LOS ANGELES — Electronic Arts knows what you’re thinking: Its NFL-licensed Madden football series is just a cash cow, a cheap excuse to sell the same game every year with a new coat of paint. The developers of Madden NFL 12 want to change that perception.

Though Madden NFL 12 appears, on the surface, to be this year’s football game with updated rosters, there are some new features that could change the way people play the popular football franchise. At its E3 Expo booth Wednesday, EA Sports was happy to show Wired.com some of the ways Madden NFL 12 improves upon its predecessors. Here are five of them.

Collision Engine: EA has completely revamped the hit detection in Madden NFL 12, creating a new engine that recognizes key parts of defensive football like tackling momentum and the size and weight of players making contact with one another. EA says this will ensure that characters’ bodies react more realistically after collisions, forcing players to make smarter, more strategic decisions about where and when to pull off tackles.

Even the injuries are more realistic. EA says concussions will finally be recognized in Madden NFL 12. If a player is concussed, he will immediately be carted off the field and kept out for the remainder of the game.

Lack of Suction: “Suction” is the term that EA Sports uses to refer to defensive players’ tendency to draw in the player they’re tackling, sometimes making contact from much further away than they should. For example, running backs might have gotten stuck between linemen during in past Madden games and defensive linemen might have been inadvertently “sucked in” by their offensive counterparts.

Madden NFL 12 changes that, using its new engine to create more accurate points of contact for defensive players. Your backs will be able to juke and swerve between defenders on the line just like Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson might in real life. And your defensive linemen will do their jobs much better — unless they’re the Bills.

Cinematic Angles: Thanks to the help of NFL Films, which worked with EA Sports during development, Madden NFL 12 re-creates the type of footage you might actually see on your television. All 32 teams’ starting ceremonies are meticulously recaptured, as is every angle, from shaky handheld player introductions to overhead blimp shots of the stadium. EA says its goal is to make Madden feel as true to life as possible.

Dynamic Player Performance: Where older Madden games had statistics, Madden NFL 12 has actual traits. A player like Eli Manning won’t just be defined by his running and passing abilities anymore. Rather, he might get really quick-footed after a sack or decide to pull off a tuck-and-roll. Meanwhile, someone like Ben Roethlisberger might dodge and swerve away from opposing pass rushers.

These new stats will be updated regularly based on players’ real life tendencies — assuming there’s actually a football season next year.

Veterans: In what’s perhaps the most interesting of its new features, Madden NFL 12 will actually capture the “intangible qualities” that ESPN analysts and pundits like to talk up all the time. Simply by hanging out on your roster in Franchise Mode, veteran players will improve the stats of your other guys. Sign an aging, experienced quarterback to hold the clipboard, for example, and your superstar rookie will start getting better: Now that’s leadership in action.

These aren’t the only changes in the new Madden, which will be out for multiple platforms Aug. 30. EA Sports says it has more up its sleeve as time goes on; despite uncertainty in the actual NFL, Madden will always be a constant.