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by
Joe Gandolfo- jgand@pcfootball.net
10-17-02
Well its about time!
After keeping us waiting for
nearly a month, EA has finally released their patch for Madden
2003. After a month of hitting the update button only to get the
message that there was no patch available, we finally hit
paydirt yesterday.
I finally uploaded the patch last
night and checked out the changes. The uniforms themselves look
shinier both in the front-end and in team management. I had to
readjust some of my settings so that the game would run the way
I wished. The graphics ran a bit choppy in 16-bit color, but
when I upped it to 32-bit color the choppiness went away! Go
Figure.
Here are some of the features
that the patch addressed and my thoughts about the changes:
- Addressed an issue with the jersey numbers
when creating/editing a player.
Yeah well, ya didn't go far
enough guys.
Now granted, it is nice to be
able to finally give defensive linemen and linebackers numbers
in the 90's. It is also nice to be able to have more numbers
open up for offensive linemen. But I was expecting, and hoping
for more. I wanted all of the numbers to be open up for all
players on a roster. I also wanted to be able to edit a players
position to fill up other spots on the roster. I would love to
have Marcus Allen play FB on my All-USC team so that I can have
him and O.J. in the backfield at the same time. But no, I still
can't change the position of an established player.
Neither can I give players on my
All-Rams team the numbers they played with. I still can't give
Jack Youngblood #85, Fred Dryer #89, Tom Fears #40, Crazy Legs
Hirsch #55 and Hacksaw Reynolds #64. Looks like I will have to
wait either for the next patch, or for someone to come out with
a third-party editor.
Speaking of a third party editor,
I am going to try to do all of us a favor. I have noticed that
there are some of you out there who have expressed interest in
working on the project. But from what I have been able to
surmise here and at football-gaming.com they have not
communicated with each other.
The following people have
expressed interest in working on it, or they are working on the
project already:
kcollins5
(football-gaming) dkbritz@yahoo.com
ChrisKo
(football-gaming) godhead@nightmarextreme.com
LexingtonCentaurs02
(pcfootball.net)
MNBob
(pcfootball.net)
Test (pcfootball.net)
My advice to all of you is to get
in contact with each other somehow. Talk to each other and work
together to get a working roster editor for the rest of us. You
will be heroes of the pcfootball community if you do.
- Fixed
problem where custom teams with a custom bitmap did not have
colored facemasks.
Yup, that problem was definitely
taken care of. I noticed it when I played the Instigators last
night. They now have the black facemasks instead of the grey one
they had previously.
- Default Roster file has been updated.
Yes new rosters are now in the
game. Cryin Leaf is no longer on Seattle's roster.
R.I.P. Cryin.
- Added more audio to front-end menus.
Yeah, I've noticed that there are
now sounds with the mouseclicks in the front-end.
- The ability to audible, motion, and shift
have been added to Coach Mode.
Thank you! Now if you can only
make it possible for us to hear a fake snap count in Coach Mode.
- New
helmet reflections using cubic environment mapping for cards
that support it such as GeForce and Radeon families.
Eye candy is nice, but it's no
substitute for being able to have an accurate roster of your
favorite team or being able to get accurate results from your
gameplay.
- The
ability to export information from the Rosters Player Management
and Franchise
Team Management screens has been added.
I tried it, it works! Thank you
EA!
- Accelerated clock now affects CPU vs CPU
games.
I haven't tried that out yet, but
I will give this a try and see if it does work.
Now while the patch has fixed
some of the problems that were spotted in the game and improved
others that we may not have cared about, there are still some
problems that have not been addressed like the aforementioned
roster editor. I went to the EA boards earlier to gauge reaction
to the patch. The general concensous seems to be that they are
dissatisfied with the fact that uniform wear and field
degredation hasn't been dealt with. I would love to see these
features included in the game more than I would want to see
shiny uniforms and helmets.
There is another feature that the
patch has taken care of that is sure to piss some people off.
The individuals I am referring to are not going to be happy that
they will not be able to pull the usual crap they have been
pulling in online games. The people in question are known by the
following names:
maddenxking
ramaway2
tnthnicm
Domination
Jaraineyo
Mueller20
Kimble
Ref
CHEAPSUIT
THOMAS#35
Texas
Touch
tabindexday
airitout2k3
temirtx69
xicebeamx
Austinisgooder18
dirtbag10
gangaman24
SUPABOATS
snick
bobcen65
Why would these people be ticked
off at EA for releasing the patch? Because of this little
feature that the patch repaired:
- For
online play, a timer has been added that will force an opponent
back into
play when the timer expires.
That's why!
I will be very interested to hear
what will happen now that these pausers and quitters will be
forced to play out their games. What will happen if someone
pauses the game because they are losing, walk away from the game
hoping their opponent will quit, and then have to go back to the
game because they are forced to prevent delay of game penalties?
Or will they just keep pausing the game everytime the timer runs
out?
Hopefully there is a limit on how
many times a game can be paused online in order to let the clock
run down to :00. If not, maybe they can put it in the next patch
so that if a player pauses the game and let's the clock run down
to :00 three times in a game, that player will be unable to
pause the game for the remainder of the game and is thus forced
to play the game out.
That would be a great way for EA
to take care of the pausing problem. Now if they can just do
something about the quitters.
EA has also been kind enough to
answer some frequently asked questions about the patch in a FAQ
file supplied with the patch:
Welcome to Madden NFL 2003.
This FAQ.txt file contains
Frequently Asked Questions regarding Madden NFL
2003.
7-25-02
----Patch 3.1 Changes----
Q: How do I generate .csv files
for my team?
A: To generate the .csv files
either in our out of franchise, go to Team Management, then
right click on a player's name in the spreadsheet. In the pop-up
window, choose the last option, "Stats Report." This
will generate a .csv file in your Madden2003\stats\
subdirectory.
I tried this feature last night,
it works.
Q: How do I generate franchise
log files?
A: Madden can be setup to
automatically generate Franchise log files in your
Madden2003\stats\
subdirectory at the end of every franchise week. To enable this
feature, go to your Madden.ini file, usually located in your
Madden2003 subdirectory. Edit this file with Notepad or another
text editor and look for the heading that reads "// Option
Group: Stat Log Settings." Change the "Franchise
Log" setting from "Off" to "On".
Q: Can I create unique game log
and franchise log files instead of always overwriting
pre-existing files?
A: Yes. To have the game create a
unique file go to your Madden.ini file, usually located in your
Madden2003 subdirectory. Edit this file with Notepad or another
text editor and look for the heading that reads "// Option
Group: Stat Log Settings." Change the "Franchise Log
Files" setting and "Game Log Files" setting from
"Overwrite" to "Unique".
Q: How do I use the new pre-snap
functions in Coach Mode?
A: You use them the same way you
would if you were playing in Classic mode. The button
assignments are the same. See your manual for the button
assignments for your particular controller.
Its great except for the fact
that you can't do fake snap count in coach mode the way you
could in Madden 2002. Maybe in the next patch guys?
Q: What settings do I have to
adjust to take advantage of the new graphical abilities?
A: You do not have to adjust any
settings. The game will automatically use the new features if
your card supports them.
Q: My online club wants to make
its own logo. Can we?
A: No. You can only rent the
logos that are currently available when you make your club
private of the lease on your currently logo has expired.
Q: Why does my saved franchise
game disappear?
A: The act of saving your
franchise in the front-end, removes any saved franchise games in
progress. To save a franchise game in progress, save the game
from the Pause Menu and then exit Franchise Mode without saving.
We had already figured that out,
but thanks for confirming it anyway.
Q: I want to use the new Phong
Lighting Model, but the "High" option does not appear
in the Lighting system setting.
A: The Phong lighting model is
only available on cards that support Hardware T&L.
Q: How can I take screenshots of
Madden?
A: F1 takes a screenshot, and
puts it in the "screenshots" folder.
Thanks, but I'll keep using
HyperSnap for my screenshots thank you.
All in all it was a good effort
from EA for their first patch. I am hoping to see at least two
or three more before it gets to the point where we will be
totally satisfied with the product. Hopefully EA will get the
roster editor situation sorted out before a third-party editor
is released. If not, then I am begging the guys who are working
on it to please hurry!
Let's just hope that the virtual
Terrell Owens doesn't pull a Sharpie out of his sock after the
next patch is released.
Until next time...
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