I played game one of the season last night. I decided to play as the New Orleans Saints. It was actually an excellent game minus some big gameplay issues.

TB Buccaneers 16 NO Saints (me) 24

Highlights and lowlights:

* 1st drive of the game Brees scrambles and slides and as he gets tackled he fumbles (same issue as last year...)
* 2nd drive of the game Brees gets sacked and suffers broken ribs (out at least six weeks)
* Tom Savage comes in and plays until the last drive of the game then also gets injured and is gone 4 weeks)
*** 27/31 264 yards 3TD 2int
*TB has zero run game (Simms 17 carries 25 yards)
* 3rd quarter I get kicked off the server (fortunately the game saved as it was in the cloud so I could continue a half hour later)
* almost zero user pass rush unless there is a full on blitz called
* passing game does seem a bit better and easier this year but essentially the cpu is always in zone (much like last year)
* CPU QB play is a little too good IMO. Not robo but close *almost zero stat overlays for the entire game (really minimal immersion)
* 3 penalties (false start x1 encroachment x2)

All that being said this was a very fun game. It's been a while since I said that about Madden.

HOWEVER:
I was so excited for the halftime show but it's such a disappointment
**** three games mentioned (none which are relevant to my team)
**** NO STATS SHOWN
**** no updates on all the other games around the league
**** nothing in regards to the game (TB vs NO)


*** This has the potential to be amazing but typical Tiburon with the half effort. I'm really saddened by this. The EXTRA POINT is still far superior to this offering. Why is this something Tiburon cannot do well? Let the NCAA team take over presentation. They know what they are doing!!!


Once the game is over in typical madden fashion the immersion is dead. There is no follow up on scores, etc. The twitter feed at the bottom of the pages scrolls to slowly for you to read and it's all the articles in your feed anyways. Most of the tweets are meaningless and have little to do with anything. I just wish Tiburon could figure this out. Just copy what 2k does in this regards and your game obtains elite status. However for whatever reason they just won't do it....