Gammon gameplay and frustrating flukes have been commonplace in Madden recently and have disappointed the franchises. However, this year’s installment, Madden 12, not only fixed the flukes and improved the realism of its gameplay but also added phenomenal and useful new features.

To grip the players, an introductory video gives a proper representation of the 2010 NFL season’s greatest moments and players. The game then incorporates these moments in the Madden Live feature. This game mode allows the player to take over a team in a mid-game scenario, and to replay one these great moments of the season.

The first noticeable visualization improvement comes during the pre-game routine, in which players would traditionally have been mistakenly introduced. Madden 12 focuses on properly introducing the players, and even added some of the specific pre-game habits, such as Ray Lewis’ pump-up dance.

Commentary, as always, remains unenthusiastic and repetitive. We need John Madden back.  Luckily Madden 12 encompasses the surrounding stadium’s environment so well that it does not feel dull and quiet when one turns off the commentaries, therefore saving the player the pain of having to listen to Cris Collinsworth.

The producers this year also did a great job improving the off-field aspects of Franchise Mode. They finally made the pre-season useful by expanding the rosters to 75-man rosters. This allows the team to begin with more prospects and allows for the user to cut players who underperform every week.          

Also for rookies, the pre-season is important in either boosting or decreasing their rating, as the team can unlock the player’s in-game qualities. This provides the user with an incentive to actually play the pre-season games, rather than just simulate through it. Free agency was turned from the simple press of a button into a fast-paced bidding war against the computer, a much fairer and practical method of signing players.

Madden 12 also reintroduces the Weapons feature from Madden 08. In this feature players are labeled “Franchise Quarterbacks” or “Injury Prone.” During the course of a season these labels apply in in-game scenarios. For instance, a wide receiver dubbed “Deep Threat” might be more likely to catch a long ball during a game.

Combined with the Weapons feature, they introduced an in-game performance analysis, which can either give the players hot or cold streaks according to the players’ features. For example, Tom Brady can catch a hot streak at any time due to his extreme precision, and Jay Cutler can get shaken up from a sack and therefore hit a cold streak.

 Although Madden 12 still has some problems with the physics of the game, the game has been improved so much from its previous version that these flaws seem insignificant. Madden 12 finally renders a proper reincarnation of America’s favorite sport.