Crave

(Credit: Kotaku)

As far as video game box art goes, no game cover is more touted than the EA franchise Madden NFL football. Every year EA picks a special athlete to grace the game's cover, forever etching them into video game history. In the franchise's 21-year history, no two athletes have ever shared the cover--until now.

This year, Madden 10 will feature two players from last season's Super Bowl, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. Last year saw quarterback Brett Favre as the title's leading man, only to have been signed by the New York Jets after the final retail copy showed him in his former Green Bay Packers uniform.

Madden 10 will be released this August on every major gaming platform. We highly recommend checking out some of the latest screenshots here.

Of course we can't neglect the infamous "Madden curse," a somewhat peculiar string of coincidences that has affected the game's cover star. All that's left to wonder is what's going to happen to each of these guys this season?

(Via Kotaku)

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

Ericka Boeke in a 404 sandwich.

(Credit: Matt Fitzgerald/CNET)

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

Two of Electronic Arts' most popular sports franchises are Madden and NCAA Footballl; however, the Madden franchise has licensed permission from the NFL to use player names and likeness, whereas the NCAA prohibits this.

(Credit: EA)

For anyone that wants to make the game experience as true to real life as possible, it would take a lot of time to input all your team's roster information by hand.

However, there is an alternative, a company called Gamerosters provides you three ways to import the real life players name into the game.

• A mail in service--where you send in your memory card and they add the rosters to it, for $20


• Purchase a new card from Gamerosters with the rosters. The prices are: PS3 (USB Memory Stick) $39.95, Xbox 360 Memory Card $44.95, and the PS2 Memory card $36.95


• Download the roster. Prices are: PS3 $11.95, Xbox 360, $13.95, and PS2 $11.95.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the company was founded by 25-year-old Brian Kaldenberg who launched Gamerosters from his dorm room at Iowa State University in 2004. It is expected to bring in about $200,000 in revenue this year against $70,000 in expenses simply by putting names to virtual faces.

Perhaps you've heard? Brett Favre is now a member of the New York Jets.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Happy John Madden Day, one and all! Today marks the release of Madden NFL 09, the 20th installment of the venerable video game franchise. Aside from updated rosters, what new features and tweaks does this year's game introduce? And do the new additions make this year's game a must-have upgrade?

In years past--before kids and home-improvement projects--I purchased Madden year after year with little thought. I needed the new rosters and whatever else EA Sports' programmers decided to add to the game each year. But as my Madden-playing friends and family members got married, starting producing offspring, and moved away from one another, a new Madden release ceased being an automatic purchase. Judging by the reviews of this year's game and the rosy prospects for my Cleveland Browns, I may have to find an excuse to get myself to Best Buy this weekend.

You can read CNET's review for the full rundown of Madden NFL 09, but here are the highlights of this year's game from what I've gathered from the early reviews: ... Read more

(Credit: Sony)

It's been awhile since we saw the PSP change its colors, maybe because it had nowhere to go but down after champagne. But the latest version of Sony's handheld comes in metallic blue in a special edition to commemorate the 20th anniversary of John Madden's pioneering football titles.

The color isn't much to write home about, as CrunchGear says, but the $200 "Madden NFL 09" package is a decent deal that includes a video titled NFL: In Just One Play, a PlayStation Network voucher, and a 1GB flash drive. Unlike the new DS Lite, however, there are no celebrity endorsements, other than the coach himself.

'77 throwback

(Credit: Matthew Fitzgerald)

For all you PSP and Nintendo DS addicts, we're taking you back, way back in time. It's the year 1977, where disco rules and the interwebs is just a twinkle in Al Gore's eye--it may seem like a long time ago to some, and for others it may even supersede your existence. That year though, I can remember emptying my piggy bank and running down to Woolworths to make my first handheld game purchase: Mattel Football. A very simple game, and quite prehistoric when compared to the handheld games of today. It didn't have Wi-Fi, and you couldn't buy different game discs or cartridges. For this handheld game in particular it was football and football only. As for sound, it was just bleeps and blips and it ran on a single 9V battery--not a rechargeable one like the PSP and the DS--but I spent hours playing it. Like I said the game was simple; it was all about offense, all you could do is score and since the 70's was about scoring--although of a different type--this game fit in to that era nicely? Even better, it had two levels of game play: Pro 1 and Pro 2. As for graphics, if you wanted to call them that, they were all red lit dots and you were the brightest of the six. The object: Get across the screen without getting tackled by the five remaining dots--a simple concept, but not easily accomplished. It wasn't much to look at, but back then it was all we had and it more than fit the bill.

Stay tuned, for our next stroll down memory lane we'll look at the Mego Corp. 2-XL.

Did you catch the Packers-Cowboys game Thursday night? According to USA Today, less than 40 percent of the United States was able to sit at home and watch as the Cowboys edged out the Packers 37-27. The widely anticipated competition between the two 10-1 teams aired locally, but for those not living in Green Bay, Milwaukee,or Dallas/Fort Worth, the only place to see the game was on the NFL Network, a fairly recent cable channel that reportedly, "provides about 24 hours per year of live NFL football and about 8,736 hours of filler."

Leave it to the NFL to find an inadequate solution to the problem created by putting big games on its poorly distributed NFL Network.

If you're a football fan, you're no doubt very well aware that tonight, the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers face off in one of the biggest games of the year. Yet, unless you happen to be a subscriber of one of the few cable or satellite services that carry the NFL Network--where the game is being broadcast--you won't be able to watch the game.

The Dallas Cowboys versus Green Bay Packers game Thursday night will be available only on the NFL Network, which reaches a limited national audience. To compensate, NFL.com is offering free access to live 'look-ins' on the game.

(Credit: NFL)

Ah, but if you happened to pick up Thursday's New York Times, you might have come across a full-page ad with a big welcome message: "NFL fans, The National Football League wants you to see tonight's big game between Green Bay and Dallas.

"Despite our best efforts to reach agreements with all cable companies, we were unsuccessful."

The ad goes on to trumpet the new NFL.com Live service which, the ad seems to indicate, will allow fans to watch the game live on the Web or on their Sprint Mobile-enabled phones.

"For fans who don't have NFL Network--introducing NFL.com Live--an exclusive live broadcast covers tonight's game from all angles on NFL.com," the ad continued. "NFL.com Live Thursday Night Football will be anchored by a live, originally produced video program with live game look-ins, complimented by highlights, studio analysis, and exciting interactive applications."

Yes, it's true, the NFL misused the word "complimented."

But that's neither here nor there.

It turns out that what the NFL is offering via its free NFL.com Live service is a very limited set of short "look-ins" on the game. Mostly what fans will see while the Packers and Cowboys bang away on the gridiron will be talking heads in a studio analyzing the game that most fans can't see.

And that's too bad, and emblematic of the shift in attitude by the various professional sports leagues to make it hard for their fans to actually see the games they want to see. And if, by some chance, the NFL had decided to make the entire Dallas versus Green Bay game available online, it would have likely been one of the biggest Web events of all time.

But they would never do that, because giving their fans what they want is somehow not a desirable thing for the league.

One thing sports like football, soccer, baseball, and golf have in common is that in order to play them you use shoes that have cleats in them.

When you run, hit, catch or throw, those cleats can tear up the turf and make holes in the ground. Well, a German designer named Daniel Wilhelms has developed a soccer cleat that is filled with fertilizer. Called the Naturistick, the cleat releases a dose of fertilizer with every step you take. This is an interesting concept that we may see evolve into other sports as a way to insure that our playing surfaces stay green and lush.

I don't know too much about them yet as the website is in German, but if you can read German then check out Daniel Wilhelms Naturistick.