Thanks to Amazon’s Prime service, with release day shipping to my door, Madden 11 should be waiting on me by the time I get home.

Apparently there are a lot of mixed emotions about this year’s installment on the various boards and blogs that cover such things as glitches in QB throwing motion animation sequences. I kid you not; Madden releases are serious business.

Once upon a time I would keep the previous version of Madden (or any other sports game for that matter) so I would have an option if the new version sucked (or contained some serious flaw). I would also use the older version as a point of reference; i.e. research what was improved, revisit how some previous feature worked, and other nutty stuff that I did as a game reviewer. Besides, I “collected” games – what a loser. These days I typically try to time throwing a sports game like Madden 10 on eBay to capitalize on the fact that the game is not fully discounted at retail and the new version is still a few months out. So if Madden 11 contains some major issue that was not in Madden 10, there is really no going back.

In the end I think things will be OK. The developers will address any serious flaws or bugs in the inevitable patch(es), and the player ratings and rosters will be adjusted a couple of times during the season. After playing the demo I hope items like piss poor punt return blocking and lack of quality kickoff returns will be addressed in the first gameplay patch.

If you are looking for an overhaul in the franchise system, that is not going to happen this year. After reading some of the comments from the producer, I am not sure if an overhaul of the franchise mode will ever see the light of day; apparently only a small, but very vocal minority of gamers care about such things as salary caps, owner mode, player rating progressions, and how the CPU handles trades, free agent signings, and the like.

I will be happy if I manage to get in a couple of games tonight. Typical “take these comments with a box of rock salt” impressions and comments forthcoming.

Happy Madden everyone!