Archive for the 'Fantasy / Video games' Category

So I bought Madden 2007 yesterday and played an exhibition game last night. Forgot to switch the game level up to the All-Pro or All-Madden (whatever they call it), and ended up putting up 50 points on the Colts in just the 1st half. Shaun Alexander busted out a 59-yard TD run on my 3rd play. MattHass was 9-11 for 200+ yards and 2 TDs. Trufant had 2 INTs returned for TDs. It was nuts. Need to crank up the difficulty level for the next game.

Meanwhile, DJ Gallo has a funny look at the game’s player ratings on ESPN.com, with a nice dig at the Seahawks:

“…putting a punter on the cover of a video game would be awesome. It would be almost ironic and campy. Kind of like how putting a Seattle Seahawks player on the cover of a video game would have seemed three or four years ago.”

I’m still a bit befuddled by the thought of an article on Madden 2007 (and video games in general) appearing in the New York Times, but okay … tomorrow’s edition has exactly such an article. And it happens to feature none other than Shaun Alexander, who was in NY last week as part of the publicity for Madden 2007.

And guess what? Alexander showed some pretty deft moves when talking about the Madden series (and football video games in general):

“Madden has always been great,” Alexander said. “But it’s always been one-on-one, just you and another person, and real football is a team game.”

He added: “You should be able to make a team and play together with your friends. Like if you have 10 friends, you could all play different positions and be in 10 different houses and play together over the Internet. Or maybe you just have like five people, and you control the skill positions and the program controls the other guys.”

The EA executives in the room practically blanched when they realized that Alexander was offering constructive analysis of what is missing from Madden rather than merely parroting bullet points about this year’s new features, like a revamped rushing game.

Come to think of it … that would be pretty sweet, eh?

The article is here, but the link may not work for too long. The Times closes its archives after a week or two, I think.

Meanwhile, NCAA 2007 comes out in two weeks. And NFL HEAD COACH is already out now — can’t decide if I should get that one or not……

Look at it and weep, boys and girls.

The Madden cover jinx is coming to Seattle. Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, and to a lesser degree Ray Lewis and Eddie George … all jinxed after appearing on the cover. Good thing Mo Morris re-signed, eh?

In all seriousness, this is very cool and very surprising. I was sure it would be Roethlisberger or Brady or even a guy like Polamalu (sp?). But it makes sense — that Shaun Alexander, Inc. post from a couple days ago included Shaun mentioning some national-level endorsements coming up, and this counts.

“To be on the cover of Madden NFL 07 is a big milestone in my career since I have always been a huge fan of this franchise,” said Alexander. “EA SPORTS is focusing on the running game in this year’s version, so I was honored when I was chosen to be on the cover to represent the improved running game.”

That’s from the official release.

The game’s out in August, but you knew that already.

This is priceless. One of the recent roster updates for the online version had a little mistake — very little! NYJets lineman Michael King was only 7 inches tall – ha! And CNET has a couple hysterical pictures you just have to see.

Too funny!

I think I did alright. We had our draft last night right before the OAK-NE kickoff. It’s a free Yahoo league, and I only started preparing on Wednesday. Too busy. I had the 4th pick in a 10-team league. Pretty standard scoring — points for TDs, yards, FGs, etc. Negative for fumbles, INTs, etc.

QB: Culpepper, Hasselbeck
RB: Ahman Green, Steven Jackson, Chris Brown, Mike Alstott
WR: Andre Johnson, Darrell Jackson, Deion Branch, Keenan McCardell, Donte Stallworth
TE: Todd Heap, Bubba Franks
K: Edinger
DEF: Washington

So … there you have it. Anyone want to grade me? Feel free.

I like Donovan McNabb. I kinda like the Eagles. (I grew up in Philly, after all.) But I’m not sure about this:

All Pro Quarterback Donovan McNabb Selected for Cover of EA’s Madden NFL 06

Not that it matters, but why not Tom Brady? Brady’s the guy who’s won 3 of the last 4 Super Bowls. Maybe Tom decided he didn’t need the money now that he’s got his $10m/year deal from the Pats? Maybe Tom decided he didn’t want to risk the Madden jinx?

Don’t ask me. All I know is … Donovan’s mom had better not show up in the commercials for Madden. Unacceptable.

More information: www.madden06.com

One quick note … I was wrong Friday night when I wrote that Hasselbeck would have a career day since I finally benched him on my fantasy team. But I was right in making the move — the guy I put in the starting lineup did have a career day: 22-25, 281 yds., and 5 TDs. Drew Brees. About time I make a good move in fantasy football.

I’m sitting here reading my official Playstation Magazine (stop laughing, it’s really good) and I see a full-page ad for ESPN’s NHL 2K5 which, just like their NFL 2K5 game, is coming out with a $19.99 price tag. And it makes me think … why aren’t all new games $19.99? Who decided $50 had to be the going rate for all the good games when they first hit the market?

For all the complaining about CDs costing $15-20, you’d think someone would be complaining about games at $50. Wouldn’t you?

I’ve been a religious buyer and player of both EA Sports football games for the past 3 years. And I’ve loved both of them almost equally. Until this year, that is.

The pre-release hype for NCAA was phenomenal, and what was described sounded great — the home-field advantage, toughest stadiums to play in, the expansion of the dynasty mode, all that stuff. I was all geeked up.

Madden didn’t seem to get nearly the same amount of pre-release hype, or maybe I was just looking in the wrong places. Everything I saw was about Ray Lewis and the jinx, or about the collector’s edition they put out. Very little was said about the game play, the Owner mode changes, and things like that.

In past years, I’ve bought NCAA and played it to death for a month until Madden came out. Then they’d always compete for my attention. This year, I played about 8 games of NCAA and lost interest. I don’t like it. At first I thought maybe it was just because my favorite team sucks this season so I was losing lots of games and looking bad in the process … 41-0, 33-3, etc. But I played as a much better team … and still didn’t like it. It’s too slow. Runners and receivers are too slow. Zip passes from strong-armed QBs don’t have much zip. Nothing feels “right”. I don’t know how to describe it — they really overhauled the gameplay AI, and made it worse, I think.

Madden, on the other hand, is even more amazing than I expected. The gameplay is terrific — my RBs and receivers are making cutbacks I’ve never seen before. The defensive control is stunning — individual hot routes and all that. The variety of types of tackles is incredible. It’s fast … well, faster than NCAA at least. And the Owner/Franchise mode stuff … EA Sports Radio, Gameplans, newspapers and email, all of it is fantastic.

Madden is only out two weeks now, compared to 6 weeks for NCAA … but I’ll be wearing out Madden a lot sooner than NCAA this year. Next summer, NCAA will probably be a rent-before-you-buy item.

Am I alone in thinking / feeling like this?

Oh — and running the Seahawks, I’m 5-2 so far in my first year of Franchise mode. Darrell Jackson is having a huge year. And Alex Bannister is actually very effective as the 4th WR. Who knew?