A sad letdown. Wish I could get my $60 back
First off the game looks amazing. Especially keeping in mind I last played one that is now 14 years old. But that is about where I stopped being impressed.
I started out with creating a player in "be a superstar". This was a little clunky and not that spectacular. Found out the hard way that you better decide what position you want to play before changing any of the looks and apparel.
With my player chosen I started on my career as a WR. It was fun at first but I started to run into some real issues. I would catch passes that would be ruled incomplete. I would catch and run sideline for big yards only to realize that the ruled me out of bounds. Frustrating thing was I would go to the replay and sure enough, I would have about a yard between me and the line.
And the play calling of the AI for my team wast terrible. Not to mention the crazy amount of sacks I would see in a game. I think I can recall only a coule of times the qb actually scrambled. I have yet to see him throw a ball away to prevent the sack. This made it really frustrating to play any other position besides QB.
After getting so frustrated with the player creation mode I decided to just play a season. I won my first game 54 to 10. That was pretty boring. I went in and adjusted the difficulties and slider options and tried again. This time it was like my team was still in high school. Not fun at all. It seamed like the difficulty setting restricted your team rather than improving the opposing team. I am sure there is a sweet spot some where in the middle but I didn't buy the game to spend hours testing settings.
Ultimately I have found my desire to play dwindling fast. With NBA 2k12 out now that will be about the end of playing madden. Maybe a quick game here and there at best.
The nutshell:
Menu navigation is clunky and feels out of date
AI play calling in the player creation mode sucks
Refs and calls are terrible and many times absurdly wrong
Coordinator play descriptions are limited, bland, and some times not even close to the play being run.
The auto control just off the line is frustrating and ended in many lost yards because I could not make a block as I was running a predetermined distance before I could control.
Save often as I have had numerous crashes and lock ups
Stadiums, field, and players look good
Game flow play calling was a nice feature in my opinion.
It was fun to see some of the hard hits and crazy catches
There are a few more items but this give a good idea of what this game has been for me