Big thanks to EA Sports Canada for hooking us up with an early copy.

In the days of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, NBA Live was a testament to how sports games should be made. NBA Live ‘95 still ranks as one of my favorite sports games ever made. But in the past couple of generations, the franchise has fallen on some hard times. While the 2009 installment has made strides from past efforts, it still has a long way to go to catch up with the dominant 2K basketball series.

As usual, EA Sports has pushed out its hype machine for a couple new features. The big one here is the introduction of NBA Live 365, a truly revolutionary concept (albeit similar to a feature of NBA 2K9). Live ‘09 introduces Dynnamic DNA into the game, a concept used in the real NBA by a company called Synergy Sports. Synergy Sports is a dynamic engine that calculates player ratings, tendencies and all sorts of data from every single game on the schedule. While DNA encompasses about 60% of Synergy’s data, the concept is still the same.

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Big thanks to Marcus up at EA Canada for hooking us up with a review copy.

I’ve never disguised my persistent love-hate relationship with many EA Sports titles. From Madden to FIFA, EA Sports has consistently frustrated me by annoying glitches and gameplay. However, if one EA Sports title has it right, it’s NHL 09. Flying under the radar because of other titles, this game delivers not only an authentic hockey experience, but one that is truly a blast to play.

Following in the footsteps of the Madden/NCAA Football titles, NHL 09 features an all-new “Be a Pro Mode.” While I haven’t dove incredibly deep into the mode, it has enormous potential. After creating your very own toothless goon, you’re dumped into a team’s affiliate in the AHL, forcing you to work up the ranks all the way into the NHL. But unlike Madden and NCAA, NHL’s pro mode forces users to play with a little more strategy. Because it’s impossible to skate around for 60 minutes, it’s up to you to manage line changes to keep your player fresh. 

But your pro doesn’t have to be all about the glory. For every sniper, there’s a handful of ungraceful grinders that do nothing but kick ass and take names while on the ice. If scoring goals, winning fame and having sex with hot women isn’t your style, feel free to play as a grinder while sporting a mullet.

But that’s not all. One of the best parts about Be a Pro mode is the ability to take your player online and form a team with other users’ created characters. Have some friends with their own pro creations? Why not join forces and destroy skulls online? With NHL 09’s EA Sports Hockey League (EASHL), it’s possible to create teams of up to 50 players and join the league. A similar innovation is being used in this year’s installment of FIFA, which should promise an absolute shit show of 10 vs. 10 fun.

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Yesterday marked the official launch of Madden 2009 and to celebrate it EA Sports coordinated a huge blow out party at the Rose Bowl for the game’s release.  The event was chalked full of celebrity appearances (some were enthusiastic, others not so much), a concert that included Good Charlotte and Busta Rhymes, and of course an enormous tent loaded with Xbox 360’s, Wii’s, and Playstation 3’s to play the new game.  The event was somewhat exclusive (thanks again to Will from EA for hooking it up) and passes to the event were only given to people through local radio stations or to those who were willing to wait hours to hopefully snag one of the few hundred tickets available at the stadium before the event.

My time at the event was spent in various fashions.   I spent a great deal of time playing the game and hustling various Pasadena-ites in the gaming tent.  The tent was loaded with over 300 consoles, mostly 360’s with touches of Playstation 3 and Wii mixed in.  Both the 360 and Playstation versions of the game looked incredible, especially in high definition.  The Wii version…well…I just don’t think Madden belongs on Wii.  But then again that’s probably just my Madden ego talking.  A little bit of an inside secret on the game; if you can put up with their atrocious defense, Chad Johnson and the Bengals are some kind of nasty.  I both discovered and dropped that knowledge on Christmas Ape from Kissing Suzy Kolber who was there on assignment from Deadspin.  While I didn’t get cussed at by Warren Sapp like he did, I had my share of run-ins with the other athletes. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to EA Sports’ Will Kinsler for hooking us up with a copy of the game.

EA Sports made no secrets about the emphasis of NCAA Football 2009. With “Big Play Saturday,” gamers were quickly told of how this game was going to play. It was going to be full of big plays and a wide-open attacking offense that we see so often in college football. But have they overdone it? Through a handful of games, these impressions are still relatively incomplete, but troubling at the same time.

Before I jump into some quick gameplay impressions, I’d like to talk about the game’s new feature, the “breakaway engine.” NCAA ‘09 has improved on the controls of its predecessor, making you feel like you’re actually in control of the ball carrier, not the other way around. This year, running the football is about more than mashing the turbo button until you get to the corner, or jerking the juke stick in traffic.

Actual running lanes get opened up inside, allowing backs to squirm their way to some nice gains. The cutback lanes are also open and if you’re good enough, you can really rip off some big gains. I’ve only played with one elite back (Tennessee’s Arian Foster) and was able to see the difference in his ability to a lesser back from another team. The running game aspect of this game is greatly improved. However, computer teams still don’t run the ball effectively. Some slider tweaks here and there should help fix this problem, but we won’t start seeing those sliders for another couple of days.

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A huge thanks to EA Sports’ Will Kinsler who was nice enough to invite me to their football community day this past week at the Tiburon Studios in Orlando, Florida. In this third part of a three part series, I will go over my experiences with Madden NFL 2009.

Initial Reaction
Wow. As soon as you turn on the console be ready for everything EA Sports throws at you. Not just because it’s the latest edition of Madden (as EA Sports has had some some great Madden’s in the past), but because this is the best Madden I have ever played. I will go over some news and notes and bring you some of the cool features that EA Sports is throwing into this year’s game. Read the rest of this entry »

A huge thanks to EA Sports’ Will Kinsler who was nice enough to invite me to their football community day this past week at the Tiburon Studios in Orlando, Florida. In the first part of a three part series, I will go over my experiences with NFL Head Coach 2009, NCAA Football 2009, and Madden NFL 2009.

Initial Reaction
I really didn’t know what to expect when I first sat down with the game. I knew I was going to be calling plays, but I had no idea that the game would include such off the field detail. I thought it was neat to prepare draft boards and bid on free agents, but I really loved the ability to create a play while you were in the midst of a game. I was playing against the Ravens as the Packers and Ray Lewis and company were blitzing the crap out of me in my full house formation. I went to five wide and created a new west coast offense scheme with short passes landing every which way. I pretty much out coached John Harbaugh after the first quarter. One of things that I had a bit of a problem with was the quarter lengths. You play the standard 15 minute quarter lengths just like in the pros so it can get a bit tiring after a half. When you just sit there and call play and not control players you tend to wish you were actually controlling them. So I can see where gamers would get a little tired of that aspect quick.

Senior Designer Josh Looman
To be entirely honest, I never played the previous NFL Head Coach that came out in 2006. I knew what the game was about, but like most other gamers I felt like I needed to control my players instead of simply calling the plays. So when it came to the presentation of NFL Head Coach I wanted to see what Senior Designer Josh Looman had in mind for the second edition of this game. Looman and his colleagues described right off the bat that they wanted to make the deepest football strategy game they could make. He also went on to say that this is game for all NFL fans who are experts at being armchair quarterbacks and who can’t help but scream at the decision making of teams on Sundays. Instead of groaning about certain play calls, NFL Head Coach lets you write the history book for your favorite franchise. To make this possible, Looman sat down with 30 of the 32 NFL head coaches in order to bring you the most in depth coaching experience ever.

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