Two Weeks of Madden 09, and Official Patch News!

[brendanrfoley]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gizmo777

The truth is, whether you want to admit it or not, the game should have never been released. All the things fixed in Patch #2 should have happened in pre-release, not in post release. That is a fact.

I respectfully disagree.

We here at Operation Sports represent a very small, but vocal segment of Madden players. We also hold sports titles to a higher standard than those in the general public.

I know several people, who are more "casual" gamers, who love Madden '09 as is. They think it's the best football title they've ever played. And, truth be told, I think the game is damn good myself.

You get the sense, from reading some of these posts, that the game is unplayable in its unpatched state. And that just isn't true.

Now, two weeks after release, the Madden team releases not only a list of items fixed for the second patch but several items for a DLC "Sim" experience; items we here in the "hardcore" community screamed and shouted for...

...and we're still ungrateful?

I'm sorry, but that isn't right. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play or buy Madden '09. And, I think some need to stop acting like they personally "deserve" something. It's repulsive.

[DieHardYankee26]

Quote: Originally Posted by brendanrfoley

I respectfully disagree. We here at Operation Sports represent a very small, but vocal segment of Madden players. We also hold sports titles to a higher standard than those in the general public. I know several people, who are more "casual" gamers, who love Madden '09 as is. They think it's the best football title they've ever played. And, truth be told, I think the game is damn good myself. You get the sense, from reading some of these posts, that the game is unplayable in its unpatched state. And that just isn't true. Now, two weeks after release, the Madden team releases not only a list of items fixed for the second patch but several items for a DLC "Sim" experience; items we here in the "hardcore" community screamed and shouted for... ...and we're still ungrateful? I'm sorry, but that isn't right. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play or buy Madden '09. And, I think some need to stop acting like they personally "deserve" something. It's repulsive.

I think that you are right in one thing as far as people need to stop bitching because noone forced any of us to buy the game but the problem is, that many of these things could have been finished in the 2 months before the release after the game went gold and they were working on the patch. They could have had all of those things done for the disc and more considering only a month after release they have a second patch ready to go.

People without xbox live or psn(I'm not one of those but they need to be spoken for as well) are absolutely screwed because they have no way to obtain any of these things and that means that they are missing out on some of these game saving things that the rest of us are getting. I think people would not have such a problem with these things if the game had not gone gold so early. They should not have the game go gold until it is perfect(or at least as perfect as it can be) because not everyone is able to obtain these patches. Obviously there are things that cannot be helped such as Brett Favre changing teams 3 weeks before the game comes out but things like franchise progression and freezing after so many seasons.

Another thing that seems to be a problem is how EA seems to be all about what they can put on the box. 85+ new features? Does this include things like Resume Franchise which will save you an all important and valuable three seconds when loading. They need to focus on the important things and stop trying to entice people with big numbers and non-features, and fix the game. It's nice that someone from EA are trying to communicate with us, but if these things that they are talking about are not acted upon, there are going to be a whole new generation of EA haters come this time next year. I am like everyone else: I know I have the choice of not buying the game but I really have hope for EA every year; and I really believe they will fix this next year but I won't be holding my breath.

[nxt]

Thanks for the info on Patch #2, but what I'm now hoping/waiting for is the SIM DLC pack. This absolutely needs to be released... and soon. I seriously hope the CPU sliders are added and are more effective because the CPU running game needs major help. I've tried even tried the "DUMMY" slider thing with the CPU RUN at 0 (100,100,100) and the HUM RUN D at 20 (0,0,0) and the CPU still can't run the ball.

[ScottD413]

Quote: Originally Posted by brendanrfoley

No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play or buy Madden '09. And, I think some need to stop acting like they personally "deserve" something. It's repulsive.

Actually, we do deserve something. A quality, finished product. When EA bought the NFL license they forced a lot of people, like myself, who don't normally play EA games to buy Madden because it is the only NFL game on the market. Since then they have gotten lazy. Look at Madden 05, arguably the best Madden ever! Then EA gets the NFL license, and it's been all downhill from there.

I don't have an original XBox anymore, but if I did you can bet that I would get an Action Replay and be playing 2k5 instead of this crap

[Ankido]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheLateralLine

lol bezo, have you ever played any other games other than madden? all games have glitches - some companies don't act on them at all and some act by releasing patches. Some of the most played games like World of Warcraft, MSG4, GTA, Halo 3, etc were released with glitches even after YEARS of work on them. With your line of logic no one should by games. Ian is on his way to being the greatest madden producer ever!

You are comparing apples with oranges. World of Warcraft can patch at any given moment. The game launched and it was playable. The same goes with GTA4 and Halo3. On the other hand, Madden 09 is not playable. I don't care how many hours you spend in practice, Online or franchise the game is broken. It's been broken for 2 weeks now and your going to wait another 2 weeks until it's patched. This is a football simulator and build for the console gaming. If the game comes out with major bugs and glitches that keep you from playing it right, then there is something wrong with that picture. Don't compare it to games that are actually playable or MMO's that can be patched every day.

You pay $60 because the developers worked hard to put this game out. The testers are the idiots for not finding these issues. Now we may not know, but they could have been found and ignored by EA. This has happened before. Remember I use to work for EA and I tested a few major games like Tigerwoods and Sims 2. If someone found a bug and we were near deadline, they would let it go and deal with it after release. But... the problem was always fixed afterwords which is what they're trying to do now. Why the game came out with MAJOR issues is something we'll never know.

Suck it up and move on. Let's hope 2 weeks from now we all have smiles on our faces. Remember, failure each year means giving up the NFL license and allowing other companies to produce football games.

[Matrix-Monkey]

Quote: Originally Posted by ScottD413

Actually, we do deserve something. A quality, finished product. When EA bought the NFL license they forced a lot of people, like myself, who don't normally play EA games to buy Madden because it is the only NFL game on the market. Since then they have gotten lazy. Look at Madden 05, arguably the best Madden ever! Then EA gets the NFL license, and it's been all downhill from there. I don't have an original XBox anymore, but if I did you can bet that I would get an Action Replay and be playing 2k5 instead of this crap

NFL 2k5 is backward compatible for the XBOX 360 FYI.

[steveo]

I found this funny:

""but I’ll state again (as I have before) that we have to keep balancing this work against Madden NFL 2010. The longer we keep going on patches, the less we can add to the following year’s product."


Well maybe if you guys actually play tested the games and didn't release borderline beta software as finished versions you wouldn't have to spend time on patches.

The quote comes off as sounding like people who bought the game should be lucky they are getting patches to fix a buggy game as the developers are trying to work on next year's annual Madden bug fest release. Lame. I guess I should go praise a car company when they fix stuff via recalls that shouldn't be breaking in the first place.

How about the people who make football games at EA just get it right the first time. It would be FAR more efficient that way and there would be far less complaints. Relying on patches=laziness

[Kevin462606]

Quote: Originally Posted by brendanrfoley

I respectfully disagree. We here at Operation Sports represent a very small, but vocal segment of Madden players. We also hold sports titles to a higher standard than those in the general public. I know several people, who are more "casual" gamers, who love Madden '09 as is. They think it's the best football title they've ever played. And, truth be told, I think the game is damn good myself. You get the sense, from reading some of these posts, that the game is unplayable in its unpatched state. And that just isn't true. Now, two weeks after release, the Madden team releases not only a list of items fixed for the second patch but several items for a DLC "Sim" experience; items we here in the "hardcore" community screamed and shouted for... ...and we're still ungrateful? I'm sorry, but that isn't right. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play or buy Madden '09. And, I think some need to stop acting like they personally "deserve" something. It's repulsive.

All of my attempts to take a franchise past the second or third week of season 2 begin to freeze whenever I try to do anything. This is not an annoying random thing, this is every time. I am a little confused as to why anyone would try to say that this does not make the game unplayable, as it clearly is. I guess I should not be complaining though as they have now finally solved that horrible lack of field degradation problem so many have been troubled by.
Honestly, the fact one person working for EA sports could have even spent 5 minutes of his day working on field degradation when my game freezes at every save screen is insulting, truly insulting.