madden

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Microsoft is said to be scrapping the Zune player, but not the Zune brand.

Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile follow AT&T's lead and drop some or all charges for calls and texts to Japanese, or connected to earthquake relief.

AT&T is about to set broadband data caps for U-verse customers.

Yahoo adds Facebook chat to its Yahoo Mail client.

AOL and T-Mobile launch Play by AOL Music for Android to stream music to your mobile phone.

T-Mobile announces a 10GB per month data plan that does not come cheap.… Read more

As strife grows between National Football League players and owners, the video game business is already feeling sidelined.

The NFL and Electronic Arts have restructured their deal over the famed Madden franchise, the Sports Business Daily reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources. According to the publication, the NFL has agreed to "significantly" cut down on EA's "contractual obligations" and has extended the agreement for one year beyond the original 2012 end date.

Sports Business Daily wasn't able to track down how much less EA will pay the NFL this year, but Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne … Read more

If you were following along with our live blog this morning, you know the big news: the Nintendo 3DS is coming March 27 for $250. But what about the games? A dozen or so titles were ready for some hands-on action this afternoon, and we got a chance to play the majority of them. Nintendo also showed us some of the built-in software that'll be on every 3DS, including the Mii Maker and AR Games.

The following titles will see launch-day or launch-window releases, between March 27 and E3 2011, according to Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime.

Mii Maker Miis are coming to the 3DS, and the Mii Maker app is preinstalled to allow for their creation. Better yet, the front-facing camera can be used in tandem to help make the process a bit more accurate. When we tried it out, the resulting Mii was a bit insulting, but after a few minor tweaks it actually did resemble our photo. Creating Miis from scratch is just like the Wii experience we're all used to.

AR Games AR Games (augmented reality games) will use a Nintendo playing card to manipulate the world through the 3DS' cameras. We had some time with a simple target-shooting game, and the effect is pretty impressive. Even better, the game requires the player to move around the virtual play space as well, adding a whole new dimension to the experience.

Steel Diver Once a tech demo, Steel Diver is getting the full game treatment at launch on the 3DS. Players control a submarine by using touch sliders that control height and acceleration. Torpedos can also be fired at oncoming obstacles, but the section of the game we played focused more on avoiding colliding with the ocean floor.

Kid Icarus Uprising After about 10 minutes with Kid Icarus Uprising--the very game Nintendo debuted the 3DS with at E3 2010--we're anticipating that the control scheme might be this title's biggest hurdle. We played two parts, one that felt like an on-rails shooter, the other a sort of modified third-person action segment.… Read more

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believes Electronic Arts, his company's biggest competitor, won't attract people who will help the Madden maker keep up with his firm.

Speaking to Edge Magazine in a recent interview, Kotick said that EA "has been struggling for a really long time." And one of the main problems the company faces, he believes, is attracting talent to help it build high-quality games.

"The most difficult challenge [EA] faces today is great people don't really want to work there," Kotick told Edge Magazine. "It's like, if you have no … Read more

Electronic Arts has launched Madden NFL Superstars, which lets players create a fantasy football team and compete with others on Facebook.

The game, developed by EA Sports and EA-owned Playfish, features 1,500 current players from all 32 NFL teams.

I checked out the game this morning. When I first loaded it up, I was given 10,000 points to buy less-capable real-life players. Upon doing so, they were added to my team, which allowed me to play with others.

Aside from playing games, I was also able to "practice" with my players to improve their abilities. It … Read more

Today on preGame we heroically emerge from the summer's gaming drought death-grip with two major titles. Join us as we host live demos of Madden 11 and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

Football is right around the corner and CNET editor Scott Stein joins us today to play a full quarter of Madden 11 between the New York Jets and New York Giants. We'll discuss major changes to the game, and what we think of Gameflow, the new mode that speeds up play-calling.

Though the Tomb Raider franchise has had a healthy dosage of sequels over … Read more

It's often been argued that Madden, EA's premier exclusive sports franchise, has had nowhere to go with its yearly editions--that users are paying for glorified "roster updates." Though it's true that many of Madden's yearly tweaks have bordered on the nearly invisible to those who weren't hard-core fans, EA Sports has taken a decidedly opposite approach to Madden 11's improvements.

Here, we look at the console version of Madden, specifically on the Xbox 360. Read here for our take on the iPad version.

Scott: "Simpler. Quicker." These are advertised on the box boldly. Clearly aware that the video game version of football has become a little like gridiron Street Fighter, with too many moves to explain without hours spent on proper training, much less the 40 seconds between plays, the emphasis in this year's Madden has clearly been placed on streamlining and mainstream appeal. Is that a smart idea, and more importantly, does it work?

Edging toward simplicity is not a trend limited to Madden. Shooters, RPGs (Fable III, in particular), and casual games have all been boiling down their interfaces, removing text and icons, and making complexity easier to grab in a shorter period of time. … Read more

Video game football on the go used to be a challenging proposition for a mobile armchair quarterback. Nintendo's handhelds have never made great versions of Madden. The PSP has a superior iteration, if you've got a PSP. The door opened up to a lot more folks with the iPhone version of Madden that debuted last year, but its game quality was far from the current console generation. In fact, it often resembled the N64 version from a decade ago in terms of graphic style, and suffered from an awkward virtual analog stick control scheme.

Enter the iPad. Apple's tablet has offered up lots of gaming potential but relatively few killer app games since its spring debut. Many iPad games boast "HD" editions for ramped-up prices, delivering not much more than the promise of a larger screen, but football seems like a perfect candidate for an iPad upgrade. Madden 11 is available for both the iPhone and iPad in two different editions, costing $7.99 and $12.99 respectively. Does the iPad version offer anything to justify the cost? (Check out our take on the console version of Madden 11.)

Based on our experience so far, yes--provided you're not expecting the console edition.… Read more

A former football player is suing Electronic Arts on behalf of about 6,000 retired National Football League players who claim their likenesses were included in Madden NFL 09, but they weren't paid for it.

The complaint (PDF), filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, claims that EA engaged in "the unlawful use of retired NFL players' likenesses in video games created, marketed, and sold by EA." The plaintiffs said EA did not obtain "prior authorization and permission" and that by not doing so, was "unjustly enriched."

Attorneys for Michael E. … Read more