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 »