Happily. And I'm sure most of the developers would agree it's hard for them as well
The Show: An entire mode (RTTS) has a debilitating glitch that can crash it beyond recovery that was never completely isolated and fixed (despite THREE patches
).
-Franchise mode has numerous glitches (most around staff and the DL).
-People, like with nearly every sport game, complain the game cheats (not saying I agree, because I don't, but it gets the criticism...which means there are aspects that people feel needs addressing).
NBA 2K: Association has glitches-broken training if you do it manually is one of the bigger ones.
-Post-play has been a gripe for awhile now, online has apparently had issues, etc.
FIFA: Manager mode has been hit with a list of glitches so long, I stopped reading it before I was done...lol. There are defensive positioning problems, Be A Pro has progression issues, goalies have braindead moments, etc.
NHL: Franchise mode's stat tracking is a mess, FA and trade logic is goofed, and the mode is bare-bones again.
Defensive and Goalie AI has suspect moments and there are physics issues, freezes, etc to consider as well. Also, to be fair and consistent with the arguments always presented here, many feel the game isn't "sim" hockey, but more fast-paced. I can't intelligently opine on that personally, as I'm no hockey buff, but it is said plenty.
Fight Night: I've played this one the least and haven't played at all since it was patched, but AI, clipping, freezing, and various online glitches were listed from the jump. May be fixed now, I dunno.
Now, all of these range from good-to great, I agree. But if you look at just the negatives you'd probably run screaming before ever firing them up to find out.
The point is these seem to overlooked in ways Madden's glitches never are. I really think most of it is based on reputation over recent years. Some are riding high reputation, some are riding the level of recent years' improvement. All are given the benefit of the doubt regardless of some very comparable flaws.
None of this is to say that benefit of the doubt isn't warranted. Neither is it to say that Madden hasn't earned the scrutiny it gets over their time on this generation of consoles. The only point is, if we are going to list frames of reference, lets get all the cards on the table.
Madden is held to a higher standard in part because of the sport it represents, and in-part because it owns exclusive rights to represent that sports dominant and most popular brand. Because of this, they can't afford (like both FIFA AND NHL did) to really rebuild. They have to do it more transitionally. Add in the mess it made of itself and the admittedly (meaning Ian, Phill, and I'm sure other EA guys admit) poor decision-making in the transition to the current consoles, and it's creates a hole to dig out of as well.
I think the transition has started working (hints last year, more realization for 10) and the team has the right focus and direction. It just takes time. Yes, before the obvious is stated, they've already collectively had time. It's perfectly reasonable for people to jump ship and not put up with the transition. It's also perfectly reasonable to point out flaws in hopes they get fixed.
Let's just not pretend it's any more "broken" and patch-dependent than the vast majority of games available on these consoles, particulalry those with comparable dev cycles. "Playable", aside from stability issues, is entirely subjective.
/End Book.
EDIT: and I'm sorry it's so long, but I don't plan on adding to much more to that...so no need to worry about a repeat performance in this thread at least.