After the success of the New Years Day Winter Classic I proposed that it was time for the return of an arcade style hockey game. 63% of the poll respondents stated that they would possibly be interested in such a title. While this isn’t exactly what I had in mind it does come close.

EA Sports is developing 3 on 3 NHL Arcade for the 360 and PS3. The game will be released in February and will be available to download on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network. The price has been set at $10/800 MS points. IGN has the first details.

With no rules to hinder the action, 3 on 3 NHL Arcade will allow gamers to enjoy the sport without the having to worry about adhering to icing, checking and other cumbersome regulations. And, the all-new physics engine that was introduced in NHL 09 is back, but with one small adjustment – now each hit is specifically designed to be absolutely huge. Now gamers will be able to hit the opposition with such bone-crushing checks that his victim will literally be blasted clear over the boards and off the rink.

To me this sounds like it could be a lot of fun and for the relatively low price it could provide solid value. It will probably end up being the first sports game I’ll download out of the Marketplace. I only wish the online play was a full 3 on 3 OTP style.

How many of you out there will consider purchasing 3 on 3 NHL Arcade? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

The 14th roster update for Madden 09 is expected to be available tomorrow December 5th. This one appears to be more significant than the last several weeks. Maybe as we cross into the final quarter of the season certain players who have emerged can’t be ignored any longer and others who have not lived up to expectations are receiving corrections.

With weekly updates it has limited the jump or drop players have seen in their ratings. Regardless of that players like Steve Slaton should receive more than a single point boost which in itself is practically nothing. Same on the other end where a Chad Johnson drops a single point down to a still way too high 96 despite a sub-par season.

Continue on for the list of transactions, ratings changes, injuries, and contract extensions.

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One of the supposed fixes in the patch for NBA 2K9 was to make the 5 on 5 Team-Up mode playable. The mode has never worked properly having been inflicted with crippling lag (the worst I’ve ever experienced), disconnects, and frustration. I was concerned with the wording in the patch details and wanted to see how much it improved the performance. Two months after release would Team-Up mode actually function properly and deliver what was advertised?

The short answer to that is no. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to play it with very little success. The only games I was able to load into and play involved only a couple other users. There was no success with 7 or more users involved. Here are a couple of the instances I experienced and a few thoughts on it.

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Not long ago I posted about the introduction of Nascar to the Wii. Rather than a sim representation EA Sports decided to go with a Kart theme. While my general feeling that the Wii audience won’t be interested in a game with Nascar in the title still stands, we do have some more details on Nascar Kart Racing via ESPN’s Jon Robinson which make it sounds as though it could turn out to be a fun game.

So what should you expect? How about Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart dropping oil slicks behind them as they race for first, the Dover monster starring as an actual monster on the track, and teammates who are able to work together to slingshot one another to first place.

The game is currently slated for a February 10th release at a price of $39.99. Recent titles on the Wii have been disappointments as has the start to the Freestyle brand. That is more than enough reason to remain skeptical. It will be interesting to see if they can successfully mesh a sport that has very little casual attraction and create a game that will be appealing to consumers who aren’t fans of Nascar.

2K Sports has generally supported their more prominent titles with at least a patch and a handful of roster updates throughout the year. NBA 2K9 has already received a significant patch and effort has been made to provide more roster updates than in the past. On the other hand the lesser-regarded 2K titles have gone largely ignored post-release, one recent example being Prizefighter which did not receive a patch.

News comes now that there will be no patch for NHL 2K9 and to date there hasn’t even been a single roster update. While the game showed improvement with the studio move to Visual Concepts that hasn’t resulted in better post-ship support.

Last year just a few weeks before 2K canceled College Hoops I had an article about how the sales for college basketball games didn’t seem to be able to support two titles. While their MLB and NBA franchises are completely safe in this regard, NHL would appear to be in a similar situation. The market for hockey games is relatively small and this year EA Sports’ NHL 09 captured a large majority of those sales.

With Take Two struggling financially it once again becomes a question of whether the license and development costs support producing the game based on potential sales. The absense of support for the game following its release could potentially be a sign it is on the way to being cut. Even if the series continues the low level of support and concern isn’t very encouraging.

Tiger Woods 09 delivered a solid all-around experience while enhancing the online enabled aspects of the game. As with many of the other EA Sports titles it attempted to increase its accessibility, here with the addition of Hank Haney assisting with your progression. Ultimately it lands at #10 in my Top Games of 2008 and not any higher because it is golf and there is a limit to how much I can get out of it.

Improvements were made to GamerNet which is an innovative feature introduced in 08. The aspect I enjoyed most though was the simultaneous online play. What used to be a slow and somewhat boring time playing online now moves along at a much more enjoyable rate. Being able to see the colored ball trails of your opponents is a nice touch and provides that interactive feel.

Tiger is easily the best sports game representation found on the Wii. With as close to 1:1 swing motion the Wiimote can provide there is even more potential for 2010 when the Wii MotionPlus will be available. Despite the console not being known for its online options the simultaneous online play was available on this version also and performed surprisingly well. It may not have the graphical prowess of the 360 and PS3 versions but it conformed to the strengths of the Wii without being dumbed down. There is a reason why it continues to be the strongest seller for EA Sports on the system.

The patch for NBA 2K9 will be available for the PS3 early Wednesday morning and should follow for the 360 in the near future. There are a pretty significant number of fixes and improvements included in the patch. It’ll be interesting to find out how much is seen in regards to online play, especially with the Team-Up mode. Continue on for the full list of what has been addressed.

Update: The patch is already out for the 360.

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A few games have now been played since the trading that went down in the NBA between the Knicks, Warriors, and Clippers. The Knicks gained Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley, and Al Harrington. The Warriors received Jamal Crawford while the Clippers got Zach Randolph. Now that NBA Live 09 has received the data from these first games with their new teams we can look at how the players are adapting via their DNA make-up as of 11/30.

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UFC 2009 Undisputed is an intriguing release coming down the line and THQ has released some new screenshots (can be found in the gallery) as well as revealed some more of the eventual roster for the game. IGN recently had the announcement of two more fighters being Kenny Florian and Joe Stevenson. Check out the Wikipedia page for the current list of 16 confirmed fighters of what should eventually be a roster of over 100.

The game has been in the press recently due to the controversy over UFC requiring their fighters to sign lifetime exclusive videogame contracts and releasing those from the organization who refused. Though no official release date has been announced various retailers have it slated as arriving the last week of May.

How much interest do you have in a UFC game? Vote in the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be listing out my Top 10 Games of the Year. This won’t be a recap of the 10 highest rated games per Metacritic…reviews be damned. However it will be a summary of how I view the them from what has turned out to be one of the best years ever for sports gamers.

Some of the factors of consideration I have gone through are longevity, fun factor, general gameplay, technical achievements, online experience, and innovation. Last year the game that would’ve taken the top spot was The BIGS. This year there are several worthy candidates for the honor.

Before I begin listing off the best games I thought I would mention the two games I liked the least of any this year…FIFA Street 3 and Facebreaker.

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