Madden 09 and Facebreaker Demos Now Available
July 31, 2008 by pastapadre
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.
Wow this is awesome. I beat won the superbowl on my first try and now I can’t do it anymore.
What happened to redemption to the ps3 owners EA???
So much for the updated build of the game. At least it will get me by for two weeks. Still very much looking forward to this year’s game. When should I tell my wife that it’s Madden season? Should she get a warning or just let her know Aug 12th??? Some help here fellas!
This is supposedly near final build compared to the months old DVD demo. There are a lot of noticeable differences, but in the short period you get to play the game and having no commentary it doesn’t match up to my memories from the community event.
BTW you only get one timeout in this demo as opposed to three in the older one. Also now experience the camera flashes first hand!
Facebreaker wise obviously I’m just learning the game but even on easy I’ve been getting my ass kicked!
Dude ^ there, its August 1st. Its already Madden Season.
ughhhhhhh why isnt the demo on PS3 ALREADY!!
Man Madden looks and plays great Aug 12 can’t come soon enough
Pasta, why does EA always kick PS3 users in the nuts when it deals with Madden?
We’ve always had the worse of every outcome, I don’t understand.
“Pasta, why does EA always kick PS3 users in the nuts when it deals with Madden?”
It’s not EA, the PSN store update happens at the same time every week. You should be used to it if you’ve had a PS3 for any length of time!
PS3 Owners Listen:
Sony realeases their Demos/Updates to the PSN in the afternoons. Feel free to comment after you have had a chance to play the demo. I’ll be playing it late tonight.
I know, I know, I just hate waiting.
It’ll be about seven hours until the demo releases for PS3.
Just finished the demo, It’s good! Plays similar to NCAA, so it isnt all that different, but that also means that it is a solid game!
Just played through it a few times…
Game looks great and plays much better than NCAA from what I could tell. Not sure what difficulty level it defaults to when you skip the VT, but I was able to move the ball consistently. I didn’t really notice the camera flashes. Controls feel good. Had a few instances of the ball warping to receivers hands–sorta like the magnet catches from NCAA.
Overall it seems pretty good. I am getting frustrated with NCAA because the more I play it, the more flaws I find. Especially the psychic cpu defense and cpu qb. This doesn’t seem to be as much a problem in Madden and for that I am thankful.
I wlll wait for more impressions from demo and full release before I decide to buy…but at this point I am pretty sure that NCAA is going back to the store.
the thing that really annoys me is a big deal to me but maybe not to other people is that ea doesnt get helmets right and its so clear its like there rearted they continue to give eli that revolution helmet like peyton eli wore that helmet for his rookie year only
im surprised how much fun facebreaker is. plus peter moore and kim kardashian are in the demo lol!
Why can’t you user strafe catch on offense?
[quote comment="30412"]the thing that really annoys me is a big deal to me but maybe not to other people is that ea doesnt get helmets right and its so clear its like there rearted they continue to give eli that revolution helmet like peyton eli wore that helmet for his rookie year only[/quote]
agreed, I am a equipment freak and alwasy edit the players..and I too hate Eliu’s facemask..and they better have clear visors..
[quote comment="30415"][quote comment="30412"]the thing that really annoys me is a big deal to me but maybe not to other people is that ea doesnt get helmets right and its so clear its like there rearted they continue to give eli that revolution helmet like peyton eli wore that helmet for his rookie year only[/quote]
agreed, I am a equipment freak and alwasy edit the players..and I too hate Eliu’s facemask..and they better have clear visors..[/quote]
im pretty sure clear visors are in the game dark visors only was soooooo annyoing i couldnt stand playing everyone who was supposed to have a clear visor had a drak one like i removed so many facemasks like phillip rivers and ray lewis
YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssss
so this isnt 2 player either, man, ncaa demo was 2 player
the game looks good but this demo sucks its to short but i cant wait to get madden
i want strafe catching back
i thought this was supposed to come out tomorrow. even my 360 dashboard it has an ad that says 1 day till madden 09 demo. o well idk i have it downloading now
I LOVED THIS DEMO, I CAN’T WAIT TILL AUG. 12TH.
in the virtual thing, its impossible to tackle. the running back always breaks the tackles
THANK U EA SPORTS!!!
This demo blew me away, I am looking forward more than ever to Madden for the first time in years.
THANK YOU PHIL FRAZIER!!!!
Clear visors are in the demo! The Patriots rookie linebacker from USC Mayo is wearing one. Looks great!
good lord…
4th and 1 with like a min and a half left and 1 timeout and the clock is moving?
get in there rookie, try to experience the subtle game changes from last year, and make somethin happen…..
[quote comment="30403"]“Pasta, why does EA always kick PS3 users in the nuts when it deals with Madden?”
It’s not EA, the PSN store update happens at the same time every week. You should be used to it if you’ve had a PS3 for any length of time![/quote]
Dude if you haven’t figuered it out by now, the 360 is EA’s 1st priority. They do this every year. Not only does the 360 normally get the demos 1st but for the most part the sports games are better on 360 compared to PS3. This is the 1st year that Madden will run at 60fps on both systems. Right now the 360 is a better system, better online, & it’s cheaper. Eventually the PS3 will take over but by the time they do it will be too late.
they do have clear visors i just found a screenshot with one in it.
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/obj.....=mediaFull
By the way, Mayo played for Tenn. not USC but great to hear clear visors are there. Probably shouldn’t ask about mouthpieces and nasal strips cause I bet they aren’t in like usual the last 4 maddens on next gen.
pasta can you tell me if strafe catching is in the final version?
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.
sorry, this question isn’t about the demo but i’m a bit curious. was there any word on position battles in superstar mode for the next gen consoles? i heard it was in for ps2 and xbox, along with other potentially cool sounding features for superstar mode, but not for the next gen consoles…
im enjoying the facebreaker demo but havent tried uploading anything yet, the game is fun and tougher than i expected.
madden is good like it looked like it was going to be i just need more time actually playing a full game to know if this is the year
[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.
If I remember correctly, Pasta mentioned the input given to EA during the last community event was to tone down the camera flashes. I thought he said you’d see them on TD’s and things of that nature but not as much during the course of the game.
people were giving good reviews for ncaa too, but look what happened. ncaa was crap. madden is hiding something by giving u limited gameplay. they’re hoping you’ll play it once and not find out any bugs in a full quarter. rent b4 buy people. the ones giving good feedback prolly on ea’s payroll.
The demo is way to short , the madden IQ is funner than playing the NFL moment thing
I’m not on EA’s payroll, have hated EA in the past, was a 2k fanboy…need I go any further?
Phil Frazier is turning this series around, and I can’t put this demo away yet, I am having a blast, and in awe each play i see a new animation.
wow coming into this demo i really was angry about the camera flashes but i really did not notice them much and if they bother you u will probably get used to them
have you guys ever heard of the slogan: if its in the game its in the game. You don’t think there are cameras flashing like that at a NFL game? well i guess ea is making this game real
pasta do you think madden could be different if david ortiz never left
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 comment="30451"]pasta do you think madden could be different if david ortiz never left[/quote]
I personally think it woould have continued to be that tourney based rehash that it has been since it hit next-gen. Ortiz didn’t do much in these past few that’s for sure.
you can always count on EA to make a feature that does not work.
Some dude claims to have the full game on IGN’s Madden boards. Pasta you might want to pick up the bat phone and let em know he is leaking info. Claims he got the game from a buddy who is a gametester.
so just put the game on all madden and adjust the sliders. No big deal who is really going to worry about that. IQ idea is dumb anyway cuz if u get 100% on everything the computer will start doing unrealistic things to stay better then u. Also about 90% of yall play online anyway
I also noticed a lot of drops. I think that you probably have to user catch everything to guarantee that its not going to bounce off the receivers hands. I wonder if that is one of the aspects of the Virt. Trainer that when you score well on passing it requires you to manually catch each pass…?
Wow been playing the demo all day and I am so excited didn’t really realize how much of an improvement the graphics were till I saw it on my HD set. I do believe that with such a drastic improvement in Madden’s graphics that it is gonna hurt HC 09 since its still running off the old engine. If you read above you can tell its a solid game the complaints are about facemasks, clear visors, and camera flashes. The camera flashes are a nice touch in the Madden moments portion of the demo considering that it takes place during Super Bowl. Gameplay is solid don’t know about any1 else but the passing on 08 was trash precision passing didn’t work and defenders not looking for the ball could still make a play all of which has been addressed and the disappearing icons if you drop back too far is a very nice addition. This is what Madden 06 should’ve been EA didn’t phone it in this year they gave fans what they want with this edition EA has laid a solid foundation to work with and now can just add the features and improvements that they couldn’t get in this year Aug 12th can’t get here soon enough
drops drops drops!!!!!there driving me nuts. plex cant catch anything.
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.
I hate the fact that the receivers seem to drop every freakin ball. That bothers the hell out of me.
The Madden NFL 09 demo is now available on the US Playstation Store.
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.
No penalties in the demo. Let the play clock run down and nothing happens it stays at 0.
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.
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.
…….
has anybody found out how to spectacular catch?
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.
[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.
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?
why are there so many wide open dropped passes? this is ridiculous!!!
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.
[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
Why are thier so many dropped passes?
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.
The reason they drop so many many passes is because yall always pass lead up and throw . that will increase the chances of drops
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.
[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
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
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.
hey PASTA
do u know if your online rankings and skill level from 08 will be ported into 09?