Review: Madden NFL 11

Once again, we're at Madden Day. Show of hands: How many of you took today, Tuesday, August 10 off from work to stretch out in front of the TV and log some serious football gaming time? (It's OK, your boss isn't watching.) After the long summer of anticipation, did this game deliver for you, the avid gamer? Thoughts on all the good and bad of Madden NFL 11 after the jump. Madden took a significant step forward in 2009 with Pro-Tak/Locomotion, creating the gang-tackling and realistic running and animations that gamers had craved for a long time. (NCAA Football 11 is playing catch-up in that regard this season.) So in a lot of ways it's tough for EA to make an equally large jump forward this season in the core gameplay. The animations are still on point, the faces of the stars on each team, along with the coaches, really look great. EA has added dual-stick controls so players are able to create a number of new moves when giving/receiving contact. One thing that rec...