Madden NFL 11 Demo - Initial Thoughts

For those of you interested, the demo for Madden NFL 11 was released today. I'm not sure if it's available on the Playstation Network while I'm writing this (if it isn't it will be later today), but it is currently up on Xbox Live. I'd recommend those of you who can should check the demo out just to see what you think of it after trying it for yourself.

After trying the demo, there are some good and bad points about it, like with all games, but some of what they've done surprised me. More after the jump...

In the demo, you can play a game as either the Colts or Jets, at the new stadium that the Jets and Giants will be sharing (which looks pretty dang nice). It's a full game with five minute quarters, and adjustable difficulty. (If you try it, I'd suggest sticking with the default difficulty because they made some major changes.)

One of the first things I noticed was the graphics, which are improved from last year, with everything looking more realistic, most notably the players. The lighting seemed to be improved, although it's hard to tell when you can only play on a sunny day without any time or weather changes. The animations in the game are also somewhat smoother than in last year's version.

One change that was announced a while ago was Gus Johnson being brought on to do the announcing. Sounds great, right? What they forgot to mention his that it's Gus Johnson AND Chris Colinsworth. Luckily, Colinsworth doesn't talk much outside of the pregame stuff, though I wasn't paying much attention to the announcing while I was playing.

If you are used to the control scheme they've been using in recent years, then you should worry a bit, because they changed the controls around some. The one change they made where I can see how it could make some sense is removing the sprint option. This isn't as big as you'd think it is, because they made acceleration count for more in the game, so if you get into the open field with your receiver, you're probably home free. The only way I managed to score was with long bombs to Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and Pierre Garcon, because anybody on the defense who could have possibly caught them wasn't close enough to get their in time. There are two downsides I see to removing the sprint option. One, if you're used to holding down the right trigger (or whatever it is for PS3) most of the game, it will feel a bit weird. Secondly, I see this creating a problem with scrambling. Since I was playing as the Colts, scrambling with Peyton Manning wasn't a realistic option. But in the real game if you're playing as the Broncos and have Tim Tebow in, I don't see how you're supposed to scramble around behind to line of scrimmage to avoid defenders or roll out to get into open space before a run, because they'll just be shuffling around like if they would normally do in Madden NFL 10 if you don't pull the right trigger, or like what Kyle Orton does on a regular basis. Once you get into the open field, this shouldn't be a problem unless you have a slow quarterback, but getting to that point may be difficult.

They also supposedly made changes so you can control the ball carrier with only the joysticks. I'm still figuring this one out, as everything I was able to do with the right stick was the same as in Madden NFL 10, though there may be some way to spin with it that I haven't figured out. They still have it so that there's a button you can press to spin, dive, stiff arm, etc.

They changed some of the pre-snap controls on defense, so instead of having the separate buttons to make changes in coverage or to what the line and linebackers are doing, you can pull those options up with the "Strategy Pad," otherwise known as the d-pad. This shouldn't be too big of an issue, just something you have to get used to if you're used to the old controls, so it takes a bit longer.

The control change that really gets on my nerves is how they changed the kicking controls. It's supposed to more accurately reflect the kicker's individual skills or something like that, but it's annoying as heck. Instead of pulling back and then pushing forward with the right stick, you have to do something with the A button (probably X for PS3), and it seems similar to kicking in Madden NFL 99 for PS1, except really difficult. I have yet to figure this completely out, all I can do is mess with the power a little bit, so all of my kicks are wildly inaccurate, including extra points. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Then there is the "Game Flow" play calling system they added. Pretty much the computer chooses a play for you, and some coach tells you what you should do ("Try attacking deep this play, but don't force it, we don't want any turnovers."), and it will show you exactly what the coach is saying near the bottom of the screen. Luckily, you can switch to standard play calling and turn the coach and subtitles off if they get on your nerves as much as they did for me. I see the new system of play calling only useful if you're new to Madden and/or you don't want to deal with calling your own plays, but they pretty much had this with Ask Madden in the older games.

Overall, the demo was frustrating for me, and I was disappointed with the gameplay changes they made, because for the most part, they weren't improvements. That being said, I'll probably buy the game when it comes out because I don't see EA changing much of this stuff back to the way it was before, so I need to get used to it. Plus, I want to play Superstar mode as Tebow.