Madden NFL 11

After years of struggling to field a next-gen football game that met the expectations of its rabid fan base, EA Sports finally got the vaunted Madden franchise back on the right track last year by adding gang tackling, introducing the oft-requested online franchise mode, and realigning the presentation to bring it more in-synch with television broadcasts. For the encore, developer EA Tiburon isn’t just building on the success from last year – it’s reinventing the most integral part of the gameplay experience.

Unhappy with how players accelerated, changed directions, and carried momentum in past Madden titles, the dev team scrapped its old locomotion engine in favor of a more responsive system. Speed is no longer the most important rating for skill players. The new approach places a much higher emphasis on agility and acceleration as distinguishing factors that separate the stud backs like the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson from mediocre skill position players, like the Bears’ Adrian Peterson.

Armed with a revamped right analog stick juke system that takes advantage of the new technology, players now have an entire assortment of moves resting under their thumb. If you wiggle the stick back and forth, the running back will stutter step. Pressing the controller far to the left or right prompts the familiar juke, but swinging the analog stick around like throwing an uppercut in Fight Night triggers a dangerous spin move in the direction you rotate the stick. Flicking the stick down activates a high step for avoiding diving tacklers, and holding it forward makes the runner assume the trucking position, which you can then steer by slightly guiding the right analog stick to the left or right. This is an important technique to employ with fumble-prone players, as you can guide the runner strategically to keep the hand holding the ball from taking the brunt of the tackle.

Getting used to the new system takes time, since you must trigger moves much earlier than you did in last year’s game to effectively use them. But after a few quarters I was stringing together killer juke combos that left defenders gasping for air. Tiburon is so confident in how this system improves the running game that it eliminated the sprint button altogether. It sounds like a dangerous move that could provoke the anger of hardcore fans, but EA Canada did the same thing with the NHL series, and it gave the game a more realistic feel.

Running the ball isn’t the only aspect of the game the new locomotion engine improves. Receivers finally try to keep their feet inbounds when making a catch on the sidelines. Backs and receivers immediately square their shoulders and turn upfield when catching comeback passes or screens, which finally eliminates their frustrating tendency to run backwards in past Maddens.

Defenses also benefit from the new locomotion system. Cornerbacks with amazing closing speed can bait quarterbacks into throwing their way by playing loose coverage, and star defensive linemen with impressive acceleration ratings explode toward the quarterback after shedding blocks.

Changing The Way You Play

In talking with NFL head coaches about Madden, one target of criticism kept coming up in the conversations – the unrealistic playcalling system. No coach shows up on Sunday with 300 plays in his gameplan, and after looking at telemetrics EA Tiburon discovered the average Madden player only calls 13 different plays a game. The devs went back to the drawing board and came up with GameFlow, a new approach to playcalling that more accurately reflects NFL practices and greatly cuts down the time spent navigating menus during a game.

Instead of cycling through hundreds of plays before the snap, GameFlow automatically feeds you a play from a predetermined list of options you can customize for particular downs and distances. The play art immediately appears on the field as the offense takes its position at the line of scrimmage, and the AI offensive coordinator who chooses the play then explains why he picked this particular play and gives advice on how you can best exploit the defense or challenge the offense.

GameFlow is a great learning tool for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of football, and greatly cuts down the amount of time it takes to play a game. Hardcore players don’t have to worry about the new system crippling their offensive genius, either. You can fully customize gameplans by adding or eliminating plays for particular situations. Being able to rate each play on a five-star scale guides the AI logic in how frequently you want the play to be called – if you want to rarely run a bubble screen on third and short, give the play one or two stars. Want to ram the ball up the middle of the field every first down? Five star your favorite dive play. You can also access the full playbook at any time if you want to call a specific play. If you really hate the new feature, you can turn GameFlow off altogether. Superfans can even customize the gameplans for every CPU-controlled team in the game.

To complement the playcalling changes, Tiburon also simplified the system for making pre-snap adjustments. Now all hot routes, coverage adjustments, line shifts, and player motion is handled by the d-pad. Dubbed the Strategy Pad, this refined interface may irk players who memorized the old controls, but after using the Strategy Pad for a few games I appreciated how streamlined it is. Once you get used to the new system, it’s actually easier to make last-second adjustments quickly.

To complete the playcalling overhaul, EA also reconfigured the audible system. Now when you press the audible button, your options are outlined right above the scorebox on the bottom of the screen. As you cycle through the plays by pressing left or right, the play art for the highlighted play appears on the field, which is a very useful tool if you’re using an unfamiliar playbook.

Get Your Kicks

When conducting focus group testing on Madden NFL 10, one of the constant sources of frustration for players came from an unexpected place – the kicking meter. Apparently some people couldn’t figure out how to press the right analog stick forward and back (!). To help these Rhodes Scholars from blowing field goals, Tiburon has dropped the right analog-based system in favor of a three button press system that should be familiar to anyone who has played a sports game in the last two decades. Pressing ‘A’ once starts the kicking meter, the second determines power, and the third determines accuracy.

After playing a few games of Madden NFL 11, I can’t stress enough how drastically the locomotion system revolutionizes the gameplay. It may look like a subtle change when watching footage of the game, but once you have the controller in your hands and hand the ball off to a dangerous running back, you realize how empowering the new system is for skill players. If you’re one of the disgruntled football fans who has forsaken Madden for its past transgressions, this could be the year to jump back on the bandwagon if everything comes together. Check back here in the coming weeks as Game Informer dives deeper into the rest of the changes EA has in store for Madden NFL 11.