Two Weeks of Madden 09, and Official Patch News!

[SirRoyal]

Amazing news, every problem I had with the game is being addressed. Thank you so much, here's to the best Madden in a long long time.

[Flamehead]

Ian, just curious:

Since the DLC is being positioned as a "sim-player" pack of sorts, is it possible to address some type of fatigue solution in that?

Just wondering.

Thanks again.

[boooey]

i am not really sure how the process works, as I have never dealt with a game that needed patching like this one.

my question is..

Will these patches eventually be incorporated into future retail discs being burned and sold?

Like if I buy Madden 09 in January or February or sometime next year, will it have the patches included on the disc already?

[Pared]

No, it's always through your console and while connected to the respective company's online service.

[ChicagoChris]

Good Lord. Some people are never happy!

Look at the list...it's damn impressive. Think of when you have ever had support like that from EA. Remember, last year with the fumbles, they denied it and then sent out a crappy patch. The year before, no fatigue and they waited until December to fix.

This year, 2 patches that fix alot and all within a month! The game is great right now and is going to be a classic after this next patch and (fingers crossed) DLC.

Thanks Ian and crew!

[stux]

Quote: Originally Posted by jhawkmike

Extensive patching has been standard for PC games, but it's still a fairly recent development for console games. I'm not sure that I like it. It encourages companies to rush incomplete games out the door.

I couldn't agree more. That was supposed to be the whole point of the console. You don't have to deal with the problems that plague a lot of PC games. Well looks like that is changing.

If that is the case there is no need for consoles any more. Just make everything on the PC and have emulutors for the "system."

[Hammer67]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flamehead

I appreciate Ian's and the team's work on the patch. I do find the following wording curious, however: "Penalty sliders ineffective: A common complaint from the hardcore community was the lack of effect from the penalty sliders. We increased these substantially for patch 2." So does expecting an effect from the penalty sliders = hardcore? Aren't penalties a basic part of football? If casual/arcade players are turned off by penalties such that they don't have much effect by default (by design, perhaps?), isn't that what the sliders are supposed to be there for--so they can turn them DOWN? But the patch as a whole? I think it will please many people. At least they are tweaking a lot of things.

I see your point, but what I think Ian is referring to is the fact that only Hardcore gamers really even tinker with the sliders. Most of my friends, whom I would consider casual, don't mess with any of the settings beyond changing the difficulty options (all Madden, etc.) Penalties add to the realism but aren't much fun if you just want to pick up and play. (I am "hardcore" as they define it, in that I like the penalty sliders and max them out)

[stux]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gizmo777

While I commend Ian and the EA team, I am left wondering how this game was released with so much wrong with it that, not one, but two patches are needed to make it playable. The second patch is fixing 18 things that were wrong with this game at release, some that rendered the game unplayable. Here's a crazy idea for EA: Release the game early to all of the hardcore Madden players on this forum and others, let them run the game through its paces, report the errors to you, fix them, THEN release the game to the masses. Some people do not have internet access. How are they to play the fixed version of this game? I know people would be complaining about a later release date, but the game was put out nearly a month before the season. Many gamers like myself wait until the NFL season starts anyway to begin a franchise. Why not wait and extra month, get knowledgable people testing the game -- obviously, EA does not have the proper testers or this game would not have been released to begin with -- and then let the masses have it. It would save a lot of anguish -- and PS3 system destroyed by constant improper shut downs. Just my two cents. Still, I commend Ian and his team for paying attention to the forums and ironing out the bugs. It should make for a better game. I just wonder why this stuff wasn't ironed out before the game was sold.

I agree with most of what you are saying here. I think they should still release the same date but get more people invlovled in the testing at a earlier date.

I also think it is sad that even after the 2nd patch franchise mode won't work right for the people who are crashing. I am not sure with the crashing if that is related to modified rosters or NCAA draft classes. I hope a "work around" if available soon for that if the patch won't be.

I know those of you that only play online or with friend do not care about the franchise patch but there are a lot of us that buy the game only to play franchise mode vs CPU. I do not think it is fair of you to say we can't speak out minds.