[jjhennes]

I can't lie... I love the football engine, and at times I feel like this plays better than any madden I've played.

However, personally, I feel the bugs, missing features, and lack of presentation kills it for me. There are sooooo many features in the current gen that I miss, and nobody can give me a proper explanation why they're not in a much more powerful next-gen product.

It's the little things that kill it for me such as the inability to edit who's playing in different formations, the horrible CPU AI in franchise mode (has never been great, but c'mon, let's see some improvement), the fact that not a single trick play exists, the complete lack of any distinction between a regular season game and a post-season game, including absolutely nothing if you were to win a superbowl. Now I'm not playing a franchise to see a 15-sec cutscene at the end, but still, how is there absolutely nothing?? Tecmo had something!!!!

In terms of physics and more importantly gang-tackling, I'm hopeful that some of the technology from the new Fifa game will be used to improve on this in the future.

I guess in the end I'm not thaaat dissapointed, but with all of the resources EA has, and with the enhanced power of the 360, I guess I just feel a little cheated as a consumer. 10 years ago when I was 15 all of these "mind-blowing graphics" , personalized cadence calls from QB's, signature running styles... these would be things that appeal to me. The older I get the more this stuff becomes fluff to cover up for real game-play issues.