For many of you -- a lot of you -- there is nothing we can say that will make you rethink a purchase of this year's Madden game. You're going to buy it; you're going to love it, because ... that's just what you do every August. You'd be the proud owner of a polished turd as long as it came from the rear cavern of one John Madden. That leaves us talking to the average gamer, or the "squishy middle," so to speak. Did EA pack enough into their 21st football game to warrant another purchase, or should you hold out for the season?

Well, that depends on how "real" you want your football game to be. Or, rather, how much fluff you expect when you step onto the gridiron. If you hate menus, in-depth stats, and think half-time and post-game shows are ridiculous sessions of bloviation, well, you might just want to invest your 60 dollars somewhere else. If you rarely play online or have a slow Internet connection and hate micro-managing, stop reading now and go buy last year's game instead. If you don't fit into either of those molds, then this will be the most satisfying experience playing virtual sports ever.

It all starts with Madden's new online franchise mode, a feature fans have been demanding for years. While the servers were hit-or-miss when we attempted to create our franchise online (a few weeks before release), we were able to join an existing one and play in the league. It's what you can expect from a franchise mode: Pick a team in the league and up to 32 users can compete head-to-head for 10 seasons. (The CPU takes control of teams not selected by anyone.)

Stats are tallied from week to week based on completed games and trades, roster maneuvers, and other intricacies of managing ones team can be controlled from within the game's menus or, new this year, on an iPhone or iPod touch with the new Madden NFL application, available for free on August 18.

Unlike last year's single-season format, the point of the online franchise is to build up your team into a perennial contender and, eventually, a dynasty. So, it may serve you well to pick a bottom-of-the-barrel team and get first dibs in the draft at the end of Season One, for example. (Hello, Lions!) The offline version is pretty much the same thing, save for the ability to play 30 seasons and The Extra Point, a nifty weekly wrap-up show hosted by the NFL Network's Fran Charles and Alex Flanagan.

If you've still got one eyebrow raised with suspicion like we did coming into this, you'll lower it a bit after playing through a few games and realizing the overall feel of the game has been upped quite a bit. You'll see New York Giants fans flipping burgers in the parking lot during the intro scene, Air Force jets fly overhead during the recitation of the Star-Spangled Banner and fans of the opposing team present in the crowd.

There is a half-time show that, while nice to have, is a bit awkward-sounding as the announcer attempts to recap any of the infinite of plays that may have happened in the game. If you seal a victory with a great play at the end of a game, the camera cuts to fans looking at each other, shrugging and then heading to the exits.

The actual experience of playing virtual football has not changed much, however. Frankly, why would you want it to? There are the requisite tinkerings with animations -- the new PRO-TAK technology allows you to gang-tackle ballhandlers and pull them away from sidelines -- and a Fight for the Fumble mini-game tasks you to mash corresponding buttons to retrieve the ball from under a scrum for a loose ball. There are noticeable upgrades to how players move and handle as well: You can fake out opponents by running laterally in one direction and then do a crossover into another, for example.

We did notice that the announcers, Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond, fell silent during the end of especially tight games. We're not sure if that was a bug or a feature allowing you to concentrate on playcalling late in the fourth quarter, but it definitely was welcome. (Anything that shuts those two up is A-OK in our book.) Lastly, if you're confident enough in your skills as a QB, you can jump online with a friend and play co-op, meaning you will both be controlling individual players on a team and attempting to jell on pass/run plays.

Which is not to say that everything in Maddenland is without fault: There are still the weird irregularities we've all been privy to at some point, like being able to pull down interceptions with ease on the run, but balls headed directly toward your cornerback or blocked into the air have some voodoo magic that precludes them from being caught. And, mentioning that in-game ads by Snickers make the presentation more realistic is a joke, right?

Alas, we can't stay mad at you long, Madden NFL 10. You gave us hours and hours of fun without having to get up from the couch and actually do productive stuff. That's what good video games do, dammit! Our sausage-shaped fingers got a workout from your Tron-like Madden tests and virtual trainers, even if they really don't test how good of a player you really are. And, we appreciated being able to make players godlike in the difficulty menus via the ratings disparity slider -- Tom Brady deserved every single one of those brutal Mario Williams sacks.

The final verdict? If you're a football fan and you don't have fun playing this game, well, guess what? You're not a football fan. Go try the Hannah Montana game instead.