A simulation run by EA SPORTS™ NHL® 10 predicts that cover boy Patrick Kane will fall just short of claiming the Stanley Cup as the Pittsburgh Penguins repeat as Cup champions. Led by an outstanding performance by Conn Smythe Winner, Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins were able to withstand a relentless offensive assault by the young Chicago forwards. Hart Memorial Trophy winner Sidney Crosby and the Penguins take home the Stanley Cup for the second time in as many years with a 4 games to 2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Despite being considered one of the top teams in the league, the Detroit Red Wings barely made the playoffs, and were eliminated in a quick five games by the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago established that they are a team to watch by finishing first in the West on their road to the Stanley Cup Finals. Other notable teams in the simulation included the Carolina Hurricanes, who finished with the most points in the league and walked away with the President’s Trophy; the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, who were the only Canadian teams to make the playoffs; and the Florida Panthers, who made the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
Several individual players also stood out in the NHL 10 simulation. The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby completes an injury-free season and captures the Hart Memorial trophy after posting 102 points during the regular season. The Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane has a breakout season and is one of the top ten point getters in the NHL. Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf takes the Art Ross trophy after leading the league with 107 points, while Ilya Kovalchuk walked away with the Maurice Richard trophy after leading the league with 57 goals, and NHL 09 cover boy, Dion Phaneuf caps a stellar year by leading the Calgary Flames to a NorthWest Division Championship and winning the Norris Trophy.
Final Regular Season Standings:
Western Conference
W
L
OTL
PTS
1
Chicago
54
26
2
110
2
San Jose
49
26
7
105
3
Calgary
47
30
5
99
4
Columbus
48
27
7
103
5
Los Angeles
46
30
6
98
6
Vancouver
43
29
10
96
7
Anaheim
43
30
9
95
8
Detroit
39
34
9
87
9
Nashville
39
35
8
86
10
St Louis
39
39
4
82
11
Phoenix
37
40
5
79
12
Edmonton
34
39
9
77
13
Minnesota
31
36
15
77
14
Dallas
33
43
6
72
15
Colorado
27
44
11
65
Eastern Conference
W
L
OTL
PTS
1
Carolina
54
23
5
113
2
Boston
49
25
8
106
3
Pittsburgh
47
28
7
101
4
New Jersey
46
29
7
99
5
Washington
47
31
6
98
6
New Rangers
45
31
6
96
7
Philadelphia
42
32
8
92
8
Florida
40
33
9
89
9
Tampa Bay
40
38
4
84
10
Montreal
37
36
9
83
11
Ottawa
39
39
4
82
12
Toronto
36
37
9
81
13
Buffalo
34
37
11
79
14
Atlanta
34
42
6
74
15
New York Islanders
31
41
10
72
June 19, 2009 – Madden NFL fans, start your season early with an in depth look at the teams of the NFL. Who will be the powerhouse teams this year? What players have improved? What players have seen better days? See how your favorite team and players will fair – according to the Madden NFL 10 Season Preview.
We continue our look at each team’s overall rating and individual player ratings with a focus on the NFC South division. In addition to the player ratings, a wealth of team-specific assets will be made available, for both the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, and Wii versions of Madden NFL 10.
Everything culminates on August 3rd, where Madden NFL 10 will predict the 2009 NFL division winners, season MVP, and more.
To view the overall team ratings for the Falcons, Buccaneers, Panthers and Saints, as well as download the complete team roster ratings, visit the official Madden NFL 10 website below:
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: TT Games
ESRB: E 10+
Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PS2, PS3, PSP
Score: 9 out of 10
Warner Bros. has the formula down pat: take a beloved story, convert all the characters to a bunch of LEGOs, and ship hours worth of fun out to gamers across the world. It all started with LEGO Star Wars and continues to LEGO Batman. This is fantastic fun that brings together to tinkering of LEGO with the adventure of Batman.
A stampede of notorious criminals have busted out of ARKHAM ASYLUM, where GOTHAM CITY houses only the shadiest of characters. It’s up to the famed CAPED CRUSADER to sweep Gotham clean of criminal activity using everything at his disposal, including crime-fighting vehicles as well as several baddie-bashing bat gadgets. LEGO Batman: The Videogame is a fast-paced action adventure title for fans of all ages. It is rated “E10+” and is available on the Xbox 360 Entertainment System, PLAYSTATION 3 system and Wii for $49.99. It is also available for the PlayStation 2, PSP system, Nintendo DS and PC, for $29.99.
The game revolves around Story Mode where your play as both Robin and Batman. You make your way through various levels, collecting LEGO studs and special LEGO bricks to unlock extra content and build different objects. These objects become parts of puzzles that you use to figure out your way through each level. The great part is that you fight with enemies who are made of LEGO and when you beat them you smash them into little LEGO pieces. This creates an environment of controlled violence, which I personally think teaches valuable lessons to child gamers, and is also rather adorable for older gamers.
It is a fully developed story that involves taking on enemy after enemy in your struggle to save Gotham City. Batman and Robin each have different capabilities so you use whichever one matches the task at hand. For example, Robin can walk up metal walls and Batman can shoot his little batarang and then pull himself up using it.
There is a huge cast of characters including The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Killer Crox, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, Two Face, Bane, Clayface, Poison Ivy, Mad Hatter, Killer Moth and more. Each level involves different types of puzzles which are basically a combination of fighting, putting together LEGO pieces, and stepping on blocks or pulling levers.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 24, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that Madden NFL 09 will celebrate its launch with Maddenpalooza, a music, sports and gaming fan festival hosted at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on August 11. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the award-winning Madden NFL franchise and the release of Madden NFL 09, Maddenpalooza will run from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. the day before the official August 12 launch date. The event will feature live musical performances by bands from past and current Madden NFL soundtracks, including Good Charlotte who will headline the music stage. In addition to the music performances, Maddenpalooza attendees can enjoy a number of fan-friendly festivities including autograph signing stations with retired NFL legends, interactive NFL activities, 300 Xbox 360® gaming kiosks to play Madden NFL 09, and a Wal-mart pop-up store where customers can be among the first to purchase their copy of Madden NFL 09.
”Maddenpalooza will truly be a celebration of the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular video games in history,” said Director of Marketing Chris Erb. “The fan festival will provide an interactive experience for Madden fans to come together and experience Madden NFL 09 before its launch.”
Each summer, the launch of Madden NFL has emerged as a highly anticipated event that wins the attention of both consumers and media across the country. Past Madden NFL launches have centered around the concept of Maddenoliday, where thousands of Madden NFL fans flocked to stores and took the day off from work and school to immerse themselves in that year’s copy of Madden NFL. This year, with Maddenpalooza, EA SPORTS™ will take it to the next level for the 20th anniversary of Madden NFL. Hosted at the Rose Bowl, the stadium where John Madden and the 1976 Oakland Raiders won their first Super Bowl, Maddenpalooza brings together the impressive mix of elements from sports, entertainment and video games that have made the Madden NFL franchise an American pop culture icon.
In addition to Good Charlotte, whose song “The Anthem” first appeared on the Madden NFL 03 soundtrack, other music acts scheduled to perform include Busta Rhymes, Rev Theory, Airbourne, From First to Last and Young Dre The Truth. Each of these bands will perform throughout the day – leading up to the first sales of Madden NFL 09 which will begin at 9 p.m. PST at the Wal-mart pop-up store located within the Rose Bowl stadium.
Admission to Maddenpalooza is free, tickets will be distributed through the Los Angeles based radio station KIIS, as well as various other local radio stations and promotional partners. There will also be a limited amount of tickets available at the Rose Bowl on August 11 through a first-come-first-serve basis.
Madden NFL 09, the First Sports Game That Adapts To You, introduces over 85 new features and enhancements. Whether you are a seasoned veteran, or a franchise rookie, Madden NFL 09 will continuously asses your skills and adjust the gameplay to keep the experience both fun and challenging, all while training gamers to become better Madden players. Madden NFL 09 also includes a brand-new broadcast presentation package featuring Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond, online leagues, and the most realistic graphics in franchise history.
I recently went out to Las Vegas for Midway’s Gamers Day at the Red Rock Resort. They showed a few games: NBA Ballers: Chosen One, Wheelman, TNA Impact, Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox 360, and This is Vegas were playable. They also announced a Mortal Kombat and DC Comics game, which looked like a MK fighter with Scorpion, Sub Zero, Superman, and Batman confirmed as characters. There was a lot of excitement in the crowd about that one. We wondered how the whole fatality thing would play out with the super heroes, for example, would DC want Superman to rip out his opponent’s skull and show it to him? They also announced sequels for Game Party and Touch Master as well as Blitz: The League.
There was a lot of talk, especially from Midway execs like Mark Booty, Interim President and CEO, about how Midway is reaping the benefits of centralization and standardization. The different studios share assets like game engines and design tools as well as knowledge. You could see how licensing the Unreal Engine and then using it to build every game is paying off in terms of how the games look, how complex the game play is, and how quickly they can come to market.
The big focus was on This is Vegas. The game is being made by Surreal Software in Seattle – they’ve been working on it for three plus years. It’s an open world of a likeness of Vegas where you gamble, party, race, and fight. It’s an ambitious project to create a world that big. This gives players the chance to live out “their Vegas fantasy.” It looked OK, nothing special in terms of graphics or audio. The focus has definitely been on game play. I did the dancing mini-game, the same that was shown during the press conference. I thought that it was fun. I wonder about it conceptually though. My concern is that by offering many types of game play it may end up asking players to play in ways that they don’t want to play, for example, the guy who wants to drive around and beat people up may not be the same guy who wants to enter a dance contest. But I talked to Darci Morales about this concern and she said that if you don’t want to play a particular mini-game you don’t have to. The point of all the mini-games is to build your buzz and gain experience and you could choose to do that however you want. I’m mainly interested in seeing how all of the different games and gaming mechanics translate into a holistic gaming experience. I think This Is Vegas is noteworthy because it looks like it’ll be a hell of an achievement for Surreal and Midway when it is done and it deserves merit if only for being a massive effort at establishing an open game play world with lots of variety. I’m not sure whether that translates into being a successful game in an overall sense. I’d get a better idea from a more in depth demo where I could see how the player goes from one mode to the other, how fluid that is, and how all of the different modes combine.
I had a really interesting talk about a month ago with some staff members from a maximum security facility for minors somewhere in the USA. I agreed to keep tany identifying information confidential and it is irrelevant anyway. They wanted to know what I thought about the security implications of residents (mostly teenagers) having Nintendo DS and Sony PSP in the facility. They had seen that I write a lot about network security for different magazines and sites and also seen this blog so they thought I would be a natural choice to speak about these issues. I thought it was an interesting exercise.
On the surface, what harm could there be from allowing some kids to play portable video games? It doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.
This is what I came up with. There are probably more things that can be done that I might have gotten to if I had some more time to brainstorm.
1. The Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP can physically be used as weapons. You could hold one in your hand and hit someone with it. You could sharpen a stylus and shank someone with it. You could break a UMD and use the sharp edge to attack someone. If you allow the kids to have the device then you have to allow the chargers and maybe the headphones; the cords of either could be used to strangle someone.
2. The Nintendo DS has a plastic blank filling the compartment where a GBA cartridge gets plugged in. The inside of that blank can be used to conceal contraband. Likewise with the UMD bay of the PSP, and maybe even the Memory Stick Slot of the PSP.
Patapon
Sony Computer Entertainment
PSP
Single player
“E” for Everyone
Rating: 8 out of 10.
When Sony first showed me Patapon in December, I didn’t know what to make of it. Firstly, it’s rhythmic, and I love rhythmic games. It’s a side scroller, not a plus in my book. But it is cute, very cute. If you’re not a lover of cute, then maybe you’ll find the art interesting – it was designed by the popular French graphic artist, Rolito and the 2D art involves catchy abstract shapes, and colorful environments.
The principle of game play is that you have to lead the Patapons through a series of epic battles against opposing armies and gigantic monsters. You control the Patapons by pushing buttons that make drumbeats and send commands like march, attack, and defend. There are six different drumbeats that are combinations of X, O, box, and triangle. For example, circle, circle, box, circle might mean charge. You have to push the buttons in time to the background music, which is also in time to the action. If you chain a bunch of commands together, then you unlock a special mode where your attacks do more damage.
This game will ship June 25 and be available for 360, ps-3 psp, wii. This is the first 2k sports game on Wii, all aspects of the game use the Wiimote – pitching, catching, running.
Today we’re looking at the Xbox 360 version.
Why The Bigs? It’s a heroic baseball game, over the top, arcadey. The game celebrates the sport of baseball and make highllights and dramatic moments happen, including big catches, wall catches, dives, etc. It’s all genuine MLB licensed products with all teams and all stadiums, but with a little bit of a dramatic flare.
There are super slo-mo diving catches. What the players do is still tied to stats but also like a mini-game of timing button pushes to pull off the spectacular. In a double play timing is critical, hold onto it for too long and they slide into and knock you down. There’s a knock over catcher button mashing to get slider on your side and then you bowl the catcher over and maybe he loses the ball. 2K Sports is bending the rules to make the game more interesting but not taking it to extremes like MLB Slugfest which was a ton of fun but not very much like baseball.
There’s a turbo meter and a big play meter. When pitching, throw strikes to earn turbo, batter takes ball and gets turbo, use turbo to enhance pitches and hits, use turbo in the field to run to the ball or whip it in from the outfield. Turbo becomes pretty important tactically. Pitches based on button that you push to choose pitch, aim with reticle, them meter fills up. Batting is simple – contact green or power red; you can influence direction of the hit with the left thumbstick. You manage baserunning with the left analog stick and color coded base running icons over each guys head. It’s easiest to advance all or retreat all using bumpers. The big play meter gives you power blast ability to drive ball deep just by making contact, or make a defensive big play meaning big heat so all pitches are super charged and when you strike the opponent out you steal his points
Homerun pinball is Katie’s favorite feature. It was pretty fun. It’s like batting practice in Times Square and all the signs and objects are worth points when you hit them. It’s a lot of fun and very competitive.
.
multiplayer – 2-4 players coop switching turns
online play also
SEGA was in town the other day and I checked out a bunch of their games. Almost everything they showed ships on March 20, 2007. I’m not sure why March 20 is such a significant date for them that they have to deliver every game on that same day. But whatever, I’ll take them. A bunch of these were really fun. Virtua Tennis is always fun and Armored Core played pretty well, that is if you like blowing things to pieces.
Virtua Tennis 3 for psp, xbox 360, ps3. This game flat out looks great on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The attention to detail is superb: little puffs of dust come up from your footsteps when you run on the clay court, the linesmen move out of the way when the ball is hit at them. You can create your own player, customize him or her as far as appearance, cloths and equipment. Then you practice and play on the world tour, slowly advancing and improving your skills. On Xbox 360 there’s a whole online leaderboard system. Four people can play together online from four different consoles. You can watch other people’s online matches and develop your strategy against them.
Armored Core 4
This is a mech game, but unlike other mech games you can actually move quickly in this game. Most mechs feel like you’re piloting them through molasses, but in Armored Core 4 you can jump and strafe and all those good things. Multiplayer online is new. There are 6 different factions. They wanted to make it appeal to new players and veterans as well. You start in the Independent City and it’s sort of like a training mission. There are over 35 different missions. You have primary and secondary fire weapons. Your mech is highly mobile and you can strafe; there’s regular boost and quick boost for dodging during combat. In general, mechs are more agile than before, and I can say that it seemed so when I played. I could jump over stuff and quickly cut to the side to avoid enemy fire. It’s for ps3 and 360 and ships on mar 20. You can customize appearance with paint and emblems and can use the colors to camoflage yourself. This is pretty cool because you could do something like put on desert camo to fight in the desert and have an advantage. You can trade weapons and parts with other players online; some missions are search and rescue, most take 20 minutes or more, mechs have primal armor which is like a force field.
Sonic and the Secret Rings, just released on Tuesday. This game was designed specifically for the Wii and has more of a 2d feel to it. You tilt the controller left and right to steer while Sonic naturally accelerates. Press 2 to jump, snap the controller forward to catch some more air and do your homing attack. It’s an arabian nights story where Sonic needs to find 7 rings before the evil genie does. There are 8 different game worlds each with a few tracks. As far as multiplayer, there are 40 party games for up to 4 players. They all have different movements of the controller depending on the games. It’s an E rated title targeted at family fun. This is a solid Sonic game and I hold Sonic games in high regard. There was a time when I sunk at least 80 hours into Sonic on my Game Gear. Man, that was a long time ago.
I met with my good friends Anthony (from 2K Sports) and Katie (from Access PR) yesterday and they showed me Major League Baseball 2K7 on Xbox 360 and PS3. It’s going to be available on everything except GameCube and Wii (they would have had to create a whole new control system and couldn’t do it in time for the season) and it will ship in the first week of March 2007. i was pretty impressed with it. Overall, the graphics and sound are great. The details are all there, from Inside Edge statistics that affect AI on a play by play basis, to 150 signature style individualized player animations, and even to shirts rippling in the wind and little puffs of dirt coming up from player’s footsteps. The commentary was reasonably interesting, at least for the few innings that we played. The heckling “Hey, I stole your girlfriend Jeter”) was pretty cool.
Here’s a screenshot from PS3:
Pitching controls remain the same, using the “Payoff Pitching” system and now you can even control the catcher and have him call the game. Hitting is the same using the swing stick. On PS3 you also have the option to swing using the controller due to it’s 6-axis motion sensing capability. I couldn’t get the hang of this during the brief time that I had with the game. They reworked a lot of the fielding so that momentum when running seems more real than last year. They also revamped every stadium, including lighting down to the way that shadows affect hitting. The PIP baserunning makes it easy to control runners.
Here’s a screenshot from Xbox360:
There is online play with online leagues for both Xbox 360 and PS3.
Also new is the ability to manage your budget and set ticket prices in franchise mode.
Here’s a PSP screenshot:
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