Initial Madden 13 Impressions

The Madden franchise is like a fake diamond; from a distance, it looks nice, but upon closer inspection, it's inferior. After two weeks of play, I can say that I'm not as disappointed in the game as I was last year.  In terms of gameplay, the same issues from the previous years are still there. But, where the game shines is with the new Connected Careers mode. It's obvious that they put the majority of their development effort into this aspect of the game. It is a better, more expanded version of the Superstar mode of previous years. This could possibly be the saving grace of the Madden franchise. A lot of people that I've talked to about this would love to make it so multiple players to play on the same team online (sort of like My Crew from NBA2K11). One frustrating thing that irks me about the game is the new catching system. While the catches are fantastic, you have to be looking at the ball to make the catch. While this seems to be more realistic, often times I've thrown an over the shoulder pass or another lead pass and the player won't even attempt to make a play on the ball. Hopefully that will improve with the next game. Overall, I enjoy the game a lot more than Madden 12. I'd say it's one of their best post-NFL 2K offerings.