I have been one of those 2K faithful who has been waiting for the Madden team to catch up with some Franchise features and based on what I'm reading and seeing I may give this game a shot - at least a rental. While I still may not be in love with the gameplay, it's simply been too long for a Franchise-head like myself to keep going with an NFL2K5 franchise mode, and if I really need the gameplay I can always go along with the (now growing) slightly stale 2K football engine of APF2K8. With that said, being a cheery-picker Madden customer - one who buys it on occassion - this one may seem like it's worth it.
I'm really hoping for good things out of this game in terms of Franchise. It's been a long time since I could simply sit back, relax, and spend hours starring at a screen full of numbers and figures while the wifey asks me, "Why the hell aren't you actually PLAYING the game?"
She'll never understand. haha