QUOTE:

“Well it’s been two weeks since Madden officially launched and it sure has been a busy time for us. I truly hope everyone is enjoying the game, and I wanted to drop an update on some things we’ve been working on for our 2^nd patch. We feel that without a doubt this encapsulates the top issues we’re hearing from the forums and community leaders, and hope that this list truly makes Madden NFL 09 the ultimate sports game for you.

1.       Kicking play disconnect: If two opponents play a game with two different camera angles, in any situation where a game winning or tying kick was to be made, a disconnect could occur. “ActionCam” forces the game to go into slow-motion to add drama to these late kicks, but unfortunately the Classic camera does not, thus forcing the “disconnect”. This has been fixed…all cameras can still be used as well.

Workaround until the patch: If possible, ensure that you and your opponent have the same camera type chosen before starting an online game.

2.       Stability issues in the play call / halftime highlights / postgame highlights screens (especially in Franchise mode after training games): This was a hard one to track down as not everyone was seeing it , we did find the issue however with some Instant Replay / cache corruption, and have a fix ready for patch 2.

Workaround until the patch: Save and re-boot after any point where you have entered the game. We learned that the likelihood of this issue appearing is magnified after multiple loads into and out of the game engine. From what we’ve seen so far, people that have tried playing only one game at a time (or even one Franchise training session at a time), and saving/rebooting afterwards, have had zero crashes.

3.       Stability issues with Madden IQ end of game popup: This has been fixed.

Workaround until the patch: Always choose “No” at the Madden IQ end of game popup.

4.        ”WR direct snap” exploit: Cheesers found an exploit to direct snap to a WR for easy short yardage gain. Not only are we fixing this play (i.e. we aren’t removing it), we are also going to be re-setting records for anyone with a winning record that has been found to be using this play.

5.       Franchise Progression / Regression (or lack thereof): The lack of higher numbers was a tuning value that I think everyone agreed was just too low. This has been juiced up so you should see more realistic progression now.

6.       Edited players don’t progress: Players were not progressing after their jersey number (or pretty much any other attribute). This has been fixed.

7.       Stability issue when exiting Madden ‘93 in CE version: This has been fixed.

8.       Deep ball glitch: Some enterprising gamers found a way to throw a deep ball while crossing the LOS and hit a receiver wide open at a decent rate. We addressed this by making sure the DB will no longer break on the ball when the QB crosses the line while throwing.

9.       CPU running out of bounds: This bug appears when the CPU tries to switch hands while running to the sidelines. This is fixed for patch 2.

10.   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.

11.   Field degradation: Another common complaint was the lack of field degradation. Our effect was very subtle, which was also getting overshadowed by our lighting and post effects, so we increased this effect for the patch.

12.   Stability issue with the Eagles and a full ring meter: We found and fixed a rare issue where the gamer could run into stability issues while using the Eagles in mini-game with a ring meter that was completely full.

13.   Play call screen hitch: We found and fixed a bug that was causing a noticeable hitch when exiting the play call screen

14.   Prevent Defense issue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders sharing a deep zone/prevent assignment would loosen their coverage (because they thought the other guy was covering for them), which allowed the receiver to get behind them even though they were in Prevent.

15.   Brett Favre stats: With the late addition of Brett Favre, we were not able to get his Career and Season statistics into the game for the roster update. This has now been added for patch 2.

16.   Defensive Preplay Mis-cue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders would leave their man wide open in a Cover 3.

17.   CPU quick-snap: A very common complaint on the forums was the speed at which the CPU snapped the ball. We added a random length of time (no less than 5 seconds) for the CPU to wait and even make pre-play adjustments.

18.   Online playbook switch: We found and fixed an issue where playbooks were re-setting to the defaults after the playbook select popup was closed.

I hope this makes everyone quite happy.

The patch is being tested as I write this and will be sent off for verification in the morning, so we are targeting less than a 3 week turnaround from today for this to hit the general public. (Woohoo!) We will also make sure to provide updates as the patch progresses through the 3^rd party approval process. As a side note, as of this moment there have been no changes to database schema, so you won’t have to re-start your Franchise or delete any files.

It makes us very stoked to be able to make this many changes for a patch, and do them based directly on community feedback. There are always going to be folks that are upset if what they felt was a top issue wasn’t addressed, but I’ll state again (as I have before) that we have to keep balancing this work against Madden NFL 2010. The longer we keep going on patches, the less we can add to the following year’s product. On a side note, there is also a Franchise stability issue that we have been investigating, and we are working feverishly to get this figured out. We will update on that issue as soon as we can. As for the rest of the items, I personally feel that we have hit a very good balance of top items because many of these issues can actually detract from an enjoyable experience, which is obviously the last thing we want.

And now that this patch is nearly out the door, I figured I’d drop some more good news… We have officially started building the “Sim Madden Gamer” DLC pack, which includes Accelerated Clock, a “Classic” Controller Configuration, CPU Sliders, and Community Gamerpics for 360. I’ll state again that there’s no promise that this goes through, but we have nearly every one of these features actually ?done’ internally, so now we have to figure out how to get Microsoft and Sony to allow us to release them.

Thanks guys - keep the feedback coming!”

Ian Cummings
Senior Designer, Madden NFL 2010

SOURCE:

http://www.easports.com/madden09/fullsite/blog.jsp

Free download features Brett Favre in New York Jets uniform!
Where’s the first place fans can see Brett Favre in his New York Jets uniform and playing with his new Jets teammates? Madden NFL 09, available now from EA SPORTS.
Download new Madden NFL 09 packaging today, print it out, and have fun playing the game.

Xbox 360

PlayStation 3

PlayStation 2

PlayStation Portable

We also invite fans to get today’s new online roster download. Available for Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of the game, this new roster download features Favre as the starting quarterback on the New York Jets and is available today as an automatic download when you play an online game. For fans not playing online, Favre is on the “NFL Greats” roster. In Franchise Mode, players can transfer Favre to the free agent roster pool, and pick him up on any of the 32 NFL teams for the 2008 season.

Enjoy the game!

Also, make sure you check out the latest Madden 09 Tips & Cheats here at Madden Gurus.

Oakland Raiders 1st round pick, running back Darren McFadden, will make a huge impact in Madden 09′. He and the addition of wide receiver Javon Walker really make the Raiders a whole new team. As the Jets, they are actually usable now. But Darren McFadden really makes them dangerous, his overall rating may not be the best, but there are a few certain attributes(listed below) that will make him feared across the madden world. Here are a few attributes….

Darren McFadden Key Attributes

• Speed: 97
• Stiff Arm: 95
• Acceleration: 99
• Elusiveness: 92
• Juke Move: 96
• Agility: 96

Once again these attributes will make Darren McFadden one of the most feared running backs in madden.

Will you be using the Oakland Raiders?

Also, make sure you check out the latest Madden 09 Tips & Cheats here at Madden Gurus.

Brett “The Jet” Favre makes his triumphant return back to the madden scene, and this time, he’s a New York Jet. What effect will this have on madden? Well business just picked up a little as the Jets just became a more usable team. His throwing power and accuracy makes up where Chad Pennington and the back up QB’s failed. Laveranues Coles(97 Speed) gives madden players a great option to take a shot down field. But Coles is not the only receiver to worry about, there are plenty other weapons that madden players can throw too as Favre gives them that option with his throwing power and accuracy. Not only do the Jets now have a great offense, the Jets also have a ball-hawking defense which is defiantly a plus.

Will you be using Brett Favre and the Jets in Madden 2009?

Also, make sure you check out the latest Madden 09 Tips & Cheats here at Madden Gurus.

Also, make sure you check out the latest Madden 09 Tips & Cheats here at Madden Gurus.

Madden NFL 09 Senior Producer, Phil Frazier, shows off many of the new gameplay features in this year’s game.

Also, make sure you check out the latest Madden 09 Tips & Cheats here at Madden Gurus.

This week we explore the sights and sounds with exclusive new gameplay.

Also, make sure you check out the latest Madden 09 Tips & Cheats here at Madden Gurus.

In Just One Play combines sound action and interviews to showcase the NFL’s most exciting players, including Randy Moss, Reggie Wayne, Larry Fitzgerald, Braylon Edwards, Adrian Peterson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie, Ed Reed and more. In Just One Play includes EA SPORTS’ Madden NFL 09 Demo on Xbox 360. The Madden NFL Football franchise is celebrating its 20th Anniversary and, with over 70 million units sold, has become an annual staple in the cultural landscape. For the first time prior to Madden NFL’s retail launch, the demo will give players an early look at the game. The full version will be released on August 12th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS.