EA’s “most polished” Madden in years continues to stroll a tough highway. Madden 23 obtained its large October title replace on Thursday, and with it numerous welcome tweaks to underlying gameplay. However regardless of a bevy of bug fixes, many followers nonetheless really feel like EA isn’t been trustworthy concerning the present underwhelming state of the sport and what they see because the prioritization of microtransaction playing over ensuring common modes are glitch-free.
“Right now might have saved Madden 23,” Madden YouTuber Zirktober tweeted yesterday shortly after the October patch notes had been printed on-line. By the tip of the day, gamers had found a serious bug. Upgrading any of the sport’s “Most Feared Monsters” gamers would robotically lock gamers out of Madden Final Group, the sport’s extremely monetized aggressive on-line mode.
“Don’t improve any Most Feared Monster Maker gamers as it could actually lock your account out of Final Group,” EA announced that night. “We’re at present engaged on fixing this problem and unlocking any gamers impacted.” Just a few hours later the bug was fastened and gamers might use the upgrades once more with out concern of being locked out, although EA nonetheless appeared unclear on the exact supply of the difficulty. “We’ve got disabled chemistry choices on Monster Makers in the meanwhile as we’re investigating a problem,” it tweeted.
Whereas the interruption in the end ended up being simply momentary, it was nonetheless an ideal encapsulation of the rollercoaster trip followers have been on since Madden 23 launched again in August. Preliminary evaluations had been principally constructive, adopted by a harsher evaluation by some gamers, together with a number of NFL professionals. Content material creators rallied round a short “pack strike” to protest the excessive worth and piss-poor odds of getting nice gamers out of Madden Final Group’s card packs. By the start of October, some puzzled if Madden 23 might nonetheless be saved, or if it’d find yourself being remembered as one of many worst iterations of the annualized cash maker in a number of years.
First, the excellent news. Madden 23’s October Title replace does handle some core complaints in latest weeks. A recalibrated slider appears to be addressing the maddening variety of super-human interceptions gamers had been beforehand witnessing. A disconnect problem resulting in plenty of misplaced progress in Franchise mode was additionally seemingly fastened. CPU groups ought to now not randomly finish negotiations with gamers. Some gamers acquired new face scans. And there have been loads of teaks to blocking, catching, and different core gameplay mechanics.
“Whereas not each problem has been resolved as we speak, extra fixes are coming with future updates as we proceed to actively work to convey you the very best expertise. We worth and admire your suggestions,” EA wrote. “Our workforce is constantly taking it into consideration and dealing on delivering updates all season lengthy.”
However the story with Madden is rarely so simple as certainly one of complete catastrophe or full redemption. The title replace additionally claimed so as to add the Jets’ new alternate black helmets, however a number of gamers have been getting glitched white versions as an alternative. Franchise mode can also be nonetheless a combined bag. Whereas some gamers report lastly with the ability to progress of their seasons after beforehand hitting a wall of crashes and disconnects, others are nonetheless encountering the dreaded draft loop bug that sends them again to the start of a season at any time when they end a recreation.
One other specific sore spot stays Madden 23’s discipline passes, a battle move system just like the one free-to-play recreation Apex Legends added simply this 12 months. Its three tiers—Season, Aggressive, and Worry—have given gamers points ever since launch. Even now, they don’t all the time monitor gamers’ stats appropriately, that means gamers don’t get rewarded for finishing an goal when they need to. As YouTuber This Is Well-liked Stranger factors out, simply getting a move open generally is a chore, with some gamers nonetheless getting flooded with error messages once they attempt to entry it. After which there are the lacking rewards.
Some gamers weren’t getting rewards for Home Guidelines matches, whereas others weren’t getting Trophy Packs for profitable season-length Tremendous Bowls. Cash, used to purchase packs with out spending actual cash, additionally went lacking. EA acknowledged the problems on the finish of final month, however gamers are nonetheless ready to listen to how it will likely be addressed. In the meantime, Solo Battles, a important goal for gathering different rewards, had been damaged for per week, leaving many gamers to overlook out. It’s an enormous drawback for a recreation through which the one various is to shell out cash on randomized card packs.
“I’m wondering if EA simply doesn’t understand what a HUGE problem damaged rewards is,” Madden streamer Kmac tweeted earlier this week. “It’s been THREE WEEKS now they usually’re simply dropping new promos like nothing is incorrect. There’s no incentive to play Madden. Nobody can afford the brand new playing cards dropping.”
It’s the stinginess of the cardboard packs—the spine of Madden’s hottest on-line mode—paired with the dearth of acknowledgement of ongoing bugs and misplaced rewards that’s persevering with to foment discontent throughout the group.
“Lots of people had been like, ‘Is the Pack Strike over?’ ‘The content material’s actually good, it felt like issues had been higher this morning’—it’s completely not [over],” Well-liked Stranger mentioned throughout his latest title replace video. “The bundles do look higher however we ain’t shopping for them. I hope you guys aren’t as properly.”
A participant who goes by iowaopoly on Twitter has been monitoring pack and stat reroll odds since launch, and continues to consider they’re a number of the worst in years. That’s regardless of the cardboard packs themselves traditionally making billions for EA. It was one of many few publishers to proceed posting nice earnings this 12 months whereas rivals like Ubisoft and Activision struggled, totally on the again of microtransactions in sequence like Madden.
“The primary theme of Madden 23 is stuff simply continues to return out damaged and tremendous costly and it takes days and even weeks to get stuff fastened ultimately so gamers can get rewards to get the objects and even play the sport so it counts for one thing on progress,” Twitch content material creator Rob Lopez informed Kotaku. Within the meantime, Madden 23 simply went on sale. It’s $20 off lower than two months after launch.