New Prizefighter screen and box art

2K Sports has released a new screenshot from Don King Presents: Prizefighter that shows off an arena and the surrounding fight atmosphere. They’ve also revealed the final box art for the game which is now (officially) set to be released on June 10th for the Xbox 360 and later this year for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

You can view the images by clicking the thumbnails below or check out all of them in the screenshot gallery.

New commentators for Madden 09

We’ve known for a while now that the much hated radio announcer was going to be replaced in Madden 09. The general assumption was there would be a return to basic commentary although there are several directions they could go. In a recent interview EA’s audio director addressed the topic.

I know it’s kind of early in the year but can you give us an idea of what kind of sound changes we can expect from Madden, NHL, FIFA – all the different sports games?

AH: I have to be careful about this. Although I can… We are making a change in the Madden commentators. I can’t mention who they are. We are using some of the biggest names in the business. We listened to the fans and we are making a change. And that will be more than one. It will be a fantastic year for Madden fans, I think they’re gonna be thrilled with this new direction. I don’t think I can say much more than that.

So who do you think it could be or who are you hoping for? The Monday Night Football crew would make sense given the license although EA hasn’t shown much interest in utilizing it for this type of thing so far. You can’t rule out the Michaels-Madden combo although the secrecy suggests it’s a new group of personalities. I’d like to see one of the duos from Fox which I find consistently to be the the best. If it really is big names then outside of the MNF group and Madden it could be the combo of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. As long as Bryant Gumble isn’t involved in any way it’ll be an improvement.

No framerate fix for PS3 MLB 2K8

Earlier today 2K Sports sent out a press release regarding the patches that are being worked on for MLB 2K8. Amusingly it was the very same statement word for word that was given to Game Informer and discussed here 10 days ago. I wonder if that means the “shortly” it will supposedly be available relates to now or when it was originally communicated. As I eluded to when breaking down the statement, 2K was ignoring the PS3 consumers and not addressing the framerate issues while doing so on the 360 side.

Loot-Ninja contacted 2K and received specific confirmation that there is no framerate fix coming for the PS3. The only issues that will be addressed in patches are the framerate for the 360 and the Padres’ roster glitch for both systems. There are no other changes to be expected out of these patches and no others currently in the works.

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MLB 08: The Show roster update 3/24

This week’s roster update for MLB 08: The Show is out and it contains 37 changes. They’ve highlighted the specific ones below.

RP Ryan Z Braun moved from Royals Relief to Royals Minors.
SP John Lackey moved from Angels Starting to Angels Minors.
RP Anthony Reyes moved from Cardinals Starting to Cardinals Relief.
3B Nomar Garciaparra moved from Dodgers Position to Minors.
1B Olmedo Saenz moved from Mets Position to Mets Minors.
CF Brady Clark moved from Free Agent to No Team.
RP Kyle Davies moved from Royals Minors to Royals Relief.
SP Kyle Lohse moved from Free Agent to Cardinals Starting.

The regular season is about to begin! It is very much a relief to know that a new very detailed roster update is coming on a week-to-week basis instead of wondering when the next will arrive and if it’ll even be any good to begin with. One benefit of this is that players not in the MLBPA will be added into the game immediately after they’re eligible. So next week’s update should be very significant as it will contain new players and finalized regular season rosters.

NCAA Football player model comparison

With the release of two new screenshots from NCAA Football 09 came a description of how some of the character models have been improved. Some people have noticed differences while others have stated that they look the same.

There was a huge upgrade from 07 to 08 and because of that this year the adjustments are going to be a little more subtle. The exception might be the lineman who they’ve apparently worked on a great deal.

So using EA Sports World I went into 08 and took some screenshots of the same players in similar poses. These comparisons should accent some of the changes that have been made. Click the thumbnails below to view the images.

More NBA Live 09 tidbits

At the end of last month EA started up what should be a regular event with NBA Live producer Brian Ullrich. The “One on One” column features questions from the community in regard to NBA Live 09 or the franchise in general.

10 more questions have now been asked and answered but the following two were the most interesting in terms of changes for 09.

2.) “Any changes in the plan for icon passing?”

A: Yes. We’re going to get rid of the delay in them coming up and we’re going to put the direct pass icons above the player’s heads to make them more visible.

This was one of the things I noted on several occasions as being a problem. Specifically the delay in them coming up as well as using the same button for alley-oops. Hopefully they’ve moved the alley-oops to a different button but unfortunately that wasn’t stated specifically here.

3.) “Will it be harder to make a free throw with Shaq than with Nash?”

A: We’re implementing a whole new free throw system this year, and yes it will be harder to make free throws with bad free throw shooters like Shaq. The current system was an experiment that we tried a few years ago to make free throws feel “next gen”, but the truth is we made things too complicated and difficult. The new system will be much easier to understand and execute.

I’ve basically just used B to shoot free throws (it shoots them automatically at the percentage of the player). I’ve just never cared much for the right stick free throws. I wonder if they’ll be going back to timing based using a button. Maybe something along the lines of a pitching meter in baseball games.

You can check out the full “One on One” column here.

Padre’s Road to the Show part three

After spending more time in RTTS as a shortstop I decided to start over as a relief pitcher. As enjoyable as the mode can be as a position player it is much more fun as a pitcher. There is less loading to deal with since it isn’t cutting into the game for single defensive plays which are boring anyway, and there is less frustrating time wasted while a teammate hits and you’re stuck on base.

As a relief pitcher I can breeze through each game in probably 3-4 minutes as opposed to 6-7 and it also means that I don’t get into every game. That is a big difference when going through lengthy seasons.

So Padre joined up this time with the Tampa Bay Rays and struggled initially. He began with in AA with the Montgomery Biscuits as the right handed setup man. Early in the season there were some struggles as Padre had an ERA hovering between 6.00 and 9.50 and an unimpressive WHIP. The only stat that he was doing well in was strikeouts averaging over one an inning.

However as the season has progressed he has improved significantly. Over the last 18 innings he has only given up one earned run. Padre is currently 2-2 with 2 saves, 11 holds, a 3.06 ERA, and a 1.08 WHIP. In 47 innings pitched he has 38 strikeouts so that ratio has actually dropped. He also has one blown save from early in the year.

Padre is now the main setup man and after going through the next set of goals may ask for a shot at being the closer or a move up to AAA. However right now the team is in first place at the All-Star break so there is no need to shake things up and risk upsetting the manager.

Tecmo Bowl 2008 platform uncertainty

Tecmo Bowl 2008 was announced back in May of last year however since there has essentially been no follow up at all. Even where it’s headed is in question as the only hint they gave at the time was how it would “probably not be on the platform that you’re expecting”.

In the January issue of EGM it was reported that the game was being made for the 360 and PS3. Now though the same publication is suggesting that it will be a Wii title. So once again we are back at square one wondering what the game is being developed for. Considering it is supposed to be out sometime this year you’d imagine that they’d want to establish that at some point and end the speculation. I get the sense that very few people even know that a new Tecmo Bowl is in the works.

It could be fun on the Wii although I don’t think it would get the same fanfare that it would have on the other two consoles. Most of the people who grew up playing the game have moved on to the more advanced 360 or PS3. It would have the potential to be a complimentary title to Madden and NCAA in a way that All-Pro Football was unable to capitalize on. Being on the Wii I just don’t believe it would garner anywhere near the same level of interest especially since it won’t have the NFL license and there would probably be less opportunity for extensive customization (if any at all) there.

NBA Live OTP Nights to return for Playoffs

There will be a break from the weekly NBA Live 08 Online Team Play nights until right around the start of the NBA Playoffs which begin on Saturday April 19th. When the OTP nights return they’ll feature playoff matchups with polls for one Western Conference and one Eastern Conference game.

With the NCAA Tournament taking place and increasing difficulty in being able to attend each week it made sense just to hold off until then. I’ve really enjoyed the playing so I’ll be looking forward to more.

Prizefighter release date practically official

Yesterday I speculated that Don King Presents: Prizefighter appeared to be headed for a June release. Later in the morning retailers such as Gamestop, EB Games, and Gamefly updated their release date to June 10th for the 360. The Wii and DS versions of the game apparently won’t be coming until later this year as they have a September placeholder.

While 2K Sports has yet to give a specific date for the game (likely won’t see that until it is attached to a press release) there is little reason not to believe this has become the targeted date for the game. I laid out several reasons why I felt it had slipped into June and those all match up. It certainly seems that there was some information distributed to retailers because it would be quite the coincidence that more than one would update at the same time with the same specific date.

Now comes news that the “Meet Me in St. Louis” event will be broadcast for free on Don King’s new official internet TV network on Thursday March 27th. The event is sponsored by Prizefighter which is explicitly stated as releasing on June 10th. There will possibly be advertisements that display that during the broadcast as this appears to be the first promotional opportunity they are taking advantage of for the game. There was also a trailer released today on the website that was quickly removed. That may be what is used next week during the broadcast.

The only thing about the date is that EA Sports is set to release Nascar 09 on June 10th as well. If Prizefighter ends up being an EA game (depending on how the purchase attempt of Take Two plays out) I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up falling back a couple weeks. But for now it appears that the 360 version of Prizefighter has settled on that June 10th date.