Like I predicted EA took a step back this year with their NBA franchise. NBA Elite gameplay has been revealed and its only helping it’s 2K11 competition.

Three dunks in the first few minutes? Old canned animations from NBA Live?

EA Sports and Playfish have come together to launch Madden Superstars, a flash game for Facebook. Similar to the Madden Ultimate Team card game on the console but with timed elements similar to Farmville and no actual Madden gameplay.  Instead of growing a crop you are practicing to increase your ratings for your next game. You also have to wait to receive game tickets so you can play your next game.

The actual game portion is just a simulation of your teams stats versus the other team.  By playing games you receive cash and experience points. You can use the cash to buy booster packs of different levels to get better player cards. Overal,l I think this is a pretty neat addition and it  makes good if not better usage of the player card system than the console.

If you’re into Football and have ever been addicted to a Farmville type game this is probably for you. This is obviously a small niche but Madden Superstars has got you covered.

Join Now

First select Xbox Live or Online from the menu. Then select Download Roster from the online menu. It will prompt you to save your current roster, do this so you can revert back to the default roster if you ever want to. After it completes you can exit the online menu.

Since the Roster Updating is done through the online menu you won’t be able to download the Roster Update if you do not have an EA Sports Online Pass. Since you no longer need to join a Quick Match to download the Roster Update, Xbox Live Silver users can download the updates just fine. Xbox Live Silver users should sign up for a Gold trial membership or try to get the roster file from a friend using a Memory Unit or a USB drive.

Once you’ve downloaded the Roster Update, it will show up in your file list in the Load section. This roster should be automatically loaded every time you start up the game but if it doesn’t you can always load it manually.

*UPDATE* – White Slider Case will be available 8/27

It’s been a long wait but the Incase cases are now available. Both the Slider and Snap Case can be ordered on the official Incase website. I was very pleased with my Slider Case for my iPhone 3G and can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.

For some reason the white Slider Case that is shown in the pictures is not available on the web store. Maybe they’re having the same manufacturing problems as the white iPhone 4…

Link to Microsoft Points Calculator

*UPDATE 2* – EA will officially bring back the old pre-snap controls as an option the player can choose to enable. This patch is estimated to arrive around the first week of the NFL season. Source

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.

This new trailer sets up the epic story line for the upcoming StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty set to launch next week. This is probably the most video and story elements we’ve seen from Blizzard so far. It really makes me wonder how much money they could make by just making a full blown movie.

Images of Thor and Okami Amaterasu have been sighted on the official Marvel.com website.

The two new characters to join the series are Super Skrull of Fantastic Four fame and Trish from the Devil May Cry series. Super Skrull has the powers of each of the Fantastic Four members. You can see some of his torch, stretch and stone fist attacks in this video. As for Trish she carries a large blade and has fire ball attacks. She seems to be similar to Dante but without the guns.