With Madden's annual release comes a bout of well-deserved skepticism. The game has not landed with its audience in several years. A solid Madden 15 seemed to stabilize the franchise a bit, but it was still far too rough around the edges to be considered great. In order for Madden to win over its fan base, it's going to have to center everything around solid gameplay. That is why, instead of testing some of Madden's many new features (such as the new Draft Champions mode), you should perhaps focus on a few of the game's gameplay improvements in both exhibition and online play. Here are the first four things everyone could do when they get their hands on Madden 16 tomorrow.

Test Out Penalties: It has finally come to this. Penalties have been an absolute drag (or entirely absent) ever since Madden's first release, and it finally looks as if the issue could be fixed. Of course, the word "fixed" is going to be highly subjective, here. Max out the penalty sliders (or at least the ones that have traditionally given us trouble) and give them a ride for a few games. If nothing else, it should be improved over any past version of the game.

Play With A Terrible QB: It is imperative that Madden has quarterbacks that feel like separate entities from one another. Peyton Manning should feel totally different from Russell Wilson. Marcus Mariota should feel different from Jameis Winston. And perhaps most of all, Tom Brady should not feel like Nick Foles. Even if quarterbacks can't have a separate feel from one another, bad quarterbacks should play worse than great ones. Ratings need to play a bigger role in this series, and it seems like EA has finally grasped that concept.

In short, if you play as Mark Sanchez and he plays like a Super Bowl QB, you will know the game is in trouble.

Find Some Settings That Work: One of the biggest traps a sports gamer can fall into is the idea that a game has the potential to perfectly fit your needs. Unfortunately, this is never true. No amount of slider tweaking, rating changes or difficulty modification is ever going to feel perfect. Instead, the best thing you can do is find a solid base and let yourself play. Slider tweaks here and there are fine, but enjoy the game for what it is and roll with it. If the game does not feel right after a few days of tweaking, chances are it's never going to feel right.

Watch A CPU vs CPU Game: Watching the CPU go at it with another CPU team should tell you more than enough about what the game's strengths and weaknesses are. This may also be the best way to figure out what settings you need to tweak -- overly low completion percentages are an obvious sign to up accuracy sliders a bit, for instance. One of the best things you can do to signify how important ratings are is to pit a great team against a bad one and see how it goes.

That being said, don't overreact to small sample sizes. The Jags might beat the Patriots a few times out of 50, so it's always best to give the game a few rounds in order to determine what is and is not working. In fact, a bit of variance is always a good thing.