Euro Madden Superstar mode not so super?

Source: A tipster who provided a YouTube video of some horrid football.



What we heard: One of the improvements Electronic Arts has made to its football juggernaut Madden NFL series in the last few years is the addition of the Superstar mode. In SS mode, gamers create a player, choose a position, and bring him up through the league, controlling only the player and going to whatever team the business of football takes him.

As such, control over the rest of the team (including play calling) is by default under the control of the computer. Imagine one gamer's distress then when the CPU-controlled quarterback started heaving bombs...in the wrong direction.

A GameSpot reader tipped Rumor Control off to a bug that sees pigskin chuckers throwing balls into their own end zone "at least four times" in each Superstar mode game. A video posted on YouTube shows the alleged bug in action, with Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb showing off his incredibly powerful arm and incredibly wrong sense of direction. The result is a massive loss of yards and often a safety--game glitch 2, user 0.

The tipster claims that it affects the European versions of the PlayStation 2 edition of the game, and digging through various message boards, including the ones over at the official Madden NFL 07 Web site, seems to confirm this.

It's currently unclear whether or not the glitch is widespread or isolated to a few copies of the game. However, given that the game was released in Europe only this past Friday, its magnitude should be known soon.

If there is a bug going around, it's likely that EA will fix it--it just may take a while. The company set precedent this year with its agreement to swap out copies of NCAA Football 07 for the PSP that were experiencing a "ball-spotting" glitch with new copies. EA offered $15 off any purchases made at their online store as apologies for the inconvenience.

Until EA acknowledges the bug and decides to do something about it, it looks like European Madden fans will have to work on their franchise modes.

The official story: EA did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Looks not bogus. Expect word from EA soon.