NCAA Football 09 Patch Announcement

[azcardsfan81]

Very good news i'll be getting the game this weekend glad to hear you guys at ea are already making patchs to fix the problems in the game much appreciated

[ewto16]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoxFan01605

The great and mighty Sony MLB franchise had a constant freezing issue in MLB 06 (and the current version, while I love it, had to be patched almost immediately and still has a fair amount of bugs). 2K baseball (for two years running) had MAJOR glitches at release...the franchise freeze in 07 and roster issues (sound familiar) this year. While I'm not saying it is acceptable for this to happen...it does, and not just with EA. They issued an immediate response and are already putting a patch in the works. To me, the up front response shows improvement over years past with EA. They certainly aren't hiding from us. To me, what's done is done. Criticism is fine (it's what has led to interaction from the devs, I'm sure) but the repetative "typical EA" stuff seems pointless to me. It's not like it's unplayable until the patch comes out (I mean literally unplayable, not the dramatic "unplayable"). To each his own though. It sucks, but I've moved on...

My point is that games used to be tested more throughly for bugs. Now it seems that less emphasis is placed on testing for stuff like this roster issue. They have been allowing people to edit and name rosters in NCAA for almost 10 years now and this was never an issue before.

Obviously something changed this time and it wasn't tested. My point is that a feature that is this important and advertised (EA Locker roster sharing) should have been tested, not just assumed to work.

[TheDutchDad]

Quote: Originally Posted by ewto16

My point is that games used to be tested more throughly for bugs. Now it seems that less emphasis is placed on testing for stuff like this roster issue. They have been allowing people to edit and name rosters in NCAA for almost 10 years now and this was never an issue before. Obviously something changed this time and it wasn't tested. My point is that a feature that is this important and advertised (EA Locker roster sharing) should have been tested, not just assumed to work.

How do you know games used to be tested more thoroughly?

It's so easy playing Monday Morning QB, huh?

[ewto16]

I'd prefer if EA just took the time to test and get the game right in the first place. All a patch does is take away from time that could be spent making the next year's game better.

They should work on making the best NCAA/Madden game they can, not just rushing to meet a release date. Heck NCAA was "finished" over two months before release.

The last system update on the disc is 2.35 which was released on 5/15, so it was approved and tested using that firmware release.

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by ewto16

My point is that games used to be tested more throughly for bugs. Now it seems that less emphasis is placed on testing for stuff like this roster issue. They have been allowing people to edit and name rosters in NCAA for almost 10 years now and this was never an issue before. Obviously something changed this time and it wasn't tested. My point is that a feature that is this important and advertised (EA Locker roster sharing) should have been tested, not just assumed to work.

Well, I'm sure it was tested, but obviously missed. Whoever Pasta got those base edits from obviously got to edit plenty. Many have edited 100's of players, while some claim to have freezes after just a few (relatively speaking). I imagine it's more of an issue with the thoroughness of the specific testing processes rather than testing itself (inconsistent issues are normally the toughest to catch in any QA process).

And I agree with your point...I was just speaking more to the general repetition of complaints that lead to nothing.

[nstod]

Quote: Originally Posted by ewto16

My point is that games used to be tested more throughly for bugs. Now it seems that less emphasis is placed on testing

That could not be further from the truth. As games get more and more complicated, bugs enter the code at an exponential rate. It is a common known fact among software developers. There is actually more testing done now than even a couple years ago. It's no surprise that most games nowadays require patches to fix bugs, due to the increased complexity.

[ewto16]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mercurial23

How do you know games used to be tested more thoroughly? It's so easy playing Monday Morning QB, huh?

Yep, pretty much it is. I don't see how you can look at it any other way. OBVIOUSLY, they didn't test the roster editing. If they did, then they released it and didn't care it was broken. It has been repeated numerous times within a day of the game getting released and, now with a patch, confirmed that it is broken.

Maybe because I have been playing games for over 20 years I feel like I understand this and can make this assumption? Only recently (last 2 years) have the EA Sports games become riddled with all these game crippling bugs. On the PS2, the gameplay might have some "bugs" (not play how you would think/like), but you could chalk those up to crappy AI, same as you do now. I'm talking about things that are actually broken now.

I've never had a broken franchise in Madden before last year. I've never been unable to edit rosters in NCAA before last year. I've never had Tiger Woods only count 3 of the 4 days of a tournament before last year. These are just a few examples.

These are all bugs that should be caught by any sort of reasonable testing. It doesn't take any special effort at all to discover that those things happen in those games. It takes testing the game and playing it the way a typical user would do so. EA isn't doing that.

I'm not saying that EA is the only company guilty of this. It just so happens that I like football and golf and they are the only game in town for those, so I complain about them.

[ewto16]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoxFan01605

Whoever Pasta got those base edits from obviously got to edit plenty. And I agree with your point...I was just speaking more to the general repetition of complaints that lead to nothing.

It has pretty much been proven that Pasta got his rosters directly from EA. They were created with code, not entered by hand as they include special characters that you can't enter when inputting the rosters by hand. I'm not saying EA gave them to him, but he got them from a person using in-house EA rosters.

Quote: Originally Posted by nstod

That could not be further from the truth. As games get more and more complicated, bugs enter the code at an exponential rate. It is a common known fact among software developers. There is actually more testing done now than even a couple years ago. It's no surprise that most games nowadays require patches to fix bugs, due to the increased complexity.

I'm not saying games don't require more testing. I'm saying that they aren't getting that extra testing that is needed. They are taking more time for development or other areas and rushing through the testing phase. The bugs that EA is letting through now (and I listed in the post above) are HUGE bugs that should be caught during routine testing. They are bugs that come up when the user tries to do basic functions in the game.

I'm fine with randomly weird stuff happening in the game sometimes. You can't account for everything in a game as complex as these. What I don't accept is when a very basic feature is discovered to be broken a day after release.

Patches are the device of the devil. If games couldn't be patched, there would be less bugs. The trend started on PCs and now dirties up console games. Lazy publishers rely on being able to patch a game later to make their deadline for revenues or advertising.

100s of other games get their released dates pushed back to put more polish on the game and ensure it works. NCAA and Madden announce their release dates 6 months ahead of time and then never budge. More developers should be like Blizzard, Bungie, and Rockstar. You get the game when it is done and meets their high standards.