Wow, i was looking forward to playing this game but... it failed
Normal play is the same thing that youve been playing with madden for years except for one new feature, gameflow. Gameflow chooses your plays for you but doesent keep situations in mind. This becomes a problem when your down deep in the fourth quarter, also it isnt nearly as comprehensive as the xbox 360 and ps3 versions of the game. It will need plenty of tweaking to be of the best use. Another annoying fact is that sometimes when you make a touchdown or first down your team logo will show up and flash for a few seconds, this interupts gameplay and takes away from the celebration. Other than that this is just a normal game of football, nothing fancy, nothing spectacular.
Next, 5 on 5. 5 on 5 is what it sounds like. A quick 5 on 5 game. There is no field goals, the point is to be the first to make a predetermined amount of touchdowns. You have 4 plays to get a touchdown. This mode is fun for a few games but gets boring quickly because there is no added features to make it funner.
Lets move on to Franchise. When playing franchise there are some nice visuals and fun character personalities but there is not much substance. Sure you can ajust prices of tickets but theres not much else. But wait you can use a created team right? No. because there in no created team option in this game. In fact there is no create a player option either. In franchise mode you cant move your team to another city, rename stadiums, build new or renevate stadiums either. These small details suck a little reality out of franchise.
Finally lets look at online mode. So basically you can play rated or non rated games and thats it, nothing else. This is a great disappointment to see the lack of effort in renovating this mode and its slightly infuriating.
Closing Comments:
Lets see, in Madden 11 the modes are sparce and gets boring quick for the most part. No create your own anything takes away from the football experience, Graphics are debatable but they make no attempt to look realistic. Difficulty is too easy in rookie to all pro difficulty ratings but is diabolical in All Madden to the point of throwing down your controller and cursing at the game in frustration. Music wise is somewhat of a highlight but unfortunatly there is only 10 songs which is kinda cheap.
In the end there is nothing that makes this game unique or of higher quality. If you have a ps3 or xbox 360 madden 11 is much better now here are my scores.
Gameplay 6 nothing out of the ordinary
Graphics 7 debatable not the worst ever but not good either
Presentation 7 Menus are easy enough to navigate but no extras
Music 6 great music selection, not enough songs
Substance 5 Not enough in this game to play for very long
Memerable/Replayability 5 You wont be playing this game for long nor will you ever want to come back to it
Final score 6.2 rounded down to 6.0
END: unless your a die hard madden lover this you probably wont enjoy this game overbearingly. However this is the only decent football simulation so if you really like football and love previous maddens well, might as well pick this up because you have no other options unless you have a ps3 or xbox 360