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All Articles: Madden NFL 12
The Madden Curse Strikes Back: A Midseason Report on All 32 Cover Finalists
The 2011 NFL season is only at the halfway point and the Madden Cover Curse has already claimed another victim. Fans selected Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis as the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete, and while some joked about the curse at the time, few gave it much thought as the lockout consumed all NFL news. But here we are: the lockout is over and it’s safe to say that few players have been victimized by the curse like Hillis has.
The running back has missed the last three games with a hamstring injury and he has already been ruled out for this weekend’s upcoming game against the St. Louis Rams. Hillis also missed the Browns’ week three game against the Dolphins with a serious strep throat infection. Some reports say he lost as much as ten pounds in a single week.
As if these injuries weren’t bad enough, Hillis has only had one breakout game the entire season. In week two, against the Colts, Hillis ran for 94 yards and scored two touchdowns in a 27-19 Browns win. He even managed to catch four passes as well. It’s a disturbing return to form for the Madden Cover Curse, which spared Vince Young, Brett Favre, Larry Fitzgerald, and Drew Brees in recent years. Troy Polamalu (who shared the cover of Madden NFL 10 with Fitzgerald) was the last victim of the curse, missing 11 games in 2009.
But what about the other 32 players that Hillis defeated in EA’s single-elimination tournament to select the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete? Have they been cursed by association? All told, seven players besides Hillis have succumbed to the Madden Cover Curse, even though they were never on the cover! Two more are currently nursing injuries and may join their ranks.
I’m not sure if I believe in curses and superstitions. But the Madden Cover Curse has affected nine of the 13 cover athletes chosen since John Madden gave up his spot on the box, and while a regression to the mean is to be expected for the top players of the previous season, the curse seems to go beyond that. I’m sure some statistics grad student could create an interesting paper out of the percentage of NFL players that suffer a statline reduction from season to season. But until then, this study is the best we have. (more…)
Madden NFL 12 blitzes the September NPD list
Boom! After taking the month of August off thanks to the NFL lockout, the debut of Madden NFL 12 has reclaimed its rightful spot at the top of The NPD Groups’s monthly rankings.
The football sim was joined at the top of the charts by other big new releases: Gears of War 3 chainsawed the second spot and Deep Silver’s Dead Island landed at #3 (behold the power of hype, folks). EA Sports claimed the rest of the top five with FIFA Soccer 12 at #4 and NHL 12 a spot below. Resistance 3 at #7 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine at #10 round out the bevy of new releases on this NPD list.
Holdovers from previous months include Deus Ex: Human Revolution (#6), Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (#8) and Call of Duty: Black Ops (#9).
The complete top ten can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dead Island, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, FIFA Soccer 12, Gears of War 3, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Madden NFL 12, NHL 12, NPD, Resistance 3, Warhammer 40000: Space Marine
New Releases: Madden NFL 12, Bodycount, Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles, More
The Summer of No Games is finally over!
This week, that annual Summer ritual, the release of a new Madden game, continues with Madden NFL 12 (PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360). Also available this week is the first expansion to The Sims Medieval, The Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles, and Bodycount, a wild first person shooter from the creator of Black.
And there’s also a ton of family-friendly DS games.
Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
EA Sports Season Ticket now available
Leave it to Electronic Arts to take the “online pass” idea to places you never thought it would go. Today, the publisher launched the EA Sports Season Ticket, a new service that’ll provide “premium benefits” in five EA Sports titles (Madden NFL 12, NHL 12, FIFA Soccer 12, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 and NCAA Football 13).
The Season Ticket carries an annual fee of $24.99 on the PlayStation Store (or 2000 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), subscribers will receive four benefits: the chance to download an EA Sports title three days before the retail disc version is available for sale, a 20-percent discount on in-game DLC, premium web content and membership recognition (a small icon next to your username in the game).
So after EA separates you from your $25, you’ll have access to discounts, a snazzy icon for your PSN username/Gamertag and web content like the premium Creation Center packs for FIFA Soccer 12. According to EA, “these packs provide a deeper set of customization tools and abilities within Creation Center to build your own teams and tournaments.”
But the real meat of the program appears to be the ability to download an EA Sports game three days before the regular folks who have to wait for the disc version. But buyer beware, according to EA, the downloadable version of the game will cease to work after the disc version is available in stores.
Come on EA, what is the point of that?
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged FIFA Soccer 12, Madden NFL 12, NCAA Football 13, NHL 12, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13
Updated rosters in Madden NFL 12 launch day update
Donovan McNabb to the Vikings! Reggie Bush to the Dolphins! Albert Haynesworth to the Patriots! Carson Palmer retires!
The NFL has seen a flurry of free agency activity since the lockout ended on Monday. But how will this affect the impending release of Madden NFL 12? According to the game’s Twitter feed, all will be well come launch day:
For those of you asking, there will be a full downloadable roster update at launch that will reflect all the various free agency changes.
Madden NFL 12 will be available in stores on August 30.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Madden NFL 12
Madden NFL 12 demo coming August 9
The NFL lockout is over and EA Sports is celebrating by releasing a few details on the Madden NFL 12 demo.
The demo will be available to download from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace on August 9. Players will be able to choose from the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers or the Chicago Bears. The demo will also include the ability to play a complete game with five minute quarters on multiple difficulty levels.
I know this demo is supposed to recreate last year’s NFC Championship, but the Bears? Really?
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Madden NFL 12
MS @ E3 11: Kinect support added to Madden, Mass Effect 3, more
Peter Moore returned to the E3 stage for a Microsoft Press Conference to announce that four EA Sports titles will receive Kinect support in the next year.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, Madden NFL 12, FIFA Soccer 12 and an unnamed fourth game will add Kinect features including voice recognition. Moore also revealed that other EA games will feature Kinect support including The Sims 3: Pets and Mass Effect 3.
BioWare’s Ray Muzyka took the stage and showed off a “Kinect augmented” Mass Effect 3 demo where players can use voice recognition to actually speak Shepard’s lines. Shepard can also use Kinect to give orders to his team.
They were followed by Ubisoft, who showed off the Kinect features of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, including a gun creation tool known as “Gunsmith.” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillomont confirmed that all future Tom Clancy games would feature Kinect support.
More from the Press Conference soon.
See the final box art for Madden NFL 12
Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis vaulted over some stiff competition to earn the right to grace the Madden NFL 12 cover. Today, Hillis has officially been targeted by the Madden Cover Curse as the final box art for the game was revealed. Feel free to click on the image to view a slightly larger version.
Madden NFL 12 will be released for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 on August 30.