Madden 09 and Facebreaker Demos Now Available
by 
The demos for EA Sports Madden NFL 09 and Facebreaker are now available for download for the 360 and should both be coming this afternoon for the PS3. Generally the PSN is updated around 3pm PT. It turns out Madden came one day earlier than expected as it had been advertised for August 1st.
The Madden 09 demo features a run through of the virtual trainer and then the “Madden Moment” controlling the Giants on a last minute drive in the Super Bowl. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments or in this forum thread.
The Facebreaker demo offers a minute of action with the choice of three different characters as well as the ability to upload your face into the game for placement on them. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments or in this forum thread.
Check back this evening for videos and impressions on the two demos. I’ll be doing a breakdown of the old demo vs the new demo vs the community event build from late May for Madden.
July 31, 2008 at 1:49 pm
drops drops drops!!!!!there driving me nuts. plex cant catch anything.
July 31, 2008 at 2:01 pm
i noticed a lot of drops also. the first time i tried the virtual test i got all-madden and there were a lot of drops so the next time i took it i failed it miserably on purpose to see if it was the difficulty or the game that was causing all the drops but there were still a lot of drops. i hope drops arent the way fumbles were last year.
July 31, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I hate the fact that the receivers seem to drop every freakin ball. That bothers the hell out of me.
July 31, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The Madden NFL 09 demo is now available on the US Playstation Store.
July 31, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I thought the whole Total Control Animation thing was a joke, but i gotta say Frzier was right. I got wrapped up in a tackle and did a spin move and i got an extra 2 yards on that. I’m also glad that stiffarm works this year, unlike in 08.
July 31, 2008 at 5:23 pm
No penalties in the demo. Let the play clock run down and nothing happens it stays at 0.
July 31, 2008 at 5:45 pm
First, I have to say the graphics on my HDTV are amazing. Leaps and bounds ahead of last year. Alson, the game play was very fluid and I liked the ability to break out of tackles instead of just accepting your fate. Also, I’m happy they added the “bluff” plays like are found in NCAA to make it better when playing against friends.
I did have two issues in the hour or so I played the demo:
1. I threw a sideline pass to Plaxico, which was overthrown. He still went out of bounds (about 1-2 yards) and jumped to catch the ball. Because a defensive player was also out of bounds, Plaxico caught the ball and the animation brought him back in bounds. The game counted the pass as a completion even though Plaxico jumped for the ball while he was out of bounds.
2. I used a long play count to try and see if the safeties were blitzing. Of course, my right guard jumped the count and had a false start. The funny thing was, no whistle or flag. Instead, the guard went through his “upset with himself” animation and started walking back to the huddle. Even worse, the other 21 players on the field stayed in their formation as if the play was still going to happen. The only way I was able to get out of this was to call a timeout.
All-in-all, a fun game with only two glitches I found. The only concern is I found both of these in about one hour of play on the demo. This gives me serious pause when it comes to shelling out the money for the anniversary edition.
July 31, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Threw a great deep ball to Manningham in the slot to win the thing, but now I can’t even hit burress with a long pass.
July 31, 2008 at 7:26 pm
…….
July 31, 2008 at 7:56 pm
has anybody found out how to spectacular catch?
July 31, 2008 at 11:25 pm
i have to say when i found out that the madden demo was comming out on
aug 1st i was a bit bummed because i was leaving town until the 4th & wouldnt have xbl out of town, only to fire up my xbox on the 31st and see that we got the demo a day early, wow that just made my week. my impressions of the game, one word.. great. i love it .at first i thought the player models were a bit cartoony but as i played i just saw them as beefier as NFL players should be, and for the guys complaining about the flashes.. i played for about an hour & a half and i never noticed, i was to busy loving this game.
August 1, 2008 at 8:18 am
[quote comment="30507"]has anybody found out how to spectacular catch?[/quote]
the spectacular catch isn’t done manually any more which is a good thing we don’t need people abusing it like last year.
August 1, 2008 at 9:45 am
ok, my receiver is running a post corner route at full speed and i pass him the ball using precision passing to lead him, but i notice that the pass was way in front of him so he goes into warp speed to catch the pass. wtf? has anyone notice this?
August 1, 2008 at 11:10 am
why are there so many wide open dropped passes? this is ridiculous!!!
August 1, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I think I’ve figured out the dropped passes. it has to do with running before the receiver looks the ball into his hands, like in real life.
Even if you aren’t user catching with the WR, just holding the speed burst and pressing the joystick in the direction you want to go after he receives the ball causes you to drop it.
After passing the ball, don’t press anything until the receiver has possession. Then feel free to maneuver.
Hopefully this is just in the demo.
August 1, 2008 at 6:27 pm
[quote comment="30441"][quote comment="30438"]The demo is is good. I like it better than last year, but the flashing lights really get annoying. Maybe I just have to get used to it.[/quote]
It amazes me how a multi billion dollar company in EA came make a game a great & as detailed as Madden but when it comes to something as obvious as excessive camera flashes they can’t get that right. I mean it’s common sense that these camera flashes are excessive. Even my 4 year old son saw the game and said “Daddy how come there’s so many flashes?” I really don’t want to nitpick & I wouldn’t mind a few flashes here & there, but these excessive camera flashes are really gonna put a damper on otherwise would be a great game.[/quote]
i dont really feel the cam flashes down the game all that much. i think it looks kinda cool
August 2, 2008 at 4:09 am
Why are thier so many dropped passes?
August 2, 2008 at 9:36 am
so i scored with burress, went to go run up to the stands to celebrate with the fans and just straight up ran into it hahaha and burress fell and hurt his kneee comedy i straight up laughed at my tv screen.
August 2, 2008 at 10:42 pm
The reason they drop so many many passes is because yall always pass lead up and throw . that will increase the chances of drops
August 2, 2008 at 10:55 pm
You might actually have to play football instead RC,ing ur way down the field. OHH NOOOO. BUms are in trouble now. ALl crossing routes I can see it now.
August 3, 2008 at 1:13 pm
[quote comment="30452"]the iq thing is wacked. got a 100% on passing so what does this do. instead of making it harder for me to pass, it makes my receiver drop passes even tho they are wide open. the a.i. does not adapt to you, it just dumb things down.[/quote]
thats so true if ea wants to make a fun game it should make it challenging but not to the point where it keeps you from having any offense at all. I got all madden in everything and the thing made me drop passes and my QB who was at least3-4 yards away kept getting suction saked. Plus the receivers still ran off camera. I must say im dissapointed
August 3, 2008 at 1:16 pm
plus if your a higher level player precision passing is useless. Eli had no arm stregth watsoever and this pass went no where near where it was supposed to. I dont know if its my ps3 controller that has no sensitivity
August 3, 2008 at 5:23 pm
i believe that the adapt to you difficulty can be turned off and you can set it to all madden, i think that the IQ game adapt thing is more for nubes.
August 4, 2008 at 10:57 am
hey PASTA
do u know if your online rankings and skill level from 08 will be ported into 09?