1. Gameflow
Madden NFL 11’s most highly-publicized change is Gameflow. This feature isn’t entirely original, rather it builds on the series’ original promise of getting you into the game of football while teaching you how to play it. It’s essentially an “Ask Madden” mode that that not only gives you multiple options per down, but also offers advice on how to execute your choice. Don’t freak out, vets — you can turn it on or off.
2. Scouting
Everything you do in an online game of Madden NFL 11 will be tracked and analyzed by EA. The resulting data will be sorted into scouting reports that anyone — including you — can purchase. For casual players, the cost is the retail price of the game, which includes 50 scouting reports. But competitive players are likely to win and lose based on how effectively they take into account their opponents’ trends — just like real NFL head coaches.
3. Swagger
NFL players aren’t exactly the most humble athletes in the world. Swagger is a new statistic in Madden NFL 11 that measures how likely a given player is to celebrate on the way to the endzone, or after a score. Chad Ochocinco, for instance, has Swagger to spare — he’ll celebrate if he even sees the endzone. The less swagger-y Jason Witten, on the other hand, will treat a touchdown like any old first down. What a grump.
4. Momentum
In Madden NFL 10, players would turn at one speed while sprinting and at a faster speed while running normally. The idea was to make players let go of the sprint button to make cuts, but who wants to take their finger off turbo? So in Madden 11, EA switched things up. You can now make a hard cut at a full sprint, but only certain players will actually be able to make the move, contingent, as always, on their ratings. Expect the likes of Larry Fitzgerald to turn on a dime even while speeding down the field.
5. 3-on-3 Cooperative Multiplayer
Most sports games let you play co-operatively OR competitively, but Madden NFL 11 will let you do both at once thanks to 3-on-3 co-operative play. That’s right — you and two friends will be able to play on the same team against other teams of three real life players. You’ll also gain nifty performance boosts for playing your chosen role well. It remains to be seen whether or not playing a whole game at receiver will turn a teammate into a whiny T.O., but consider yourself warned.
