Madden NFL 12 - Xbox 360

I'm writing this short review because I read the reviews and use them to help me decide what to buy and when I read the reviews on this game I was hesitant to purchase since the last one I bought was Madden 10. I have played every Madden game since they first started making them and I don't think any of the games are perfect and most years the changes they made were minimal at best but every year they seem to try to improve it in some way. This years improvements are a TD in my opinion. I love the collision system they have added this year and the additions to the Franchise mode are wonderful. (This is the main way I play the game, I don't play online and superstar I only mess around with) Understand this is coming from someone that loved Head Coach 09 and some of those additions come straight from the mind that created that game. I say if you like football at all you need to buy this game and forget what the haters are saying in their reviews. Madden still has and has always been a game with the focus of bringing the strategy and brute force of a real NFL game to a video game system. Oh and speaking of brute force, when you play a Defensive Lineman and you fight through the block and then sack the QB or RB trying to hit the whole the satisfaction is better than it has ever been. Maybe this game is geared towards the way I love to play the game all along and all the improvements were meant for a long time football fan that I am. (40+ year now)UPDATE: 2/26/12I just had to add some notes to my review. I'm on the 15th Week of my 8th season and usually by now I'm done playing franchise mode of my Madden game. This one is so different because usually I'm not able to find a balance setting for the AI however this AI is perfect for me. I have everything set to 50 for computer and my settings and I have so much fun playing the games. I play every game of the preseason and regular and post season and what I have found is every game is different. I play games against teams that I should dominate on paper but yet they are sometimes easy sometimes challenging and sometimes I may even lose. I have games where the computer should dominate me on paper but still get all three scenarios. Same goes for balanced match ups. You have to use your strengths against their weaknesses and figuring that out can take some time during the game. And other times you are able to dominate from beginning to end because you figured it out fast. (No matter what it says on paper) Calling this game balanced wouldn't be fair either since it takes skill to it right. I have had games that I take control early and never let up. Games that I have a big lead and they are able to come back and make a game of it while others are they are able to come back and beat me. I also have the opposite where they start out beating me big time then I'm able to find their weakness and come back and either make a game of it or win in the end. I have had low scoring games I have had high scoring games I have had games where we score early and then can't score late I have had games where we can't score early but do score late. I even had a game that had 5 touchdowns in the last 3 minutes of the game...one big play after the other from either side. Keep in mind I do 7 min quarters and I only play franchise mode. I'm not even getting into all the great parts of building your team through Free Agents, Drafts and Trades and balancing your payroll and the other great things about this game. Oh and one more point to make. I let my coaches select the plays (I have seen others say that this isn't a good idea) for the most part with on occasion I know I want to run or pass and I will make them choose a run or pass play and sometimes when I come to the line I see something I can exploit so I call the correct audible. I am updating my stars from 4 to 5 on this update and I don't see anytime soon I will stop playing this game. I don't see how they could improve on this so far as my play style is concerned.UPDATE 8/15/12So here we are and the new Madden is about to come out and I'm still playing franchise mode on this. I love it! I'm in my 20th or 21st season. (I think I read somewhere that you can only play 30 seasons and I'm prepared for this) I got my moneys worth plus out of this and will not spend the money on the new one till I have completed all possible seasons. Even then I'm not sure I will want it and maybe just start a new Franchise mode with another team. I've been playing the Cardinals every season (even though you can switch at the end of any season) and I love taking players from draft picks, back up players, to starters then dominate players then to the Hall of fame. I have produced 3 HOF in my 20 or so seasons and I know I have one or two that may make it before my 30 seasons are up. If you are trying to save a few bucks then buy this years and play the franchise. Not sure how the new franchise will be but this one is great. Are there things they could have improved? Well of course but this is a 5 star game all the way!!

Let me start off by saying I have always played the demos for Madden games year after year and they always seem somewhat lackluster or at the very least more of the same. I was into the Blitz series for a bit but that was only because I liked the hits and the tackling within that series of games. I bought NCAA 11 because I felt it was heading in the right direction and I have played it to death but I have never gotten into Madden. Now we flash up to present day and this is the first Madden game I have purchased...ever. The demo actually blew me away enough to warrant a purchase! When I played the demo everything was fluid, from the running and passing games to the cuts in between plays. But what impressed me the most comes back to loving the hits and tackling of the over the top Blitz series. Madden 11, though not over the top, delivers in its tackling system, gone are the days of seeing the same animation over and over again, also gone are the days of "phantom tackles" where your receiver is far away from the tackler and yet they magically catch him. The collision detection is fantastic in this game and upon buying it I have to say the whole package is even better then the demo was. I actually have cringed at some of the hits that have happened and the way that a players body reacts to multiple people hitting him is very realistic. If a player is fighting his way through a tackle and gets blindsided, you see it like it was real, no more canned animations that defy the laws of physics!The graphics are fantastic but I am not one to focus on that aspect of a game. For those of you who are though...they are great! Being from Michigan I am a Detroit fan through and through and they got Ford field perfect. I have never personally been in an open top NFL field so you will have to trust the other reviews that they got the lighting "perfect" for those fields. All I know is that the weather effects are extremely believable and the stadiums look pretty :P Only con here is the crowd...but it seems that every sports game has a problem on the crowd so nothing new here.Having not played Madden before I guess I fall under a Franchise Mode player since I like to be able to control everything about a team. I haven't finished a season yet but I am five games in and I gotta say the Injured Reserve list works like you would want it to. Also cut days in the pre-season are brutal but not in a bad way! The idea that there is a diamond in the rough makes you have to think long and hard about your veterans, especially if they haven't played well all pre-season. Free agent bidding is more fun than I expected but you have to go in with a plan and try your best to stick to it or you will lose out. I haven't tried the other modes yet so you will have to consult the other reviews for some more insight into those.This game is amazing and is the most fun I have had in a football game in years. For me it is the best Madden to date and it may even be better than NCAA 11 which for me is pretty big. I wanted to get out here and just let people know that even for somewhat who isn't a Madden die hard this game is amazing. As long as you like football and like sports games then I think you should love this game, it has everything I ever wanted and what I have always expected from a Madden game!