The Madden 11 Demo was just released last night on Xbox Marketplace and PSN but it’s already creating havoc with its new Strategy Pad. In previous versions of Madden the Defensive Adjustments could be made using the shoulder buttons and face buttons. Shifting your linebackers to the left would be a combination of a shoulder button and left on the joystick.

Now with the introduction of the Strategy Pad, all Defensive Adjustments are made through the Directional-Pad. This throws a wrench into what all Madden players are used to and also adds another step in doing simple Defensive Adjustments. To go along with that, the CPU player snaps the ball so quickly on offense that it’s difficult to get in a single adjustment when you previously pull off multiple adjustments. It doesn’t help that the Xbox 360 D-pad is stiff and worthless either.

There are rumors however that the Strategy Pad is optional in the full version of the game. Whether this means the Strategy Pad display just disappears or the original Madden 10 controls are returned is still unknown. It has been confirmed that this option only hides the display of the Strategy Pad. Sadly, the Strategy Pad is here to stay.

This is just another example of EA fixing something that wasn’t broken just for the sake of claiming they’ve done something new. What they’ve really done was take a step back from a proven working formula. The Strategy Pad is in no way “Simpler, Quicker, Deeper” as their new slogan suggests.

Exciting news from competing franchises but I think most of us will forget about this news when Marvel vs Capcom 3 is released.

During Drew Brees marketing for Madden 11 in New York’s Times Square this past week, he handed out early copies of Madden 11 to the lucky crowd. However, Madden 11 isn’t due until August 10th. No, those aren’t real copies of the game. They are empty PS3 boxes with vouchers for the game. I wonder if they passed out any Xbox 360 or even Wii versions.

Proton Canon!

More screens here

I have to say I’m a bit disappointed. The character models look too sharp and the use of the Resident Evil 5 engine is very obvious with the dark shadows.

I’m hoping the gameplay exceeds MvC2, or this visual nightmare may keep me away from this game all together.

Another 5 map package will be coming our way in June. It’s unknown how many maps are actually new and how many are rehashes from the original Modern Warfare.

With the release of Super Street Fighter 4 I’ve been looking into modding a Madcatz SF IV arcade stick and I thought it’d be useful to share some of the resources/information I’ve collected around the internet.

First you’ll need a Madcatz Street Fighter IV Arcade FightStick for PS3 or Xbox 360. This stick is a great starting point for making a Tournament quality arcade stick because there is no soldering done by the manufacturer. Everything is held together by clips and screws. This stick is also easily found in the United States, otherwise amazon has them for $50.

Why mod this stick? This Madcatz stick doesn’t come with quality Sanwa parts used in the higher end $100+ arcade sticks. The stock Madcatz parts result in a shorter life span and funky inaccuracies while trying to pull off special moves and combos.

Second you’ll need to get a hold of some Sanwa parts. A very popular site is lizardlick.com. Here is the shopping list:

• 1 Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT-SK Ball Handle Joystick, 4 & 8-Way Adjustable (Sanwa Joystick)
• 1 Sanwa LB-35 Joystick Ball Top (Sanwa Ball Head, sold separately)
• 8 Sanwa OBSF-30 Pushbutton (Sanwa Buttons, choose your colors wisely)
• 1 Sanwa GT-Y Octagonal Restrictor Plate (Sanwa Octagonal Restrictor Plate for some good old Hadouken action) *OPTIONAL*

Unfortunately this comes out to around $65 after shipping just for the Sanwa parts. So unless you can find the Madcatz stick used or on sale you’re probably spending around the same amount as buying a $100+ arcade stick. But at least you get the gratitude of customizing one of these yourself.

Now put it all together. Here’s a pretty good video on how to do that:

If you also picked up the optional Octagonal Restrictor Plate it’s pretty easy to just pop on and off but here’s a not so good video if you need it: Link.

The first Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 map pack is ready to launch next Tuesday March 30th exclusively for Xbox 360. PS3 owners will need to wait a little bit longer.

The “Stimulus-Package” map pack will include 5 multiplayer maps and is hinted at costing $15 (1200 MS Points). While 3 of the maps will be all new (Bailout, Storm, and Salvage), the other 2 will be remakes from the original Modern Warfare (Crash, Overgrown). Crash and Overgrown were some of my favorite maps from the original game and I’m glad to see them return.

Here are the short descriptions of the new maps:

“Bailout” a multi-layered apartment complex; “Storm” an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; “Salvage” a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars.

This is good news for all the players who having been playing Modern Warfare 2 from the day it was released. I’ll admit that I was originally disappointed at the number of maps included in the game. This pattern of multiplayer FPS games releasing map packs is becoming all too familiar. While it continues to work from a business stand point, I can’t help but imagine where this trend will end up in the future. The worst case scenario would be games getting shorter while tagged at full-price and downloadable-content prices increase for less content. Of course this is just glass half-empty talk but it’s all very possible.

I got through the third week of lent, but it wasn’t easy. Temptations were thrown in my direction in the form of roommates playing the Starcraft 2 Beta and my pre-ordered copy of Final Fantasy XIII landing on my doorstep. Amazon’s release day delivery actually works! Sadly, I can’t even take advantage of it.

On the plus side, Starcraft 2 looks like it’ll be an amazing game with a life span possibly longer than the original which will be 12 years old on March 31st. While many players are involved in the Beta, those who aren’t will likely continue to play the original Starcraft up until the official launch of Starcraft 2. On second thought, the fact that the game has been announced as a trilogy it may take a few years for the final part of the game to be launched. This will only lengthen the life span of Starcraft 2.

As for Final Fantasy XIII, I haven’t played it yet but I read through the entire manual last night. The game seems like it could get pretty complicated with all the Paradigm shifting. I’m still sad to hear that the game doesn’t include the Japanese voice track. I think Square Enix still doesn’t understand that North American consumers would highly appreciate it as an option. The saddest part is how they blamed the Xbox’s DVD capacity for not including the additional voice track on the PS3 Blu-ray. After years of ignoring Microsoft they all of a sudden want to support the Xbox 360 and the Playstation owners suffer? Console wars rage on.

With these games buzzing around my head I took evasive action and stayed away from home quite a bit during the weekend. Also my company bought me a sweet new laptop to keep me occupied. With an Intel Core i7 Extreme and 8GBs of RAM, I won’t be complaining on how slow Eclipse is running anymore. In a few days I’ll be halfway through this challenge and a little closer to some binge gaming.

*UPDATE – This roster update is now available (02/20/2010).

To recap, the latest Madden 10 roster update removed this years retiring players from the game completely. This includes Kurt Warner, Bertrand Berry and Junior Seau. The roster update created an uproar in the Madden community being the first time players were removed for retirement in the same year they were active. Normally retiring players are simply not including the following years version of Madden. EA Sports simply thought being accurate going into the summer was the best choice but it turns out they are flipping the script in favor of the community decision.

Due to the overwhelming response, we are going to release another update that adds the retired players previously removed back into the game. Our fans have spoken and we’ll do our best to have this update done before the weekend. We also plan to push this update to Online Franchise shortly after it’s ready.

It’s great to see that EA Sports is listening to their fans. We’ll see if this continues with features and fixes going into Madden 11.

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