But at the same rate, if 1up reviews 09 favorably, many will bash the site as a "casual" game site because there are so many haters.
As for the list,
Divide and Conquer - the online leagues are a nice addition meant to satisfy the "hardcore" gaming crowd and will be a feature that 5-10% of actual players use the first couple of weeks but will slowly dwindle to the less than 1% crowd a month after the game has been released - Not necessary.
Cool Breeze
Too realistic with the wind gusts, no matter how much people want to play the real NFL on their tv, this is a video game and a fantasy for arm chair qbs, and having a feature like this would be another feature that pisses off the casual game crowd. You know the ones that automatically decline any offsides or false starts, ie most of the gamers. - Would be an interesting feature but once again aimed more at the hardcore crowd - Not necessary.
Update's too Late
Updated rosters for online play needs to be more efficient I agree, nothing like playing with the wrong players or injured ones, or even with a breakout player who hasn't been updated - Needed Bad.
Blind Spots
Agree with the blind spots argument, however making the icons disappear imply the QB doesn't know his WRs, how about just incrementally reducing the accuracy rating as the QB drops behind the LOS? Unless of course the real life counterpart does this as part of his game then he could be individually adjusted. Needed Bad.
Save Often
Would be a nice addition, but honestly if you jump into a 5 or 6 minute game (defaults) and don't have the time to play a game then play something else. Football really isn't made to be played in 10 minute sessions. I agree it would be a nice addition but really shouldn't be a focus. - Not necessary.
Franchise Tag
Once again would be a cool addition and aimed at the hardcore gaming crowd, but I don't see this being a priority until EA has worked out the more important kinks with the game on the current systems. - Not necessary.
Kicks Off instead of Kickoff
Bobbling the snap is another no-no in football video games, another thing that takes the control out of the users hands. Maybe making the actual kicks a little more difficult to accomplish are one thing but not even giving the player an opportunity to perform the game winning kick because of a ..... bobbled snap? That shouldn't be in the game. Not necessary.
No Need for More Speed
I think instead of getting rid of the speed burst button/trigger instead actually make those button mashers have some sort of penalty for using, ie the actual players get tired and subbed out or run the routes way slower. Speed burst needs to be kept in, if you take it out you take out user control. But I do agree something needs to be done about it in the case of people always using it. Not necessary (but revision is).
Injured or Hurt?
This comes back down to the quickplayer (ie one game, ie the masses or casual gamer) as opposed to the hardcore gamer who plays season/franchise online leagues etc. For quickplay or online play the system needs to be the way it is. For hardcore gamers it needs to be revised. EA will balk at the hardcore crowd 9x out of 10 simply because they represent the minority of gamers and the minority of people who buy their game. - Not necessary.
Conclusion: EA will always cater to the majority that buys their game (they are business), if hardcore football gamers truly want these changes to be mainstream then the mainstream gamer needs to change. And this is something that is slowly happening due to modern technology but will never be on the scale that most of the OS posters wish for.
The majority of gamers never even post on a game forum and simply buy games to play and enjoy and if they don't like them they trade them in w/o giving a second thought to supporting a company or any of the the console war shenanigans.
I'm glad that EA isn't sitting on their butts due to getting the NFL license but I think the good ol days of Madden vs 2K spitting out excellent games just isn't going to happen like we used to get. However I will say that this year's Madden looks very promising, but we will wait and see. Madden 08 was played by myself for 2 months and has been collecting dust ever since. I really want a Madden that is fun to play the entire year. I'll try to be optimistic but I won't hold my breath.