EA Sports has re-imagined its popular American football series, Madden NFL 10 Wii: Madden Showdown. Anyone who is looking for a straight port of Madden over to the Wii is in for a surprise. Changes go much further than game controls. A whole new set of gameplay options lets you throw the traditional rules out the window and play any way you want it. You can choose between an all passing or rushing offense for starters and then the options start putting the fantasy in football. Throw in invisibility or fumblitis into your game or go turbo if you just can’t wait to get your game on. Hit random and you’ll never know what rules you’ll be playing by.

There are a couple other additions to Madden NFL 10 for the Wii. The Prediction system encourages you to bet on the winning team and one other closing stat such as longest field goal or last team to score. There’s also a kind of mini game focused around spotlight moments where you’ll personally have the chance to make or break a pivotal game moment like a sack attack or sprint to the endzone.
Madden NFL 10 Wii: Madden Showcase is a party game rather than a straight up sports title. You’ve played Madden for years with it’s ultra realism. It’s time to take a walk on the wild side. See the complete list of features after the break.
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I realize that most people go “ga ga” for Madden NFL every year, but to be honest I’ve always found college football far more exciting. Each year I look forward to EA’s incremental updates to their NCAA Football series just like the slavering Madden junkies do. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio and working at Ohio State has left me a bit numb to my hometown college team - The Ohio State Buckeyes because here college football is the second biggest thing next to God, but regardless there is something about playing college ball, racing for the Heisman that I just find more interesting. Maybe its the lack of professional polish, maybe its just the presentation and the crowd elements of the game that don’t exist in the NFL. This year EA is adding a number of needed defensive improvements as well as a TeamBuilder feature so players can completely create their own virtual college to compete against the best.

Its interesting to see how Madden and NCAA change and this years tweaks are bit different. You can find all the new features after the jump.

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If you haven’t heard yet, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has threatened, in a roundabout way, to drop his company’s support for PS3 if Sony doesn’t consider a price cut.

According to MCV, Kotick said in an interview,

“I’m getting concerned about Sony – the PS3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform. It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation.

They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony. When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP too.”

That’s a big shot fired across Sony’s bow. So, will Sony take him seriously, and how will they respond?

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It’s that time of year again: The time when Electronic Arts begins releasing its yearly stable of sports games. Yeah, I know. Who cares, right? Every year I see at least one person write something about how EA will eventually tire of this schedule, or else how the gamers will eventually reject it. After at least a decade of this, it doesn’t seem likely that either of those outcomes are imminent.

However, many of us are making progress. It’s been two years since I bought a Madden game, ditto for NCAA Football. I don’t remember the last basketball title I purchased, and I’ve managed to avoid succumbing to the urge to pick up FIFA, NHL, or Fight Night titles as well.

Unfortunately, I still have one crippling weakness: Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Yes, I realize that golf isn’t the ‘hardcore’ gamer’s choice, but for some reason I just can’t stop myself. Case in point: I headed into GameStop yesterday to pick up my copy of Ghostbusters. While I was standing in line at the counter, I was overcome with the urge to grab Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. I fought valiantly, but lo and behold, once I arrived at the front of the line, the first words out of my mouth were those.

What is driving me to do this?

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The rumor mill is chewing on a possible price drop for the PS3 this August to kick off EA’s latest Madden game. Unnamed inside sources have indicated to Industrygamers‘ James Brightman that “industry sources indicate Sony is planning a $100 price cut on the PS3 in mid-August, just prior the launch of Madden (8/18) and the start of the back to school shopping season. This will naturally be a positive for the industry.”

Those of you holding their breath with me at the end of Sony’s E3 2009 presentation only to be disappointed shouldn’t give up on seeing a PS3 price drop this year. At least PSP fans should be getting a price break on games and just more games altogether because of the PSP development kit price break announced at the press conference.

I could be paranoid, but I suspect there may be other reasons Sony is holding firm on the price of its overly expensive gaming console.

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BringIt is setting up a service with a secure site where gamers can compete for cash online 24/7. Any game platform with Internet connectivity can get in on the action.

“BringIt is going to transform the videogame landscape by allowing individuals to compete online for bragging rights and real money through skill-based gaming,” said BringIt CEO and founder Woody Levin. “Gamers have shown great interest and support for competitive gaming, so we are pleased to offer BringIt as a player-driven service that quickly connects gamers, allowing them to play legally for cash while getting a more intense competitive rush.”

Some of the titles in the service during the beta period are Madden NFL 2009, Gears of War 2, FIFA 2009, Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, Rock Band 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart. BringIt will accept PayPal and major credit cards for bets between $1 and $100,000. Read more about the terms and conditions from the press release after the break.

I should think that mixing videogames and betting will seriously up the danger factor for gamers with addictive personalities. It should also make BringIt a lot of money.
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Oh, snap! Two rappers are going at it again! So how’s this one going to go down? A bloody feud? A series of diss records? Nope, it’s all going to be settled by a video game. The whole thing started when The Game claimed he was the best Madden player around, to which Bow Wow responded:

“I’ve seen you do your thing in Madden. But I wanna let you know I will bust your ass in that Madden. We can get it poppin, on $100,000 dollars. The winner can take the money and donate it to charity. Live on YouTube. We’re all family. $100,000 ain’t s*** to you, let’s do it!”

Strong words; like those you might hear coming from the average twelve-year old on Xbox Live. The Game has now accepted the challenge, and the match was set to start on Monday. It’s also supposed to stream over KonsoleKingz.com, but it doesn’t seem to be up yet. No word on the winner yet, but…meh, who cares? Oh, Bow Wow, it’s stunts like this that will always make you “Lil’ Bow Wow” in our minds.

Via Konsole Kingz

There’s no need to recap the Madden Curse at this point; it’s become well known to even those who dislike the Madden series or football in general. And while I’m not superstitious (I’m only a little stitious), it’s hard to look at the series of events that have taken place with the careers of the NFL stars that have appeared on the cover of Madden. Only a few months ago, it seemed like this year was a lock for the curse to be broken — Brett Favre was retiring, so his career couldn’t really be affected.

If you don’t follow the NFL, here’s a quick recap of this year’s event in Favre-ville: After coming extremely close to a trip to the Super Bowl (losing to the New York Giants, who would go on to defeat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl), the Green Bay Packers announced Favre’s retirement on March 4 of this year. Just a few weeks later, word started circulating that Favre was interested in playing another season — which, while not entirely unusual for Favre in the offseason over the past few years, was bizarre in that he had actually retired rather than simply contemplating the possibility. Since then, things have went from bad to worse for the Packers as Favre recently decided to indeed make a comeback.

Now it’s being reported that Brett Favre has been traded to the New York Jets. And while I’m a fan of the Jets and I’m excited to have Favre, I can tell you this: The team isn’t winning the Super Bowl this year. So the Madden Curse is working on a variety of levels — fans are angry with the Packers for the way they handled the situation; Favre’s legacy is arguably tarnished; Favre is now going to be playing for a team that won only four games this past season and could easily miss the playoffs this season; and, scarily enough for EA, Madden NFL 09 is days away from release with a legendary quarterback wearing an outdated uniform on the cover. Yikes.

Where this goes from here is unclear, but one thing is for sure: The Madden Curse continues to live on.

All the votes are tallied for the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2008. Fallout 3 took two wins out of the three nominations it received including Best of Show. LittleBigPlanet was the only other game to win two categories and took Best Console Game. Here’s the official Game Critics Awards Winner’s Circle for 2008:

Best of Show
Fallout 3
(Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Original Game
Mirror’s Edge
(DICE/Electronic Arts for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 36)

Best Console Game
LittleBigPlanet
(Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3)

Best PC Game
Spore
(Maxis/EA)

Best Handheld Game
Resistance: Retribution
(Bend Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment for PSP)

Best Hardware/Peripheral
Rock Band 2 Ion “Drum Rocker” Set
(ION Audio/MTV Games for Xbox 360)

Best Action Game
Gears of War 2
(Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)

Best Action/Adventure Game
Dead Space
(EA Redwood Shores/EA for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Role Playing Game
Fallout 3
(Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Racing Game
Pure
(Black Rock/Disney Interactive Studios for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Sports Game
Madden NFL 09
(Tiburon/EA for All Systems)

Best Fighting Game
Street Fighter IV
(Capcom for Arcade)

Best Strategy Game
Tom Clancy’s EndWar
(Ubisoft Shanghai/Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle
LittleBigPlanet
(Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3)

Best Online Multiplayer
Left 4 Dead
(Valve/EAP for PC, Xbox 360)

Interestingly enough only one of the winning games, Madden NFL 09 will make it to the Nintendo Wii or the DS. Far be it from me to suggest that it could have anything to do with Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata’s declaration that E3 is no longer the appropriate venue for core games.

The PlayStation Portable Store is a no-show this week, but there’s more than enough good stuff on the PS3 to make up for it. (Assuming you have a PS3, of course, otherwise you’ll just be left envious of those console-playing folks.)

PixelJunk Eden is the obvious highlight, making it the third PixelJunk game from Q-Games to be released on the PlayStation Network. Eden is a bit more abstract than the previous two games, which you could easily identify as a tower defense and racing game. $10 is the price for the full version of the game, or you can check out the demo that was released last week and read 1UP’s review.

LEGO Indiana Jones joins Madden 09 and FaceBreaker as the three new game demos this week. Madden’s demo is disappointingly short, letting you only play through the Madden IQ test and then a single trip down the field as you try to score a touchdown with the Giants in the closing moments of this year’s Super Bowl. It doesn’t really give you a great look at the game while the FaceBreaker demo does let you try out the create-a-player mode with your camera and play as many 90 second bouts as you wish.

Check out the full list of content after the break, including four new Rock Band tracks and some Soul Calibur music, which isn’t the slightest bit cheap.

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