First impressions are heartening, as the front end has been given a thorough scrub-up. It's still not quite the match for FIFA's glistening menus, but it has both a charm of its own and, more importantly, an added level of functionality. This is most explicit in the team selection mode, which utilises a drag and drop system that's so intuitive you wonder why it hasn't been done before. Changing tactics and formations is now simple and fun, and the interminable menu trawl that used to precede every serious minded game of PES has been confined to the past.

The release of Madden is a momentous occasion each and every year. Not just because it's the only NFL-branded game of pigskin available, but also because -- for many of us -- it signals the beginning of the NFL season. I've spent the last two weeks playing the finished review build of Madden NFL 11 and I can say that those looking for a great game of football needn't look any further once August 10th rolls around.