Keep It or Delete It?: Pushmo (3DS eShop)
Keep It or Delete It?: Quasar Quinn: Escape from Zargnon (Android)
Keep It or Delete It?: Mutant Mudds (3DS eShop)
Final Cut: Hetalia: World Series (Season 3) (DVD)
Keep It or Delete It?: Paper Monsters (iPad)
Football season approaches, and gamers know what that means – another yearly edition of Madden. Madden NFL 11 features many familiar modes including an Exhibition mode, Franchise Mode, Madden Moments and more.
If you like having control over every facet of a football team, the mainstay franchise mode once again makes its return. If you’ve never played a franchise mode before, you select at least one team that you will control. You become the owner, general manager, coach and player for each team. In franchise mode, football is only part of the game, you set ticket prices, hire and fire coaches and trainers, and scout and draft players all while still playing games on the field. Franchise mode runs for 30 years; so, you have plenty of time to build a legacy. As with last year’s game, between games in Franchise mode, you can view The Extra Point, a recap of big events during the week featuring Alex Flanagan and Fran Charles from the NFL Network. They also talk about the next week’s schedule including previews of a few games. It’s a neat concept, but some of the commentary seems disjointed at times. I think if they improve the flow of some of the dialogue, it will become a very nice addition in future versions of Madden.
There is also Ultimate Madden, where you construct a team based on packs of cards that you earn while playing games. Each card represent a player and has a set number of games that the player can be used before the card runs out. Based on how you perform with your cards, you earn coins that can be redeemed to buy new packs and improve your team. It’s as if NFL Showdown has an electronic component. While some people may love this way of building your team, it can feel very tedious at times.
The minigames mode takes small squad practices and combine events and turns them into competitions between teams. You gain points based on performance in events such as 40 yard dash, bench press, running backs vs. linebackers, etc. While this isn’t nearly as fun as playing a full-fledged game, it can be useful to work on certain aspects of your play. The Madden Moments also make a comeback where you replay situations from recent games, sometimes trying to duplicate improbable comebacks, other times trying to change history. Some of them are pretty easy while others definitely provide challenges in both play-calling and performance.
Regardless of all the different modes the game has to offer, Madden NFL 11 exists for one reason: to play football, and it does that pretty well. There are a few control changes that make the game more accessible to new players. First and foremost, it now defaults to controls that include automatic sprinting, removing the need to hammer the circle button as you run downfield. It also feels like they tweaked the computer’s strength under each of the four difficulty settings. Newcomers can learn at their leisure under the rookie difficulty while experienced players can rack up all sorts of records. In a two-player cooperative game, I was able to score 180 points in four five-minute quarters on the lowest difficulty. Each successive difficulty does provide more and more challenge for more skilled players, and you can even create custom difficulties by tweaking individual aspects of the computer’s play.
On the field, EA has instituted a new system to help alleviate downtime during games. The Gameflow system is like an advanced version of the classic “Ask Madden” option of play-calling. Gameflow incorporates an algorithm that analyzes your play-calling alongside the team’s real play style and finds the best and most realistic play for the situation. For people who want to just snap the ball and go, it’s a great option as it keeps the game moving and definitely cuts down the overall time it takes to play a whole game. Generally, it does make pretty smart calls, too. Next to the speed of the Gameflow system, going through the menus to select your own play definitely feels much slower, but with around 350 possible plays (though the number is limited by your playbook choices), it does take some time to sort through everything. Once your play is chosen, the offensive and defensive coordinator will “relay” the play to you and tell you which opponents to watch out for, or where weak spots on the field might be. Veteran players can also put their touches on the play-calling by creating their own gameplans to help Gameflow pick plays that are more to their liking.
If by chance, you don’t like the play call, the audible system has been mapped to the directional pad for easy access. You can change a receiver’s route, a blocking assignment or even an entire play with just a few quick button presses. With the ability to make changes at the line that quickly, even an unseasoned beginner can feel like Peyton Manning in no time. EA has also improved some of the player movement systems, and it seems that the logistics of jumping catches and sideline catches have both been improved to become more realistic. For many years, it was highly likely that your sideline passes would drag players out of bounds unnecessarily, but now good receivers are far more likely to drag their feet to make catches in-bounds, just as they would in real life.
This year’s in-game commentary is provided by the team of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth. Gus Johnson is known for his energetic style in the booth and he brings it with him in Madden NFL 11. Whether he’s providing commentary after a sack, two yard run or a touchdown, Johnson’s commentary adds another level of enjoyment to the game. Johnson even provides some team-specific touchdown calls including singing “San Diego Superchaaaargers!” (a personal favorite). Unfortunately for Collinsworth, his level-headed style of color commentary seems somewhat flat next to Johnson. He does offer some good insight into the game situations, but it doesn’t always match up with the energy provided by his counterpart. The soundtrack offers a variety of music including instrumentals from NFL Films as well as rock songs from Ozzy Osbourne, Ying Yang Twins and more. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t allow you to add your own music to the soundtrack; so, if you don’t like the options, you’ll have to find the least offensive songs to listen to while in the menu screens or work in silence.
Graphically, Madden NFL 11 is a nice looking game, and definitely an improvement over prior installments. The player models for many of the big stars are identifiable on sight, but the player creator does not have as many options as one would hope. The replays looks great, and outside of a few awkward moves, they are getting quite close to a realistic feel. There are also many little touches to the graphics that make it more enjoyable such as real replays on the scoreboards and vastly improved lighting effects. If you’re looking for a realistic looking football experience, this is definitely a good bet.
Of course, while Electronic Arts has strived to make more and more realistic experiences with each Madden game, and while many of them are improvements, not everything works out that way. This year’s version may have re-created a television production of a football game a little too well as there are advertisements everywhere. Drive summaries are sponsored by Verizon, big plays by Doritos, and so on. If you spend a lot of time in the red zone, you’ll start to get tired of the Old Spice whistle eventually. While the advertisements aren’t as ridiculous as the commercial in Alan Wake, they do pile up, and some people may be bothered by how much product and advertising placement there is. They may have crossed a line with having a player stat that is actually sponsored by a company. The product placements are a little overboard. I’ve already paid good money when I bought the game, why should I sit through so many advertisements while trying to play it, too?
All in all, Madden NFL 11 is a nice pickup if you’re a football fan and it’s been a few years since you’ve bought a game. The new systems make the game more accessible for newcomers, letting everyone get a chance to play together. Veteran players may not find the new changes as enticing, but it is still a fun game, if you don’t mind sitting through the ads.
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Matt on 07 Jan 2011 at 1:47 pm #
I like the review, but not the game. In franchise mode you cannot set prices for tickets prices etc. and scouting, draft, and FA aren’t in depth enough. I do agree that they went a little over board with advertisements. While on offense if you don’t rush to the line, there are real time ads. Example while changing my plays at the line, there will be ads for different upcoming tv shows like The Cape or ads from progressive.
If EA can’t change the way they decide on what should be included in the game, then another company who will actually listen to the gamers should take over.
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Dan Furnas on 08 Jan 2011 at 10:11 am #
Yeah, EA left a lot of potential on the table with this one. It definitely could have been a lot better. I think recently, they’ve been so concerned with picking up new fans, that they forget what brought the old ones in.
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