EA Eye Candy - Ultimately, all the nice 3d visuals can't help it from falling well short of other text-based nfl sims.
The menus are painful to navigate (which is most likely due to the port from console to pc) and roster and statistic screens should have borrowed from the more informative versions of its text based cousins. Trading is painful due to the lack of feedback from the other team. For example, when a coach told me my trade was an A- and I needed to make it an A+, I added a 2nd and 3rd pick and was still told the same thing.
There are several key features that this game adds to the sim genre which save it from utter damnation. The trust system you must build between the owner, team coaches and players is a great idea - it’s just to buggy and immature. The floor and ceiling rating system is a great idea, especially how practices and gamplay affect the player’s current rating. Unfortunately, this aspect needs a lot of polish. The scouting aspect of the game was one of the few parts of the game that is release ready. It is imaginative, somewhat challenging and intuitive to use.
Finally, the live coaching of games and practice was very entertaining - the best part of the game for me. Besides calling plays, you have all the features of Madden (shifts, audible, movement ...). In addition, you can motivate and micromanage each player throughout the game.
Overall, the game is too easy and worries way too much about visuals. It neglects the management part of the game. Worst of all, most of its good features are underdeveloped and seemingly rushed to release. Gamers should stick to Madden and NCAA for the eye candy and FOF and TFP for the brain candy.