[TreFacTor]

While I do expect some level of improvement, I really believe that Madden 13 will just be Madden 12.5 and that all of the staff additions were made with future next gen consoles in mind and not the current state of things. What do I hope to see?

1- Man defense with proper offensive/ defensive interactions including the offensive and defensive lines. This could include the removal of mirrored image animations that cause the receiver and defender to perform the same exact animation at the same exact time (One of THE MOST frustrating things in the game). Simply changing this aspect of the game alone could bring the game to where it should have been on this generation of consoles.

2- Fix the cheating AI. It's time to let All Madden die. Not only does it nullify the ratings that EA spends so much time and money on (you'd think they'd have realized this by now), it's not even good enough to put up a challenge because it's so cheap in design...Simply knowing what play I picked is not going to beat me or the average 5 year old for that matter. It also serves to handicap the animations that, according to the devs there are hundreds of new animations added each year, but the difficulty setting seems to make certain you'll see the same scripted events play out over and over and over again.

3- Player ratings that mean something, anything to translate actual individual abilities on the football field.

4- Passing trajectory,windows and timing patterns mean anything to anyone? This could solve the issue with the super human leaping linebackers at least.

5-Fix what we can see about the draft picks prior to the draft. Not showing me the players 40 times is not realistic in any way shape or form and hiding this and other attributes really only screams ""Speed is all that has mattered since 06 so we'll just make it harder for you to pick the fastest players"".

6- No more gimmicks... things that should be standard should not be touted as improvements at this stage of the game. The NFL doesn't need gimmicks to get you to watch a game, attend a game, keep up with off season transactions... and neither should the game that proclaims itself to be the most authentic simulation ever. At this day and age, I should be picking up Madden because I can't wait to play it, not simply because I have no other option for an NFL video game.

7- Fix the penalties... no, it's not fun to get a personal foul for a late hit, illegal hands to the face, offensive/defensive pass interference, but they occur IRL so they should be in the game.

8- For the love of all that is sacred in the universe.. PLEASE fix instant replays. Replays should start at the snap of the ball and continue until the play is completely over including the celebrations or rejections. Why is it that I get to see the computers blunders and spectacular plays without obstruction but whenever it's my time to shine or fail I get the play call screen immediately or a replay that ends abruptly at the goal line.

9- Half time show, weekly wrap up show, something anything (I don't really expect to see this but I've been holding out hope for the last 7 years.)

10- Random/ selectable weather in offline franchise mode and optional accelerated play clock. The accelerated clock has never been realistic in my opinion.

I'm not expecting any of the aforementioned improvements, but I do hope these are some of the areas they are focusing on (if I can see them as concerns, why not the developers). I'd really hate to see that hand towel articulation is a higher priority than anything anyone has posted in this thread.

Just my thoughts.