How good is good enough?
Here are my reasons. The fumbles/interceptions are crazy. I've played 4 online games, and not one of them has had less than 6 turnovers. Offline play has averaged 3-4 turnovers per game for me. I can see how this might happen once in awhile, it should not be this high on average.
Madden has no cheerleaders or people on the sideline to measure 1st down. They don't even have a net for FGs. And every kickoff going into/past the endzone is a little much. The new animations are good, but some are still off. I can't count how many times I've bumped into someone and been "tackled" as a result. The announcer is boring and forgettable. Create a team, while good in concept is lacking. You can't edit your players(unless in franchise), and are stuck with some randomly generated people.
I've had players get injured and not even know it, except that they weren't in the line up anymore and I had to go find out why!!!
They don't measure on 3rd down if you're close to the 1st down markers. They just tell you... not very exciting.
The play clock changes... after a kickoff you only get 25 seconds to choose a play? Then the next play you get 35, and for field goals you get 45? I don't understand why it should be different?
The graphics aren't as good in action as the screenshots I've seen. They look slightly better than 2K5, but I was expecting a lot more from a next gen title with 3 years more development time under it's belt. (My TV is HD, BTW)
The one thing I did like was the hit stick, but even that was hard to time right online.
Basically, all the things I mentioned were done better 3 years ago on lesser hardware. And that game was only $20. Gee, I wonder why EA was so eager to buy the rights to the NFL license? *sarcasm*
If I had never played the previous games, this one might be better, but since I have, I can't see it as a good investment.