Alright, boyz!! Here we go...Madden 08 First impressions

[Kodos]

For some satisfaction, I have lowered Vick's injury and toughness to 0 in Madden. I look forward to his career-ending injury. It'd be fun to inflict it myself.

[MikeVic]

Oh hey, does anyone know if the IMP rating means anything yet? I remember this was still in the last game I played (05). And I don't have access to Madden right now... so I can't check if it's still in the game. But I do remember me and a couple of friends trying to figure out what this "Importance" business was all about...

[rowech]

Anybody played through one or more seasons yet to see the full franchise mode? I know it's a stretch. The one time I had it I just simmed stuff out.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I'm going to take back some of the bad things I said about Madden 08 for the PC. The accelerated clock does work, but for some reason the setting didn't take the first time I selected it. Probably my fault. I'm undecided about improved sideline awareness on pass routes. I threw one pass earlier that had the target out of bounds but the receiver jumped and came down in bounds. There was no toe-tapping animation, but it was one of the few times I remember seeing a receiver not end up 5 yards out of bounds by the time he landed. I've still got a bunch of receivers flying out of bounds, but it might be a bit better. Turnovers are not a major problem on the PC. I still have to turn down defensive awareness on All-Pro to open up some passing lanes, but I don't think I've turned it down as far this year.

but isn't the PC version 1 gen behind. so we won't see toe-tapping sidelines catches + more animation + gang tackling till NEXT year?

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

but isn't the PC version 1 gen behind. so we won't see toe-tapping sidelines catches + more animation + gang tackling till NEXT year?

Apparently so.

[MikeVic]

In the Superstar Mode... can you just control your guy? I remember trying this feature out in the first Madden it came out for (06 maybe?), and hated that I'm basically just playing as the team I was drafted on. I also thought the practices were stupid, and they're still there.

I want to control a backup LB who only goes on the field for certain plays, and just control him during those plays... is this possible on the Wii?

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

In the Superstar Mode... can you just control your guy? I remember trying this feature out in the first Madden it came out for (06 maybe?), and hated that I'm basically just playing as the team I was drafted on. I also thought the practices were stupid, and they're still there.

I want to control a backup LB who only goes on the field for certain plays, and just control him during those plays... is this possible on the Wii?

If you are asking about the PC version, you could just control your guy in both the 07 version and the current 08 version. The default setting has you controlling the whole team, but one button pushed will have you controlling just yourself. The bad part is that you can still control the depth chart.

[Icy]

ROFL, now this is what i call a bug, watch this video:

http://www.maddenmania.com/?p=47#more-47

[Super Ugly]

Originally Posted by Icy

ROFL, now this is what i call a bug, watch this video:

http://www.maddenmania.com/?p=47#more-47

I know he was mad that he wouldn't be throwing to Randy Moss this season, but that seems a mighty peculiar way to express his dissatisfaction.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Icy

ROFL, now this is what i call a bug, watch this video:

http://www.maddenmania.com/?p=47#more-47

EA has said that the bug occurs only with this specific play and they are releasing a patch to fix it. Hopefully, they'll address other issues in the patch as well.

Here are the 1st week Madden sales numbers which are down about 10% from last year's 1st week numbers of overall sales:

360: 889,072
PS2: 546,403
PS3: 204,025
Wii: 57,247
Xbox: 56,841
PSP: 39,710
DS: ?
PC: ?

[Flasch186]

just got it on PS3 from my friend and one frustrating thing is that it seems there is a slight delay between when I press a button on a controller and it's action on the screen. Maybe its my controller.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

just got it on PS3 from my friend and one frustrating thing is that it seems there is a slight delay between when I press a button on a controller and it's action on the screen. Maybe its my controller.

That's actually a common complaint about the PS3 version.

[Kodos]

I notice that in the menus for Madden on the 360.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Here are the 1st week Madden sales numbers which are down about 10% from last year's 1st week numbers of overall sales:

360: 889,072
PS2: 546,403
PS3: 204,025
Wii: 57,247
Xbox: 56,841
PSP: 39,710
DS: ?
PC: ?

Amazing that they're taking a sales hit already in first-week numbers. This looks like it will be the second straight year that the Madden franchise takes a double digit loss in overall sales figures. I said this before the release in this very thread:

A 10-20% hit in sales would be a major hit considering the money that they have invested in licenses for players, stadiums, and leagues. That would be a big disappointment for this franchise and it's honestly likely to happen.

I thought there was a definite chance that it would happen, but I never thought we would see that large of a drop in first week sales. EA has some major work to do to mend their relationship with a lot of the gamers. It looks like the marketing blitzes are even failing to retain customers at this point. They're going to actually have to start making major improvements to the game to get consumers back into the fold.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Here are the 1st week Madden sales numbers which are down about 10% from last year's 1st week numbers of overall sales:

360: 889,072
PS2: 546,403
PS3: 204,025
Wii: 57,247
Xbox: 56,841
PSP: 39,710
DS: ?
PC: ?

A couple other things to note. EA just announced that they made a mistake by backing PS3/360 development and would be moving to emphasize Wii more.

Note to EA........

Total Sales
PS3/360 - 1.44 million units sold to an installed base of roughly 14 million consoles
Wii - 57,000 units sold to a installed base of 10 million consoles

EA is going to regret ever making that statement. The Wii is a casual gaming system that is not meant for games like Madden. Also, this further emphasizes the point that the Wii is still very much a first-party gaming system at its root. Wii fans may be fickle about their games, but they demand rock-solid gameplay with no bugs and they know they'll get that in Nintendo-developed games. EA obviously has one of the worst QA records in regards to games. Nintendo fans won't want anything to do with that.

[MizzouRah]

F'n wii.

Saw a guy at Gamestop who was returning his Wii copy due to it freezing so much.

I whispered... Wii... what a kiddie machine.




Don't get in a frezny Wii users.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

F'n wii.

Saw a guy at Gamestop who was returning his Wii copy due to it freezing so much.

I whispered... Wii... what a kiddie machine.




Don't get in a frezny Wii users.

What was the point of the second part of this post? You know Wii users and Nintendo fans are sick of the kiddie tag.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

What was the point of the second part of this post? You know Wii users and Nintendo fans are sick of the kiddie tag.

Really?... makes note.

Thanks!

[Kodos]

It kinda fits though.

[stevew]

I really wish i wouldn't have bought madden Wii. It really is freaking horrible the more I play it.

[Anthony]

so, i finished Year One of my franchise. finished 4-12. last game of the season, i'm the Giants going up against the Patriots juggernaut. i prepare for a lashing. we wound up intercepting Brady 6 times, returning 2 of them for td's. normally i'd cry "cheezy", but we only had 3 wins coming into that game, one of which i won by autosimming by accident. i will take the win and be happy with it. if i throw 6 INTs a game i'll wind up throwing my 360 against the wall.

[rowech]

I don't know why but I still haven't bought this game myself. I'm just on the fence with the misc. issues with the game.

[Anthony]

i'm gonna put this game down for a bit. after one full season and like 3 games into my 2nd, i'm seeing it just doesn't play like a real game of football. too many turnovers, i'm intercepting too many passes and bringing them in for TDs. maybe i'll keep it just to play people online. everyone needs a football game in their collection. i just can't win in this game. i refuse to play it on the 2nd highest level cuz then i'll feel the wins are cheap.

i know i can beat the crap out of my friends in this game, it's just vs. the AI - can't get it done.

[SegRat]

The 360 demo is finally up.

[Logan]

Has anyone had problems with the game hanging after the final whistle? Shows the highlights, does the stupid point totals/trophies won, and then....no option to exit the game? Just happened to me. The screen keeps on shifting to different shots of the stadium, but it won't fucking give me a chance to exit. I try hitting start, A, any other button, turned the controller off and on...nothing.

Game is still hanging...anybody see this and figure out what to do? I had a MONSTER game with Adrian Peterson and if I lose it, I'm gonna be pissed.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i'm gonna put this game down for a bit. after one full season and like 3 games into my 2nd, i'm seeing it just doesn't play like a real game of football. too many turnovers, i'm intercepting too many passes and bringing them in for TDs. maybe i'll keep it just to play people online. everyone needs a football game in their collection. i just can't win in this game. i refuse to play it on the 2nd highest level cuz then i'll feel the wins are cheap.

i know i can beat the crap out of my friends in this game, it's just vs. the AI - can't get it done.

This is pretty much word for word the way I have felt about Madden for the last 3 years now. It's fun setting up a franchise, position battles in the preseason, trying to get your young players to improve, but by game 8 in the regular season I'm completely over the way the game plays and I'll spend my time elsewhere.

Maybe there is no perfect console football game, but it would be nice if they at least tried to fix the issues that have been in there for years - interceptions, no passing game over the middle because of super jumping linebackers, super punt coverage etc....

[sabotai]

I've pretty much given up on the game as far as franchise goes. Hopefully Superstar mode is more fun. I'll find out once I start finishing some of my NCAA Campus Legend careers.

[Groundhog]

The game has been delayed a week until the 30th over here. I wonder if that means a patch is expected soon and they wanted to postpone the Australia release until then?

[sabotai]

Someone on OS came up with a weird idea to fix the INT problem. He turned knockdowns to 0 for both USER and CPU and turned INTs all the way to 100 for both. Since I had already given up on the game, I decided to just give it a try. To my amazement, it seems to have actually worked (as well as can be expected). He also suggested turning WR Catching to 0 for both, but I think my sliders had them both set at 100 for WR Catching (I was playing PRO and had both QB ACCs set at 35, CPU Def. Aw at 70, USER at 40).

I threw 1 pick, and it was on a really stupid decision. I was pressured and just tossed it long to Burress who happened to be double covered. The computer team threw 2 picks, both in the 4th quarter when they were playing catch up from 17 down. One of them was a good pick, the other was an iffy-type thing that makes me think this game might have been a fluke. I'm going to play a few more games to test it out, but so far with my small sample size, the most counter-intuitive thing ever seems to have actually helped the INT problem.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Someone on OS came up with a weird idea to fix the INT problem. He turned knockdowns to 0 for both USER and CPU and turned INTs all the way to 100 for both. Since I had already given up on the game, I decided to just give it a try. To my amazement, it seems to have actually worked (as well as can be expected). He also suggested turning WR Catching to 0 for both, but I think my sliders had them both set at 100 for WR Catching (I was playing PRO and had both QB ACCs set at 35, CPU Def. Aw at 70, USER at 40).

I threw 1 pick, and it was on a really stupid decision. I was pressured and just tossed it long to Burress who happened to be double covered. The computer team threw 2 picks, both in the 4th quarter when they were playing catch up from 17 down. One of them was a good pick, the other was an iffy-type thing that makes me think this game might have been a fluke. I'm going to play a few more games to test it out, but so far with my small sample size, the most counter-intuitive thing ever seems to have actually helped the INT problem.

As with NCAA08, there is the unproven theory about the sliders being reversed but... nobody was able to prove it after long number of games.

I'm playing on default All-Pro but with Def Awareness= 40, INT=0 Knocks=10 and tackling=35 and i'm not seeing more than a couple of picks by the CPU or me per game. With the lower tackling, the fumbles are less exaggerated, like 2 per team/game so far.

[Groundhog]

The mere fact that it's difficult to tell whether a slider is reversed or not seems to make the slider pointless.

[Logan]

Have any of you guys been playing with the Vikings? Or more specifically, dominating with Adrian Peterson?

Holy crap is he unreal in this game. I banged out two seasons with my Niners, so I decided I'd try out a new team for a little bit before heading back and thought it would be fun to play with Peterson and a potentially shitty QB. During those 2 seasons with the Niners, I didn't run the ball well at all...Gore picked up about 1100 yards both years with YPC of 3.8 and 3.7. Nothing special at all. Granted, the Vikes' OL is better than SFs but I have him putting up huge numbers. Through 4 games, Peterson has 750+ rushing yards, 350+ receiving yards, and 13 combined TDs. His acceleration through the line is unreal and he breaks tackles left and right. All of this is on all-pro by the way...

I highly recommend taking him for a ride. It's been a blast.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Icy

As with NCAA08, there is the unproven theory about the sliders being reversed but... nobody was able to prove it after long number of games.

From what I understand, the theory isn't that the sliders are reversed, it's that the super-human leaps and speed bursts that defenders show is the product of the knockdown slider. With the sliders set at 100 for knockdown, the defenders will get pushed into position by the game to be able to make a knockdown attempt, but the "broken" part of the game is that once the defender gets put there (by way of super jumping or The Flash like speed bursts), it goes into its catch animation to make the pick.

Even with the sliders both at 0, the knockdown is still probably overriding the INT. With what I saw in just that one game I played (so I do need to play several more) was that the defenders were not super jumping or speeding up to the ball. The theory is that with INT at 100 and Knockdown at 0, the player will always be thinking about the INT and not the knockdown, and the super-abilities don't kick in when the defender is thinking INT. They'll go for the pick if they are already in position to make it, but if not they'll just play the receiver, and that's what I'm seeing so far. In my other games, there would be 6 picks and 15 dropped picks, in this one there were 3 picks and maybe 3 dropped ones.

[Kodos]

Hmmm. This could be worth investigating.

[Groundhog]

FINALLY got to play this yesterday on the 360 (after toasting it in a towel for 30 minutes). I tried a couple of games on all-pro with some sliders I found at operationsports, but I just suck too much at QB, so I knocked it down to pro and messed with the sliders some more. First game I played a fantasy team I created (strong D), against the Chicago Bears. It was a great, great game, and probably the best simulated football game I've ever played. Grossman threw 2 picks (hardly unrealistic), and I had 1 deservedly picked off from a dumb Hail Mary-esque play near the end of the 1st half. There were about 3 fumbles, but nothing too bad. I ran the clock and kicked a FG to win 13-12 in the dying seconds.

Next game I played the Vikings, and woah boy. I nabbed 6 interceptions (while not controlling my DBs), and there were about 6-7 fumbles combined. It was like night and day. My early impression is that there is a HUGE difference between the good QBs and the merely OK QBs. Might have to adjust AI QB accuracy WAY up when taking on the middle tier or lower passers.

Outside of that (rather large) issue, it plays a pretty good game of football IMO. Against the Bears neither of us got our running game going, but I was able to carve up the Vikings with 150 yards on the ground for my mediocre running back.

[sabotai]

The whole knockdown-INT thing seems to actually work. I've played a few more games and saw a few super jumps in them but no Flash-like speed bursts. The most a CPU team has thrown on me in 5 games is 3, with them throwing 1 or 2 in the rest. My only real issue right now is the fumbles, and I don't know how to get around that. In one of the games I had, there were TEN fumbles, with 4 of them being turnovers. Their RB had 5 of them alone. Only one of the games I played had fewer than 4 total fumbles, and that one had 3. Te rest had 5 or more.

I'm still playing PRO, but I'm thinking of trying ALL-MADDEN and seeing if I can get some sliders to work there. On PRO, I still think WR Catching is not good enough, and I have both set at 100, and I think both teams tackle too well (hardly seeing any broken tackles on PRO) and I have both Tackles sliders set pretty low.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Someone on OS came up with a weird idea to fix the INT problem. He turned knockdowns to 0 for both USER and CPU and turned INTs all the way to 100 for both. Since I had already given up on the game, I decided to just give it a try. To my amazement, it seems to have actually worked (as well as can be expected). He also suggested turning WR Catching to 0 for both, but I think my sliders had them both set at 100 for WR Catching (I was playing PRO and had both QB ACCs set at 35, CPU Def. Aw at 70, USER at 40).

I threw 1 pick, and it was on a really stupid decision. I was pressured and just tossed it long to Burress who happened to be double covered. The computer team threw 2 picks, both in the 4th quarter when they were playing catch up from 17 down. One of them was a good pick, the other was an iffy-type thing that makes me think this game might have been a fluke. I'm going to play a few more games to test it out, but so far with my small sample size, the most counter-intuitive thing ever seems to have actually helped the INT problem.

Originally Posted by sabotai

From what I understand, the theory isn't that the sliders are reversed, it's that the super-human leaps and speed bursts that defenders show is the product of the knockdown slider. With the sliders set at 100 for knockdown, the defenders will get pushed into position by the game to be able to make a knockdown attempt, but the "broken" part of the game is that once the defender gets put there (by way of super jumping or The Flash like speed bursts), it goes into its catch animation to make the pick.

Even with the sliders both at 0, the knockdown is still probably overriding the INT. With what I saw in just that one game I played (so I do need to play several more) was that the defenders were not super jumping or speeding up to the ball. The theory is that with INT at 100 and Knockdown at 0, the player will always be thinking about the INT and not the knockdown, and the super-abilities don't kick in when the defender is thinking INT. They'll go for the pick if they are already in position to make it, but if not they'll just play the receiver, and that's what I'm seeing so far. In my other games, there would be 6 picks and 15 dropped picks, in this one there were 3 picks and maybe 3 dropped ones.

Originally Posted by sabotai

The whole knockdown-INT thing seems to actually work. I've played a few more games and saw a few super jumps in them but no Flash-like speed bursts. The most a CPU team has thrown on me in 5 games is 3, with them throwing 1 or 2 in the rest. My only real issue right now is the fumbles, and I don't know how to get around that. In one of the games I had, there were TEN fumbles, with 4 of them being turnovers. Their RB had 5 of them alone. Only one of the games I played had fewer than 4 total fumbles, and that one had 3. Te rest had 5 or more.

I'm still playing PRO, but I'm thinking of trying ALL-MADDEN and seeing if I can get some sliders to work there. On PRO, I still think WR Catching is not good enough, and I have both set at 100, and I think both teams tackle too well (hardly seeing any broken tackles on PRO) and I have both Tackles sliders set pretty low.

Can't wait to try these this weekend.

I've been playing on all-pro and really haven't had huge issues with fumbles since I've gotten to the point where I'm quick with the cover the ball button and stay away from the right stick when in traffic. But picks... I'm pretty sure after 8 games Tye Hill has more TDs for me than Tory Holt.

Yes, I can avoid some of the picks if I'm very careful but it isn't fun when you have Bruce and Holt and are a little gun-shy throwing them the ball. I've had Holt several times on out patterns, with a step and a half or more lead on the CB, threw him a pass leading him away from the defender and towards the sideline only to have the CB "transport" (thanks Scotty) to a position to make an interception. If this indeed fixes the problem or just reduces it to rare instances I'll be a very happy camper.

Thanks for posting this info.

[sabotai]

Trying it on ALL-MADDEN was a total bust, fwiw. I'm going to try to go back to ALL-PRO.

[Groundhog]

There's a thread on OS right now linking fumbles with fatigue. Apparently if you turn fatigue off, excessive fumbles dissapear like "flicking a switch". Of course, that means no subs during the game as well.

[Groundhog]

I played through a season, simming every 2nd game, with the Titans on Pro using sliders that dropped special teams way down, INTs at 0, KDs at 10, and various other tweaks. Overall it played a pretty good game of football 2 games out of 3, but when it rains it pours when it comes to the fumbles and interceptions. Last game of the season was against the Steelers and Big Ben threw 5 TDs and 6 INTs, and there was a single play where my WR fumbled after a tackle, the defense picked it up, were tackled, fumbled again, we got it back, were tackled, fumbled again, defense re-recovers.

Even so, I'm still having a lot of fun with this game. I generally try to avoid playing out the games against low-accuracy QBs and sim through those, as they're the ones that turn in to an INT party.

[Raiders Army]

I haven't really been playing this game at all. I'm still concentrating on NCAA 2008 and building Army into a powerhouse (four stars in year four). That way, at least when they patch Madden, I'll have plenty of draft classes.

[RainMaker]

Franchise mode is an absolute embarrasment. Here is what I've seen playing out franchise mode:

-Sim stats are horrendous. 15 QBs with a QB rating over 100 for the season means even if you have a good season, you won't progress like the other QBs in the league. But your lineman will since you can get tons more pancakes.

-Players disappear! I've seen big names just disappear after they get cut by a team with salary cap problems. This has happened to Cedric Benson, Reggie Bush, and Steve Smith. Those are just guys I noticed, there are probably more. I think this is due to the # of slots available for free agents. If a player isn't signed, he gets deleted in many instances. Which brings me to my next issue. You'll also notice this happen on newly drafted players for some odd reason.

-Horrible roster management from the CPU. They put too much emphasis on youth. Young QBs in their 70's get signed before QBs in their 90s. Same goes for other positions.

-Dead ends. Since there are not a lot of free agents (literally no kickers, FB, etc available during the season), you can sometimes get caught in a situation where a team needs to sign a player to continue and can't. A couple people have noticed this when it comes to fullbacks. They had a team get both theirs hurt and had no one to sign. You are essentially at a dead end. This can happen at any point in your franchise.

There are a ton of other little bugs such as how they count interceptions. While I can deal with a few small bugs, the ones listed above literally kill franchise mode. I suppose you could supersim every game and control every team, but who has time for that.

If you buy this game for the franchise mode, don't bother.

[Pumpy Tudors]

RainMaker, what system have you been playing on?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

RainMaker, what system have you been playing on?

360

[Anthony]

i've just been playing this game online, and am having a great time. i have some rules that i will follow from now on to make it more enjoyable for me:

1. i don't play anyone who selects Colts/Pats as their team.
2. don't play anyone who uses the Falcons/Titans (for Vick/Young, all they'll do is scramble every play. yeah, that's real fun)

for some reason i have better success against humans than i do against the AI. i don't have any fun at all when i play against the AI. i've only won 2 or 3 games in the 1.5 seasons i've played in my Giants dynasty.

[JS19]

I'm sure this has been covered already, but hopefully someone can give me a headsup here. Bought Madden for PS3. What's the story with the fumbling. I heard about lots of fumbles, but 5 in the 1st half alone doesn't cut it for me. I'm doing a franchise on All-Pro, is there anyway to reduce the fumbles?

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

for some reason i have better success against humans than i do against the AI.

Damn... the AI must really kick your ass.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Damn... the AI must really kick your ass.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i've just been playing this game online, and am having a great time. i have some rules that i will follow from now on to make it more enjoyable for me:

1. i don't play anyone who selects Colts/Pats as their team.
2. don't play anyone who uses the Falcons/Titans (for Vick/Young, all they'll do is scramble every play. yeah, that's real fun)

for some reason i have better success against humans than i do against the AI. i don't have any fun at all when i play against the AI. i've only won 2 or 3 games in the 1.5 seasons i've played in my Giants dynasty.

Yeah, I played two games last night for the first time on the Wii. The first game was laggy, and the guy chose the Titans... I was scared about facing Young, but we were disconnected before he could get on offense. The second game was the Steelers vs the Steelers... lol. It was a very fun game that I lost 20-17 in OT. Really, that was one of the greatest games I've ever played in Madden. I was at the edge of my seat.

Do you disconnect from people that use the teams you mentioned?

[Anthony]

fwiw, i don't see many fumbles when i play online. i do see TONS and TONS of sacks. an unrealistic amount of sacks, to be honest.