Alright well I had a chance to start a Franchise last night and played 3 pre-season games. The game is definitely been fine tuned and plays really well but I don't get a satisfying feeling after playing a couple games. Every last detail of the game feels real but at the end of the game the emotional engagement of the game is lack luster.
Pros:
3D grass: when your player is on the ground the grass sinks in where they are at. You can see the cleats of your players shoes disappearing into the grass and so forth
Tackle animations: After playing 3 games I don't think I saw the same tackle even once. The tackles are very unique to the exact situation that is going on (angle of the tackler, angle of the ball carrier, momentum, size of the players involved in the tackle)
Graphics: the graphics are spot on and the game feels like you are watching some Sunday football on TV
Cons:
Already found a glitch in 2 player mode. Me and a buddy were playing on the same team last night and if he would line up as the "X" wide receiver (FOR PS3) and the play art clearly had him as a WR with a route to run and an X over his name but after I hiked the ball and my buddy ran the route, the X was gone and I could not pass it to him
Gameplay: the gameplay is extremely fast. Maybe its because I haven't played Madden 2011 for 6+ months but the gameplay of 2012 felt so fast that you literally have to make some pre-snap defensive reads and have a check down WR or you will feel the defensive pressure (could be a positive in some people's books but it didn't feel how I would like the gameplay to run --- this is on All-Pro mode as Pro mode was really easy to beat and get long runs, long passes, interception, etc...)
All in all I would easily give this game a 9.5 out of 10 though. I'm sure EA will release an update to fix the 2 player glitch and the graphics, realism, and presentation are so on point you can't complain.
