For a long time I’ve been planning on expanding the coverage offered at the site. In general the same people interested in video games are also into other forms of entertainment. For myself that has always been primarily movies and television. While there are plans for even more dedicated areas of expansion, the first branch to go live will concentrate on movies and TV info, news, analysis, and reviews. The url for all entertainment content will be hosted at http://entertainment.pastapadre.com

After this initial posting your normal experience at Pastapadre.com will remain the same. It will still be the central location for sports gaming news and content and will not be interrupted by unrelated stories. However if you are interested in the other branches there will be links to them in the nav bar at the top of the page and make sure to bookmark them!

It is an exciting time for all NFL fans as the season is set to being this Thursday night with a great game as the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers host the team that finished last season with the best regular season record in the Tennessee Titans.

During the game I’ll be hosting a live blog here on the site. The posting will go up about a half hour before kickoff that contains the chat program. Feel free to join along and discuss the game in progress with myself and other members of the community.

I’ve also set up the NFL Pickem for this season. The winner will get the video game of their choice at any point next year. To sign in and make your picks go to the ESPN Pigskin Pickem page and create your entry. Then search to join the group Pastapadre.com and the password will be padrepickem. Once the season officially begins no more entries can make their way into the group and during the year there will be no dropping of the lowest weeks so it is important to always get your picks in to have a chance.

I will have a copy of Madden 10 tomorrow, at which point the coverage surge will begin sometime in the evening. Expect lots of HD videos, online impressions, an Online Franchise walk-through, general impressions, and more. I’ll also be leaving random observations and thoughts as I go through the game on Twitter. New content will be posted each day up through release next Friday. As always feel free to leave suggestions in the comments for what you would like to see. Particular match-ups for videos or areas of the game you’d like to hear opinions on are more than welcome.

I’m now preparing to head out to LA for E3 early in the morning. While the actual event begins on Tuesday there is a ton of gaming news expected to start flowing out on Monday. That includes the EA Press Conference scheduled to begin at 2pt/5et.

I’ll be in attendance and, connection permitting, will be live blogging here on the site and live tweeting. You can also follow along live with the free streaming video. This press conference is where multiple announcements (primarily online related) will be made for Madden 10 and other EA Sports titles.

Following that up in the evening look for articles on the new features/modes and a podcast or vidcast from myself and OS’ Chase Becotte. That’ll then lead into impressions, videos, pictures, and more from the event floor beginning Tuesday morning.

Full E3 Preview
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To provide some advance notice I wanted to mention I’ll be on EA Sports Live tomorrow (Friday). In what will become a weekly segment I’ll be making an appearance to discuss news from the sports gaming world. Tomorrow expect a good deal of talk about UFC 2009 Undisputed as the release and response to the game has been in the spotlight this week.

To listen to the show at 3pm ET / noon PT click here. I’ll be sure to drop a reminder on Twitter prior to the show as well.

Update: Won’t be talking UFC or Tiger, instead it’ll be more of an introduction and then in future weeks will discuss the gaming news.

Today is shaping up to be a an extremely exciting one for the NFL and Madden 10. It’s round one and two of the NFL Draft which right now looks to be one of the most intriguing and unpredictable ones in memory. But also as the draft progresses there will be a lot of Madden content to go along with it.

EA Sports Live will be airing throughout the first round with special guests in studio and calling in. For the first rounders once they are selected their screenshot in their respective uniform will be posted along with their player ratings. For the second rounders it will just be the ratings.

I’ll have running commentary on the site from the start of the NFL Draft and through the end of round two along with updating through Twitter. I’m also scheduled to call into EA Sports Live at some point during the day.

For those of you who missed it check out my Twitter feed where I was able to break some Madden 10 ratings info yesterday. Enjoy the draft and be sure to stop in for the collection of content and running commentary all day long!

I’ve arrived in New York for a some events taking place beginning tomorrow. Here is what to expect for the remainder of the week leading up to a ton of stuff that will go on Saturday in conjunction with the NFL Draft.

• EA Sports Season Preview Event (Thursday). Several games will be on display including NCAA Football 10 and Madden 10. There will be some embargoes involved and I’ll update on those parameters once I’ve received the details.

• Draft Event Premiere (Thursday evening). There will be several athletes in attendance and the lovely Erin Andrews. Expected to be there are Michael Crabtree, Aaron Curry, Brian Johnson, Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford, Brian Cushing, Malcolm Jenkins, Knowshon Moreno, Brian Orkapo, and likely some more. I will have the opportunity to sit down and ask questions of some of them.

• At 1230am (early Friday morning) the premiere video of Madden 10 will be featured on Spike’s Gametrailers TV. Soon after airing it will be available to watch online.

• Madden cover reveal (Friday). The cover athlete will be officially unveiled with some accompanying hoopla.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter as I’ll be utilizing that for quick updates, various tidbits, posting (non-game) pictures, and even asking for suggestions of different questions to pose to producers and athletes. I will look to get an article up on late Thursday night or Friday morning recapping Thursday’s events. Again though I am uncertain of what the embargoes will cover so in the meantime outside of the announcements being made don’t expect a lot of game related content to come out of it immediately.

With the NCAA Tournament concluding as North Carolina routed Michigan State I wanted to wrap up the two contests that were decided with that result.

Congrats to brob1 for finishing at the top of the Tournament Challenge. He outdid 99.3% of the entrants in the entire ESPN TC which is an impressive accomplishment. Contact me via email so we can discuss the details of your XBL or PSN card.

For the 3 on 3 NHL Arcade code there were four people who correctly chose the game winners. They were assigned numbers and then chosen at random. Sroeland comes away with the code. Email me or direct message me on Twitter and I’ll send it off to you.

Thanks everyone for participating. I should have a new contest up sometime next week.

Here is another opportunity to win a free download code this time for 3 on 3 NHL Arcade (360). To qualify you need to post a comment on this articule using your IntenseDebate account with your winners of the Michigan State vs Connecticut and Villanova vs North Carolina games and then your choice to win the National Championship. Everyone who qualifies and correctly predicts the three games will be in the drawing for the code.

Also still in play is the $20 XBL or PSN card to the winner of the Bracket Challenge. DeepPurple21 leads going into the Final Four and has UConn picked to win it all. But there are several people on his tail that have UNC so it looks like it will go down to the wire.

After compiling the commenters on the previous article and replies on Twitter I came away with the winner as determined by random.org being knl3011. Congrats and check your direct messages on Twitter for the NCAA Basketball 09 March Madness Edition download code!

The comment threads have definitely improved thanks to the increased usage of IntenseDebate accounts. As I mentioned before due to the positive response these contests have brought I’ll be doing them on a semi-regular basis going forward. Prizes will vary. Look for the next one to come sometime next week.