I need to start playing online more with folks from around here. The random people are just officially too much for me and it's almost completely ruined going online for anything at this point.

Is there any way to start a kinda casual league? I haven't delved too far into the online leagues, but I'd be open to a game or two a week with some good folks from here. I can't say I won't go for it on 4th and 5, but I can say I've never heard of this direct snap thing until yesterday and have no interest in cheating.

P.S. I think I suck. I can't run the ball for jack, but I'm reading that I am probably not the only person with that issue.

i'm down for a game.. I play fair and square.. but i usually don't get a chance to get online till around 11:30 pm.

I don't like the random games to much.. alot of people "lose connection" when they are down.. havn't had the direct snap happen to me yet.. thank goodness.

I would be up for it. I'm on a lot depending on the day. Just add me.

Scorpy Gkar

I have officially stopped playing Madden '09. It's just not as good as last years, although it is a little prettier. Good thing I didn't have to buy it, as my roommates did.

Back to '08 for me.

= J

Really, I think Madden plays just as good as last years...although, the running game is still taking me time to get used too. I almost prefer NCAA 09 though. I like building up a small program. Go Central Michigan

09 has been far better then 08 for me. I can't think of anything in 08 that i liked better.

The patch is out and here is what it addresses:

. 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.

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.

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

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.

Additional info I obtained on what the progression fix entails:

1) The Edit Player Progression Bug. So now edited players and created players will progress like normal. Before, anytime you edited a player’s ratings, he would then never progress in your franchise.

2) Fixed a major bug that stopped awarding progression points after the top 2-3 players at a position. So before, only 2-3 players per position were getting awarded the proper progression points. That has been fixed now, all players are now being assigned the proper progression points.

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.

19. Additional fixes to situations where the game would freeze

Looks like they fixed a lot. Cool stuff :up:

Some cool fixes. Look forward to playing again tonight.

Anyone know if the franchise progression stuff will apply to franchises in progress? I'd really not like to have to start over...

On pastapadre.com, he reported that if your FRANCHISE was FREEZING, you will have to start over....if not, it should work just fine with the patch. I just started my franchise, but I do not want to start over...AGAIN ;) I just made some huge trades with my team...blowing the Lions defense up.

I can't stand the CPU in the new patch! Ever since they take forever to snap the ball on offense, with everyone acting like the way Peyton Manning is programmed, making audibles, and fake snapping over and over again. I suppose it gives you time to make adjustments on D, but god its annoying!

Ah, I played one game the other day post-patch and noticed this, but thought it was just a one-game thing. It was ticking me off, too, since I was going for the "6 rushing tds with the dolphins" achievement and I needed as much time as possible. Down by a ton, the computer didn't go for it on 4th down in the 4th quarter, and even on kicks they took their sweet time.

Luckily, I hadn't updated the rosters, and I was playing the Jets with Pennington, who threw 3 interceptions, and I got my achievement...

yeah I noticed that too, on a 4th and 3 while lining up for a FG the computer did that fake snap thing like 5 times before finally snapping the ball. But it game me a chance to switch over the to the safety and run right up the middle and block it! It's the only time I have ever blocked a FG on this game yet.

I was up 10-7, and I made a leaping interception right at the goal line. While my guy is in the air he gets hit into the end zone. Safety. I wanted to break my controller.

tough break.. you still won right? 10-9

ok i'm fairly new to this.. just got xbox and madden in mid august.. when you go to play live theres an option for lobbie matches.. what is that? hows this different from a quick match?

I agree, it's pretty frustrating. What's even worse is that Peyton Manning himself takes twice as long as he used to, which was already horrendously long. The last game I played against the Colts under the new patch he ran out the entire first quarter's game clock on their first drive of the game. Very annoying. I think they need to move the random snap time from the 5 seconds they put it at to about 1 or 2.

It would be nice if they could randomize the snap times so sometimes it takes a bit longer and other times it's quick. They really need to account for point differentials and time remaining though. Otherwise it's more broken now then it was with every play being a quick snap.

Nope ended up losing 17-10. My players couldn't handle the heartbreak and quit on me. :(

Been trying for the Madden moments and have run into some impossible ones. 13 seconds on the clock. You're down by 3. You have to convert an onside kick, and get in field goal range, and make it with the Rams against the Cardinals. No time outs.

10 minutes in the fourth quarter. Score 34 points against the Bears. Impossible with how long it takes the CPU to snap. I don't think I can ever beat these. I think there are only 5 left after this, but I'll never be able to open them up.

Oh and everytime you pick onside kick, the computer is in regular kick return formation so you have to wait for them to switch. Then if you miss it, it doesn't let you restart. No, you have to wait for their long snap. Ugh, I wish there was a way to restart the Moments without quitting and reloading the same Moment. Stupid fucking game design.

I have every Madden moment beaten but one. It's the Moment where you are down 10 to the Falcons with 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter. They expect you to win this game with one timeout when you start on their 30. Sometimes they don't let you use overtime, although I have never even tied the game yet since I haven't successfully kicked an onside with this team. I'm imagining my reward for beating all these will be fantastic, and am expecting to be disappointed.