The Outlook Of Madden 11: Thoughts On The Demo

Drew Brees on cover of Madden 11

It's that time of year once again; fantasy leagues are starting their drafts, rabid fans are searching for sales of rookie jerseys, and the yearly "Favre watch" is in full effect. That's right, the NFL season is just around the corner, and it just wouldn't be the same if the new edition of Madden didn't mosey on up with it.

Coach Ryan ate Mark's last hot-dog and he's pissed

Madden 11 (due out August 10th) is the newest edition to the yearly sports game series. The demo came out a few days ago, so let's dive into how this years release is shaping up:

Online Team Play with Madden 11

One of Madden 11's new editions to the series is the "Online Team Play" option. Many of you may wonder what the difference between this and last year's "Online Co op" feature. In many ways it is just an upgraded version, but the main point is that its better then last year's mode. For starters, the human players per team increases from 2 a piece to 3 (mind blowing I know). Another interesting component is the "squad" aspect, letting players choose from 3 squads (OFF:QB,RB,WR- DEF:DL,LB,CB) so that you control only players in your squad, minimizing confusion and placing importance on each range of skill sets.

Indianapolis Colts Sideline

The graphics have improved and you can vividly tell in every aspect of the game, from the much improved sidelines and more realistic player and coach models, to the replays, in game action. The lighting has improved greatly, being more realistic then ever, and a small but fantastic detail is the clarity of the in stadium game screens.

Chris Johnson, RB of the Titans

The animations in Madden 11 are more fluid and realistic then ever. While they took out the sprint button (yes, no more turbo), they replaced it with a more natural acceleration. Mix that with the implementation of their new "locomotion" system, and running and tackling and everything in between is even more realistic. You see little to no Wide Receivers running being completely aware of the first down or out of bounds like last year, the glitchy "stuck" animations have cleared up and the AI as a whole has improved.

Madden 11 Game Flow

A new method of calling plays and running a game plan has been implemented in Madden 11, called "Game flow", supposedly making the game more immersive while wasting less time calling plays, shortening overall game time. This revolves around setting up a personalized game plan in which you pick plays you would most like to call in a number of situations and then when such a situation comes up the computer analyses the best choice for the moment (I thought Mr Madden did that all ready?). For the casual fan, this sounds like a great idea and something that they will most likely have great sucess with, for the more hardcore fan, they will probably stick to the option of a conventional playbook.

Put your headset on , the coach is talking to you!

Overall, Madden 11 looks amazing, feels great and will most likely be even better when the actual release comes out next month. And one last thing the most important improvement of the game, they took out the chain gang animations.