I'm working late tonight so I'm going to go to 7-11 after I get off work and see if they have the $10 off deal. Otherwise I'll probably hit Wal-Mart. If the lines are long I'll just wait until tomorrow.

I got an email earlier and my copy has shipped, we'll see when I get it, hopefully it'll come to me at work tomorrow

Can we make this the Madden Catch-All thread?

I admit, after doing some reading, I think I'll have to make this a rental. Buying it, given my history with EA seems too iffy (especially after the fiasco that was NCAA 09). But the word has me confused.

Meanwhile, over at Operation Sports...

I'm waiting for Bill's review personally, before I make any business decisions. The RoboQBs thing is the kind of thing that might drive me batty, but we'll have to see. I'd like to hear from my fellow Goodjers on this one.

I played two games as the Bengals versus the Raiders and in the first game JaMarcus Russell had an 80 something percent completion rating while I threw three picks with Palmer. Fargas and McFadden ran all over me. The AI was picking apart some bad playcalling and my old go to move of blitzing the LB covering the FB or single RB. The game was somewhat close and rather than run out the clock the CPU was calling plays with 20 seconds to go on the play clock? I also noticed some issues with the game clock. I don't know if this happens all of the time, but the game clock can start before the play clock. In one case the commentators said I was forced out of bounds and it looked like I was forced out of bounds yet the game clock kept ticking away.

The second game Russell threw four picks with momentary flashes of Robo QB (I think most of my picks so far have come on zone Ds). I was shutting them out until they managed a score off a pick after I got greedy again at the end of the game. It was a two point game with under a minute left so I figure I better call Onside Recover. Wrong. The CPU kicks it into and out of the endzone where no one was covering. I'm still not sure how I managed two TDs with the 'Phins, but I couldn't manage anything significant with the Bengals offense. I wasn't having any luck with the RBs.

I am having a hard time adjusting to this different control scheme. I think that is what is contributing to my sh*tty run game performance and some of my picks. I still need to get the hang of leading the receiver. I did a tron Virtual Trainer on running and passing and it seemed to make some sense.

My AI level got knocked down for offense and moved up on 'D'?

I need to find some good slider settings. I saw somewhere on OS or maybe Bill Abner's blog that there was a way to mostly get rid of RoboQB and some other annoyances.

I don't know if this is a next-gen thing, but the players do seem like they are ice skating. I haven't experienced this phenomena in any of the last-gen/PC iterations.

You people are responsible for everything bad in the universe.

I just rented a copy from Blockbuster this morning. If anyone sees me on, hit me up for a game online, as I'd really like to put the game through its paces online.

I was out on several errands, and happen to stop at 7-11 for some DT Pepsi Max. so I asked how many copies of Madden they sold.

One.

By contrast, the Blockbuster kid said he expected to be out of games pretty early today. But they did have a ton of them on the shelf.

The 7-11s here didn't have it in stock so I was stuck going to Wal-mart.

If anyone is looking to try out online multiplayer you can find me at the XBL tag in my signature.

edit: Also a bit from Bill Abner about slider values. Link

I have to admit, Madden is much better than I had anticipated. I'm not sold yet, but it looks great, and actually plays a decent game. I haven't really put too much time in, but I really started to get the hang of playing offense. I'm still winging it on defense, though.

I played a game an half against American Knight, and the online play was great, until it disconnected us in the fourth quarter. Looking at OS, there seems to be an issue with disconnects in online play. we weren't having any lag, and everything was fine, until mid play a message popped up saying it lost contact wit the other player, and gave me the option of playing it out solo. There was no option for waiting to reconnect.

One of the issues I have run into are a sh*t ton of INTs. In our first game, I think we each threw at least three. That might have been due to me using Brody Croyle, and he had Jake Delhomme. but I had quite few INTs in my two offline games agains the Raiders and the Rams as well. That's INTs going both ways.

I had Will Franklin drop a sure first down. Even Collinsworth said he didn't know how he dropped that ball. Turns out, Franklin must have gotten shot while he was at Mizzou, because the ball zipped right through the center of his chest and out the other side.

I don't have a manual, as I rented the game from Blockbuster. Could someone clue me in on how to bring up the routes my receivers will be running, or my HB will take on a running play?

I really don't care for how they handle the playcalling screen. I think I will get my head wrapped around it, but it is small, and not very intuitive for finding what plays I want.

The Collinsworth Backtrack feature is really, really cool. He run the replay a few times from different angles, and lays out exactly what you should have done, highlighting right where a different receiver came open, versus the covered guy a threw to. He tops it off my laying the pass routes I ran, as well as the defense the CPU called out on the field, so you can really see what you did wrong, and learn from it. Very cool feature.

I have not use the the Rewind yet.

Practice is cool, but as was pointed out on OS, it's annoying that the defense will not just run random defenses against you. Instead, you have to pick the play to run against every single time. You can run against the same defense, wit the same offensive play over and over. but you can't run a play against a variety of defenses over and over. It gets kind of tedious, actually.

The look of the game is incredible, really. The graphics are so far beyond APFB it's not funny. However, APFB still blows Madden away when it comes to animation. One of the best parts of APFB is just how different each of the players run and and move. You don't really get the feel that any animations are player specific in Madden.

I have not messed with franchise at all, and that will probably be the difference maker. If I can play out a season with the Chiefs, and feel like it makes sense, I'm on board. This is the area, however, that Bill Abner really threw under the bus, so i am not holding my breath.

Hopefully I will be on later tonight for some online play, if some of you have gotten the game yet. I'd like to spend some more time online, to see how the disconnects hold up. I'd also like to play someone that is more familiar with Madden, to clue me in on some stuff I am missing.

I play at PST friendly times but I am on the East Coast.

Played online with gdawg last night. Even though I lost and made some stupid mistakes I enjoyed it more than playing the CPU. That was my first multiplayer Madden experience since 1993 or 1994?

I was looking at the achiev,ents, and one has you creating a player from the past. How in the heck do you create a past player?

Here ya go ...

I'd like to say that that was one of those INTs where the defender was off the bottom of my screen, but I can't remember if that was true.

Did you upload the glitched challenged touchdown?

You rock! I should have figured out the John Madden one though...

If you don't already know the touchdown celebration achievements are easy to get as well. After scoring run to the blue boxes in and around the end zone and hit Y. For me the boxes have been directly in front of the goal post or directly behind the goal post by the wall.