right away. Often we’d have to plug and unplug our headset several times before we could hear our coach.
The game handles very well for the most part. However, there are some big changes to the control scheme which have already been met with much backlash. The two big changes include changing how teams make pre snap adjustments on both offense and defense. This was done to prevent cheap strategies online, but in turn has made making legitimate adjustments next to impossible. Players are now tasked with using the D-pad to make adjustments rather than mapped out control pad buttons for specific areas. The whole change comes off as very clunky and never feels like it gives enough time to make appropriate decisions. The other big change is in the kicking game. Gone is the long accepted method of using the analog stick rocked back and front to kick. Now the kicking game handles with a three button press more akin to an older PGA Tour game. This does make kicking easier, in our opinion but we’re not sure that’s a good thing. We were nailing 55 yard field goals with ease, and it really shouldn’t be that way.
Will future updates feature Tebow's 'Friar Tuck' haircut?
Overall we felt like this Madden, as we said earlier, was a bit of ‘two steps forward and two steps back.’ The game has some really nice elements. More realistic game play, more accurate injuries, better physics and play calling are all just a handful of major improvements. But we couldn’t shake the feeling throughout that the game wanted to be one part sim, and one part arcade title. And in a major franchise like this that sees repeat purchases every single year from the same core gamers, we just don’t think that’s the direction the game should be going in. This might be a first for us, but this year, if you’re going to get one football game only…pass on Madden. NCAA is the superior game between the two, and after the bright lights and polish of Madden wears off it’s easy to see. That’s not to say Madden isn’t a AAA title this year. It’s just that this year, the student seems to have become the master. Madden team…you have some work to do for next year.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
**Review copies of Madden 2011 were furnished to Gameseyeview by EA Sports. We thank them for their assistance.**
