Once again, this review is exceptionally late. The football season is almost over, and Madden has already sold its bazillion copies for this year. So anything I say here is kind of moot when it comes to helping people decide whether or not to buy this year’s game. But maybe – just maybe – my critiques will help the developers provide us with a better game in the 7 or so months that they have left to make Madden 13.

After being thoroughly disappointed with last year’s Madden game, and not being won over by either the new demo or the gameplay in NCAA 12, I didn’t rush out to buy Madden 12 on day one. I waited till September and bought the game used. This also contributed significantly to the tardiness of this review.

Overall, Madden still just seems uninspired, even when compared to EA’s NCAA Football game. All the same gameplay enhancements go into both games each year now, but NCAA has at least taken some efforts to better represent its sport. Setting up “linked” plays is simplistic but was a start towards a better representation of football strategy. Integration of the No-Huddle offense into the game is a bit clumsy, but is a major component of modern college football, and is thusly represented in that game. Requiring the QB to “read” the defense on option plays doesn’t work as well as last year, but it’s actually an important part of the option strategy. The collegiate look and atmosphere really looks and sounds like Saturday afternoons, and the ESPN integration is actually pretty slick at times.

• All the inspiration is going into the NCAA game
• So why's it so bad?
  • PRO-TAK is gone, and consecutive hits are in
  • No wasted motion wastes the game's potential
  • Pass blockers need to learn to double-team
  • Psychic defensive backs and passive receivers ruin the passing game
  • Will special teams ever be fixed?
  • Depth and simulation are sacrificed for the casual player
• Franchise gets some fan-requested attention
  • Recruiting fails to live up to its NCAA counterpart
  • “GamePlanning” feature doesn’t actually involve any game planning!
• Lazy presentation
• I honestly wish that EA would just drop Online play completely
• Nitpicking
• Conclusion

Yesterday, I began an analsyis of the recently-released Madden NFL 12 teaser trailer. In it, I discussed four of the features showcased in the trailer (or at least, what I thought the features would be). My general conclusion in that section was that the only feature of any note is what appears to be a new player attribute and profiling system. Hopefully, the rest of the new features will provide something more interesting.

1. Section 5: Something about field goals...
2. Section 6: Probably not a blimp camera
3. Section 7: Custom playbooks are back
4. Section 8: Surprise onside kicks
5. Section 9: Hot and cold streaks
6. Section 10: 3-D grass
7. Conclusion, and how EA can earn my money this year

Last week, the first teaser trailer for Madden NFL 12 (why don't they just call it '2012'?) was released. Somehow, I managed to miss the initial release and didn't stumble onto the trailer until this weekend. But even though it's "old news" now, that isn't going to stop me from sharing my two cents.

First things first, here's the trailer in its entirety:

There's a lot of information in this trailer. A heck of a lot more than we got in the NCAA Football 2012 screenshot from a few weeks ago. Let's break it down!

This is kind of old news, but I thought I'd share my two cents about it.

Surprise Onside Kick is the first new feature announced for Madden 2012

Well, this is not a terribly positive sign. For many reasons: