First off, you may or may not have noticed some news that was recently propped to your consoles regarding online quitters. The number one issue that we heard loud and clear out of the community was that rampant quitting had become a major problem in the online experience, both in ranked games and Madden Ultimate Team games. Well we were able to work on this over the last week and then deploy some quick fixes to the server to help deter this practice. The fixes were as follows:

1.       Any quitter / disconnecter in a ranked game will automatically be given a loss. The victim will automatically be given a win.

2.       We are currently monitoring the leaderboards and planning on zero’ing out the stats of any accounts found to be using quitting tactics (via high DNF / win percentages and game logs). This monitoring will be standard practice moving forward as well, as we have built in notifications to our server team that will automatically zero out any folks caught “boosting”, or using one account to quit immediately and award a win.

3.       In a Madden Ultimate Team game, a person quitting will have a game burned off of his contracts for the players in the game to discourage this practice. The victim will always receive coins, prorated based on the percentage complete of the game (i.e. if it’s the 1st quarter, he’ll only get ¼ of the coins he would have gotten if he were to finish, if it’s at the end of the game, he’ll get ~90%, etc). The same note applies as above on anyone caught “boosting” after this fix is rolled out – they will be punished with bans, contract removals, or any other tactics we see fit.

4.       We also found an issue where PDLC OTP boosts were being subtracted incorrectly. Anyone that had this happen has had their boost coin purchase refunded.

One thing I should note is that there is a bit of a trade-off with stats with the auto-loss / auto-win implementation. Since we wanted to roll this out as quickly as possible, there is one thing to be aware of in that average stats will take a hit when a quit occurs. What I mean by this is that if you have played 3 games and are averaging 100 rush yards per game, if a quit occurs, your rush average will drop down to 75 since you have a 4^th game with zero stats. We will look into addressing this down the line but we wanted to get the fix out for the quitters as soon as possible.

Read more »

The second patch for NCAA Football 11 is now available. The most notable fixes: The elimination of the QBs getting stuck in the hand-off animation and running backwards for a safety, uniforms will now get dirty, no more connection issues related to Season Showdown, and adjusted progression of punters and kickers in Dynasty mode. Continue on for the full list of changes and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Graphics

• Uniform degradation has been fixed.

• Fixed a graphical issue with TeamBuilder sideline home uniforms.

• Fixed several camera bugs (pulled back on field goals, blurry cameras, and replays after a change of possession)

• Fixed helmet numbers for Rice and Wake Forest

Online

• Resolved an issue with Season Showdown, allowing us to turn it back on, so you’re upload failure message every time you go in/out of game is gone!

• Fixed a couple freezes related to lobbies

• Fixed voice communication in Online Dynasty Hub on PS3

• Fixed an issue that could lead to a disconnect in online play during play calling

Offense

• Fixed an issue on a couple plays where the QB would miss a hand off and run backward

• Reduced the chance that the ball will be knocked out when a receiver is hit at the time of the catch

• Tuned the CPU ball carrier so that they will break to the outside more often when appropriate

• Tuned how the CPU ball carriers utilize leans and special moves so that they won’t be used in situations when they shouldn’t (e.g. a HB in the open field will not put his shoulders down when running forward)

• Tuned pass accuracy and the ability to lead a receiver

• Tweaked sideline catch animations in the end zone so that they have a bit more room to play

• Fixed an exploit where backwards passes could be overly effective

Defense

• Fixed defensive reaction to pump fake to be more balanced. Skilled defensive backs will not be as easily fooled by pump fakes.

• Tuned the Aggressive Defensive Line Gameplan to have more risk of jumping offsides

• Removed a hesitation from defensive lineman pass rush on screen plays

• Improved flat zone and deep zone coverage

• Tuned man coverage reaction to the run

• Adjusted CPU pursuit angles in some specific cases where they weren’t being aggressive enough

Special Teams

• Tuned onside kicks to be less predictable

• Fixed an issue where catching a kicked ball after hitting the goalpost would result in kicking team getting the ball back

• Fixed an issue where the punter could line up out of place

• Adjusted cross bar collision on field goals and extra points

Other

• Tuned CPU clock management where they would let the clock run out in some cases they shouldn’t

• Fixed a bug with time of possession tracking

• Adjusted substitutions to be more intelligent (previously would see some weird players in the game with lots of aggressive no huddle)

• Fixed a couple places where the wrong custom stadium sounds would play

• Fixed a bug that caused Road To Glory to be simulated day by day near the end of the season

• Tuned Kick Power and Kick Accuracy of progression of kickers and punters in Dynasty Mode

• Fixed a couple infrequent game lock-ups Read more »

For the opening month of July NCAA Football 11 sold 368K copies on the 360 and 298.8K on the PS3. In total that represents a move up of 8% compared to NCAA Football 10. Read more »

How to install your Madden NFL 11 disk to your Xbox 360 Hard Drive.

Read more »

43 over – Smoke Mid Zone

You want to put your fastest DE at the left DT spot via formation subs. When done right the DT will come untouched. Every now and then the LB will come, but when done right you should get the DT most of the time.

Read more »

Gun Tight Flex: Falcon Cross

Here we have one of the best plays in the game. A play that destroys man to man, and eats up zones with the proper reads. This is one of those plays that you build an entire scheme around. This would be the main play to make the defense account for that will open up a world of possibilities.

Read more »

Dime – Strike 2 Deep

This is brought to you by E City. This is a popular play around the tourny scene these days. I like to use this in more of a 3rd down situation. Some people have no problem running this most of the game.

Read more »

Gun Trips Open – Gambler

Plabooks: Buffalo

Setup:

1. Smart Route the B Receiver

2. Put the A Receiver on a slant to the inside

Reads:

1. A Receiver on his slant in

2. X Reciever on his crossing route

3. B Receiver on his post corner

4. LB Receiver on his fade

5. Check down to the running back on his delayed route

Read more »