Madden 09 Bugs and Issues

[Cap'n Darwin]

Well after a few years of Madden absence, I jumped in and bought the game today. A number of things about the game play finally looked like they have been addressed so I though why not. Right out of the gate and just like NCAA 09 (which was traded in to pay off part of this game) I can not save a game in progress. To me this is a must have feature for any game. All EA is saying is "if you are a working stiff with limited game time, don't buy this game". You are either forced to set the game to 2 minute quarters, or quit and lose the game or supersim it (whatever that means - assume it means a fast CPU run though to finish out the game). Either way they are piss poor alternatives to a simple game save function. This point alone may have this game back at GameStop tomorrow. I just don't have that much contiguous time in the evening to throw at Madden. For those who do I'm sure this rant fails to impress, but down the road a few years you will see the light of truth in it.

Bugs. I got in about a quarter+ of game play tonight (then could not save the quickplay game, does anyone know if the franchise games will save??) and noticed right away as the Raiders hosted Miami that my stadium was heavily populated with orange and green shirted fans. That strikes me as a bit odd. If I get the chance I'll check it out on anyer team to see if that is truely a bug. Not a game killer, but it does knock the shine of the stadium artwork. Another issue is the settings not staying set. I took the time to establish the game setting before starting the game, just to have the playcalling change on me. Other items may have changed too. Not sure. Sounds alot like some of the issues NCAA09 has too. When I flipped a play the WR tags did not flip on the field and match what they showed in the playcall screen. Before the snap, it is driving me crazy to have to hit "Y" twice to invoke the coverage options. The other options pop up fine on the first tap. The presentation of the options is poor too. The long list down the right side of the screen is tough to read. At least the NCAA09 presentation of the stick options was better in that respect by spliting the sticks on the left and right of the popup window.
Another gripe is the recievers running routes that take them off the field. Most receivers are smart enough to stop or come back or reverse direction.

All this in one quarter and I wasn't even looking for bugs. I'm not sure this bodes well for any real time with the game.

Thanks for putting up with the rant. I hope most of you enjoy the game and the bugs and glitches get patched for the rest of use to have a shot too.

[marinomaniac38]

hi all. i actually got madden all play three days before it came out. I like the gameplay, and all in all it is superior to the 08 version; however i have a lot to say about Madden 2009 that is not postive. I hope that somone who designs madden will read this and do something. I have been playing Madden football since its existence. the best madden years had tournament, create a team, tony bruno show, etc. why do you leech every great extra that makes madden fun? its all gone!!! every extra. the presentation has been going down hill, especially the last two years. the 5 on 5 game and the call your shots is cool, but why have historic teams when you cant even put the freakin number of the real player on the jersey, let alone the name. this has bothered me for many years. why is the 84 dolphins have a quarterback with the number 7 on his jersey. did they trade for elway? its just laziness. Why cant we have more extras, and more presentation. the wii is the worst. bad fields, graphics and player models. . Why cant we have a nfl total access type show, or maybe a sportcenter type thing where you can see highlights from other games and see the highlights from your own game. why cant you talk more about players during the game and at the beginning? talk about the elite players from both sides and show the stats. even ncaa football who has out shown madden every year, has lost all its extras as well. we need more fluff. more presentation. reading a newspaper does not do it for me, and probably not anyone actually. instead of adding things to an already established game, every year you take core things away that matter to us. please madden football gods, listen to our plea.
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Madden 09 Madden 2009
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now the 360 and ps3 version is nicer with the tv broadcast and all that. great job. but why oh why cant you start to care about the wii version? i know it cant suppost the graphics and the adaptive gamplay, but you could do so much more. please think about it.

[Vitamin Arrr]

I bought Madden 08 when it came out, and other than my XBox RRoDing three times during the following year after that (causing me to hardly get to play it at all), I felt like it was the first "halfway decent" Madden for the 360. They finally added Create-A-Team, but it sucked because you could not create custom playbooks, you could not name your head coach, you could not customize the logo beyond the lame ones they provided, etc. etc.

Now then I heard that Madden 09 Collector's Edition comes with Head Coach 09, and right on the box it says "Seamlessly Integrate Created Plays with Madden 09 Playbooks". Hey, that sounds awesome! Also the guys at Gamestop told me that the created teams could be used in the new online league feature. So there I was, imagining creating a custom team, with custom plays, and competing in a league against all other people with their custom teams and custom plays. Trading plays with my friends, etc.

Nope.

First of all the created team is exactly the same as in 08: same lame logos (wanna be the sharks, the devils, the radioactive footballs, or the .. uh, whatever the hell that building looking thing is?). Even NCAA 04 for Gamecube had more options for logos and different kinds of fields. I would have been satisfied with simple letters for example.

Second of all you cannot use created teams nor created plays in online play, from what I can tell. Whether it be in a custom league or even an unranked match. Why is that? All I ever do is online play; so what is the point of a created team or created plays if I can't use them in online play? To me, this is hardly "seamless integration with Madden 09 playbooks" ... that's a lot of seams. (I could understand if they only allowed custom plays in unranked matches, or had separate rankings for custom plays and teams, but this is just lame).

Third of all, there's a lot of other stuff wrong with this game, as op mentioned. I pretty much agree with all that the previous two posters have said.

But let me also add that the laggy response to control input in online play is still the same as in Madden 08.

The user manual is anemic -- it's only a few pages long and goes into absolutely no detail whatsoever. For example, there is literally no mention at all of the Create-a-Play feature in the Madden 09 manual.

The main menu system is very poorly organized. I won't go into detail on this right now since I don't have it in front of me, but suffice it to say, it could be cleaned up vastly. What's more, it just feels laggy -- not crisp like the old versions used to.

There are a bunch of new features that are simply worthless. The ability to watch worse-than-YouTube-quality streaming video of NFL news and such? Who cares? Don't they realize we have the whole internet on our own computers, and probably also digital cable in high definition? Also, "Madden Test" and "Mini Games" -- give me a break. I wouldn't complain about these added features except I just wish there was a way to remove them from the menu, since what you end up with here is a menu containing tons of stuff you will never use, making it harder to find the features that are what you bought the game for. Also, I wouldn't complain about these features if they had delivered improvements in the above areas that I do find fault with.

Once again, I think this is a clear demonstration of exactly why EA having an exclusive license to produce NFL (and for that matter, NCAA) football games was one of the worst things ever for the sports gaming world. The only benefit is towards EA's pocketbook. But they have not cycled that extra income back into making the game better. Rather they have gotten quite lazy with it. It would be much better for sports gamers were the NFL to terminate EA's exclusive license, since some competition from 2K Sports (and whoever else) would surely be a good thing!

Still, I will play Madden 09 if only because I love football and it is the only option. The games can still be fun and exciting. The graphics have been improved. There are finally Pass Interference calls, and QB's throw much more inaccurately when they are running backwards (things like that). But I think EA should offer an upgrade path for next year's Madden; it is a crime on the high seas to charge full price to customers who bought the software less than a year ago, especially considering the "new" version is little more than a roster update, a graphics update, and mostly useless added features.

-VR-

[marinomaniac38]

i would think that the adaptive difficulty would be an ingenious addition. finally very max payne like. i only have a wii, so i dont get to enjoy the great additions to madden like the rest do. its like force unleashed. i cant wait to get this for the wii, however the real beauty of the game is exemplified in 360 and ps3 versions. i just cant afford it.

[Chaos6]

Hmmm not a single post in this thread has actually been about any bugs. Just a bunch of complaining about what wasn't added or what was added that people don't like.

I want to hear about bugs in a thread that's about bugs.

You know like the football sticking to the field goal net like its a spider or the invisible football on the replay screen.

[greatone18]

i found a cool glitch that is prettty tight..

[Tigam]

Originally Posted by greatone18

i found a cool glitch that is prettty tight..

And that glitch would be.....................................

[greatone18]

its a WR direct snap that goes to the a WR as soon as you hike it...pretty tight

[marinomaniac38]

it clearly says bugs and issues, this is an issue pal.

[cashpath]

It's not tight..

It's stupid

[greatone18]

it is tight...

[cashpath]

Well.. if you think it is tight.. then you represent a group of people I have extreme dislike for.