United Gamer Online (UGO)

by Ben Silverman and Mike Smith
Hope you're ready for some football, because if you play video games, that's mostly what you'll be doing this week. EA's annual August Madden moment finally arrives on most major systems Tuesday, giving football fans the perfect way to kill time while waiting for Brett Favre to make up his mind. Again.

But while the legendary flipflopper loves the drama, EA loves to avoid it by doling out small changes to Madden year after year rather than massive revamps. Madden NFL 11, however, has decided to hurl a Hail Mary by tweaking the way plays are called, a feature that has remained fairly consistent for roughly two decades’ worth of gridiron greatness.

So should you strap on your gaming helmet and order a week's worth of pizza, or stick with last year's game and focus on your Fantasy team instead? According to critics, tuck $60 under your arm and juke towards your local retailer: Madden 11 is worth drafting.

IGN jumps right in and gets its hands dirty with Madden 11's biggest new feature: Gameflow, a one-button playcalling system that automatically chooses the best play for your given situation, turning marathon Madden games into much quicker experiences.

"If you're someone who's new to Madden or if the complexities of figuring out formation types was too much for you in the past, you're going to enjoy the bulk of what GameFlow does for you," says reviewer Nate Ahearn, though he points out that the artificial intelligence "makes some bone-headed play calls that...will likely be lamented by hardcore veterans of the series." Still, the game's got enough oomph to warrant a solid 8/10.

Game Informer's Matthew Kato goes a bit higher with an 8.75/10 review that calls Madden 11 "a clear step forward for the franchise." Why? In part because of the recharged ground game.

"Subtle cuts, bursts of speed (without the turbo button), sheer physical power, and other characteristics are layered on and make NFL players come alive and showcase the abilities that make some of them stand out from the crowd. The game makes you feel like you’ve got unprecedented control over the runner," he notes.

Madden 11's new Online Team Play feature -- which lets up to six players hit the field together, online, in the same game -- also feels the love. IGN calls it "one of the best gameplay modes to make it into a Madden game in a long time" that "lends itself very nicely to smack talking friends on your team," while game blog Kotaku believes the game "deserves praise" for leading the way in co-operative online play.

Unfortunately, MTV Multiplayer thinks Madden might have been co-opted a bit itself, calling the game's embedded advertising blitz "particularly aggressive."

"Every time you get into the red zone, anytime you get an in-game stat feed, or enter half-time, hit a big play, or even get an achievement, you'll see or hear something from a sponsor," says reviewer Brad Nicholson in an otherwise positive piece. This paragraph has been brought to you by Yahoo! Games, by the way.

The bottom line? Critics mention a variety of other flaws -- including a lack of changes to the Franchise mode, repetitive commentary and the soon-to-be-patched Strategy Pad -- but none of that seems to dissuade them from recommending it for newbies and vets alike. As Kotaku puts it: "Madden NFL 11 is loads of fun, and that's why you play the game."