Loved and appreciated game, but certainly not EAs best. Good football simulator.
Next thing you know you lost some yards. That is rather unsatisfying, your offensive line sometimes won't block for you, no matter what. When you watch your offensive line, they sometimes let the defender right past without making an effort to block him. There is also a challenge mode that is useful if you get mad about a play you thought was unfair. The truck stick feature is fun, but dosen't work sometimes, crushing defenders is fun to watch. Also, use caution when you do the truck stick, the last thing you will need is fumbling the ball on the goal line. When you run the ball with your QB, make sure to slide or something because if you get tackled with him, 80% chance that he's going to fumble the ball.
Defense now, your cornerbacks won't catch the ball, like never. You will mostly see a ball thrown right to him, and he volleys it in the air. Then another defender will volley it, and so on. I was swearing under my breath when that happened. Flattening offensive lineman are so fun with the hit stick. Hitting the QB is fun too, if you hit stick him, he probably will fumble the ball. So the gameplay is good, but there are a few things that down-grade it.
Graphics in this game look okay, but they are pixellated, so you will see those little squares on the screen, depending on the telivision format. Running animations are good, and tackling animations are excellent. The touchdown celebrations are funny, but are repeated and get old. The character models are fantastic in this game, you can even customize your own character and give him abilities on the field. The fields look pretty good, the specialized fans look good, and you can tell if they're happy or mad, depending on their actions. The ball animations are good as well, you will notice if it's lobbed or nailed. Graphics are fairly good, but aren't the best.
The soundtrack in this game is good, but it's not my favourite. The hits in this game sound very good, and the crowd noises are okay. The part I hate about this game is that annoying John Madden. I personally think that he is annoything and talks about things at the wrong time. He gives only the offensive line credit when you score a touchdown. Other than that, the sound is pretty good.
I don't like online mode, it just gets me in tears and builds up my anger. I'm nineteen years old and some eight year old was kicking my ass and bragging about it. Some people online are good, and others just play that game day and night. I don't play that game online anymore, just because I'm not as skilled as some people at that game dosen't mean that they could just stick it in my face. But playing with a friend on two-player mode is a lot better than online. The season mode is fun, with up to thirty-two seasons, you can make prices for hot dogs, beer, souvenirs etc. You can even make your own stadium, now that is fun to play in.
Good: Good character models, good animations for everything, fun two-player modes. Fun character customization. Challenge mode--good addition. Fun seasons with a lot of options.
Bad: Hard mini games, and bad online experience (for me). Madden repeats himself a lot. Irresponsive commands. Dumb offensive linemen from time to time.
Overall, not a bad game, but worth a rent if you love football.
Score: 7.9/10