Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

[StormJH1]

This is a 4th title update - I'm not sure people are being realistic if they thought the game was going to be radically redesigned on the 4th update. If you haven't traded it in by now, you might as well just keep it and accept it for what it is.

There is a fair amount of free contact here, and as a Vikings fan, I appreciate the improved jerseys...also, the Ultimate Team modes could be fun.

[falconfansince81]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

Sigh... I've liked you up until this point but now I want to smack you.

You've reminded me that 2K is gone

Ah well... I can always hope the government starts giving a damn about monopolies that don't directly effect them I suppose...

EA honestly doesn't need to focus on either the online or offline experience. They're both VERY broken, with online being harder to fix because the lag online is, by and far, the most consistently disgraceful display of coding I've ever seen. I have NEVER had a game as consistently as laggy as Madden is. I've literally never played a game of Madden that didn't have some amount of lag to a noticeable degree.

The entire game suffers from a lack of physics (which is all they need to work on for 2012 to be honest), but what compounds that is that even the ratings-based A.I. is horrible. Given that the A.I. at any given moment ALWAYS controls more players than the player, when your A.I. is busted, essentially your entire game is broken, no matter what mode. Blessings to those of you who manage to somehow enjoy Madden's online mode. Between lag, idiots, and cheaters, if they hacked my XBox and deleted my online gameplay abilities I wouldn't even notice. And when I did figure it out, I wouldn't care in the slightest.

They havn't even fully implemented BASIC blocking logic. BASIC route running logic. Hell, even the collision detection still fails and they've tweaked that every year in recent memory. Yet here they are attempting to implement more complex motions & situations even though the game is unstable at its core. They're trying to build a skyscraper on a toothpick, and that's just not gonna work.

yep...aside from that part about smacking me i wholeheartedly agree 100% with the online lag issue. i really do wish i could find offline play as dynamic as i did on the ps2 consoles, but i just can't. i did try, i made a player and everything...got about 3 games into my season and just turned it off.

the struggle we go through in our online leagues is just embarassing, we sit there for sometimes hours trying to play one game that just results in disconnect after disconnect. we waste our entire evening with no sense of accomplishment, and i know...most people would say just give it up. but over the last couple years i've made a lot of great madden buddies and online franchises is the only feature we can...sort of...enjoy.

which is probably why i'm so ignorantly biased to seeing it addressed in the patch, and as for overlooking the offline gamers or coming off as pretentious i apologize. guess madden will do that to ya...lesson learned is not to post after spending 3 hours online only to experience 4 d/c's in one game that you can't even finish and expect to sound rational.

[bwquinn13]

I have played hundreds of games in offline franchise and it has never frozen on me.

Try loading the game to the hard drive and playing that way.
Also, and I know this is one of those 'duh' things, but make sure the disc is clean or doesn't have any scratches on it.

I had no problem with it until the last patch came out and it has progressively gotten worse... I will try and loading the game to the hard drive, how would I do that?... Lol yeah, I first thought dirty/scratched disc as well.

[BobbyColtrane]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

Whats silly about it raining in Cowboys Stadium? Don't you remember the game in the snow against the Dolphins?

Dude they have had a retractable roof stadium for 2 seasons now. And they close it a lot of times even when the weather is nice. There's no way JJ would let it rain/snow on his precious 60 yard HDTV.

[havokeff]

I had no problem with it until the last patch came out and it has progressively gotten worse... I will try and loading the game to the hard drive, how would I do that?... Lol yeah, I first thought dirty/scratched disc as well.

On the dash board screen. Click on the game and there should be an option to download the game to the hard drive. You still need the disc to play, but hopefully that will cut the freezes out.

[debauchlord]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

Ah well... I can always hope the government starts giving a damn about monopolies that don't directly effect them I suppose...

Hate to speak truth, but there is no such thing as a "monopoly" in the entertainment world. Is it a monopoly that Tolkein's heirs own the rights to Lord of the Rings? Is it a monopoly that Warner Brothers owns the rights to Harry Potter? That Sony owns the rights to Spider Man? These things are what they are; money deals on IP, highest bidder wins. Can we move on already?

[BobbyColtrane]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

is it possible that the dev team would add a few gameplay fixes in this patch or is it really only the crap they listed?

don't shoot me i'm just trying to figure out if there's ANY reason to not trade this game in....

[RJTurneR]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

What I don't get is people buying this game each year expecting huge drastic changes. And then feel ripped off when they play it. Did you see the screenshots or videos before release. No difference between M10 and M11 except for Locomotion, which to be honest, doesn't change the game a whole lot.

And then you expect these patches to be almost like a whole new game. Patches are designed to fix small things. A lot of you keep mentioning gameplay. The gameplay is good enough now, its GamePlanning, the main feature of the this game, that needs to be fixed, and your still worrying about Gameplay!

If your going to invest $60 (or £40 in my case) in Madden 11 or any game, do some research and think "Is this game worth it?" Don't buy it because YOU think it will be good.

A little side note on gameplay. Realism, in terms of Madden, can mean many different things.

[St. Chaos]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

The gameplay is everything but good enough...

There is no "realism in terms of Madden" when this game is marketed as a football sim. There's only one NFL. The realism must stem from that, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

All of the simple basics of football havn't even been implemented in Madden yet...

Agree with you about the patches though... people generally expect too much from em.

[RJTurneR]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

I agree with you there for sure. There's one NFL. EA seems to put out this "Everything you see on Sunday" game, and it's not. For one is the lack of animations holding back this game from looking like the real NFL. The gameplay in itself is good enough like you said. Thats what I don't get when people constantly ask for a new game engine, when it's only the animations that need to be sorted out.

If people want this "Everything We See On Sunday, Realistic Sim Football Engine" then they are going to be waiting a long time. Game engines like that don't get developed in 2 months.

The potential for this game is huge, EA just need to put more time and effort in. They already said they would be completely re-doing franchise, so thats a start. Now add more animations, continue to work on the presentation (As that has mass amounts of potential), and your sorted.

On a more personal request, please add more songs to the menu music.

[ChicagoChris]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

I'll say this again. Without ANY special teams play (which m11 has zero of) this game will not be complete. Look at what a huge impact special teams has and how absent it is in m11. Can't patch that in.

[RJTurneR]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

I'll say this again. Without ANY special teams play (which m11 has zero of) this game will not be complete. Look at what a huge impact special teams has and how absent it is in m11. Can't patch that in.

Agreed. You can't make drastic changes to gameplay through a patch, which goes back to my point about not getting why people expect it happen.

[havokeff]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

I'll say this again. Without ANY special teams play (which m11 has zero of) this game will not be complete. Look at what a huge impact special teams has and how absent it is in m11. Can't patch that in.

What is wrong with special teams? This year is the most realistic I have seen it in a Madden game.

[udungoofed]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

What is wrong with special teams? This year is the most realistic I have seen it in a Madden game.

Lets see...

Field Goals
-Still too easy to make long distance kicks (40+ and especially 50+). The kicking meter changes added a higher chance of missing, but still misses the mark giving an actual challenge. The difference in kicker skill is only in kick power.
-No true field goal blocking, due to inability to generate realistic pressure and terribly inaccurate ball trajectory. Seriously, take a field level side view of a Madden FG and compare to real life, its ridiculous. Further to that, blocking a kick from an outside rush does not exist at all.
-Poor ball flight. In real life you will see kicks sway one way and then the next in the air, or curve at an increasing rate throughout its flight. In Madden, this does not happen.
-Sliders that apply to both CPU and HUM are problematic because dropping the Accuracy slider by a few points to increase the challenge for yourself makes the CPU down right awful at them.

Punting
-No punt blocks what so ever, the formation is a waste of space. This is ignoring the fact there are multiple ways to try and block a punt.
-CPU cannot punt to save its own hide. Typically shanks punts for 25-30 yards and is entirely incapable of pinning you deep, routinely punting out of the back of the endzone.
-Sliders do nothing to effect the CPU really.



Should I continue and go into the return game, or have I shown enough here? All it takes is one analysis of a kick return from a coach cam in real life and when you compare it to Madden you'll see plenty of WTF's.

[Segagendude]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Title Update #4 Details

What I don't get is people buying this game each year expecting huge drastic changes. And then feel ripped off when they play it. Did you see the screenshots or videos before release. No difference between M10 and M11 except for Locomotion, which to be honest, doesn't change the game a whole lot.

And then you expect these patches to be almost like a whole new game. Patches are designed to fix small things. A lot of you keep mentioning gameplay. The gameplay is good enough now, its GamePlanning, the main feature of the this game, that needs to be fixed, and your still worrying about Gameplay!

If your going to invest $60 (or £40 in my case) in Madden 11 or any game, do some research and think "Is this game worth it?" Don't buy it because YOU think it will be good.

A little side note on gameplay. Realism, in terms of Madden, can mean many different things.

Nail head, meet hammer.

You're right on with this post. When I saw E3 vids of M10, compared to 09, I couldn't wait to get 10. Then I saw E3 M11, and was like, "Meh, same ole same ole".Then I played the demo, and I skipped Madden this year.........

I'm actually looking to get NHL 11, and I don't watch nearly as much hockey as I do football..