American football continues to grow in popularity in this part of the world, and this year Jarryd Hayne's exploits will no doubt make this the best-selling Madden game in Australasia.
Madden NFL 16
For: PS4, XboxOne
From: EA
Rating: (G)
Four stars (out of five)
Firstly, the game looks sensational.
The detail on the players is a step up (as always), but this year they've also included certain mannerisms and subtle nuances in player behaviour which gives it a vastly more realistic feel.
They've also added a random element which helps replicate the real thing, although this is of course infuriating when your quarterback fires one out of bounds when the receiver was wide open.
This year's cover boy is Odell Beckham jun, Wide Receiver from the New York Giants.
He's famous for ''that'' one-handed catch, possibly the only thing most people saw of the NFL last season.
EA saw that catch and thought, ''How can we include that in Madden 16?'', and Playmaker Passing was born.
Basically you can now choose to go for a safe option catching it, an option that focuses on running after the catch or the spectacular Beckham option. Sounds great in theory, but EA clearly didn't do a lot of QA testing on the spectacular catch, as it is massively overpowered.
You can throw the ball up in the air if you've got a tall receiver and more likely than not he will come down with it.
It's EA tossing balance out of the window in favour of ''Woah!-Did-you-see-that?'' moments.
Pass defence was already hard enough before this came along. Now your cornerbacks are just minor speedbumps in the way of the receivers. Playing online is a nightmare.
Playing against the CPU is also strangely infuriating this season.
On the lower difficulties, the teams are occasionally completely unstoppable on offence.
The other new thing this year is awesome.
It's called Draft Champions and ties with Ultimate Team mode.
Draft Champions allows you to pick players using a fantasy draft over 15 rounds for your team and then face players in short four-game knockout tournaments.
It's a great inclusion on many levels; it removes the ''pay to win'' aspect that overrides the entire Ultimate Team concept, you aren't laboured with rubbish players for very long, and it enables you to play with the legend players you previously could only forlornly look at it in the auction house, priced several million coins more than the measly amount you have.
Outside of these modes, there's your usual connected franchise mode (think career), training modes and regular head-to-head games.
Madden 16 would without doubt be the best Madden ever, if EA would tone down the effectiveness of the Playmaker aspect.
Yes, Hayne's in it.
