Let me preface this rant by saying that I purchased Madden day one, excited about the prospect of some decent online play (aside from Strikers) on the Wii. It was the first time I had ever purchased two years of Madden back to back, but I did it under the impression that the addition of online would justify me dropping $50 of my hard earned cash.
I was wrong.
The fact that this product made it to market in this state boggles my mind. The game has a consistent latency that borders about a second, regardless of the apparent strength of your connection as indicated before starting a match. I've played nothing but full bar matches, about ten to be specific, and have experienced nothing but the laggiest, most frustrating online matches of my life. I recall days of playing Age of Empires over a 56k connection that ran smoother than this game, and that is not a joke.
Every facet of the game online is clunky and detracting. It even lags far behind when you're selecting your play. You want to pick a play that's one down and one to the left of your cursor? I hope you have 3 seconds, to wait on the cursor to recognize you've typed in a whole two inputs on the D-pad. If the game can't keep up when you're doing something as simple picking your play, how could it possibly be responsive when you and your online opponent are interacting with 11 players a piece on a 100 yard long field?
The answer of course, is that it can't, and it doesn't. The online in this game is broken. Games depend much more on luck of the lag-draw than any sort of actual merit or skill. Throw gestures are ignored a good 25% of the time, kicks, I'd say above 50%. It's nearly impossible to guide your player to the reception circle manually, be it on offense or defense, due to the fact that your player is only executing whatever direction you were holding two seconds ago.
I know there's all ready Madden topics, one for Wii online specifically, in which I've already displayed some disgust, but I feel the atrocity that this game is online deserves a thread of its own. It's something that I've seen all but glossed over by nearly every major review site, but it's something that gamers deserve to know. Madden online for the Wii is virtually unplayable, do not be fooled as I was. Get Strikers if you want a decent online experience, but even then, only do so if you can stomach inane 20 second cut scenes every minute.
I was wrong.
The fact that this product made it to market in this state boggles my mind. The game has a consistent latency that borders about a second, regardless of the apparent strength of your connection as indicated before starting a match. I've played nothing but full bar matches, about ten to be specific, and have experienced nothing but the laggiest, most frustrating online matches of my life. I recall days of playing Age of Empires over a 56k connection that ran smoother than this game, and that is not a joke.
Every facet of the game online is clunky and detracting. It even lags far behind when you're selecting your play. You want to pick a play that's one down and one to the left of your cursor? I hope you have 3 seconds, to wait on the cursor to recognize you've typed in a whole two inputs on the D-pad. If the game can't keep up when you're doing something as simple picking your play, how could it possibly be responsive when you and your online opponent are interacting with 11 players a piece on a 100 yard long field?
The answer of course, is that it can't, and it doesn't. The online in this game is broken. Games depend much more on luck of the lag-draw than any sort of actual merit or skill. Throw gestures are ignored a good 25% of the time, kicks, I'd say above 50%. It's nearly impossible to guide your player to the reception circle manually, be it on offense or defense, due to the fact that your player is only executing whatever direction you were holding two seconds ago.
I know there's all ready Madden topics, one for Wii online specifically, in which I've already displayed some disgust, but I feel the atrocity that this game is online deserves a thread of its own. It's something that I've seen all but glossed over by nearly every major review site, but it's something that gamers deserve to know. Madden online for the Wii is virtually unplayable, do not be fooled as I was. Get Strikers if you want a decent online experience, but even then, only do so if you can stomach inane 20 second cut scenes every minute.
