Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Tiburon
Genre: Sports
Release date: August 10, 2010

When the Madden NFL 11 demo becomes available to the public, you’ll get the opportunity to play a game between the New York Jets and the Indianapolis Colts. You’ll also get to experience Madden 11’s newest addition, GameFlow, which enhances the play-calling experience by taking it away from you. I spent some time with the demo this week, and here are my impressions.

I want to start by saying that I’m terrible at football games. All sports games, really, but football in particular has always been my nemesis. I love to watch it on TV, and Super Bowl Sunday is one of the holiest days on my calendar, but none of that seems to do me any good when it comes to video games. GameFlow, while not perfect, has changed that for the better.

While you still have the option to go through playbooks and choose your play each down, GameFlow takes the choice out of your hands and gives it to the coach. After choosing to use GameFlow on a particular down, the coach reads you the play and tells you what to do. You can follow his orders or call an audible if you disagree with his decision. After getting destroyed in the two games in which I didn’t use GameFlow, and winning in the two I did, I’m convinced it’s a system put in to help the football-game challenged among us.

Another new feature in Madden 11 is online team play. You can play 3 vs. 3 with or against your friends, instead of just playing one on one. You can set which player controls what type of player before the game, or leave it open so you can all switch.

While the demo looks good, there is still room for improvement. Several times throughout my play time I experienced stalling issues, particularly when the opposing team was supposed to be kicking the ball. One such stall lasted two minutes before the screen flickered and they finally kicked the field goal. Another problem involves the play calling. Every two-point conversion is called like a touchdown, with Gus Johnson yelling things like “He wanted that touchdown!” But this is just a demo, and I’m sure things will be smoothed out by release time.

Madden 11 touts itself as being “simpler, quicker, deeper,” and despite the relatively shallow two-team demo, I’m inclined to agree. GameFlow is a great addition for people who don’t want to deal with playbooks, and being able to play online with your friends sounds great, too. You’ll be able to see the new changes for yourself when the demo hits on July 27.