Reviews// Madden NFL 11

Posted 1 Sep 2010 11:00 by
Companies:
Games: Madden NFL 11
You can also take on the role of a single player’s career in Superstar Mode, check out a range of minigames to improve your skills in a certain area or jump straight into last year’s Super Bowl (which, if you manage to win ends up with a brilliant - if weird as all hell - ending sequence).

Also, to celebrate the the 50th anniversary of the AFL (the league which eventually mutated into today’s NFL) there’s a nice little variant mode, complete with old school presentation and teams. There are no real gameplay differences, and you’ll probably only play it a little to check it out, but the nod back to the game’s history is appreciated.

Online
Online mode has been extended too - there’s the usual head-to-head match-ups, but there’s now the option of 3-on-3 which really plays incredibly well. Just make sure you have a headset so you can communicate with your teammates.

This year also sees Ultimate Team in the mix - a mode already seen in EA’s FIFA series. I must admit to not having delved into it so much so far, but this virtual Panini album certainly seems intriguing. You spend in-game coins, which you can earn through play or buy through the online shop, to buy packs of cards of players to create your Ultimate Team.

Cards can be traded to other online players or even auctioned to earn yourself more coins. Definitely needs more investigation, but I’m worried that my gotta-catch-em-all side will come out. Let’s see what’ll happen!

The game itself plays brilliantly. Every aspect is presented in incredible detail - players are recognisable, stadia look exactly the same as in real life (even the mildly decrepit Qualcomm!). EA has once again tried to improve the presentation; it's branding the game as having “Everything you see on Sunday”.

While it still needs a little bit of work, the development team has done very well this year. Yes, there’s an occasional repeated line from the commentators, and the coach can grate a little, but they can always be turned off.

I have spotted the occasional bit of pop-up on the replays but it doesn’t detract from the game. I still think this is one of the best iterations of American Football you’ll get on a console. The sport may not have the millions of fans here in the UK that it does in its homeland, but for those who enjoy staying up late on Sunday nights watching large men throwing a ball around on another continent? You’ll love it.

Conclusion
The introduction of GameFlow means Madden 11 is a perfect introduction for those who are a little nervous of getting into the series. Once you get the basics of the sport down (and yes, it’s actually pretty simple to understand - it just looks tricky from the outside) the game will hold your hand as much as you like. Get more comfortable with how things work and you can start taking your training wheels off - ramp up the difficulty levels, switch off the various assists... all the tinkering you can do and all the different play modes mean that you’ll be playing this until Madden 12 hits the shops.

SPOnG score: 85%
<< prev    1 -2-
Companies:
Games: Madden NFL 11

Read More Like This


Comments

Jimmer 1 Sep 2010 15:45
1/1
the last good Madden game was on the megadrive tbf
Posting of new comments is now locked for this page.