Life and Leisure. Tech and Toys.

1. Select Xbox Live or Online from the main menu.
2. Select Madden NFL Online.
3. Toggle the menu Roster & Tuning
4. Select Download Roster

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.

You may also 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.

The first roster update came out on Friday August 26th for Madden Season Ticket holders and includes most of the preseason transactions.

NBA 2K options displayed for reference

The option to choose the simulated quarter length in Franchise Mode has been missing from the Madden series for as long as I can remember. This option can be found in many of the 2K series games. You may be asking why this option is so important? People who play Franchise Mode in Madden enjoy the role playing element of building a team and generating realistic statistics.

A game of Madden can take more than an hour to complete while playing 15 min quarters so the user is allowed to adjust the quarter length. The problem is that the rest of the league is unaffected by this, they will still play full length games.

This affects Franchise Mode in two ways. Statistically, the user controlled players will never match those of the rest of the league when playing shorter quarters like 5 min quarters. This can be mostly seen while viewing the number of tackles. On the offensive side of the ball you may be able to match certain averages but the rest of the stats will be way off. The way stats are generated for simulated games seem to try to match real life output which skews the stats away from possible game output.

The statistical problem leads to the second problem. Since your players will never match the rest of the league your players are statistically performing as if they were the worst players in the league. Progression in Madden is based on statistical performance. It is more than likely your players will not progress and will likely receive rating decreases. The role playing element of Franchise Mode is lost here because players with high potential will never perform well statistically and never become stars in the league. Furthermore, good luck trying to win awards like Defensive Player of the Year while lacking in the tackles department.

In closing, the only way to play Franchise Mode is to play with long quarters. Even when playing long quarters the numbers are still difficult to match because the generated stats are not actual game output. I find playing with 12 min quarters works out okay so far.

Without a normal NBA season this year, 2K Sports is taking it back to the old school. It’s going to be a tough sell for most fans of the franchise but after watching the trailer there are some things to look forward to. My favorite part was the Hakeem Olajuwon “Dream Shake”.

After spending ample time with the Madden 12 demo for Xbox 360 I’m still a little unsure of what the real game will be like. Like past years demos the commentary and music are stripped leaving the game feeling extremely lifeless. This is a hindrance toward selling the game because the player doesn’t get a clear picture of what the game will really be like.

Fortunately, EA Sports added some nice features that added to the gameplay of this years demo. For one, they added the ability to choose the AI difficulty. All too often you’ll see demos where you aren’t given a choice of difficulty and it affects your overall view of the game because it was too easy or too difficult. Another thing they added to this years demo was the length of the game. In this years demo you play a full game of 5 min quarters. This is actual a decent length of gameplay compared to 2 or 3 min quarters we’ve come to know in past years demos.

As far as the on-field action the game runs quite well. The offense this year seems to have gained an edge because of the speed of the game and the tackling isn’t as “suctiony” as last year. This means when a defensive player gets near the ball carrier they won’t automatically be sucked into a tackling animation like before. Also I had a much harder time turning my defensive players around when the play got behind them. I know this is due to the Agility rating but it’s really bad sometimes when your player can’t make a tackle because he had to make a large circle to turn around. Using the CPU assist A button really helps in these situations, but I hate using that button.

With the new tackling engine the hits look much better this year, breaking out of animations really makes the tackling look more realistic. However, I did notice sometimes your ball carrier would unintentionally lose a lot of yards because he kept getting pushed back while breaking tackles. I also feel like the defensive players are more inclined to make hits instead of wrapping up the ballcarrier for an actual tackle.

On All-Pro difficulty the pass rush seemed to come too fast on offense and on the defensive end it was too easy to get sacks. It also seems like the throwing animation is a bit slower so the quarterbacks take more sacks or throw bad balls. I hope the blocking is improved in the actual release. Shedding tackles seems to require using a right stick move which I don’t like. You should be able to disengage a little easier without getting into a swim animation.

Overall the demo is quite good and I’ve already played it a bunch of times. I wish the demo didn’t feel so dead though, they should have removed all the fluff like feature overviews and promotions towards trying to squeeze in some commentary and music. I’m confident to conclude Madden 12 will take more strides forward than Madden 11.

UPDATE: Engadget.com has released information that NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go will become available  September 1st, 2011 for $350 without a DirectTV subscription. Thanks Jerry! Link.

UPDATE 2: It is September now and I still can’t find out how to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go by itself on the Direct TV website…

UPDATE 3: The link to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go separately is now available here.

NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go allows users to watch NFL games from their computer or mobile device. Unlike last year (2010) DirectTV has decided not to offer NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go as a stand-alone package this year. This means you will need to order, install and activate a satellite dish and receiver in order to get NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go for the 2011 Season.

For the 2010 season DirectTV offered this stand-alone package for $350 for the entire season. It is unfortunate they won’t be offering it this year because people like myself aren’t at liberty to install a satellite dish on a rental home. Not to mention the lowest package only supports a single TV. In 2011 we should be taking steps forwards towards internet based entertainment not taking steps back to hardware installations. At a premium of $350 we aren’t talking peanuts, yet DirectTV decided to cut this service while there are clearly people who would pay whatever the cost.

I guess I missed out on the one season that I could have had NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go without the hassle of installing a satellite dish and rewiring a home I don’t even own. At least I saved myself $350.

I hope this means they will increase their library of Streamable content because right now their Stream selection isn’t worth $7.99.

The new Horde Mode 2.0 allows you to gain cash for each kill during a round. You can use the cash towards weapons, barricades, laser fences, turrets and decoys. You can even purchase a SilverBack mech suit. The enemies will also get a lot tougher in the new Horde Mode by introducing Berserkers and Brumaks into the mix.

Not enough King in this trailer… The gameplay footage makes this game look fun but if the controls are like Street Fighter 4 I think I will stick with Marvel vs Capcom 3.

I recently restarted my GameFly account because of the drought that is summer gaming. The best thing about these droughts are that new games are on the horizon and you have a chance to catch up on games you’ve missed out on. Particularly those games you do not wish to own and are only worth a rental.

My frustrations with GameFly have always been the inability to receive the games you really want consistently. Most of the time your queue doesn’t necessarily work out the way you mean it to. For instance I wanted to rent God of War III which had an availability of “High”, so I put it at the top of my list. However I was sent Bayonetta which was second on my list but also had an availability of “High”. Question marks ensue.

Normally what would happen is that if a game on the top of your list had a lower availability you would get sent another game on the list with a higher availability. Which makes what happened to me a bit of a quandary. So what I can deduce is that my nearest GameFly distribution center didn’t have any copies of God of War III and thus sent me the next game on my list. So the real culprit is inaccurate availability statuses and furthermore statuses that are based on national availability instead of nearest distribution center.

One solution to this is to only have a single game in your queue, that way you always get the game you want. However, this works against you in other ways as well. Semi-secretly, your GameFly queue also acts as a waiting list. Supposedly the logic of the user priority also takes into account which users have been waiting for a game longer. So your queue helps you by holding your position in line but at the same time offers GameFly an excuse to send you a game that wasn’t at the top of your list.

Luckily for me I’ve actually been wanting to play both of these games so this strange occurrence isn’t a total loss. A nice feature would be to send the user an email when their top priority isn’t available and ask them if they’d like to wait for their top game or just get sent the next thing that is available.

Shaped kind of like the original Xbox 360.

Sega Game Gear mated with an Amazon Kindle.

UPDATE: The Wii U will not support DVD or Blu-ray playback

The Wii U is a backwards compatible console offering HD visuals and a new touchscreen controller. The console itself will connect to your television via HDMI and offer internal flash memory as well as SD and USB ports for external storage. The wireless touchscreen controller also features a built-in camera, speakers, microphone and gyroscope for motion controls.

The Nintendo Wii has been a power house in console sales since it’s inception in 2006 and revolutionized the gaming industry by making video games ubiquitous amongst the general public. Heck, even my own parents bought one. The Wii’s inviting motion controls have made it possible for anyone of any age or gender to throw themselves into the casual gaming sphere. Gameplay so revolutionary for its time it took Nintendo’s competitors until 2010 to release their own motion control devices. While Microsoft took an innovative leap of faith with it’s Kinect, Nintendo saw Sony release an almost exact replica of the original WiiMote.

While the Nintendo Wii garnered recorded sales numbers the Wii failed to impress hardcore fans. Nintendo is finally trying to reconcile their losses with the Wii U’s high-definition graphics and processing power, but is it too late? My personal opinion is that it’s too late but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Nintendo has solidified itself in the casual market with the Wii and the success of the DS. The Wii U and the 3DS will just further their cause. While I don’t see the Sony Move being a feared competitor I am certain Nintendo is at least mildly worried about Kinect’s potential. However, Nintendo is just leaps and bounds ahead of the competition already, I don’t think it’ll shake Nintendo’s resolve one bit.