[wickedbadman]

Thanks for copying my initial thoughts in here, ill paste up what I had left to say -

Safety (Man defense):
-Only had you marked on a RB, which was fun but is aided by focus mode. So I am not sure how easy it will be online / vs. a WR.

Safety (Zone defense):
-Had a real hard time even with focus mode, gave up 3 TDs before I just tried to let him catch and tackle (which might have been point of drill?).

Tackle Alley:
-I thought this was a blast. It gives you 5 of the 100 levels I believe, obviously increasing in difficulty as time goes on. I think it gives you the best idea of how fluid the player movement is. My only concern is I had more fun with this than exhibition haha.

Exhibition:
-2 minute quarters (only play one half). Can pick Arcade / Pro, select difficulty and the weather. I tried rain which was pretty amazing looking, the graphics definitely are top notch.

I know how tired am is coming into play, but this is definitely going to be a challenge. Most of it just trying not to become frustrated. I am sure when I picked up Madden/NCAA for the first time I was just as terrible.

Running is no problem, I think everyone will get the hang of it fairly quickly. Passing has a serious learning curve on the other hand. It's difficult to pick out your WR among the masses (makes me respect a QBs work even more) and I am fairly sure it would take a special person to change targets from one end of the line to the other. Having to "lock-on" to a WR before throwing to them is irksome. It makes it difficult to make split second decisions. I need to play a lot more before I make any sweeping generalizations though.

Defense, I am still not getting it. I don't see how anyone will be able to successfully play a safety in coverage for example. Way too risky / difficult, at least from what I experienced thus far. This is the thing that has bothered me the most playing.

Overall:

I like what I see: graphics, physics, "the world" are all very cool. The animations are amazing. Right now my main concern is how entertaining defense will be. I have to play a lot more, but on first glance I was already looking for a super sim option to get back on offense.

Edit: And I am not saying defense is a black hole of entertainment. I thought blitzing with the linebackers was cool, it's just that personally I have always been a coverage safety type o guy.