While we weren’t able to see too much of EA’s booth due to scheduling, we were able to speak with the EA team and discuss Madden 11 with them. Releasing on August 10, 2010, Madden 11 will feature a variety of gameplay updates, including a brand new play-calling system called GameFlow.

A few weeks into last season, the Madden team went to John Madden’s house to watch a weekend of football to better improve the game. When talking with John Madden, his biggest gripe with the game was that the “play calling is not authentic.” Going into detail, Madden described how coaches typically have a play sheet, with roughly ten different plays for each set of downs. Madden felt that this was not accurately portrayed in the game.

When diving further into the issue, the team discovered that an average game will take an hour to complete, and only 17 minutes of that hour are actual gameplay. By introducing the GameFlow feature into Madden NFL 11, they were able to speed up the average game to 20-30 minutes. Since everyone gets into their habits though, it should be noted that GameFlow is merely an addition to the game, rather than a replacement for the current play-calling system.

While GameFlow is toted as the main new feature in Madden NFL 11, EA also improved upon a variety of aspects in the upcoming game. One of those features was to improve the ‘stale’ commentary and play-by-play. For Madden 11, EA brought in Gus Johnson to do the play-by-play (Click here for one of his more famous calls from last season). EA also announced that Madden 11 will include 3v3 online team play, allowing for more players than previous versions.

Look for Madden NFL 11 to hit retail on August 10, 2010.