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Madden NFL 11 Scores a Touchdown and Some

Once again, EA Tiburon's Madden NFL 11 makes some controversial changes -- this time mostly for the better.

August 10, 2010
You won't like this if...

you hate football and repetitive advertising.

Madden 11
Credit: EA Sports

The Madden NFL series is in a tough spot. When developer EA Tiburon changes a small detail here or a gameplay mechanic there, it inevitably enrages one set of diehard fans and gets the other half to hop back on the wagon so to speak. This year's iteration in the more than a decade old series has brought me back into the "drinking the Madden Kool-Aid" fold, because it's improved the things that matter to me. That said, Madden NFL 11 still needs some improvement. The thing that first struck me when I booted up a game was the revamped broadcast presentation. Madden NFL 11 embraces the TV broadcast presentation in a way I haven't seen in years. Since Madden made the jump to Xbox 360 in Madden NFL 2006, the focus on how the game was supposed to be viewed shifted from a clear, Sunday TV perspective to listening to a radio broadcast from the bleachers in the stadium. Since that entry in the series I've felt that Madden's presentation has been lackluster and it under-utilizes the ESPN exclusivity license EA has held for years now. (I've said it once and I'll say it again, NFL 2K5's ESPN broadcast integration is the benchmark I hold all football videogame broadcast presentations up to.) 

 


Chris Collinsworth returns for play-by-play duties, with a newcomer to Madden, Gus Johnson, taking over for Tom Hammond in the announcer's booth. Collinsworth's contributions are by no means stellar but anything he says is a cut above Johnson's faux enthusiastic outbursts. I don't know if it's Gus Johnson's unfamiliarity with the pacing of a run in Madden compared to real life that causes this, but things like a breakaway run to the end zone and a PAT being made before the "go all-the way" line is finished being uttered is distracting and should have been re-recorded in a way that allows for any type of play. Gus Johnson also sounds just plain fake in his commentary delivery; he could take some lessons from Pat Summeral, my favorite Madden NFL commentary jockey. That said, this year's commentary is better than the radio presentation of years past.


Improvements in the game's presentation aren't the only ways Madden 11 is different from its predecessors, as EA Tiburon has made some big changes in the mechanics department as well. First and foremost, there's no more Turbo button, so all of the speed your favorite players build up while carrying the ball is of their own volition. But even though there's no button to press, weaving in and out of defenders, bouncing off of others, and making it to wide-open space successfully allows for you to build momentum that acts very much like "turbo." I started to think of it like I had to earn my turbo boost rather than just having a finite amount to spend on each play, and I learned to really appreciate it. Not having a turbo button to rely on makes looking for seams and wide-open routes more of a priority rather than just going "all-out Madden" and doing any number of ridiculous moves and actions that would never happen in a real game of gridiron. This little subtraction changes everything.


The other change that drastically alters how a game is played is the new GameFlow feature. Sure, it may seem like a re-skinned Ask Madden function, but it really is so much more than that. Instead of being taken directly to an on-screen litany of play-calling menus after every play, you can now simply press a button and have a play called for you (the play is appropriate for the situation you are in). If you get up to the line and you realize that the called play isn't great for what your opponent has matched up against you, you can call a quick audible from a batch of pre-selected plays (which you can personalize to your liking) and switch it up. I really dig GameFlow, and I'm not someone that "Asks Madden" on a regular basis. I've always been one to pick my plays carefully but getting tied up in menus between plays really makes a game drag, especially once you've picked your play and you're just waiting for your opponent to pick theirs. GameFlow keeps the game moving at a steady pace (just as the name would suggest) but at the same time doesn't alienate someone looking for in-depth play calling; a simple button press takes you to the traditional Madden play selection screens. For a first time player, GameFlow is a great way to at least get someone's feet wet in the "whys" of calling plays since there's often an explanation for why a certain type of play is called.

Madden NFL 11 has a lot of the building blocks for making a great football game and is certainly a step in the right direction for proving that EA deserves the NFL exclusivity it has. If EA Tiburon can keep their focus and actually work on improving what they've already crafted in this year's iteration, rather than doing what they often do and start revamping everything all over again, the series is in a great position to keep this momentum (without a turbo button).

See More: EA Sports | football | Madden