I finally picked up a Nintendo Wii just recently (Boom Blox is currently my favorite game across any of the three consoles) so look forward to some coverage of sports titles on the Wii going forward. The first on the docket is NCAA Football 09. For the first time the NCAA Football series is on the Wii and it would appear to be an offering with a lot of potential (outside of the omission of online play which Madden 09 on the Wii has).

This is the first game that will tout EA Sports’ new “All-Play” for their Wii games which is the furthering of the “Family Play” initiative started last year. The idea behind it is to create an environment where the games aren’t too intimidating or confusing for newcomers. It will offer options for simpler controls while making the games quicker to play. Apparently the Wii titles will be receiving more attention as they’ll be designing the games completely to tailor to the unique experience that the console offers instead of just taking ports and tacking on motion controls and mini-games.

IGN has released the first details on what to expect from the game along with Gamespot adding the first three gameplay videos in the form of mascot games. Continue on for a recap of the info and to view the videos.

Read the rest of this entry »

EA Sports has released some new screenshots from Facebreaker featuring a character going by the name Voodoo along with a new trailer which puts the spotlight on Steve. While there has been an inordinate amount of screenshots and trailers released for the game thus far they have generally centered around Romeo and to a lesser extent Molotov. The original trailer gave glances at a few more characters to come but this is the first time they’ve really shifted the focus to others.

You can check out all 10 of the new screens at the official Facebreaker website. Continue on to watch the trailer.

Read the rest of this entry »

With just one month to go until release the first gameplay footage from Don King Presents: Prizefighter has finally appeared. Up until now the storyline has seemed intriguing (despite it being linear) but there have been questions around the gameplay and why no videos had been shown or hands-on time been given.

In a demonstration done on the Gamespot program “On The Spot” executive producer of the game Matthew Seymour walks through some of the aspects of the story mode and fighter creation before getting to the gameplay.

Needless to say the action looks…well the best way to put it may be awkward. I still think that the story mode could be fun to play through but the gameplay shown is rough to watch.

With this being the first look at the game and the big news coming out on Fight Night Round 4 yesterday, it is an uphill battle to keep or gain the interest of gamers right now considering the position Prizefighter has placed itself in.

In something that may be even more interesting than the video, a representative of 2K Sports on the company’s official forum (2K Admin Ron) is publically berating the game’s executive producer for his “ridiculous representation of the game“, that it looked like he had never played the game before, and that the game was made a mockery of. All of those quotes and more can be found in the reaction thread in their forums.

Continue on to view the video which runs for approximately 11 minutes.

Read the rest of this entry »

One thing that has started to become more common is the comparison being displayed of the upcoming release to the previous one. In many cases the initial reaction to seeing screenshots and videos is that the changes are minimal. This was the case with the first player model screenshots for NCAA Football 09, that was until they were compared directly with 08’s.

The first screenshots from Tiger Woods 09 weren’t really all that exciting. They practically looked identical to what was seen in 08. And it could very well be the case that not much has been done with what they specifically showed. However EA has now released a comparison video displaying the drastic enhancement to the courses with the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes at Sawgrass as the focus. The lighting in particular is much better, something that seems to be the case with all of the upcoming releases. Continue on to view the video or check it out in larger form at the Tiger Woods 09 website which launched today.

Read the rest of this entry »

EA Sports has released a new short trailer for Madden 09. This one features Brett Favre and the Packers playing in the snow, mentions the over 85 new features and enhancements, and claims the 20th anniversary edition will redefine the franchise.

I suspect this was originally intended to be the first look at the game in action. This trailer differs from the debut video in that it is more of a traditional trailer whereas the first one showed off extensive gameplay along with enhancements to the presentation.

Continue on to view the trailer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently EA Sports revealed the first features for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09. This year will bring about the addition of Tiger’s real life personal coach Hank Haney along with improvements to Gamernet and online play. This features trailer includes a look at those as well as tuning your clubs, new courses, and dynamic golfer skills.

I especially like how they’ve streamlined the online play experience while still including visual indications of how your opponents are doing. Continue on to view the trailer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gametrailers has posted the first truly representative footage from Madden 09. Unlike the usual first trailers for games this one focuses on displaying gameplay and some of the new elements that surround it. Just recently it was IGN that put out a short clip showing off Madden 09 which came from an especially early build of the game (didn’t include commentators and or even show off the play call screen or any presentation enhancements). About the only thing to get out of it was the snow visuals and new score/info bar. Obviously that was not the first look that EA had expected everyone would get to see of the game. So they’ve answered with a new video that, per producer Phil Frazier, spotlights:

- New Game Intro with Stadium Fly-In
- Major Graphical upgrades- from grass to players to lighting
- New Play Call with On-Demand Options including Stats and Instant Replay
- New Banners including Starting Line-Ups
- Smoother looking tackles and animations
- New QB movements
- Break-away camera
- User Controlled Celebrations

Overall the video looks fantastic with the atmosphere and presentation having received huge lifts. Everything noted above appear as though they’ll be very positive additions.

I would like to see the camera flashes toned down or removed during regular gameplay. I have never noticed flashes during the course of a game let alone constantly throughout (although I can understand having them at kickoff or on the final snap of a victory at home). They’re more distracting than anything during standard play. The user controlled celebration squares of light in the end zone detract from the realistic feel as well and they’d be better off without them. I’m not a big fan of the kickoff cinematic either considering in 08 it meant you could avoid kicking to a dangerous returner such as Devin Hester. If it would just cut off immediately after the kick, or if they had the option to have one returner handle it instead of two back deep, that wouldn’t be the case.

Continue on to view the video.

Read the rest of this entry »

IGN has posted up four new gameplay clips from NCAA Football 09. These offer easily the best representation of the game so far, although I didn’t really see any “wow” moments in these like were witnessed first hand. Don’t forget both parts of my hands-on with NCAA 09 will be coming tonight at midnight eastern. Make sure to check out the videos in high-res by clicking here.

As I alluded to yesterday it appears that Facebreaker will be releasing for the PS3/360 earlier than originally anticipated. The dates have been moved up to the first week of September. I don’t know if that’ll stick considering NFL Head Coach 09 is releasing that same week and NHL 09 soon after but seeing the possible release move nearer does explain part of why EA has been showing so much of it so early.

There are now four additional screenshots (found in the gallery) and a new video which can be viewed by continuing on. This one focuses on the character Romeo which has been the one that’s been the most visible since the start. It’ll be interesting when to find out about some of the ones who have been seen in the trailer and this video but little is known about.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well I was wrong about nothing significant coming out in an effort to avoid getting swallowed up by GTA IV on its release day. IGN has the full details on Madden 09’s online leagues via an interview with two of the Madden developers which you can read in its entirety here. It focuses on the league aspect but later in the interview shifts to discussion on the Virtual Training Center. They’ve also posted up the first gameplay footage. You can watch that video by clicking here (make sure to watch in hi-res).

Flex scheduling is cool for a multitude of reasons. First off, flex scheduling is what we refer to as an ‘open schedule’ with no set order. What this means is that if you log online and ten members of your twenty member league are online, you can play any of your opponents that you have remaining games with. The nice thing about this is that it doesn’t allow for leagues to get stale or held up waiting for others to play. If the stars align, and you have all of your opponents online, you can, in theory, knock out your entire league in one day.

Leagues are always difficult to see through to the end. You need a good group of owners and a wide array of options for the commissioner. I like the idea of offering open schedules and providing the ability to have the same team controlled by different owners. Those are the type of options that are helpful and assist in making them more likely to succeed.

It sounds as though they’ve thought them through pretty well and aren’t the glorified tournaments recently touted as leagues for titles such as NBA Live 08 and NHL 08. Those didn’t even include playoffs which essentially made them worthless. I’m going to assume that playoffs are included in Madden’s leagues, although not hearing them mention it within the interview was noticeable. Hopefully there is some sort of confirmation soon that there will be playoffs in the leagues.