I got the game yesterday day morning and played until 3am this morning. I always start franchise right away. I love how you have to cut players throughout preseason. First preseason game, the starters play for about a series after that the 2nd string and back ups there after. By game 3 the starters play most of the game.
Went through a whole season with 5 min quarters and some sim just to make it through the season. Setting was on pro just to get comfortable with the game.
FA is weird and plays out super fast! Before starting FA you better know who/what position you are targeting because top FA players go fast. The FA mode is on a 1:30 timer meaning if you wanted a top RT you put your bid in and as the timer ticks down, other teams are bidding for the players services as well. Kinda like Ebay in the last minute of an auction.
Not sure if I liked scouting rookies nor the actual draft. Despite how you scout you never truly get all the details about a player unlike last year with the graphed out skill/abilities. Again, ya gotta think and plan ahead of time on what your looking for but like the real draft, your going into blindly and their true attributes don't really show until the end of preseason. This will take some getting used to for sure.
One new cheat, as I like to say, is the edit mode. Before starting a franchise in prior Maddens, you can edit rosters and improve any players attributes but once you start the season it locks everything down. Not any more. If you turn on edit in the options screen you can edit your player all season long till your heart desires. It's the truest cheat there is if you ask me. The 2011 Seahawks can draft all their players in the latter rounds and still turn them and the entire team into a Super unbeatable team!
Gonna have to play with those sliders from the link posted to make the game as realistic as can be. Overall, I like the improvements and look forward to many long nights of game play.