Ok been away a few days so just got the demo last night and here is my 'voice of the normal man' which is influenced neither by Rwc/rc bias or general internet keyboard warrior tendencies..
I can see why people are happy with the demo, it's clearly a step on with the variety of new attacking (chips, fast grubbers, pick and gos) and defensive (guard control,fringe defence) abilities which will give much more choice in how to craft line breaks, tries and epic try line defense.
On the flip side I can also completely see why people are frustrated and underwhelmed. 2 things in play here, one is HBs fault and one is not.
1st up someone mentioned earlier that if you play this like 08 it will feel like 08. That's true as it's so easy on the demo you can just spin it out and run around people rather than utilise the new tools at your disposal. That one is on the player as if you want to try out the new stuff you can do so in the demo, but as you don't NEED to it's easy not to bother.
That's where it creeps into being an error on hb's part. Just like the trailer they have undersold themselves here. I understand having the demo on easy to entice newbies and let them get into it, but it's a big mistake not to offer a higher difficulty option on the demo. it's excluding anyone who's played one of their previous ***les from proper exposure to the new features as using v basic 08 skills you'll run right through the defence so there's no need to learn the new skills that I believe will be essential on hard or versus another player worth his onions.
So in short, I'm getting this, I think it's going to be fun on hard and great craic online.
People need to look at the potential of this, rather than focusing on 'easy is quite easy'...but yeah again hb left themselves open to this criticism by not showcasing their wares better.
I feel bad for them as they've added to the gameplay a lot more than say fifa 10 to fifa 11, I do think thats what will win out in the end here, but they are a bit their own worst enemy for marketing bloopers.