Madden NFL 11

I have to be honest and say that I’m not a huge fan of American Football. It just seems so full of fluff that only gets in the way of a good game. This seems to have been mirrored in my past experience with Madden games, where I’ve given up in frustration of the sheer complexity of the game, when all I want to do is to be able to grab the ball and either run with it or throw it. But Madden NFL 11 is supposed to be different. This time the guys at EA decided to make a game that was accessible to the casual gamer, whilst not alienating their hard core fans. They’ve done this with a feature called GameFlow that when used, cuts down the complex options and focuses on the actual game, leaving you in control of the man on the field, and not forcing you to spend most of your time wading through a play book that has hundreds of options. When used, GameFlow can turn an hour long slog into a thirty minute, fast paced game.  And you know what? It works. With a little knowledge of the game (they pass the ball forwards) you can jump right in, and depending on your skills and the difficulty level you choose, have the satisfaction of winning a game – with the bonus of actually feeling like you are playing the game, rather than going through the motions. Graphically I can’t compare this installment with any previous, as the last Madden game I played I think was on the original XBox, but suffice to say that the game looks amazing and seems to capture the feel and atmosphere of the game. Your character, and even the ability to skip through characters is intuitive and really the only thing you have to think about when handed the ball is: do I pass it or run with it. Being able to jump right in and have some fun is going to give Madden NFL 11 a whole heap of new fans – people like me who have shied away from it’s past complexities, offering us novices the chance to play the game without having to understand it, but at the same time being their when we want to learn more and take the gameplay to the next step. All in all Madden NFL 11 is as deep and complex as you want it to be, making me wish more sports games had this level of flexibility when it comes to participation.
Reviewed on: XBox 360 Available on: XBox 360, PS3 Reviewed by: