Madden 2011

Ok so I finally pulled the trigger on this since I took the past 2 years off with Madden. With not really having the time to sit and play my PS3 and the fact that I focus mainly on the EA Sports NHL series, Madden had to take a back seat. Well, not this year....I heard so much about it I had to get it and give it a shot. My wife was out to dinner and the girls fell asleep early last night so I got some serious PS3 time to myself and took full advantage of it.

I usually press the "x" button and skip through all of the preliminary stuff, you know the hype they do for every video game. However I watched the Drew Brees soliloquy and it was pretty sweet....got the chills to be honest. Onto the game....had to select my favorite team (you should know this) and then get on with my franchise mode. I got right into it, didn't practice or anything, I figured it would be like riding a bike and it was. The main thing I missed was the "speed" button but honestly I got used to it and in actuality found it easier to hit the hole on a run play, make a juke and then break it open. LT is the man BTW....as is Greene. Like any video game now, the graphics were amazing, especially on the instant replays, it's soooooo real! Game play was very similar to what I recall from 2009 (think that was the last season I played) but I did find it more realistic. Also, you have an option of calling your own plays or using the "GameFlow" which basically let's the offensive and defensive coordinators call the play and then you execute them. I used this last night and really got into it, it was a cool addition to the game for the 1st time in 20 years.

Probably the funniest thing is that Old Spice is a big time sponsor this year (trying to sell OS to a younger generation???) and they had some real funny lines during the breaks in the action. The Old Spice whistle (if you've seen the commercial on TV you know what this is) and some of the lines used were, "Thank you for smelling great man!", "Old Spice body wash, greatest smell in the NFL", "Wham, bam, thank you for smelling great man!" Come on, are you serious? Had me in hysterics during the game though.....

Lastly, I heard it was easy and I started on a setting that was way too easy...blew out the Giants 34-7 and the Panthers 28-12 so I need to adjust that as I move forward in my franchise. Can't wait to carve out some time though and get after it!

What do you think about Madden 2011? Email me your thoughts....or better yet email me your online (PS3) name and maybe we can get after it one night??? bd@lax-school.com ....let's see what you got!