So once again, like years before, I bamboozled myself into wanting the new Madden game.  Perhaps bamboozle isn't the correct term, but every football season rolls around and having sold my outdated copy of Madden months and months prior, I NEED the new copy of Madden to slake my football thirst.  Yet with every new edition of Madden I buy, I am as quenched by the effort as I am left parched by the things that have failed to be improved.
For one thing, I find it nigh impossible to, at this point, rate each year's Madden as far as it's gameplay.  Madden has been solid, fun, and almost unchanging as far as the way it plays for some years now.  As such, Madden has lived and died by the small tweaks and added features it makes from one entry to the next.  This year, we have, once again, things that work, things that don't, and things that still need attention.
Now at risk of making this into a review, I'm just going to flat out name what I like and what I dislike out of these new features.  First off, this Madden IQ... I don't know about this Madden IQ.  Though it works in a certain capacity, the "test" that you take to set your default Madden IQ is for all intents and purposes, broken.  If you're at all familiar with Madden, or even at all familiar with VIDEO GAMES, you're gonna get All-Madden in most categories.  The thing is, that these tests just don't really translate well what it is to play Madden on the field.  However, if you play a game of Madden on the default setting of Rookie or Pro or whatever you believe your skill-level to be, and from there use the My Skill system, you can get a fluid difficulty system that is much easier to manage.  It was a nice try, but this one misses the mark by a mile.
One thing that people are calling a "feature" , the BackTrack, seems to me, to be little more than a presentation edition that was in the 2K series long before this.  Now, I must admit to backing the 2K horse back when the NFL wasn't exclusively EA's, but anyone impartial judge who has played both series can back me on this (saying which, where the hell is the new All Pro Football!?  Last year was a lax start, and I figured they'd be back this year, but nope, looks like 2K has given up T__T).  Now, don't get me wrong, I like this "feature" and the color commentary of Chris Collinsworth, but WHY is this such a noteworthy addition?  I guess we've lowered our standards so low as far as Madden adding new things into the mix that we're now including BackTrack as a one of Madden's shining additions?  Give me a break.
I don't really feel like talking much about the "Rewind" feature, because, to be honest, I really like it.  As cheap as it sounds to be able to rewind a play and give it another go, with Madden and it's many cheap gameplay hiccoughs, it seems more like mercy.
I have a few other issues with there being no additions whatsoever to the Superstar mode, a very lackluster mode when you get right down to it, and having been once again, in a zombified state as I forked over 90 dollars for the special addition, I feel like Head Coach should have just been another mode in Madden rather than a stand alone game.  I could go in depth about my problems with that game, but I won't pick it apart.  It's a fun enough thing in concept and for fans of mogul sims, but there just isn't much lasting value to encourage you to keep playing.  Again, it could have easily just been an additional mode in the Madden package.
All this might sound like I vehemently hate purchasing Madden, but I don't.  I enjoy Madden as a game and that's what keeps me coming back each year.  It's simply that, above all else, Madden doesn't feel like it's trying to improve itself, it's just experimenting with taped-together features and modes to see what sticks, and as of late, NOTHING is sticking.  We're stuck with the somewhat flawed Madden from years back with a new coat of paint.  The only thing is that we're not being sold the game as "used", we're being sold something new, and All-New Madden has become somewhat of an oxymoron nowadays.