You shouldn't have to pay to enable the online play if you bought the original copy of the game. Redeem the code on the back of the book and you're good to go.

I was fuming at first though when I thought they were gonna extort me for another $10 to play the game online. I imagine they did this to steal some profits from gamestop and others making gazillions off of trade in and sale of used games.

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"Hard work beats talent when talent fails to hard work"

Now... the game would be amazingly addictive and awesome if the made one change to the new Ultimate Team feature. If you don't about this, it's like an online fantasy/dynasty team where you cards for each player. The cards are like a Magic game, buy a pack and use them to build/improve your team, with some being rare and most common. IF they didn't capitalize on profits, they would have made the currency all earned (or gambled). You use coins to buy more packs of cards, but you basically have to buy the coins with your hard earned dough. This means the game will be dominated by spoiled rotten 15-yr old's who plop $500 into coins to buy cards... and I won't even bother trying to compete with that... very unfortunate...

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"Hard work beats talent when talent fails to hard work"

I love this feature and totally agree with you. Last year I invested a few bucks to try to make my team better but totally not worth it. I would rather do the best with what I can earn from playing games (which isn't much).

I thought there was a mix-up between him and Losman. Go back and look at Losman. He looks like Whitehurst. Scruffy Jesus beard and even has hair coming out the back of his helmet. EA needs to correct this for sure.

Is it just me....or is Qwest Field always mostly empty?

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Man up, stand in line.

Into the playoffs...

Curry is running wild against teams Right Tackles. He has recorded 25 sacks this season.

Red Bryant went down with a torn peck, so Lo-Jack got the "start"...which means he only plays when curry isnt rushing the passer.

Anywho, season went well. Has some injuries, but the depth of the squad made it a non issue. Housh and Carlson were key players for me, always converting 3rd downs. Tate and Williams made there plays here and there, but for the most part the offense ran through Forsett, Washington, Housh, Carlson...and Butler.

Into the playoffs, home field advantage. First game is against the Falcons. The Hass to Tate combo carried the offense while Curry and Wilson carried the D.

Forsett and washington were shut down early....only way I could gain yards was through the air.

Conversely I stopped turner and forced them to throw. It was pooring down rain.

This game had a combined 12 turnovers. Hass threw 4 picks, Ryan through 6 (wilson with 3, Jennings with 1, Tatupu with 1, and Vickerson with 1), and the Falcons fumbled twice. Sloppy game.

Tate caught 20 balls though, 383 yards, 6 TD's. Hass has well over 600 yards for the day....

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Man up, stand in line.

OK I can't stand this game anymore!!!!! I hate online play. You can't stop anyones offense, even the shitty players! I never had this much trouble trying to stop people.....

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Hit me up tomorrow and we can play a game. Maybe I can help ya figure it out...

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Man up, stand in line.

I used to play a ton of of online, but now I never do. It's nothing but people using exploits...I'm 8 games into my year 1 franchise right now.

The defensive AI is horrible.....online play is unbearable. I am sooo tempted to return this game that how much it frustrates me.

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I want to play you.

I will be on all day. Message me and you can be my first opponent in online play...will see if it sucks as hard as you claim it does.

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Man up, stand in line.

I take back my endorsement of this game. Online head to head gaming is unacceptable. Players can quit before half and receive no change in record, only an increase to their DNF%. My 3 minutes invested in a game are wasted, I get no win, no coins, no nothing. I only have about 1-2 hrs of gameplaying a day, and last night I ended up with 3 losers who quit on me.

So stupid of EA to do this... give them a Loss if they quit within 1 minute of kickoff. I've played over 10 games, I have a 3-1 record and I've only seen the end game stats twice and one was my loss.

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"Hard work beats talent when talent fails to hard work"

I am into year two. Won the superbowl against the chargers. I was winning 40-14 pretty much every game so I upped the difficulty to a custom setting in between All-Pro and All-Madden. Its a lot tougher to win games now and I end up going to the 3rd or 4th quarter before I begin to pull away.

I drafted a RG with my1st round pick (Unger at Center). He is great in pass block, but is horrible in run block. He is a revolving door that the DT can get passed in less than a second. Got a little bit of depth with other positions.

One of my biggest weaknesses throughout season 1 was my running game and my defensive pressure form the right side. I traded for Kiwanuka (of the giants) but ended up giving up my 1st rounder as apart of the deal. It sucked to give up the first, but I managed to get some extra 2nd's and 3rd's through some other trades. I also went out and got Jonathan Stewart in a trade from the Panthers. I gave up Hasselbeck a 2nd and a 3rd for him. He has revitalized my mundane running game and has really put me over the top. I do alright with CBJ at QB, no instant need.

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Man up, stand in line.

ARghghhhghhaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! They need to release Madden for Windows again. I will not buy a damn console for ONE GAME. It's so easy to port an Xbox game to Windows, it's retarded! After watching the clip Doce linked with the crowd going Hoooooooooooooooooooush, I really really really really want to play it

Yes, I'm whining; I don't care. lol.

buy a refurbished one, or one on craigslist with a effed up dvd-drive... it costs 40 bucks to fix em, so you could get the console on the cheap.

Money is not the reason I don't own a console. Hell, I just spent $430 on a Radeon HD 5870 video card for my computer. I'm simply not a fan of gaming sans keyboard & mouse. I'm a control freak in my games, and the idea of adequately controlling many games with just a controller is laughable at best for people that like to micro-manage things in games the way I do.

Not to mention, I like to run better graphics than consoles allow for.

You may not have meant to sound like it...but thats how I interpreted your post.

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Man up, stand in line.

Fine, if you interpreted it that way...but some of us don't like bottom-feeding in regards to video games. Consoles nowadays are like an average 4-door sedan, a good gaming computer is like a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Some of us don't want the average gaming experience. If you think that's elitist, so be it. I've got legitimate reasons as to why I prefer computer gaming over console gaming in a major way.

Sort of offended at the "bottom-feeding in regards to video games" bit...My console gaming experience is by no means average. Its not like I am sitting here playing GameCube. I love and enjoy every second of my gaming with my console. It just isn't so with my PC, or even with great PC's I have used.

Controller > Keyboard & Mouse

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Man up, stand in line.

Believe me when I say that I'm right there with you... But that is why I payed $200.00 and got an XIM2 for my xbox... now I can use my keyboard and mouse with any games..