EA GAMES SCREWS US AGAIN!!!

[sardcore]

So I love football, american football for the rest of the world.  I've been buying Madden every year since the Sega Genesis days for every console I've owned.

This year EA Sports released NFL HEAD COACH 2007, a coaching/franchise management sim, much like the soccer sims so popular in the rest of the world.  Fuckin fantastic says I.  This is the Football game I've been waiting for all my life!

I buy it the day it comes out, play it for 3-4 days loving every minute of it... 'till bam... FATAL BUG!!!  EVERY GAME SIMULATED AFTER WEEK 2 of the season has a 0-0 score.  If you try to actually play through week 3, everything loads as normal, but when you actually go to start your week 3 game, the game starts with TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TEAMS. 

For example, I'm controlling the San Francisco 49'ers.  My Week 3 game was vs. Seattle.  When I start my week 3 game... the game starts and wtf#@!#$!@#$ It's the Patriots vs. the Jets?  And I'm controlling the JETS?

But i'm not really controlling the Jets coz at this point the game simply stops responding to all input, and ur stuck on the screen where u need to tell ur player to pick heads or tails.  Which is not that bad considering this is NOT EVEN MY TEAM.

Thankfully, some resourseful individual figures out what's causing the bug, and figures out a workaround for it... so I'm pissed, but as long as I can play that's fine...

[sardcore]

... so I continue to play, using the workaround... 'till I notice... THE ROOKIES AND YOUNG PLAYERS ON CPU CONTROLLED TEAMS NEVER IMPROVE!!!  The same bug that was in the franchise mode of Madden 2006.  Obviously this bug is an absolute game breaker for a sports management simulation game.  Also, since Head Coach uses the same broken player progression model as Madden 2006, which has been out for nearly a year, whose player progession bug has been well documented, THEY KNOWINGLY PUT A BROKEN GAME ON THE MARKET.

These bugs have been verified and reported to EA games.  THET HAVE YET TO RELEASE A PATCH OR EVEN ADMITTED THAT THESE BUGS EXIST TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. 

Several individuals have contacted EA games directly, and have gotten full refunds as EA has acknowledged these bugs privately.  But to date they have not released an official public report.  Not a single EA employee has posted a response on the OFFICIAL EA Head Coach Technical support forums.  A patch does not seem likely.

[sardcore]

The emp players know full well EA's shady practices, but this is insane.  To release a game they know is broken, and then to do absolutly nothing about it is inexcusable.

Take for example the recently released Hitman: Blood Money, by Eidos.  There have been Eidos techs responding to technical issues on the official Eidos forum since the day the game came out.  They had their 1st patch within the 1st week, and the next patch came only a few weeks later.

This is the 1st year EA sports has an exclusive deal with the NFL.  There will be NO licensed football game to compete with EA for several years.  Already they are getting sloppy.  This seems par for the course for EA, as the quality of their products has been slipping for many years now since they became THE video game company.

Please excuse me for the triple post.  This is not meant to bash EA, as we have all enjoyed EA products.  However I encourage all of you to make sure any game with the EA stamp works properly before purchasing it.

[Nuvollari]

Why buying games from EA?

[sardcore]

they make Madden, and now they have an exlusive NFL liscence.  So if I don't buy Madden, I have no football game this year.

Seems to me games developed by other companies and merely produced by EA work ok.  Developed and produced by EA... save your money.

[Cybopache]

Sad to hear you having problems Sard :-,I had that with my NHL 05`.Never worked prop,and closed down the machine.Got a new one tho ,prob  was fixed. Its alright with the tripple post, get it off your chest... ::)

NO excuse To EA for sending a broken game on the marked (SHAME ON YOU).

hope you manage to finish your season.

Cybo

[jeff2429]

Why buying games from EA?

Blizzard doesn't make everything...

If others got a refund, why don't you?  Or are you still holding out for a fix?

[Nuvollari]

I did not say buy from blizzard.I just said..why EA?when there is ID Software and many serious companys.

Dont wanna to be mean..You like sports?tHEN GO out and play :P its the best way.