What could NHL 09’s mystery feature be?
Ever since the barrage of information that has come for NHL 09, whether it be from the initial media previews or the more extensive community event reports, much of the talk has surrounded the "massive" feature (as labeled by Gamespot) that is being kept under wraps. With so many new features and improvements already known it's almost hard to imagine what else they could've added that would be so significant.
Thanks to IGN we know that it is an online feature, and one that has "never been s...
Finally…the class action lawsuit everyone has been waiting for!
So it turns out all the threats over the years around suing EA over the exclusive NFL license have finally materialized in a futile, and somewhat laughable, class action suit filed last week. You can read it in PDF form here thanks to TMZ.
The suit alleges that EA Sports has an "unlawful and anticompetitive series of exclusive agreements" with the NFL, NCAA, and Arena Football. Such has driven companies like Take-Two out of the football market and prevented others from entering it.
The c...
NHL 09 Community Event Info
The NHL 09 community event was held back at the start of April, and with the embargo having been lifted the first reports have made their way out. A lot more is discussed than what was recently profiled by Gamespot. Included are gameplay related improvements, Be A Pro details, EA Sports World integration, custom sounds (similar to how they are used in NCAA Football 09), a new fighting system, and much more. I've linked to several write-ups below.
Console Sports
Crash The Net
The Breakaw...
The new EA Sports World launches
As has been mentioned previously, EA Sports World was preparing to debut a revamped site with improved functionality. That has been launched today and the pages for Nascar 09 and NCAA Football 09 are live. You can check it out here.
This should offer a significant improvement over the offering that gamers dealt with up until now. My first reaction was being a little overwhelmed by how cluttered the main page is though. Hopefully capacity isn't a problem like it was last year around the laun...
Facebreaker in action
Facebreaker has seemingly gone from an intriguing concept to uncertainty as of late. The interest in an arcade style boxing game is out there, but the character profile videos have been somewhat offputting. In this video Peter Moore goes up against Geoff Keighley as themselves, in the process displaying the first realtime gameplay footage.
From this video I definitely feel more encouraged about the game in general. The photo face feature is going to be especially fun to use along with the a...
Dion Phaneuf is the NHL 09 cover athlete
The Calgary Sun has revealed that Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames will be the cover athlete for NHL 09. The first news on the game was released the other day however the cover remained a mystery until now. Apparently EA Sports has chosen Phaneuf, a defenseman, to spotlight the improvements that have been made to checking and defensive plays.
As one of the top-scoring defencemen in the NHL, as well as being widely regarded as the league's hardest hitter, Phaneuf was deemed the perfect choic...
Random topics for today
Look for a Nascar 09 Paint Booth contest sometime soon after release this week. Create your car design and show it off for the chance to win a currently undetermined prize.
The complete player ratings for the top 25 teams in NCAA Football 09 is available in excel form. You can download the spreadsheet here.
A producer blog for NCAA 09 goes over the attention that was paid to the playbooks and can be found here.
EA has added a new podcast page for Madden. You can check it...
First look at NHL 09
Gamespot has posted up the first NHL 09 preview, trailer and screenshots which you can check out here. Among the features discussed are the arrival of Be A Pro mode, control enhancements, furthering of create-a-play, expansion of Online Team Play, and a "mystery" feature which is supposed to be "massive".
One of the most intriguing aspects of Be a Pro mode in NHL 09 is the different types of roles you'll be able to serve when creating your player. Not only will you be able to play as a goalie...