Don't Start Your Madden NFL 16 CFM Until New Patch Arrives, According to Developers

[bkrich83]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

Define "major bugs" because I've bought MLB The Show and NBA2K games for the last 3 years within 48 hours of their releases and never once couldn't play a mostly bug-free franchise mode.

I would say the Wrigley boundary bug is major. Before that runs being counted after the 3rd out was recorded. Before that the white screen freeze issue. These are just a few. I love mlb but to say it's been without major bugs is disingenuous.

And mlb has had more than its share of progression/ regression issues. Major Free agents never being signed. Etc.

[aholbert32]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

This just isn't any mode this has kinda been the backbone off he game for over a decade and a half. It is very unacceptable for a sports game in the 2010s be released without the ability to play a functional franchise mode. This is the first time I can remember them saying to delay starting the mode. There have been events in the past that had freezing issues that required restarts if you came upon them, but nothing like this in which a dev guy is telling you not to start a mode. Plain and simple, there is no excuse for this not to be discovered, especially since it was discovered rather easily by many in the first 10 hours of playing the game.

I'd argue that online and MUT have been more important modes in this game for the past 5 plus years.

[aholbert32]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

I would say the Wrigley boundary bug is major. Before that runs being counted after the 3rd out was recorded. Before that the white screen freeze issue. These are just a few. I love mlb but to say it's been without major bugs is disingenuous.

And mlb even has had more than its share of progression/ regression issues. Major Free agents never being signed. Etc.

**** NBA2k15 barely had fouls called at release (even with sliders at 100) and it took X1 owners almost three months before it was patched.

I love the NBA2k series but its generally buggy as hell on release.

[bkrich83]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

**** NBA2k15 barely had fouls called at default and it took X1 owners almost three months before it was patched.

I love the NBA2k series but its generally buggy as hell on release.

And my personal pet peeve no highlights for games with longer than 6 min qtrs. 2 years in a row mind you.

[Sphinx]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

I can only speak for NBA2k on that list, but that game has not nearly been as bug ridden as Madden has in recent years. It's main issues have been server access and reliability for online play. That's not about the code, it's about the cloud based infrastructure.

And as far as franchise modes go, you can't even talk about Madden and The Show or NBA2k in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence.

Madden just can't hide behind the short development cycle. It's not as if the cycle is a new phenomenon - they've been at this a long time. If you do project management and code building right, you build on layers year by year and make expansions and improvements off a solid foundation. Madden, like everyone else, put in a new foundation with the new consoles, just as the others did. And yet it has had more problems, false starts and steps backward.

I really think it's the EA culture that is not designer friendly, leaving the design and engineering side unable to do stable planning, investment and infrastructure building because they are subject to the whims of the bean counters and marketing suits year on year.

I don't disagree with what you're saying but I think developing something like madden is slightly more difficult then many of us think. I would imagine they have some pretty old legacy code out there buried underneath the new code and architecture. I do feel madden,MLB and NBA2k can be used in direct comparison. All of them have a yearly dev cycle and all of them take a different approach. All of them have their issues at launch, Madden is our focus because we all want to play the perfect football game. Perfect, is a bit of an overstatement but we want a good representation of what we think the game should be. It's not right now, I am not arguing that. But to say none of these others games have issues at release is not accurate either.

[aholbert32]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

Which brings us to a bigger issue in my opinion, do they even do quality testing at EA Tiburon?

They do but that isnt a guarantee to catch a bug. There are plenty of people here who played CFM all last week and didnt realize their were any major issues with CFM.

[EricFreakingBerry]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

I can only speak for NBA2k on that list, but that game has not nearly been as bug ridden as Madden has in recent years. It's main issues have been server access and reliability for online play. That's not about the code, it's about the cloud based infrastructure.

And as far as franchise modes go, you can't even talk about Madden and The Show or NBA2k in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence.

Madden just can't hide behind the short development cycle. It's not as if the cycle is a new phenomenon - they've been at this a long time. If you do project management and code building right, you build on layers year by year and make expansions and improvements off a solid foundation. Madden, like everyone else, put in a new foundation with the new consoles, just as the others did. And yet it has had more problems, false starts and steps backward.

I really think it's the EA culture that is not designer friendly, leaving the design and engineering side unable to do stable planning, investment and infrastructure building because they are subject to the whims of the bean counters and marketing suits year on year.

This x10000. The other companies can get away with a few bugs here or there because literally ZERO of the bugs I've seen in patch notes for those games or experienced in my gameplay were egregious and/or they were related to online feature sets which everyone should assume there will be kinks to work out upon release.

Neither of those other gaming franchises have put out an on-disk/download gaming mode that is so bogged down with mind-numbing issue after mind-numbing issue. EA is showing some responsiveness lately, which is a really GOOD thing for them; hopefully, within the next 1-2 years they will perform an overwhelming host of fixes to their engine that gives them something stable to build upon.

There is nothing about EA that's been customer-friendly for years, so we'll see how long this takes to fix, but I may just trade Madden in for NBA2K16 until they prove themselves with a stable CFM product.

[aholbert32]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

And my personal pet peeve no highlights for games with longer than 6 min qtrs. 2 years in a row mind you.

Yep and 2k cant seem to fix that on the ps4.

[SFNiners816]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

I'd argue that online and MUT have been more important modes in this game for the past 5 plus years.

That doesn't justify having a broken franchise mode in a sports game. Especially considering that a portion of that increase of online traffic is because of an on line franchise mode.

[LowerWolf]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

It seems like just about every game these days needs at least one post-release day patch before you can really dive into it.

[bkrich83]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

This x10000. The other companies can get away with a few bugs here or there because literally ZERO of the bugs I've seen in patch notes for those games or experienced in my gameplay were egregious and/or they were related to online feature sets which everyone should assume there will be kinks to work out upon release.

Neither of those other gaming franchises have put out an on-disk/download gaming mode that is so bogged down with mind-numbing issue after mind-numbing issue. EA is showing some responsiveness lately, which is a really GOOD thing for them; hopefully, within the next 1-2 years they will perform an overwhelming host of fixes to their engine that gives them something stable to build upon.

There is nothing about EA that's been customer-friendly for years, so we'll see how long this takes to fix, but I may just trade Madden in for NBA2K16 until they prove themselves with a stable CFM product.

That's a lot of hyperbole for one post.

[bkrich83]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

Yep and 2k cant seem to fix that on the ps4.

It's not major but it pisses me off.

[LorenzoDC]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

**** NBA2k15 barely had fouls called at release (even with sliders at 100) and it took X1 owners almost three months before it was patched.

I love the NBA2k series but its generally buggy as hell on release.

How much of that game do you play?

I've played around 350+ 12 minutes quarter games in NBA2k15 MyLeague, and I'm on XB1. Before that patch, I maxed my slider for fouls and got about10 free throws per game - not enough, but not a BROKEN MODE. Then post patch I eased up on the sliders and got good free throw and foul stats.

You're not making apples to apples comparisons. The issue you mention pales in comparison to a whole set of issues that led the game's chief developer to advise people not to play the whole mode. No one is saying the other games are percect, so don't use that straw man.

I mean, c'mon, man. You're reaching, and I'm not even sure you play NBA2k, as I never see you on those threads.

[Sphinx]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

They do but that isnt a guarantee to catch a bug. There are plenty of people here who played CFM all last week and didnt realize their were any major issues with CFM.

Also, depending on their QA testing schedule, certain bugs will be found and others wont. I highly doubt their testers are playing the game the same way we do. They probably have some QA procedures set and go through and sign off on what they tested. Then theres the part where QA finds an issue late in the cycle and the developers have to decide if it's a showstopper. Something that literally will prevent the basic functions of the game from working. Anything else probably gets a severity and worked on from there. This has been my experience at the company I work for.

[bkrich83]

Re: Kolbe says to WAIT to start your CFM

I'm not even sure you play NBA2k, as I never see you on those threads.

Lmao. Are you serious?