More bad news for the Wii U

EA Sports has confirmed to Nintendo World Report that Madden NFL will be skipping the Wii?? U t??his year. EA stated the following:

"We will not be releasing a Wii U version of Ma??dden NFL in 2013. However, we have a strong partnership with Nin??tendo and will continue to evaluate opportunities for delivering additional Madden NFL products for Nintendo fans in the future."

This will be the first time a Madden title hasn't appeared on a Nintendo console since 1991. This is also another strong blow against the struggling Wii U. Like it or not, Madden is a huge franchise and it's a bad sign when even Madden can't make a diff??eren??ce to the general consumer market.

Madden Skipping Wii U in 2013 [Nintendo World Report]

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...and touching men feels good

When one thinks of buying the latest installment of John Madden football, one typically goes the route of either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version, instantl??y shrugging off even the thought of playing a year of pigskin on a Nintendo platform. 

If Madden NFL 13 on the Wii U is any indication, the aforementioned way ??of thinking may change, as EA is providing a serious effort to Nintendo consumers this time around.

It's also launching with Nintendo's latest console offering, so if you were already looking to the Wii U to provide your yearly fix of 11-on-11 football action, you won't have to wait much longer. You? also won't be disappointed.

Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Vita, Wii, Wii U [previewed])
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: Electronic Arts 
Release: November 13, 2012

Unlike Madden entries of Nintendo's past, which opted for a more cartoonish, family friendly style of presentation and gameplay as opposed to its more realistic console brethren, Madden NFL 13 on the Wii U is, for the most part, a straight p??ort of the game released earlier this year, with the exception of the new Infinity Engine being MIA.

EA assured me, however, that they are looking into making sure the new engine is added with future iterations. Still, for the first time ever, Nintendo players will be able to experience a high-definition version of Madden, complete with the full presentation offerings, HDR lighting, motion blur, and of course, commentary from Phil Simms and Jim Nantz. In short, what you would expect to find in a full-fledged Madden release is now available on a ??Nintendo cons??ole. 

Where the Wii U version of Madden NFL 13 falls short with the exclusion of the new Infinity Engine, it makes up for with the slew of Wii U-specific features. The more notable of the bunch has you making pre-snap player adjustments via the Wii U's touchpad. Think you should mo??ve that linebacker into the flats? Simply press and hold his icon on the touchscreen and drag it to the far bottom left or right side. Need?? an extra defender to cover the deep pass? Drag the desired icon to the far top of the screen. Blitzes and man-coverages can also be adjusted in the blink of an eye with the pad. It's quick, intuitive, and highly effective. While one could see this as a gimmick to invite the novice player into the game, a veteran would be hard-pressed to dismiss the invaluable nature of not having to cycle through multiple menus just to adjust coverage. 

On the offensive side of the line, the Wii U GamePad allows you to draw even the most squiggly of squiggly routes for your receivers. No, seriously. During my hands-on time, I must've drawn a 15-loop loopty-loop, and sure enough, my receiver followed the play, although it didn't land me the next down. But, on a more serious note, the ability to customize your hot routes now means that you are no longer restricted to the typical lot of slants, streaks, flats, and curls. With this enhancem?ent to offensi?ve hot-routing coupled with the top-down perspective of the field given on the GamePad, you now have a better way to break your receiver away from defenders.

If there's a downside to the route-drawing feature, it's that you can't create full playbooks with it, thou?gh EA said it ?hopes to bring this idea to life with future titles.

A Detach Mode is also available on the Wii U's version of Madden, which enables you to play the entire game through the Wii U GamePad's display, which, in my time, failed to offer ??any hiccuping or graphical hitches during gameplay. Both local and online multiplayer can also take advantage of utilizing this display, with the former having one person viewing the game on the pad, and the other playing on the television. Traditional local multiplayer is also on offer if you so prefer.

Madden NFL on a Nintendo console is no longer an afterthought. Nor is it merely something you play at a gathering once you get tired of Wii Sports. This offers the same hard-hitting experience as its other HD releases, so much so that the Wii U version will also receive same-day roster updates. Those who feel that the Madden series has become the same ol' thing every year should definitely keep their eyes peeled when Madden NFL 13 drops on the Wii U this November.

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During EA's Summer Showcase live stream, EA has shown off some new features for the Wii U versions of Madden 13 and Fifa 13, typically focused on the GamePad's touchscreen.

In Madden, play calling is done directly on the touchscreen, which isn't that mu??ch of a significant improvement over selecting plays from the main screen. However, you can also use the touchscreen for pre-play adjustments.

In Fifa, there are a ton of enhancements that takes advantage of the Wii U's capabilities. You can pass via touchscreen, aim at a specific spot on the net when you attempt a goal, and even get a first-person view of your selected player's surroundings using the GamePad's gyro sensor while the ball isn't in play. Manager mode is also much more streamlined as you don't have to pause the game to make adjustments. EA stresses the importance of making the experience simple for casuals, and though these changes sound like welcome improvements, EA's focus on Wii U as just another casua??l-driven device like the Wii has got me worried.

Both Madden and Fifa for Wii U will launch alongside the console later this ??year.

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Another year, another Madden. We’ve probably reached a point in time where there are Madden fans who have forgotten than John Madden’s goofy mug used to adorn the games. As a big, stupid football fan, I’m always hoping Madden makes that quantum leap into the upper echelon of sports games, along with MLB The Show, NBA 2K, and EA’s own NHL and FIFA franchises.

After playing just a game of Madden NFL 13, I can't proclaim that Madden has made that turn; it will take a lot more play time to judge that. S?till, the game feels a lot more organic, largely because it seems to have legitimately moved away from canned animations in favor of more realistic, physics-based collisions.

Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360 [previewed], PlayStation 3, Wii, Vita)
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
Release: August 28, 2012

The first thing that struck me when I settled down to play was the new broadcast HUD. It’s pretty much all about the blue and looks like you’re watching a CBS broadcast. Accordingly, CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are calling the action now, entering into the rotating doors of Madden announcers that ??has?? spun around since Madden himself was removed from the game.

Personally, I hate watching football on CBS and think their blue HUD is rather unsightly, so I wasn’t crazy about the aesthetic shift. On? top of that, I don’t particularly like Phil Simms or Jim Nantz as a broadcast team, and certainly don’t need to see cuts to their respective visages in the booth during game. This might satiate the crowd looking for a more true-to-life viewing experience, but I have a feeling even those people will end up mashing buttons to skip over the presentation additions soon enough.

Thankfully, the actual gameplay felt noticeably different from Madden 12. I elected to skip buying last year’s iteration and instead settled for playing competitively only when visiting friends, because I was letdown with it after promises that canned ?animations were a thing of the past -- they weren’t -- but now they seem to be, thanks to the newly implemented Infinity Engine.

Yes, there’s final??ly a physics engine. While the franchise has been touting its tackle masses for a while, I finally felt like playe?rs converged on tackles and made a realistic clump of bodies haphazardly struggling against each other. The claim that’s being made is that no two plays look the same, and I did see a lot of unique reactions reflective of how hits were made and who was delivering them. Players glanced off near misses, and a few times both I and my opponent let out little gasps of excitement when a player was close to retaining his balance after taking a hit and breaking a large gain.

At one point, I barely took down the opposing running back as my last tackler barely dragged him down to one knee from behind. In past Madden games, usually when someone was tackled, they went down, but this was a great display of how the new ph??ysics system works and how the running back tried his best to stay up. There’s a palpable sense of momentum, and running in the open field feels more exciting than ever.

The physics engine also seems to have had direct improvement with blocking, something that always seems to be a problem in Madden. In short, players, including wideouts, were actually blocking for me competently. Not once in the game did I have an issue with my teammates not blocking well (or not blocking at all), and the majority of my plays were runs. Similarly, rushing the passer feels better. As opposed?? to either getting through instantaneously or getting stood up and feeling like you&??rsquo;ll never have a chance to get to the quarterback in time, I felt a lot more give and take.

One other little decision I loved was bringing the kicking game back to the right stick. Kicking is a big enough part of the ?game for the decision to move to a “press X” meter to have bothered me. Analog kicking is a bit more engaging and just makes more sense. No idea why they went away from it, but it’s back.

EA Tiburon is also addressing the complaints about franchise with a new system called Connected Careers, which melds online and offline franchise modes, as well as Superstar mode. You can switch between the coaching mode, which is akin to the past franchise mode in which you have full control over everything, and Superstar. Though unrealistic, you are also now afforded playcalling duties in Superstar eve?n if you're not in a leadership position (quarterback on offense, middle linebacker on defense).

Your performance in either mode nets you XP. There are benchmarks your players need to reach for certain XP gains, at which point you can allocate the XP to make the players better. You can also set the computer to automatically spend XP at set intervals if you don't want to deal with allocating points and woul?d rather just play football games. You can even get XP from practicing situational football, such as two-minute drills, finally making the mode feel like less of a waste of time.

As a whole, players feel a bit more grounded, and it’s a positive change. The implementation of a physics engine is a move the series desperately needed, especially if it’s trying to keep up with EA’s own other sports titles, while the revamped game modes bring some interesting things ??to the table. I’m going to want to see more before I consider picking it up this year, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

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Legendary Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis opened the Madden NFL 13 presentation at EA's E3 2012 press conference with a pretty intense speech on what it means to compete, and the brevity of actually playing in the NFL. Madden developer Cam Weber segued this discussion into some details on the new Infinity Engine, with "physics you can feel." According to Weber, "no two plays will look or feel the same." Different players will have to use different strategies due to the physics engine -- as someon??e who favors the Ravens' Ray Rice, I'm pretty excited about this change.

Michael Irvin also came on stage to talk about what it's like to be a legendary football player, which led into the discussion of the "Legacy" system and the Connected Careers mode. It basically looks like an expanded Superstar system that Madden has traditionally added over the years, but a bit more in-depth. Also, Twitter will be integrated with Madden 13, and you can manage your team on?? your tablet, PC, or smartphone. SPORTS!

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Madden fans, prepare yourselves: as revealed at Microsoft's E3 press conference, Madden NFL 13 will be gaining Kinect voice controls that allow you to call plays on the line of scrimmage. Demoed onstage with Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, the controls allow you to not only audible into new plays, but select individual players via voice commands to change pass routes, shift them on the line, and more. Definitely seems like an improvement over the button-pressing menus from past Madden titles.

Madden 13 with the new Kinect controls hits stores on?? August 28. 

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With summer almost here, I'm sure die-hard football fans are already packing their coolers and mixing their magical sauces in preparation of pre-season football... which starts in late August. But before any real pigskins fly in the NFL, the true kickoff for football season starts with the annual release of Madden NFL, allowing armchai??r quarterbacks to test their might and wits against their chest-painted brethren as chunks of sal?sa fly in the midst of the action.

With this year's installment, Madden NFL 13, EA is looking to offer a much more realistic presentation to the game, harping on the visual style and c??amera angles one would find in an actual broadcast. On top of that, the passing game has been given a buff, and the GameFlow play-picking mechanic looks to be more useful this time around.  

Oh, and if you're a fan who always thought play-action plays were useless,? this year may finally fix that.

Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360 [previewed], PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii)
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
Release: August 28, 2012

Let's start with the upgraded passing options, as that's the bulk of the build I was playing. Those canned, sluggish animations from the past have now been removed, which not only gives you more control with the play but also makes the game run at a faster pace. No more are you waiting precious seconds for, say, a fake handoff; instead, the action happens much more quickly. This proves especially helpful when trying to perform the afo??rementioned play-action passes, which, in past games, would often result in a sack. That's not the case now: in many cases, the running back you fake the handoff to will now hang back and block for you, as opposed to running straight toward the line of scrim??mage.

Say you're running a play-action play in the single-back formation. Previously, once the fake handoff was completed, you as the quarterback would be left alone in the backfield, open for a sack on either side. Now, with the new blocking route, you'll be protected in the pocket for a few seconds as you scan the field. Even better, if you see a blitz coming, you can now abort the play-action pass after the snap by pulling the right trigger? to send your halfback into pass pr??otection.

Faking the pass with certain receiver routes will cause the defense?? to act now, such as during the out-and-up "sluggo" route, where faking at the right time -- just before the receiver cuts -- could leave him wide open d?ownfield.

If you've played a few games of Madden, you without a doubt have the instinct to hold the left stick down as you snap the ball to get away from the D-line. But while ending up 15-20 yards behind the line of scrimmage before passing may work in NFL Blitz, it means poor results in Madden. EA is looking to amend that playstyle this year by implementing a wide variety of one-, three-, five-, and seven-step automatic dropbacks that are tied to specific plays. Tiburon is hoping to teach players to stay in the pocket. It's an aspect that's still being worked on a?t this point, but having more time in the pocket doesn't sound like a bad thing.

You'll need that extra time scanning the field as well, because you can no longer send the ball to any player at any time. As in real football, receivers only start to expect a pass at a certain point in their route, so realistically, they won't be looking toward the quarterback immediately unless that's what their route calls for. In Madden 13, the button icons for each receiver will be dim if they are not yet expecting a pass. That's not to say you can't pass to them, however -- you still can, but you would then have to manually switch to that receiver and attempt a user catch. Odds are, though, th??e pass will end up at the receiver's back instead of his hands.

There are no?w different pass trajectories added to the ball, too. Where past games had either bullet, touch, and lob throws, there are now subtle differences in speed depending on the route. With the slant route, for example, the quarterback will now perform a quick pass, sans the stepping forward animation, right as? the ball is snapped. After all, real QBs want to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible on slants.

The GameFlow feature introduced a few years ago, which auto-picks plays for the user, has seen important improvements. Situational playcalling is much better in Madden 13. In two-minute drills, it will no longer suggest Four Verticals (a Hail Mary-type ??play) all the time. The defense has al??so lost its psychic ability to read plays even before they happen. They will now react to what they see the offense do after the snap, as opposed to sort of already knowing that you're trying to do that up-and-in route.

The presentation overhaul rounded out the build I played, which features new elements such as improved replay camera angles, including the hanging wire cam above the action; pre-game introductions and chit-chat introducing the matchup; and motion blur in replays. Perhaps the big?gest addition to the presentation is the dynamic lighting. No longer will a game starting at 1 PM still look like 1 PM three hours later; progressive lighting now has the sun and shadows move between plays, and you can now see the skies an afternoon game that ends at 8 PM getting realistically darker as time elapses.

Madden has had the reputation for some time now that each year's installment is the same as years past. While that may have been the case before, it seems like EA is attempting to make changes and adjustment?s to the game of pigskin that will provide a huge impact this year. The new passing options and abilities are major improvements, and we are inching closer to having a game on-par with a real broadcast thanks to the new presentation options.

August is a ways off, but it seems like the wait will be worth?? it.

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EA Sports put the Madden cover to a vote once again this year, and as of last week, the fans had whittled down a bracket of 64 NFL players to just two: Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam "Ace Boogie" Newton (the No. 1 seed) and Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin "Megatron" Johnson (the No. 6 seed). In an episode of ESPN's SportsNation broadcast live from New York City's Times Square yesterday evening, hosts Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle revealed that Johnson beat o??ut Newton for the coveted cover spot.

The marketing partnership between ESPN and EA Sports, now in its second year, proved even more fruitful this time around. Fans cast over 19.6 million votes, a 54% jump from the 12.7 million tallies for the Madden NFL 12 campaign. The final face-off was a close one: Johnson defeated Newton by a margin of 52% to 48%. Along the way, he took down teammate Matthew Stafford, No?. 11 seed Dwayne Bowe, No. 3 seed Arian Foster, No. 2 seed Rob Gronkowski, and No. 1 seed Aaron Rodgers.

A clearly disappointed Newton was nonetheless gracious in defeat, giving "big ups to Megatron." As for Johnson, EA Sports personnel whisked him away after the SportsNation broadcast to don his full Lions uniform and game-day equipment for a photoshoot in Times Square. One of the images taken yesterday will become the final box art for Madden NFL 13, which launches for Xbo??x 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Wii on ??August 28, 2012.

Check out the gallery below for 17 photos from the event, captured by yours truly. Are you guys happy to see Megatron on the Madden 13 cover? If not, whom would you have picked?

Madden '13 Cover - SportsNation [ESPN]

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After a preliminary play-in round with two Madden NFL 13 cover choices from each NFL team, the results are in: the bracket you see above contains the people's top 32 picks for sports gaming's most storied cover. You can cast your votes in Round One right now at ESPN.com/MaddenVote.

Each round lasts for one week, with a recap of the previous round coming every Wednesday at 5 PM EDT on ESPN's SportsNation. Starting at 9 AM EDT tomorrow, March 22, fans can set up their own voting brackets on the Madden NFL Facebook page, vying for prizes such as copies of Madden NFL 13 and Super Bowl tickets.

The St. Louis Rams are the only team without a candidate: their original representative, wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, signed with the New England Patriots after the play-in round began, giving fans of the Super Bowl XLVI losers a second choice alongside tight end Rob Gronkowski. He and his surgically repaired left ankle probably don't want to be on the Madden box, anyway.

Madden '13 Cover - SportsNation [ESPN]

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2011 was the second year in a row in which EA Sports let fans choose the Madden NFL cover athlete, and the people voted 13 million times to whittle down a field of 32 options to put Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis on the cover of Madden NFL 12. This time, EA is expanding the v??oting to a group of 64, bringing in two choices from each of the 32 NFL teams. The first round will serve as a team-by-team popularity contest to determine the one nominee per team that fans want on the box.

EA announced the competition at the 18th annual Madden Bowl, held last night in Indianapolis. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, joined by teammate Jimmy Graham and nationwide phenomenon Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos, avenged his loss in Madden Bowl XVII with a last-second fourth-quarter comeback. Tebow Time doe??sn't end with the Broncos' season, it seems.

The voting will once again be held in conjunction with ESPN's SportsNation, and is set to begin on March 7. Visit the Madden NFL Facebook page in the coming weeks to see the 64 c??andidates be revealed.

'Madden 13' cover vote to kickoff March 7 [ESPN]
Madden '13 Cover - SportsNation [ESPN]
Madden Bowl XVIII: Tebow Time in Indianapolis [Madden NFL]

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