I'm expecting several patches before the actual NFL season ends, this game doesn't even feel like alpha testing based on how bad it is. It doesn't shock me the editors already scored it an 8, none of them actually seem to play anything other than a demo for 5 minutes and fill in the blanks as if it's a game from the previous year. There are so many glitches in this game that it's impossible to take seriously, from players warping across the field to entire teams hurdling, fumbles being impossible to pick up and punting being a guaranteed safety, EA put zero effort into this year.
If we're able to find multiple glitches within the first game or so, it's evident that nobody bothered testing the game enough. We have a one-handed player catching the ball with his invisible hand this season, and all play-action plays are completely useless, almost as if the line can't decide if they're blocking for a pass or run and let defenders slip by. You can also call the same couple plays all game that makes passing useless if you press the receivers. Running is only good if you have a line, or if you play as Aaron Rodgers (for some reason he throws lineman on their ass often).
The game feels broken, some players will stop or run around in a completely different direction as if some animation was supposed to be triggered and my player would stand oddly until the game realized that nothing happened. There are also completely unrealistic situations, where all of your receivers will drop everything, which seems to be the difference in skill level with this game.
Raise it to All Pro or All Madden, it's almost as if they eliminated swatting the ball away because the defender will always leap to catch and deflect the ball each time. The only consistent way to catch typical passes is with the Madden Legends and you control Randy Moss to perform an aggressive catch, but all the other teams will drop the ball or have it knocked loose.
It was also the only time I had a pass interference call, the only other calls were holding and every now and then a false start. I would have mentioned delay of game but that's the player's fault for not paying attention to the clock. This is a rental, and only if you want to see how worse this game turned out to be than Duke Nukem Forever.
To make it worse they attempted to add the element of a story mode called "Longshot", featuring 3 characters that nobody gives a damn about. The only highlight was after finishing it and you can see Rob Schneider in those goofy outfits to record his video game acting. It takes hours to complete, during the animated scenes you can't skip anything after 40 minutes I lost interest and would do other things until I got back and it was over.
It should have been a bonus disk, some sort of premium version that included other goodies and maybe a few bonus cards for your MUT team. The story mode also has plenty of players who drop passes because you often only control one player on the field. The character Cruz was easy since he's a receiver, but at other times you have to stick with running plays.
I don't recommend most of the Madden games after 2008, then it became an effort to trigger "animations" and real time button situations. There's really no point in memorizing most of the actual buttons anymore since the game will have a button appear and force you to play the game their own way, it's like they saw people playing Dance Dance Revolution and merged the concept in hopes other gamers would show interest. Then the diehard fans of this trash heap will retort by saying, "You can always change the buttons and settings."
The only remotely fun part is opening packs to see fun players you can add to your team. I only played a couple hours online, people think you're hacking because players will warp around or do strange animation (some of the best were during celebrations and injuries) but it's such a bad game you find yourself only playing to see these horrible glitches. Most of the people playing online are too busy laughing at how bad the game is instead of taking it too serious, this year is simply disappointing.