Despite positive reviews, they've been receiving a lot negative backlash from the gaming community for practically rehashing the same material but with a few new updates. I haven't played an EA Sports game in a LOOOONG time to know.  
 
I would like to ask, is it really true that they've haven't updated much since their early incarnations? Or is this an exagerration made by gamers as an excuse to bash Sports games? 
 
I will say this though, the Zelda gameplay formula hasn't changed since Ocarina of Time (With the exception of Majora's Mask), but I rarely hear people complaining about it.

" I will say this though, the Zelda gameplay formula hasn't changed since Ocarina of Time (With the exception of Majora's Mask), but I rarely hear people complaining about it. "

EA sports games usually have a couple significant changes that don't warrant for a full price purchase.  
frankly, i like EA sports games but i usually wait until there's a big, game changing addition.. which is why i buy a EA sports hockey game about every 4-5 years. 

I'm not qualified to talk about Madden, but Fifa games were appalling until 2007. They were rehashed(within their generation( they were not still using mega drive code) AND appalling. Since then the games have been great, but the usual rule with a sports game is buy every two years. I used to stick to this rule, but Tesco  have offered  the new Fifa at 29.95 Eur the last two years.  I dont mind paying that for new kits,transfers,graphical updates and gameplay tweaks.
The changes can be dramatic, Fifa 10 finally offered omnidirectional movement, it used to be that a player could only move in a certain number of directions( I think 8).