Since the next generation consoles took over the video game world the
term “Madden Holiday” has meant about as much as Christmas means to a
kid in a foster home. No gifts under the tree. Since Madden ’06 dropped
four years ago the franchise has gone through some next gen growing
pains. In the effort to right the ship the good folks at Tiburon have
implemented and scrapped features (QB vision anyone) and slowly turned
the franchise from horrid to marginal. Apparently all the customer
complaints and developers having more time to figure out the new game
systems must have done some good.
On August 12th 2008 cats like me who have been playing Madden since the
Genesis/Super Nintendo days will finally have something to be excited
about. No more will you have to play NCAA to get your football gaming
fix. The 20th anniversary edition of Madden ’09 is new and improved and
the first installment in years that’s worth some marathon play.
This is the first year where the game play and the graphics are both on
point and it’s about damn time. There are all kind of new features that
actually make sense and this time they actually make the game better.
However as any true Madden head can attest, features and extras are
just icing on the cake. What really matters is the fluidity of game
play. And that aspect of the game is in effect. From precise route
running to more sensitive running back cuts this is the closest to a
real football simulation that we’ve seen in awhile.
The game is clearly more about defense than past versions as is
evidenced by 90+ team ratings for the Vikes, Bucs and a Farve-less
Packer team. Gone are the easy fumbles, you really have to crack
somebody to make them cough up the ball on ’09. The best way to get a
turnover now is to play great in the secondary, rush the hell out of
the QB and make him make a mistake (be careful though the deep bomb
pass has been tweaked and is a serious weapon this year).
The first thing you will find when you crank up your system is John
Madden requesting you to take a Madden IQ test where you run drills to
your proficiency in passing, rushing, rush defense and pass defense. It
was a little too boring and monotonous for me so I stopped playing it
after a couple minutes. The tests are supposed to determine your Madden
skills and set a level for you that the AI will match. Even if you are
like me and lack patience the game determines your skill as you go
along and gives you a rating at the end of every contest.
One of the features that is sure to piss off some players and cause a
few broken controllers is the new rewind option. Before the game starts
both players can select if they want between 0-3 rewinds and what a
rewind is essentially is a do over. Say you are playing with the
Falcons and newbie QB Matt Ryan throws a pick six, well at the end of
the play you can press X and it will bring you right back to the line
of scrimmage and you get a mulligan of sorts. This feature is sure to
be controversial as hell but it should help trash talk. Imagine giving
your opponent 3 rewinds and still beating them.
Read the rest of the breakdown: http://www.konsolekingz.com/blog/?p=1678
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
