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Sunday Comics: Dead Island The 2008 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards have come and gone. and it was yet another glorious year for children young and old everywhere. Highlights include a celebrity sliming performed on Orlando “Immensely Overrated” Bloom, Hannah Montana desperately trying to get her own name back, and the Naked Brothers’ Band once again receiving condemnations from NAMBLA for false advertising. From a gaming standpoint, my nephew narrowly avoided getting a sympathetic smack upside the head as EA’s Madden 2008 inched out High School Musical: Sing It! for the coveted Favourite Video Game award. It’s nice to see that children faced with a crappy selection of titles went for one of the lesser evils.
2008 Kids’ Choice Awards [Nickelodeon]
Well now this doesn’t look promising. Analyst Evan Wilson (who’s been a busy boy – does The Pach have some competition?) has told Forbes that 14 EA games are going to have their prices cut this holiday season. Note he says they will, not that he “believes” they will. If he’s right, games affected include NBA Live 08, Tiger Woods 08 and Madden 08, with most cuts to be seen on the PS2 versions, sales of which have obviously disappointed EA. No word on whether Wii, PS3 or 360 games would also see a cut, but if there’s 14 titles on the chopping block some current-gen titles are sure to feature. Are these the first shakes of the PS2′s death rattle? May just be. Sure I heard a sickly cough or two sometime around Aug/Sep. Ahead of the Bell: Electronic Arts [Forbes]
Electronic Arts announced today that it will be releasing a Spanish language version of this year’s Madden, titled Madden NFL 08 en Español, previously only rumoured. Not content to simply provide a multilingual textual interface, EA Sports and Tiburon are providing a Spanish-language broadcast voice by Alvaro Martin, play-by-play broadcaster for Monday Night Football. It even features a trio of Madden NFL 08 en Español exclusive tracks, “Los Que Luchamos” by Kinto Sol, “Blame Me” performed by Molotov and “Relax” by Mana.
Further driving the Latino appeal home is new cover athlete Luis Castillo of the San Diego Chargers, pictured prancing about above.
No information on whether perfect translations for Maddenisms like “Boom!”, “Where’d that truck come from?!” or “That was a perfect pass” but we’ll know for sure when Madden NFL 08 en Español ships to North and Latin America later this year on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.
Alright, let’s get that conversation going, folks.
It’s beginning to get kind of spooky now. Madden 2008 cover boy Vince Young of the Tennessee Titans had to retire as quarterback for the remainder of Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a quadriceps strain, and it’s too early to tell if he will be fit enough to play in next week’s game against Houston.
Madden sells a lot of copies, but it could always sell more. Which is why EA are, if Amazon and GameStop are to be believed, about to release a Spanish-language version of Madden for the US market. Called Madden NFL 08 en Español, it would be the first major game (at least that I know of) to target the Spanish-speaking population of the United States, and looks due on November 13. There are only listings for a PS2 and 360 version, which would make sense, this being a risky venture (November’s pretty late, so bilingual Hispanics may well have opted for the English version by then). Retail Radar: Madden se habla español [Gamespot]
I wrote up a feature for the Rocky earlier this month on the latest installment of Madden. It was mostly a guide to what’s new in the latest versions and how the developer continues to squeeze some semblance of originality out of an 18-year-old franchise. 18! So Madden is actual legal. Isn’t that shocking?
Annnnnyway, I did manage to throw the games producer, David Ortiz, off his game for a second when I suggested that maybe it’s time for Electronic Arts to turn Madden into an episodic game.
Mac gaming may be the punchline of many PC gamers jokes, but it’s kept alive by a handful of Mac OSX publisher holdouts. Only the biggest games make their way to the Apple OS, like World of Warcraft, The Sims, Doom III, Halo and Civilization. But, EA’s pledge to bring more of its games to the platform have become reality today with the release of surefire hits Madden NFL 08, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars and Need For Speed Carbon. All four games will be available at retail within the next two weeks.
Apple stock was up 5.01 (4.28%) on news that probably had nothing to do with this at all. Full press release after the jump.
My hand is already played; I’m admittedly not a sports fan. But I am a fan of using sports games as a litmus test for how comfortable developers have gotten with specific hardware.
Madden 2008 for the Xbox 360 has taken a huge leap in quality of generations of yore. Hit the jump for the full story in our Frankenreview: your life gifted back to you, from Kotaku. It’s that freaking efficient.
It might be news to Electronic Arts, it might be news to Ubisoft, but it’s definitely news inside today’s New York Times. In a rather bland look at the tiff forming around the frame-per-seconds of Madden on the PS3 and the Xbox 360, the New York Times mentions a handful of games that are getting delayed for the Playstation 3 as a possible sign that developers are having problems with Sony’s hardware. The story’s last example is Ghost Recon II which , according to the story, “is made by Ubisoft, which in turn is owned by Electronic Arts.” Ouch, somebody better alert France.
Sony v. Microsoft (With Helmets) [New York Times]
You’ve heard the excuses, now here’s the comparison. EA says the PS3 Madden looks cruddy compared to the Xbox 360 version, because the company has more experience developing 360 games. I say: This is proof why companies shouldn’t try to port games from the 360 to the PS3. If you are going to release two versions, then develop two totally separate versions! It’s that simple. And that expensive.
Thanks, Steven!
