Month: October 2005

Wow! I think I may have just wasted $49.99 (+ tax + gas money). It looks like the random “system” issues that I have seen (game randomly shutting down, lock ups, etc) are rather common.

EA Sports Forum Madden Issue Thread

Evil Avatar Madden Issue Thread

Most of the issues that I have found after a few minutes of looking describe random shut-down problems with the franchise mode, but I have seen problems loading the game, trying to get to the wireless mode, and within a single player exhibition game.

I wish I followed my normal routine and ordered from EBGames or Gamestop because I would send this turkey back to the store. Un-f’ing-believable!

I am not sure what the deal is with the game. I described some of the “system” problems in the previous post, but this game seems to be packed with all sorts of system problems. The game has turned off on me twice while trying to load (once in the online mode, and a second time when trying to play a game). The load times when trying to move between the various songs is really bad. The deal is a good 2-3 seconds when trying to move from song to song (in order to turn off everything but the NFL Films music).

I setup an online account (could not believe that jcalvert, calvertgames, calvertj, meangrean, etc where all taken) in order to download roster updates, but alas, roster updates are not currently available. That pretty much sucks since the Falcons still have Price.

When I setup my account I was told I need to allow ESPN to pay my $2 online subscription (to play on the EA Madden game servers) or I need to charge $2 to my credit card. WTF – I could care less, I just wanted to get some roster downloads (and of course there were none). So now I guess ESPN is the sponsor of my account and can email me all sorts of crap. Thanks EA – great customer service.

I have only played a quarter so I do not have much in the way of gameplay experiences to write about. I guess I am going to have spend some time trying to see if others are having some of the same system issues that I am encountering. I do not have any problems with my other games, so either Madden is a big fat turkey or my PSP is just going to have problems with this game. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come with my other PSP games.

This week was a perfect reminder of why I shop online – I cannot find jack-crap in the local stores. I am going to London this weekend for a couple of weeks so I wanted to load up on some new games to help me pass the time (9 hour flights suck). It took a trip to Best Buy (after unsuccessful trips to Target and Circuit City) to land Madden and Namco Museum Battle Collection. I am not sure if Madden was under produced or just plain in demand, but I ended up with the last copy from Best Buy.

I also wanted to get Battlestar Galactica Season 1 on DVD, but no suck luck. Not sure what the deal with this one is; looks like I am going to have to place an order with Amazon.

I have not had much time with either new game. Namco Museum as a nice collection of classis and a few special arrangements of several games (Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, and New Rally-X. My only comment so far is that the analog stick is either not suited for some of the games (Ms. Pac-Man and Mappy come to mind) or I just have to get a better handle on the controls. I made mistakes too many times as I went left instead of down. I will certainly post more as I have time to play.

Madden has been a no go to this point. The first time I attempted to play, the game locked up when it was trying to find a profile. Then the game would not load at all (some sort of internal error code). I finally got into a game, but it locked up during the kick off. I have not tried again.

Battery life is so bad that I am going to have to buy another if I want to be able to play for more than four hours. The stock Sony PSP battery is $44.95, which is pretty expensive to extend my playing time to 7-9 hours.

This trip is going to really test the value of my PSP and each of my games. So far only FIFA has been sold, but any game that does not receive significant playing time is going to be thrown up on eBay after my trip. If nothing else, I need to make some money to pay for Namco and Madden, and I planning to pick up some games while in London, so there is not a place for the slackers in my gaming library.

A little digging in the Matrix Games forum reveals that PureSim 2006 will include multiple minor league levels. This is excellent news. With Out of the Park Baseball’s uncertain future, I beleive more commissioners will look for game alternatives in the coming months. There will more than likely be very loud howls if the new version of OOTP is not backwards compatible with OOTP 6.5 leagues. I will purchase PureSim 2005 Gold Edition to assess whether or not it makes sense for me to start a PureSim multiplayer league. I honestly believe that Shaun Sullivan will never create a new version of PureSim that isn’t backwards compatible. He understands.

There’s about to be some competition in career baseball text-sims in 2006!