The NFL training camps are in full swing, which signals the arrival of the annual, new game in the Madden franchise. Madden NFL 20 features the Kansas City Chief's quarterback Patrick Mahomes on the vaunted, and sometimes cursed, game cover. While the game is still a few days away from release, it has followed the trend set by many previous EA games by being available a few days early, and as a result, players have already started to come across some hilarious glitches.
Helmet catches, while rare, are a viable strategy in the NFL, even helping the New York Giants secure a Super Bowl XLII win. However, a glitch in Madden NFL 20 takes this to the extreme, as seen in a new video shared on Twitter by Drakegoat. In the footage, the player throws a pass to their Tight End Irv Smith Jr, who makes a motion to catch the ball. Seemingly, the ball bounces off of his hands, but the play isn't over just yet.
While a normal play would usually end there, the clip continues to show that the ball appears to stick to the player's helmet while they run for another 20 yards. After a teammate comes within range, and makes an attempt to grab the stuck ball, Smith Jr. reacts and picks the ball out of the air as he continues to run into the end zone for a touchdown. While fans, no doubt, got a chuckle out of this glitch, many have come to believe that, with the game launching in just a few days, the end product may feature even more bugs that a day one patch is going to miss.
Sadly, it appears this sentiment from fans may be right, as even more glitches have been shared on social media during the early access period. For example, another clip shows a fake field goal being read by the defense extremely well. While, typically, this would result in the kicker being tackled for a huge loss, the Atlanta defense basically bounces off the Chiefs' player in Madden NFL 20, who is then able to run it in for a score.
Unfortunately for EA, this isn't the first time the fans have voiced pre-launch concerns about a title. Mass Effect Andromeda, a highly anticipated entry in the popular franchise, released a few days early through EA Access, and the game was eviscerated by the community over bugs, glitches, and some wonky animations from the game's main character. As fans now know, the development of that game, at BioWare Montreal, was troubled, which was also the case for some other projects that followed, including Anthem.
Madden NFL 20 will release August 2, 2019 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.