For those who are curious, I picked up the game the other day and I'd call it a mixed bag in terms of quality. Some parts of it are really good, others leave a bit to be desired. Most of the bad parts seem to be in the menu system more than anything else. Why it takes five and six "simulate to this game" commands before it actually simulates to the game is beyond me. The Extra Point feature is "meh" overall and doesn't seem to add all that much. Also the guy who is not Chris Collinsworth really didn't do a good job on the commentary, down to poor execution on the voice acting where there's a huge pause between him saying the score at the quarter and then which team it is leading.
In terms of gameplay though, it's fairly good. The blockers are idiots sometimes, but that happens in the NFL to a slightly lesser degree. I don't buy that you couldn't run the same play 60 times in a row and fool the computer, because I have a few that always seem to work...not always to the same guy, but still. The ref deliberations are cool if you're new to Madden, but 9 times out of 10 you know what the result is going to be before they even cut to the animation if you're a vet of the series. The fumble dogpile mechanic is "eh"...an interesting twist, but I've not seen enough to really say if they captured it well or annoyingly. Interceptions off tips are insanely common, which mirrors the actual NFL much better where more INTs come off deflections than come off of straight "stupid throws" (unless you play against Carolina).
Of course, the rosters are already out of date with Plexiglass Burress appearing on the Chiefs rather than the pen and Ron Mexico being noticeably absent from the Eagles. Obviously, EA can't be blamed for things that JUST happened not being in the game they sent to manufacturing a month+ ago, but the roster updates will hopefully remedy this.
All in all it's a good game, but it's still that incremental step forward in one place and a couple back in others that characterizes Madden. I'll have to re-up to XBL and beat up Skillet a few times to see how the online play goes.
