The Line Drive
by 
With so much focus going towards the new releases of Madden and Head Coach 09 it was easy to overlook news on other games and even some that were related to Madden. Here I recap items that may be of interest from the last couple days but didn’t make the cut for a full posting.
- Jon Robinson, formerly of Gametap and IGN and now with ESPN, played 24 hours straight of Madden. He recalls the events of the night here. There is no way I would have been able to pull that off.
- Shawn @ 5WG has written his thoughts from Maddenpalooza. The event took place on Monday at the Rose Bowl.
- Das Gamer has a bunch of interviews up including former Madden cover athletes Daunte Culpepper and Ray Lewis as well as EA’s Chris Erb and Ryan Ferwerda
- The Signature Play Calling in NBA Live 09 is detailed at IGN through an interview and video. I was especially fond of the quick play call option which uses the DNA of the team on the floor to select a play for you.
- NBA 09: The Inside has revealed the cover of the game. It features not one cover athlete, but six of them. Click here to view.
- There are a handful of new items for NHL 09. A preview and video of the MMO-style EA Sports Hockey League, and two new videos showing gameplay which can be watched here and here.
- NHL 2K9 has released its first gameplay trailer.
- Blitz the League II will include Frank Caliendo and Jay Mohr. Caliendo will play several parts including a color commentator, which could be interesting considering he is renowned for his John Madden impression.
- The unrevealed EA Sports original IP that Peter Moore has reference over the past several months is probably the Celebrity Sports Showdown for the Wii. It’s one thing to throw in B-List celebrities as extra characters in Facebreaker, but here they’ve gone and built an entire game around them.