Madden ‘08 online broken?
Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 4:09pm by Jack
I’m seeing scattered reports from Joystiq, GoNintendo and elsewhere that say the online play in Madden ‘08 for Wii is, in a word, broken.
EA (via GoNintendo):
“Now that Madden NFL 08 is available, the development team at EA is doing some tweaking to make sure our online experience is as smooth as possible. Since there is currently a high volume of people playing online, this is the best time for us to monitor and maximize the experience. As updates are taking place over the next 24 hours, some fans may experience an interruption in online play. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience as we make the necessary updates.”
What’s the word, Infendo? I didn’t pick this one up (’07 is good enough for me right now), but for those of you who have, what’s going on?
August 16th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I haven’t pick this one up, either, but it is typical for a 3rd party title to run into trouble the first time they try an online service. EA also had online problems when they launched Burnout 3: Revenge on Xbox LIVE…
It got fixed pretty quickly… well, in about a couple of weeks, anyway.
August 16th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
They are just patching some stuff. Nothing to make a big deal out of.
August 16th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
nothing to make a big deal out of? ……..NOTHING TO MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF!!………..this is john madden we are talking about
August 16th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Actually, I’ve been waiting for a few days to see this get posted somewhere.
My roommate is a huge Madden fan, and he picked up a copy at midnight on the release date. He brought it home, and as a Nintendo fan, I watched him play to see how the Wii experience would fit Madden this year.
After a few days of watching him play, I can say that the online component to the Wii version of Madden this year has some issues.
But the biggest, most glaring problem is the occasional sacrificed down. You’ll be playing offensive, make a play…and suddenly, for no reason, your offense goes into a no-huddle and when you snap the ball, you get called for a false start. Always, 100% of the time. And it happens to your opponents, too.
This often results in scenarios like this…you made an 8 yard run on first down, which should give you a 2nd and 2. But…instead of going back to the play selection screen, your offense goes no-huddle automatically, and your only option is to either call a timeout or snap the ball. But you only have three timeouts per half, so eventually, you’ll have to snap…and take the false start penalty, which happens every single time this glitch occurs. So what should have been a 2nd and 2 ends up being a 3rd and 7. This may not sound like a big deal, but for Madden hardcore who get really competitive…this is a HUGE deal.
It happens randomly…sometimes it will happen several times per game, and sometime only once or twice. But it is a big deal for Madden fans…especially when online is such a selling point for this year’s Wii version. Hopefully, this is something that EA can iron out, because aside from this and other smaller issues, the online component is pretty nice.
August 16th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
So they didn’t test this or what?
August 16th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
fank, read please. you cannot test for this, because the problem is most likely lag/load issues on the server side, especially if problems are not happening locally.
you cannot test for 10s of thousands of people playing til you actually get them playing, especially since, at least on wii, madden online is new so there is no experience with the code.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Derek B, what you wrote is really interesting, and I can’t help but wonder if Madden actually did this on purpose to make the game even more life like. In most NFL games there are at least 2 or 3 false starts per game. Even though I’m sure it really stinks when it happens to you, that is also the way the average fan feels when his real team does the same thing. Obviously I have no way of knowing if it’s intentional or just a glitch, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they put it there on purpose.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I haven’t been able to get online yet… i always lose connection. I got to a kickoff…and it went down.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Oh right, reading. Hm. Hold on. Oke, read it. Now then: I call bullcrap. They should’ve known this would happen, and prepared for it. By testing I mean making sure that it could handle this, which they obviously didn’t. How often do you hear about this on another other online game? Exactly. Go figure.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Besides the online component, what new features did they add to the game? Any control changes?
August 16th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Joshdad:
Good point…if it only happened once in a while, I could possibly agree with you. Plus, it isn’t anything like a normal false start. You don’t even go back to the play selection screen before it happens.
To automatically lose a down, as well as yardage, in a serious online game of football is a critical glitch. Especially considering how frequently it happens. You’ll have huge momentum, and suddenly, boom…you’re stuck with a 3rd and long through no fault of your own.
To be fair to EA, there were two games my roommate played in which it only happened two or three times, which is actually bad enough…but there was one game in which it happened at least 10 times by the end of the first half.
yegman:
As far as added controls…not much. In fact, EA took away some Wiimote functionality since last year’s version.
To select a player on defense, you have to tap the A button…last year, you pointed at whichever defenseman you wanted to control, and it was a MUCH better, quicker, more efficient system.
The kicking mechanic is better this year, though. Big hits are done my moving only the Wiimote forward, unlike last year in which you had to thrust both the Wiimote and nunchuk. So…some minor changes here and there.
If not for the occasionally sweet online component, and added mini-games, Mii support and local multi-player, I’d say that last year’s version was better…the core gameplay was better, though this year’s edition the bells, whistles, and features.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
One final note.
You can’t use the IR pointing of the Wiimote for any menu navigation in the game whatsoever this year…not even for selecting a play, which is now done by tapping buttons and using the analog stick. A very, very dumb move by EA…it feels very archaic compared to last year.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Wow, 10 times in one half - definately sounds like a glitch. Yup, that would change a good competive game into a real pain in the butt.
Let me ask you, did this only happen in the on-line play, or did it also happen in the 1 or 2 player mode?
August 16th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Only online. Local multiplayer has its own set of issues, including the occasional instant pass after a snap…you’ll snap the ball, and instantly, your quarterback throws it, before the linemen even get moving. Doesn’t happen as often as the online glitch, but enough to be a problem.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:08 am
is madden 08 only the second online wii game?
August 17th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Any more info on the online component? So far Nintendo WFC seems to lock people to only ever play in the same region, even with friendcodes (Nintendo told me the Wii friendcodes in the North American Mario Strikers are not compatible with European ones, what the hell)… Would be nice to know if there are online titles with proper internet play.
Although this is EA.. they’ll probably just pull the servers next year for Madden 09 regardless…
August 17th, 2007 at 3:58 am
First day I had it, fun. Second day I had a terrible time. A lot of the stuff mentioned above especially.
I’ll keep playing though, give it a bigger try.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:49 am
jako, Madden 08 is the third online game for the Wii, the first being Pokémon Battle Revolution and the second being Strikers
August 17th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
im not able to connect to opponents….dang!
September 21st, 2007 at 6:40 pm
The false start thing is caused by holding down on the b button it does not happen to me because I am not stupid the only glitch I see is the other people online do not know how to open the ports on thier modems or routers to let the other person connect ea has done a fine job it is no better or worse than the online versions for the ps2.