Full Details on Patch #2 for Madden 09
August 25, 2008 by pastapadre · 111 Comments
Details on items that have been fixed with the second patch for Madden 09 are the topic of a brand new blog posted by producer Ian Cummings on the Madden 09 website. Included are the disconnects that have been plaguing online, franchise progression, fixed exploits including the WR Direct Snap and Deep Ball glitches, field degradation, and gameplay improvements. Most of the gripes consumers have had with the game look as though they’ll be addressed in the coming patch. Not sure there is much more you can ask for out of this.
The work on the patch has been completed and is being submitted to MS and Sony on Tuesday. This puts the time frame to expect it to arrive still at least a few weeks out. Continue on to read the full list of issues and workarounds.
Madden 09 All-Play Impressions
August 25, 2008 by pastapadre · 9 Comments
Although NCAA Football 09 began the All Play line of games for the Wii, the first true game to actually represent the ideals is Madden 09. In stark contrast to NCAA, Madden is a fully featured game and is being received well by consumers along with reviewers.
Continue on to read my full thoughts on the game including several videos showing off gameplay from the various modes.
WR Direct Snap Glitch Being Dealt With
August 21, 2008 by pastapadre · 38 Comments
In general the last thing I’d want to do is bring attention to a glitch that could ruin the enjoyment of the game for people. Currently Madden 09 online play has been riddled with people using the WR direct snap glitch. Inexplicably SportsGamer had detailed exactly how this glitch is done. While it had already spread though some circles now that a media site has decided to publicize it this will only been seen more.
Here is a warning though to anyone tempted by that. Those who use the glitch online risk getting their record and stats completely wiped clean. EA is able to monitor each play that is run in a game and can even tell if it was snapped to a wide receiver. As this glitch is isolated to a single play in a single playbook it becomes even easier to spot. They’ve already deleted the record and stats of some users who were confirmed to have utilized the glitch. More will face that realization in the near future and deservedly so.
I was able to confirm a while back that the next patch will include a fix for this glitch. So it is only a matter of time before it is gone. I felt though at this time that it was important to put the word out on the upcoming fix as well as the reasons you don’t want to exploit it online even if you know how to do it.
Importing Plays In Madden from Head Coach
August 17, 2008 by pastapadre · 16 Comments
The integration between NFL Head Coach 09 and Madden 09 is limited to the exporting of plays from Head Coach to Madden. I wanted to try this out in an effort to see how easily it can be done and how well it works. What I found is that it’s relatively easy but doesn’t work exactly as expected.
I’ve put together a video going through the entire process, from the creation and exporting of a play in Head Coach to the importing and usage of a play in Madden. Continue on to watch it as well as read my thoughts on the feature.
First Patch for Madden 09 Out Now
August 15, 2008 by pastapadre · 125 Comments
The patch that was expected around release time for Madden 09 has now gone out for both the 360 and PS3. The 360 received the patch early this morning while the PS3 has had it for the last couple days. The list of what was addressed in this patch can be found below.
1. Changed default quarter length of online leagues to 5 minutes.
2. Solved a very rare stability issue that occurred when using a couple of playbooks.
3. Eliminated a button mashing glitch during high latency online games.
4. Eliminated a stability issue that sometimes occurred while viewing the player HUB in online leagues.
5. Fixed a tricky disc eject glitch that occurred at specific points of online games.
6. Kick Return Tuning - made improvements to help reduce frequent long kick returns.
7. Safety Tuning - eliminated issue where safeties in deep zone coverage would sometimes not react to a run to their side.
8. The game skill slider for interceptions was tuned to amplify it’s affect.
Be sure to leave your thoughts on any differences with the game that are noticed and could possibily be attributed to this patch. Online play stability is still a big issue and this patch hasn’t seemed to help in that regard on the PS3 side since receiving it. A second patch is still in the planning stages.
Madden 09 Fantasy Football Integration
August 14, 2008 by pastapadre · 10 Comments
One of the new aspects to using EA Sports Fantasy Football this year is the ability to import your fantasy teams in Madden 09. While I initially had an issue getting the process to work EA was able to fix it so now there shouldn’t be any trouble uploading the rosters to the locker where the game will grab it from. Anyone with an EA Fantasy Football team can seamlessly transfer them into Madden (PS3, 360) to use in play now, dynasty, or unranked online games.
I set up a fantasy league to test this out containing a total of four owners (thanks to those from the forum that helped out by signing into it) and an auto-draft that would take place immediately. That will explain the stacked roster that I had. In general just from browsing the fantasy football website it looks like it is shaping up really well as a service.
Madden 09 Online Plagued by Problems
August 13, 2008 by pastapadre · 136 Comments
After the disastrous online play of last year it was going to be important to see how Madden 09 performed right out of the gates. The only additions to online this year were the “leagues” and having random weather. So overall performance had to be a focus. While lag was an issue last year it was disconnects that caused the most headaches. In fact my first 17 attempts with 08 ended in disconnects. In regards to what EA was doing about it I was told that four engineers were dedicated to making sure online play ran well this year which represents a significant effort.
How is 09 doing so far? Disconnects are happening frequently (late game field goals seem to be the biggest culprit) and PS3 users are having their games freeze when they attempt to enter lobby rooms. Both of these issues are serious enough to really damage any enjoyment to be had with online. While the games have been relatively lag free they don’t seem to be quite as responsive as NCAA 09 and have an overriding sluggish feeling.
Feel free to leave your thoughts on how online is performing for you in the comments. While it is early in release these problems still shouldn’t be happening. I will update if I hear details on what is being done to address them.
Update: The lobby freezing issue should now be fixed.
Madden 09 Coverage Wrap-Up and Your Impressions
August 11, 2008 by pastapadre · 126 Comments
Madden 09 has made its way out and with that brings an end to the prerelease coverage of the game. I still have plans to complete full online impressions, a look at fantasy football importing into Madden (which looks like it has been fixed), an EASW video highlight contest, and the setting up of the custom team online competition to look forward to in the near future. Otherwise I’ll be directing my immediate focus towards NFL Head Coach 09 which I’ll have later today.
As always I’ll be curious to see how the masses receive the game. I suspect for the head-to-head crowd it will be considered very good, while those who heavily invest in CPU offline play or online play will have mixed feelings. As I stated in my random thoughts write-up it is a huge jump forward in gameplay and presentation but the overall experience feels somewhat empty as it doesn’t have a feature or mode that can compare to NCAA Football 09’s Online Dynasty or the Online Team Play of several other EA titles.
Here are links from the prerelease coverage. Feel free to leave your impressions of Madden 09 in the comments!
Random Thoughts on Madden 09
Roster Update Details
Online League Impressions
Full Game of Madden 09: Seahawks @ Chiefs
Full Game of Madden 09: Bengals @ Colts
Full Game of Madden 09: Texans @ Titans
Full Game of Madden 09: Bills @ Jets
A Few More Videos (Madden Moments, Superstar Mode)
Community Event Impressions
Live Blog from Community Event
Brett Favre Jets Cover Now Available To Download
August 11, 2008 by pastapadre · 12 Comments
As promised EA has released the new cover art with Brett Favre as a New York Jet and it is now available to download and print off. They’ve used the same image seen on the retail cover but have gone to painstaking lengths to photoshop him into a Jets uniform.
It appears that the Wii version is being left out. Given that the image used was completely different I suppose they didn’t find it to be worth the effort that would’ve been needed.
While there is no word of future packaging runs using this cover art I still believe that it is a good possibility. Click the links below to download the covers in PDF form.
A Few More Madden 09 Videos
August 11, 2008 by pastapadre · 33 Comments
While I stated I wasn’t going to have time to post any more full games I was able to get a few shorter videos up. I had these posted in the forum yesterday and you may have seen one or two as the featured video. But with midnight release nearing I figure it would be worth posting them up here as well.
Two of the videos show a few minutes from Superstar mode. One is controlling Raiders RB Darren McFadden and the other as Eagles WR DeSean Jackson. Then there are two different Madden Moments. The Raiders @ Broncos in overtime and the Browns @ Ravens late in the 4th. After uploading the Browns-Ravens one it occurred to me that people may think that it was way too easy to complete that, but it actually took me about 15 attempts to win it on the one play.
Continue on to watch all four of the videos.
