Why are we mad about Madden? Xbox 360 Updated Rosters September 2006
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
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 Every year the release of EA’s Madden Football is eagerly anticipated by millions of adults and children across the globe. This year’s version offers the same great gameplay and some extras that were not available in last year’s release for the next generation X Box 360 console. You now have the ability to control lead blockers, create a player and control his career, and also participate in a mini camp. I am not a hardcore gamer, so I just like to play the franchise mode and play out an entire season.
The graphics and animations are awesome. The realistic movements of the players improve with each version of Madden that is released. I caught very few animation “glitches” that took away from the realistic gameplay. I did notice that my X Box 360 did “sputter” a little from time to time. I do not know if this has to do with the processor being overworked or not.
 I was disappointed that I could not immediately go online and download current rosters. I know that the regular NFL football season hasn’t started yet, but the coolest thing is playing with a team with the actual rosters. I believe that you have to be an X Box Live Gold subscriber to be able to download updated rosters when they are finalized.* I think that if you are paying $60 for a game, the roster updates shouldn’t be seen as additional extra content. That should be part of the deal…If I buy a Madden 07 game, I should be allowed all roster updates for the ‘07 season. I don’t think that is asking for too much. EA should take a look at its policies and give us free updates that we can update our offline teams with.  I know that I can update the rosters manually, but then the faces , stats , and performances will not be as accurate as I would like them to be.
Does anyone have any hacks to get around this? If so please post them in the comments section of this post.
Update: I have an Update for all you X Box Live Silver members…you are out of luck. Only the premium Gold Members have access to the Free Madden 07 roster updates. A work around was posted, but it requires you sign up with a new gamertag an start a new X Box 360 Live Gold Membership with a free 30 day trial and then cancel it before the 30 days are over. This seems like a pain in the @ss to do.  If you have a computer, you can download the Rosters that have been posted online by other users, but you will need to purchase a data transfer kit that runs about $14.99. That may be the best bet. If you have a computer with online access, you can always buy a one month X box live membership for $7.99 and update your rosters that way. Either way, it looks like you will be spending money in order to get roster updates for a product that retails for $59.99. It just doesn’t seem fair to me.
Link to site that has the update Roster: Football-Freaks.com - You will need to register with the site to have access to the downlaod area.
Here is the Data transfer kit that you will need.
I will post instructions if I can find them online.
Here are the Xbox 360 September 06 updated rosters posted to a Rapidshare account.**
* This was incorrect. Live Silver Members can download roster updates too. Â
** Not the most current rosters available. I believe that a more current roster set is available via the Xbox live system.  3/28/07