Downloaded the demo this morning and played 2 quarters before heading to work. For the first time in a long time, I'm more impressed with the Madden demo than the NCAA Football demo. Some quick positives:
- Crowd reacts realistically to what happens in the game
- The default camera doesn't do the Matrix-style movements anymore
- Graphics looks good and presentation has been improved quite a bit
- The running game is just as much fun as NCAA 12
- The passing game seems improved and it seems easier to throw touch and bullet passes
Looking forward to playing some more tonight.
Not only am I excited about Madden this year after playing the demo, but now I'm getting it for free. I had a $20 Amazon.com credit from my NCAA Football 12 purchase which brought the price down to $39.99 and then applied for an Amazon Visa card that came with a $40 Amazon gift card. Not only do I get the game for free, but I still get a $20 credit towards a future purchase (NHL 12).
Gametrailer's video review of Madden 12 (http://www.xboxgamingnation.com/xgnblog/2011/08/26/madden-12-video-review/)
Anyone else getting Madden this year? I'm shocked that so many gamers from OS have been playing it for a while now and haven't ripped it to shreds yet. This is the first year that I'm really excited about playing the retail version after playing the demo.
Anyone else try out Madden 12 yet? It's really a huge improvement over past years and for the first time this generation, it's more fun than NCAA Football. Unless the NCAA Football patch makes huge strides, I don't really see myself going back to it after playing Madden this year.
via Twitter:
EAMaddenNFL EA SPORTS Madden NFL
Madden Fans, we'll be communicating the details of Title Update #2 soon, as we're reviewing the content of the update.
UPDATE: The Dev Team is working on the Title Update #2 Details blog and we're aiming to get the details out on Friday.
Twitter Link (https://twitter.com/#%21/EAMaddenNFL/status/121592874923077632)
Hello Madden Fans â€" We have been working hard monitoring issues seen in Madden NFL 12 and identifying fixes to include in title update #2. While we do not have a date to share yet, I can tell you that the update has already made it through our own internal certification process and has been sent off to first party. Pending first party approval, here is what you can expect to see in Title Update #2:
Custom Playbooks have seen a lot of use this year, but there were a few bugs that some users pointed out that we have fixed.
- Fixed an issue where newly added sets would create their own formation category instead of grouping them in the same Set and Formation they were being added to. This should reduce some clutter in your playbooks going forward.
- Fixed rare issue where some placeholder text would show up if you removed the last play for all game situations.
- Fixed an issue where gameplans that had 0 plays in them would cause players to bundle together on the field. This was always avoidable by not setting 0 plays in your gameplan, but in the future this is prevented.
- Fixed an issue in Madden Ultimate Team where your Ultimate Team playbook would get replaced with your default playbook (per your "My Settings").
Unfortunately, every year there are players that simply look for Exploits in the game and then use them in online head-to-head matches. We've been actively monitoring and cleaning up the leaderboards of clear egregious exploiters. We've also fixed bugs that allowed Exploits to happen.
- Similar to an issue above, users could create a gameplan with 0 plays, which would then cause players to bundle up at the line of scrimmage and force an encroachment on the defense. This has been fixed.
- Fixed an issue where users could pause the game with three seconds left in a quarter causing a lock up to occur. When the other player left the game the other would get a win.
Gameplay
- (Cover 4) - Safeties with Inside Deep ¼ zone drop back instead of read-n-react on Run plays.
- If the CPU tries to run down the play clock (late in halves) and runs an auto-motion play, they will not start the play early enough or hike the ball before the play clock expires as the player is still in motion.
- Tuned down the frequency to block field goals by users running off the edge.
- When a two-point conversion is booth reviewed and ruled no good, the game clock will run while selecting a play on kickoff.
- Fixed issue when teams ran a QB Sneak the QB would get a speed burst.
- Fixed issue when a user aims the L-Stick in any direction and pump fakes (using RB/R1 defenders in a QA Spy assignment) that will immediately blitz the QB, leaving defensive assignments.
- Fixed issue where live balls on muffed punts that are recovered in the end zone were resulting in a touchback rather than a safety.
Madden Ultimate Team
- Fixed an issue where users were awarded coins when their friends quit out of a head-to-head game.
- Fixed a situation where user with a maxed out deck could get locked up in the My Trades screen.
- Fixed issue where previous MUT fans could not earn the "This one is easy" achievement/trophy for creating their MUT team in Madden NFL 12.
- Removed an exploit where a MUT player grieve another player through encroachments and other penalties but not lose contract time from their players. They would also receive coins.
General Issues
- Fixed several of the most common crashes and online disconnection issues for both platforms.
- Optimized performance in "Play Now" team select to prevent slow down/hitching when scrolling teams
- Improved the online leaderboards to be more accurate.
- Fixed several issues with commentary and PA.
- Addressed issue where users with large amounts of save data sometimes could not get into online head-to-head games.
- Lowered the frequency of rain games in Franchise Mode.
- Improved the field's texture on PS3.
- The 'recent games' section for head-to-head games uses the wrong colors for winner & loser. This issue has been addressed.
- Fixed issue where a user only appears as online in the Communities Member List if they're inside the community feature.
- Fixed issue where in Franchise, editing a player will remove their player roles.
- Fixed issue where when the maximum number of entrants for a room has been reached, after a user leaves the room, they'll be taken to a new room when they try to reenter it.
Source - Madden NFL 12 Title Update Details (http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/madden-title-update-2-details)
Patch lands tomorrow!!!
Via Twitter:
EAMaddenNFL EA SPORTS Madden NFL
Title Update #2 will be available tomorrow on the PS3 and Xbox 360. You can check out the details of the update here: http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/madden-title-update-2-details?ClickID=bdyefynnl66kvyqmg6gzvdnqus1ed6yszgve (http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/madden-title-update-2-details?ClickID=bdyefynnl66kvyqmg6gzvdnqus1ed6yszgve)
The PS3 patch is out now.