Madden Devs Unveil First Gameplay Details

Madden NFL 11 developer EA Tiburon has revealed some new gameplay details regarding this year's football title that should please pass-happy players.

Using what the development team is calling The Catch Debugging Tool, Tiburon is focused on making receivers more aware of the sidelines and the back of the endzone so they can get their feet down when bringing in a catch. Receivers in past Maddens would routinely make little attempt to stay inbounds when catching the ball near the sidelines, and their animations would sometimes even lead them to go backwards as they made the catch. This tool allows the game to analyze "frame-by-frame results of what catches best match the situation for all players involved as the ball is in the air," said Madden creative director Ian Cummings in an interview with IGN.

This increase in animation optoins also ostensibly means players will be more aware of the first down marker and catch crossing routes without breaking stride. To even the playing field, defenders will be more willing to challenge for the ball in mid-air. "Players will definitely play the ball more aggressively," Cummings said, "but the elite guys are the ones who are going to be able to hang on to it."

The sideline problem has been a consistent problem for the Madden series, and if these changes work your QB will finally be able to confidently throw to all areas of the field. What other kinds of legacy issues would you like the developer to fix?