Football fans may have noticed that Brett Favre is still wearing his Packers uniform on the cover of Madden 09 rather than his swanky new Jets uniform. If you just can't stand to see Favre in the wrong uniform (or you're just obsessive compulsive), you can now download a new cover directly from EA. The only question now is what do you do with the old cover? We suppose it might work for papercraft. Failing that, it could make a decent rain hat in a pinch. Just use your imagination kids!
What's new in Madden this year? What's different? Find out what's good (and what's not so good) in our Madden 09 Season Update.
Welcome to X3F Season Update where we outline the additions and changes to major sports franchises. Looking to nab Madden NFL 09? This handy guide will walk you through some of the updates to the franchise and pinpoint issues we've heard from around the web. In this feature we tackle everything from the new Madden IQ feature to the utter failure that is the online leagues in the game. Jump in sports fans and find out everything you need to know about Madden NFL 2009.
It's Madden time kids. Specifically, it's Madden 09 time. With good old Brett Favre emblazoned on the cover (wearing his Packers uniform or his fancy new Jets uniform), we're sure copies will be flying off shelves and into man-filled living rooms everywhere. We're also fairly certain that the percentage of "sick days" will be pretty high this week. Get out the snacks, the (root)beer and the turduckens. It's game time.
If the foosball isn't your thing, take comfort in the fact that we're also getting Bionic Commando Rearmed on XBLA this week.
It's the week Xbox Live Arcade purchasers have been looking forward to, because Target stores are selling 1600 Microsoft points cards for the oh so nice price of $15. But that's not all, they also have CoD4, Battlefield: Bad Company or Army of Two for $50 and are also giving away $40 gift cards with the purchase of any Xbox 360 console and Madden 09. Best Buy has a similar deal, where if you buy an Xbox 360 console and Madden 09 they'll throw in a free wireless controller. Other than that and Turok for $30, Best Buy's 360 deals are kind of lacking this week. Over at Circuit City, they're selling CoD4 for $40, Gears of War for $30, Juiced for $15, and giving away a free mini football with Madden 09 or a free $5 gift card if you purchase Madden 09 online. Finally, Circuit City is handing out free $30 gift card with the purchase of any Xbox 360 console.
Happy shopping and be sure to stock up on those cheap Microsoft points, because as you're well aware, Castle Crashers is releasing soon!
You may have heard the news that Brett Favre has nabbed himself a one-way ticket out of retirement town. With Favre leaving his lengthy retirement behind to join the New York Jets, many wondered if his Madden NFL 09 cover would come in a new Jet-flavor. EA Sports has debunked notions to IGN that there are any plans to release a second printing of the cover with Favre as a Jet. Prior to the announcement of the trade, EA Sports head-honcho, Peter Moore, told CrispyGamer that the developer had a plan in place for a possible Favre move. Day one downloadable content, anyone?
Update: EA has confirmed they will release a day-one update that places Favre on the Jets (and reflecting any other relevant roster changes), reports MTV Multiplayer. EA has also announced they will offer a downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print out the Jets cover and insert it into their copy of Madden NFL 09.
Calling all pigskin fans. Available now on the Xbox Live Marketplace is a demo for Madden NFL 09 clocking in at a chunky 1.09GB. The demo features two playable modes, the Madden Test and a single Madden Moment scenario.
The Madden Test is a virtual drill simulator that puts players through various situations used to adjust the skill level of the game based on overall performance. After running four drills -- offensive and defensive rushing and passing -- the game adapts the difficulty which then fluctuates based on future performance. Long story short, if players are struggling the game gets easier and more difficult if they are mopping the field with their opponents. The second part of the demo is a single Madden Moment situation which is a mode that replays classic football scenarios and challenges players to complete specific tasks. The Madden Moment included in the demo gives players 1 minute and 30 seconds to score as the New York Giants versus the New England Patriots faced with a 4th and 1 situation -- a moment somewhat pulled from Super Bowl XLII.
If you're a football fan you owe it to yourself to check out the demo. After a quick play through we can easily say Madden hasn't looked this good in years. Also, the special edition comes with a playable version of Madden 93. We'll wait here while you go to preorder it.
Ah, sports games. You do not get enough love from us. But here's a freebie! Madden NFL 09 lands in stores this August and, so far, looks like a solid entry into the franchise. The latest trailer, now available on the Xbox Live Markeplace, focuses on the in-game celebration and frustration animations. Shockingly given permission for celebrations by the (usually) tight-laced NFL, EA Sports shows off a a handful of new moves you can expect to see in the endzone. Let's hope EA consulted with Ocho Cinco for the sake of realism (Sorry, maybe three of you know what I'm even talking about.)
Looking to expand their already rich library, EA just announced some new Rock Band downloadable content that's headed our way as part of a partnership between them and Madden NFL 09. According to the press release, "'Rock Band' will feature music from the 'Madden 09' soundtrack in its weekly downloadable songs update, a handful at a time, over several weeks, with each song carrying the 'Madden' brand." Though, at what price, which tracks from the album and when they'll release are all question marks right now. That said, we do know every track that is on the soundtrack (conveniently listed after the break) and it's also interesting to note that some of the Madden 09 soundtrack songs are already available as Rock Band DLC including The Offspring's "Hammerhead" and Disturbed's "Inside the Fire". Whatever happens, we say keep the DLC coming.
Posted Jun 30th 2008 3:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Our buddies over at 360Sync have already gotten into their Fall football mindset, exclusively releasing a list of Madden NFL 09's achievements. The complete list can be viewed after the jump, but we came across a few achievement highlights including the "Steal Their Thunder" achievement for stealing your opponent's celebration (nice use of T.O.'s mug) and "Midway Monster" where you have to create a legendary player from the past. We're also mildly offended by the "Slam Dunk All-Star" where it awards 30 Gamerscore to those who "dunk the ball over the goalpost (or at least attempt to) after a touchdown." Attempt? Psht, when we go for the goalpost dunk we don't attempt, we execute with flair.
Yeah we know the post title is a bit needlesssly grim. Let's face it, we're going to still be getting some information about releases from the ESRB. And hopefully some publishers simply won't much care about putting their games up there early. Others like Playful Entertainment, publishers of Ticket to Ride, seem to still want their ratings to go up at the last minute (TtR releases this week).
However, if we're to believe that the publishers of the other two XBLA games on the list (Rocket Riot and Cribbage) also want their games to pop up at the last minute, we could be looking at the first hint of next week's releases. Or we could just be paranoid about this whole ESRB thing.
Posted Jun 17th 2008 3:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Continuing the Madden fantasy football tradition, EA Sports recently announced that fantasy.easports.com will again be fully functioning this year, with new website enhancements, a Live Draft Tracker, a new Live Score Tracker and added Xbox 360 functionality where you'll be able to import your fantasy sports team into Madden NFL 09. Details are light, but EA promises that you'll be able to take your fantasy team into any of Madden 09's gametypes including online versus, play now and franchise modes. Quite nifty. So, we have to ask, are you getting more impressed with this year's Madden offerings?
On a mission to prove that Madden NFL 09 is a ginormous step forward in the Madden franchise, EA released a new visual comparison video that pits the graphics of Madden 08 versus Madden 09. And, as you can see above, Madden 09 does actually look better, especially when it comes to weather effects and lighting. The bigger, more pressing question is whether or not we should praise EA for adding such improvements that are normally commonplace among game sequels. It's a step in the right direction, but we have a feeling Madden fans are demanding a lot more.
Posted May 19th 2008 3:45PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Being added to Madden NFL 09's ever growing list of new additions comes the announcement of an "interesting" feature which is being called "EA Sports Rewind". How it's explained, this new feature will allow players to go back in time, take a down back and re-do what just occurred if one wasn't happy with the previous outcome. In it's simplest form, it's a do-over. The rewind ability can also be used defensively against your opponent, thus negating any progress or scoring they did the play before. Also, just in case you were wondering, before the game starts players will be able to specify the number of rewinds each team gets per game.
It's an interesting feature add, but we can't help but wonder how much it'll actually be used between multiplayer foes or how annoying it'll end up being.
Put down Viva Pinata (game save first) and your too pink controller, because it's time to man up with some football roughness. EA just released a new Madden NFL 09 "Tackle Animations Trailer" that showcases this year's new tackling engine and a bunch of ... well, tackles. The game's tackling animations aren't bad at all and are some of the best Madden tackling animations to date. But we think the problem lies in with the fact that they are animations. Where's the oh so enjoyable ragdoll physics? Give us Euphoria-style goodness in Madden and we may actually support this new fangled "football" thing.
It's Gamestop's Madden Monday and that means we get treated to yet another interesting Madden NFL 09 feature reveal, and this week we learn about the ability to return missed field goals. This feature should be pretty self-explanatory, when a field goal is attempted and missed, your opponent can return it for a possible score. Group breaking feature add, no? In all honestly though, the ability to return missed field goals is a no-brainer and should've been in Madden ever since Hester was first conceived. Returnable missed field goals, user-controlled celebrations and a heaping helping of Favre ... Madden 09 is going to be a-maz-ing!