With Brett Favre booked for a one-way ticket out of retirement and into New York (as a Jet!), Madden NFL 09 will look decidedly vintage when it releases next week with Favre on the cover ... as a Packer. Some may attribute the gaffe to evidence of the "Madden Curse" at work (c'mon, it can do better than that!), but EA Sports boss Peter Moore assures, "There's a plan."
While IGN has already confirmed there will be no second printing -- Favre will remain a Packer on the surface of Madden 09, at least -- a Crispy Gamer interview with Moore and marketing director David Tinson published last week addressed the possibility of Favre switching teams; to which Moore offered his vague assurance. "It will ship with what you've seen. Yes. And then we'll have a plan if he's not [a Packer]," Tinson added. Day-one roster update confirmed!
Update: EA will indeed release a day-one update placing Favre on the Jets (and reflecting any other relevant roster changes), reports MTV Multiplayer. But that's not all: "We do not plan to re-issue packaging, but WILL offer a free downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Brett Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09," a company spokesperson revealed to MTV. See, EA did have a plan! ... But if you're not feelin' it, why not make your own cover?
Although it's probably wrong to call Frank Caliendo a "John Madden impersonator," because he does a billion great impressions ranging from President Bush to William Shatner, he's definitely best known for his spot-on send up of the white-haired football legend. Both Caliendo and Jay Mohr are joining the voice cast of Midway's upcoming footballer, Blitz: The League II.
Caliendo will play three different characters, the prison warden, the offensive line coordinator and the color commentator, and Mohr will be playing The Agent, which will probably be similar to the role he played in Jerry Maguire. Midway probably wants to avoid a lawsuit with NBC, the NFL, and Madden himself, so it's doubtful Caliendo will be speaking as The Coach when we get blitzed this Fall... but here's hoping.
EA's reentry into the skateboarding genre with the original Skate was viewed by many as an uphill challenge. Its last attempt – the ill-received Street Sk8er on PS1 nearly 10 years earlier – and the fact that Activision's Tony Hawk franchise was the firmly seated king of the hill didn't help. Still, the game's innovative trick controls and return to a more "pure" skateboarding experience proved a huge success, outselling that year's Tony Hawk title nearly two-to-one by some accounts.
Now EA Blackbox is looking to recreate that success in Skate 2 ... not through the usual addition of modes and various novelties, but via some basic evolution of the gameplay fundamentals of the original game. This sequel is about two things: an all-new, modifiable environment to skate in and more ways to show off in it. We went hands-on with Skate 2 to bring you our first gameplay impressions, which you can continue reading after the break.
We walked into 7-11 today while representatives were setting up the massive marketing onslaught of Madden NFL 09, and it's a full blitz. There are standees, posters, chip racks, Big Gulp plastic collectible cups, and even Madden sandwiches. That's right, Madden sandwiches. Boom. We feel as confused as the digital Terrell Owens in that photo.
As a "special deal" they're offering a FREE Xbox 360 Madden NFL 09 demo... if you purchase a "Madden Sub" ($3.59 for a turkey and cheddar sub, with maybe half a leaflet of lettuce on it), a .99 bag of Doritos (your choice of scent/flavor!) and any "Gulp" or larger drink. We didn't even know there were just plain old "Gulps."
Find out what kind of idiot buys something you can get online at home free, after the break.
You'd think most football players would be overjoyed to be named to the Madden's "All Browns Team." Not hall-of-fame running back Jim Brown, though. Bloomberg reports that Brown filed suit against Electronic Arts and Sony yesterday in a New York court, alleging that he "never signed away any rights that would allow his likeness to be used.''
What makes Brown different from the hundreds of other current players represented in the game? According to the lawsuit, Brown alleges that when he played in the '50s and '60s, "the NFL had league wide policy that players shall have no lawyers or agents when negotiating compensation." Even if he had had a lawyer, Brown argues, "video games were not invented yet and no union to obtain rights from [them] existed.'
It's a decent argument, but we'd like to think that some forward-looking '60s lawyer could have foreseen the invention of video games and included them in his contract negotiations. After all, today's sports contracts routinely contain clauses for holosim royalties (No, not really).
Electronic Arts has today released the one-two punch of both Madden 09 and Facebreakerdemos on Xbox Live [update: and PlayStation Network] (via MajorNelson). Both downloads are approximately 1 GB apiece, and Facebreaker has the added benefit of a character creation feature that lets you transfer your created fighters to the full game. PlayStation 3 owners can expect the Madden 09 demo today, but face breaking will have to wait until August 7.
[Update: A Sony rep called to let us know that both demos will be coming to PSN today, as well]
According to EA spokesman Tyrone Miller, a patch to fix the EA Locker has been submitted to Microsoft and Sony for approval, and should be available to download during the first week of August. They've yet to announce any repairs to the online dynasties, though sports game blogger Pasta Padre reported that EA was able to fix his online dynasty after submitting his in-game issues to the company. Whether or not EA will make a similar fix downloadable for the rest of the bug-riddled masses remains to be seen.
We're not exactly sure why anyone would want to punch EA Sports' charismatic figurehead, Peter Moore -- especially in his cherubesque face. Still, we guess it's nice to have that opportunity available, should you someday develop a strong Moore aversion. However, traveling to Pete's home and mercilessly pummeling him would likely be a costly and illegal venture -- luckily, EA's upcoming Facebreaker will reportedly allow you to perform a beatdown upon a digital representation of Moore's visage, free of travel expenses and assault charges.
As the first commenter on this post will assuredly point out, this is old news. The second commenter will likely correct him in a patronizing tone, reminding him that a requirement for news is that it be new, and that this story, therefore, is not news at all. The third commenter, a jocular fellow, will then inquire if it is, in fact, olds? We get it, alright? However, we've never failed to mention new additions to the Xbox Live Arcade, and we don't plan on starting this week. Besides, when you see these sterling new releases, we don't think you'll fault us for being a few days late to the new release party.
First up is Double D Dodgeball(800 MS points/$10), which recreates the classic playground sport with an eye-searing "retro arcade design". The game dropped two weeks before its expected release date, though a reported bug that kicks players off of Xbox Live upon starting up the game make us wonder if perhaps a few guns were jumped. Joining it is Coffeetime Crosswords (800 MS points/$10). With 150 puzzles and a co-op mode, this new entry will surely fulfill all your sinister linguiphilic desires.
Rounding out the list is the EA Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker (400 MS points/$5), which allows users of EA's online fantasy leagues to import their league settings, draft new players, then export their new rosters back onto EA's servers. This is not a game, and we regret including it in this post.
What Wii Sports did for the Wiimote, Wii Sports Resort does for the Wii MotionPlus. The added precision of the Wii MotionPlus gets to show off in the title and, from the three minigames we experienced, it gives an idea of how other games could benefit from the accessory.
We had a chance to try out Disc Dog, Power Cruising and, our favorite, Sword Play. Nintendo says the Wii MotionPlus gives 1:1 control, but that's stretching the truth just a little. The controls certainly feel more precise than the Wiimote in its current state, but we're not exactly sure just yet if it'll fulfill gamer fantasies of precise lightsaber duels.
Move over Imagine and Petz, there's a new Ubisoft boutique label for Joystiq to ignore! The company has just announced Ener-G, the first sports game label for girls. Adventure Riders, Dance Squad and Gym Rockets are the first games lined up for us to be completely oblivious to shortly before they sell 500,000 copies exclusively on the DS.
Good to meet you Ener-G, here's hoping this is both the beginning and end of a beautiful friendship.
At Nintendo's E3 press conference this morning, pro snowboarder Shaun White announced the existence of Shaun White Snowboarding, an Ubisoft game "designed from the ground up" to use the Wii Balance Board. The game will be released by the end of the year for the Wii, with a non-Balance-Board equipped versions coming to other systems.
At their conference yesterday, EA invited NBA hall-of-famer Bill Walton onstage to help them show off NBA Live '09 and its Dynamic Player DNA, and ended up stealing the show. Peter Moore, who also hammed it up with Natalie Gulbis, kept saying that Walton had gone off script, and that must be true -- anyone who wrote a script like this would never want for a job in Hollywood.
In case you weren't aware, EA's Peter Moore likes sports. Probably the reason he's heading up EA Sports, eh? This E3 – his first since being put in charge of bringing in the mammoth publisher's sporting green – he obviously wanted to put his stamp on the brand, or, rather, his DNA.
EA Sports "Dynamic DNA," as it was explained during EA's pre-E3 press conference, is an intriguing new core gameplay gimmick for NBA Live 2009 that uses real players' analytic data (the type provided to sports scouts) to influence their actions (i.e. make them more realistic in-game). "You can't script sports," Moore pointed out – in theory, Dynamic DNA will enable the virtual players to adapt to on-court situations as they would in real life, making their actions far less predictable than in past b-ball titles.
The concept comprises "Player DNA," which is focused on making players act more realistically, and "Team DNA," which builds on individual data and gloms it all together to (you guessed it) more realistically recreate the team dynamic based on all players' DNA. The end result – at least the results we could see during a short Live 09 demo – is a much more visually believable looking game of hoops. Former NBA player and current color commentator Bill Walton was also on hand for the demo, and was impressed by what he saw. Sure he was being paid to be there, but what the hey?
Confirming an earlier report, Midway has announced plans to return to the line of scrimmage this fall with its everything-but-the-license take on American football in Blitz: The League II for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. While details remain scant, the company notes that the game's story mode will be penned by ESPN Playmakers writer Peter Egan, while former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor will also lend his chemically-enhanced likeness to the title as well.
Even so, with Electronic Arts' seminal Madden franchise slated to take to the field and bankroll retail shelves this August, how exactly Midway plans to sack EA's tough actin' fat man still remains unclear.
Move over Imagine and Petz, there's a new Ubisoft boutique label for Joystiq to ignore! The company has just announced Ener-G, the first sports game label for girls. Adventure Riders, Dance Squad and Gym Rockets are the first games lined up for us to be completely oblivious to shortly before they sell 500,000 copies exclusively on the DS.
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