All Madden freaks need not apply
On calling the plays on defense, as long as you don’t try a special teams play on 3rd and long you can’t go wrong. Sure the offence may be doing a Oh-My but that does not mean your berserk blitz won’t be able to stop the play by sacking the QB. In all actuality you will probably give up big yards or maybe even points, but the thing is, it doesn’t really matter in this game, no big plays can really screw you like they can in sim-football, which is why there is so much fun in this game.
On offence you can really just stick to a handful of plays an entire game and you are set, but that does not mean the game becomes monotonous, you are constantly scanning the field for open receivers while evading would-be sackers. One flaw I found with the passing game, is in the Campaign, you need to start placing bets on the game so you can upgrade your training equipment, once you win a couple games though you start to see a problem, usually to win these bets you have to be 14-21 points ahead of the opponent, which makes your offence an entirely passing offence, which is not necessarily bad, but running is amazingly fun in the game.
Sound = amazing…well only the sound effects, the actual voice acting and script is not good, but not horrible. The crunching of bones and every hit in the game though sounds amazing.
Graphics on the field look very pretty, but in cut scenes the players look a bit to blocky for my taste.
Gameplay is a love it or leave it affair, but I am sure the majority of people out there will love it, just because of how much fun it offers almost instantly. I will say that the game itself just feels a lot tighter then the other blitz games, and you feel like you have much more control.
Value, I think you could get really good mileage out of this game just because on-line mode is a blast because as the Gamespot review says, it eliminates all of the AI flaws. Even with out the internet you could, as long as you have friends, easily get 15+ hours out of this games.