[MacGuyV]

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I think in general football games lose a lot of their replay value for me because the computer just cheats at the hardest difficulty level and the next level down, which I usually play, is too easy.

You'll see all sorts of crap, from linebackers outrunning receivers, ridiculous bounces, the opposing defense shifting in the direction you're running every single time, sucky defensive lineman that dominate my future HOF O-lineman every single down etc. In particular I remember one game where I was sacking the quarterback and just as my guy was diving for the sack, the ball was released and went rigth to a receiver in the front corner of the end-zone. I watched a replay and what happened is the ball went basically straight down and bounced off the tackler's shoulder and went straight to the guy for the TD. Absolutely impossible in real life obviously, and I never once saw anything vaguely similar happen in a two-human game or at easier difficulty.

Another issue with these settings is that to make the game harder they tend to even out the teams. This has gotten better, but for example how fast your opponents are is irrelevant because they jack up everybody's speed on the other team to a ridiculously high level. Same goes for the defensive line. It doesn't matter if it's the 49ers defensive line or Seattle's, they will both equally dominate my offensive line and I can't run for [censored].

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Agree, this is stupid. If the WR is 8 yards behind the LB and there is no pressure on the QB it should not get picked off, especially when I don't hold down the button for a "bullet pass". In 2005 (or whatever year Ray Lewis was on the cover) they bragged about a new focus on defense, which basically just meant superhuman LB's who made crazy int's and had this special burst of speed to return every int to the house. The problem is EA putting so much effort into gimmick concepts every year and never fixing the actual gameplay or AI. Sadly, it's hard to blame them for this. I used to visit video game sites where they would interview game developer/programmers and 95% of the questions would deal with stupid questions like "how is the create-a-player feature improved this year?" I'm just like OMG who gives a [censored].