Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

Madden is an incredibly frustrating series for newcomers and diehard fans alike. For newcomers, the learning curve is daunting; learning stick skills on both sides of the ball, which plays work (and which don't), and then mastering presnap adjustments . . . it takes a long time. On the flip side, seasoned veterans will always find something to complain about. When you have mastered Madden, you'll quickly find that it has its serious problems: cheap plays that work too frequently, AI cheating (particularly corners who can react to passes with their backs turned, or linebackers who jump 10 feet in the air to bat down passes 15-20 yards downfield), and a general lack of realism.

With all that being said, however, this is still an incredibly fun, deep experience, and the best representation of my favorite sport that I've yet encountered. Yes, even better than ESPN NFL 2K5.

This review is going to be organized a little differently than my average review. Because so much of this game has remained the same since Madden NFL 10, I'm going to focus on a few concrete, very specific changes. Most of these will likely only register with dedicated Madden fans (I'll even reference specific plays), and this review is more geared toward that crowd. Some of these changes go a long way toward making Madden NFL 11 a more complete game, while some of them are areas that still need improvement.

In gameplay, the first thing you'll notice is that the playcalling has changed. The new "Gameflow" system makes games quicker but takes control out of your hands. Personally, I never use it, and it seems mostly like an effort to make the game more newbie-accessible.

Aside from that superficial (and reversible) change, there are a few subtler adjustments to gameplay which I have found to be quite important. Here's the huge one: no turbo button. Again, you can change this back to manual turbo, but I actually found it quite refreshing. It allows you to focus more on hitting your holes as a running back, and I never felt that this hurt me (i.e. my guy did not accelerate to full speed when he had a chance to break away).

In tandem with the no turbo is increased right-stick control of your running back. These two new wrinkles, combined with better run-blocking, have improved the run game in Madden for the better. Yes, you still get blown up too frequently in the backfield. Yes, the AI undoubtedly still cheats and magically knows whether you're going to run outside or inside. But if you line up your blockers correctly (make sure to get the big defensive tackle doubled), the running game now pays big dividends.

Less has changed in the passing game. One noticeable surprise was that certain "money" routes have been eliminated. The slant is no longer unstoppable -- in fact, it's no longer even a particularly high percentage play against a lot of coverages. To compensate for this, Madden NFL 11 has made receivers more aware of the sidelines (they actually drag their feet now! And try to stay in bounds!) and also better at winning jump balls. Fear not, Chargers fans -- airing it out deep to tall receivers now works quite well. And for all those defensive players who live and die by the press coverage, be warned -- you cannot leave your corners out there on an island with top receivers (unless you happen to have Darrelle Revis, he of the 99 rating). I will admit that I've found a few "money" plays left in the passing game, particularly Four Vertical out of most team's shotgun sets. That fourth receiver still gets open way too often in the middle of the field, and that's a lifeline on 3rd and 10+ if you ever need to go there against the AI.

All in all, these small differences add up to make a big difference. If you want to run a successful Madden offense, you cannot make a living by constantly going to the screen play, by only throwing to the flats, and by exclusively calling the fullback dive. You'll end up running a more diverse offense, mixing deep, middle, and short passes, and even running the ball a fair amount. Online play is incredibly fun as a result. I'm still struggling to figure out how to defend other people's offenses, though I can usually torch my opponent up and down the field en route to 35+ points each game (my average game is probably a 42-35 win at this point).

So what needs improvement? Honestly, quite a few things, but one sticks out in my mind above all others. Franchise mode could use a big boost -- it's starting to become a little dated, and has several serious issues. One, scouting is broken -- while in the past, it was worthless, now it's almost too good. It takes very little effort to draft future superstars year in and year out in the 3rd through 5th rounds, sign those guys to seven-year below-market contracts, and then reap the benefits. Perhaps as a corollary of this problem, the salary cap seems way too generous. You'll likely never come within $20M of hitting it with most franchises unless you make really bad free agent signings (and it's true what they say -- there are no bargains in free agency). I'd like to see a more realistic franchise mode that makes it harder to identify Tom Brady-type players; and that correspondingly makes it harder to keep your core players signed and happy. Perhaps one way to solve both problems would be to add a holdout function to the franchise, so that if you are relying on five or six guys who are superstars on below-market contracts, you can rely on at least a few to hold out and refuse to play. It happened to the Jets and Chargers this past offseason, and it should happen in Madden (If it's in the game . . .).

So, what's the takeaway from all this? Big surprise: Madden NFL 11's not perfect, and it's not the Great American Football Game we've all been waiting for. But if you look past the warts, you'll find a really complete package, and in particular a much-improved online game that plays (ever so slightly) more realistically than past incarnations. It's another small step in the right direction.