All Articles: Madden NFL 12

It’s 4 PM and, as promised, EA Sports and ESPN have unveiled the bracket for the Madden NFL 12 Cover Vote. You can vote for the winners of the 16 initial matchups now at ESPN.com or fill out your own bracket using the Madden NFL Bracket Facebook bracket.

The five-week long tournament will choose the Madden NFL 12 curse victim cover athlete on April 27 with a new round commencing every week. Each team is represented in the bracket and the #1 seeds went to Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers) and Philip Rivers (San Diego Chargers). However, some of the choices are just baffling:

The Denver Broncos selection is Tim Tebow, who spent most of the season as the third-string quarterback. Tom Brady and Wes Welker of the New England Patriots were passed over for running back Danny Woodhead. No player from the Seattle Seahawks was deemed worthy with EA choosing The 12th Man instead.

You can click on the bracket to get a larger picture of the matchups and remember to vote early and vote daily for your favorites.

Did Marquette kill your Final Four bracket yesterday? Or maybe it was Florida State. Or maybe, like President Obama, your bracket is still relatively pristine.

Whatever your bracket looks like, EA Sports is giving gamers a second chance to prove their bracket prowess with the Madden NFL 12 Bracket Challenge. EA has selected 32 players (one from each team) to compete in a single elimination tournament to determine the cover athlete of Madden NFL 12. That’s right, the recipient of the curse is on us now.

EA will reveal the full bracket on ESPN’s “SportsNation” today at 4 PM (Eastern Time) today. But they did say that Super Bowl XLV MVP Aaron Rodgers, Madden NFL 11 cover athlete Drew Brees (who won a three-way fan vote), Madden NFL 2004 cover athlete Michael Vick, Maurice Jones-Drew, Adrian Peterson and Julius Peppers are among the finalists.

Madden fans can create their own bracket by using the Madden NFL Bracket application on Facebook. The winners of each matchup will be chosen through daily voting at ESPN.com/maddenvote.

The top two bracketologists will win the Grand Prize of $2,000 and two tickets to Super Bowl XLVI. Eight 1st Place winners will receive four tickets to an NFL game of their choice. “Group Winners” will receive a copy of Madden NFL 12 when it’s released in August.

We’ll be back with the full bracket later today.

The NFL Players Association has voted to decertify their union and the owners have imposed a lockout, effectively placing the fate of the 2011-12 season in the hands of the courts. EA Sports’ Rob Semsey has taken to Twitter to reassure fans that Madden NFL 12 is still in development and that it’ll be released this August as scheduled.

In a series of tweets, Semsey announced that all NFL players will be present and accounted for in Madden NFL 12. He also confirmed that rookies selected in next month’s NFL Draft will be placed on the rosters of their respective teams in the game. Finally, Semsey revealed that the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete would be announced by the end of March. Hmm, not being able to play at all might be the ultimate invocation of the Madden Cover Curse.

You can find the complete text of Semsey’s tweets after the break. (more…)

While most of us were pulling our hair out at how atrociously bad the Black Eyed Peas were last night, Ian Cummings, Creative Director of Madden NFL 12 (yes, Madden games have those) took some time out for the fans during half time to blog about some of the game’s new features. One was the input shown above where A, A, B on the 360 controller executes a surprise onside kick. The other major feature is “Tuner Sets” – gameplay balances that were previously featured in past NHL and NCAA games that allows the developers to tweak the gameplay without the cumbersome process of getting Sony and Microsoft to approve a patch. This will probably save all of us a lot of time and go a long way in keeping online play fun and free from exploits.

More Madden NFL 12 information can be found at the Madden NFL developer’s blog.

With the exception of the NBA Elite debacle last year, EA Sports has really been impressing game critics with their last few rounds of iterations. Expect Madden NFL 12 to do the same when it releases later this year.