Dubious Quality

This was EA, though, so I waited.

It launched Thursday at midnight (for the people who didn't pay $20 extra, which is a separate topic), and the forums are full of bug reports. Simple, simple problems that never should have made it into a released version.

This is EA, though. They never feel compelled to finishing a sports game before releasing it. They develop it until the scheduled release date, do triage on the outstanding bugs, and release it with a giant list of bugs still unfixed. In the case of Madden, some of these (substantial) bugs have been there for years.

It's discouraging.

It's tough when you finally admit that getting rid of bugs is not a developer's primary consideration. Games aren't products anymore. They're services, which has shifted the developer focus from fixing bugs to goosing the ongoing revenue stream.

What's really annoying is that almost every bug in this game is a solved problem. Having decent rushing stats in dynasty mode for simmed games isn't rocket science. It's not even difficult. It just times time to run the number of seasons and make the necessary adjustments to get it right. It just takes effort. 

I'm sure I'll pick it up in a few weeks after the second or third substantial patch, because I still love college football, but let me remind you that the best college football simulation I've ever played is Football Coach: College Dynasty. It's still in Early Access, but the game has been almost completely bug-free for the last year or so, and new features are all that's being added now. It's superb, and you can even use real teams (check the Discord Channel for universe files). 

Football Coach: College Dynasty is the game I would have designed, if I'd wanted to make a college football game. It's ultra-nerdy and full of data and has a ton of personality, too. Even better, when you submit a bug report, it's fixed!

What a revolutionary concept.