It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback football games and second guess coaching decisions from the sofa, but fair or not Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll brought hell onto himself by choosing to have Russell Wilson throw a slant from the 1-yard line to go for the likely game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX instead of just handing the damn ball to Marshawn Lynch. Had the pass not been intercepted, no one would care, but it was, and with a dude nicknamed Beast Mode standing in the backfield it’s easy to look back and say they should have just run the ball a couple times–even though there was little time left and only one timeout remaining, so a pass in that situation really wasn’t a bad idea. Throwing a slant was ill advised; a bootleg pass/run option would have made more sense given Wilson’s skillset.

(I’d also remind folks criticizing the play call to look back at the Steelers vs. Colts playoff game from years back, when in a similar situation the Steelers appeared ready to ice the game by giving the ball to Jerome “The Bus” Bettis for a presumably easy goal line TD charge. He wound up fumbling the ball–and he was a player that was a short yardage beast and rarely ever fumbled–and the game was only saved by Big Ben making a miraculous shoestring tackle on the Colts defender who had picked up the ball and was running for a return TD the other way. Sometimes shit just happens, is all I’m saying.)

Anyway, EA Sports is getting in on the snarky fun by releasing an alternate ending video which uses Madden NFL 15 to show how the Super Bowl might have concluded had the ball been put in Beast Mode’s hands. Sorry to rub salt in the wound, Seahawks fans, but this is going to hurt!

Beast Mode vs. Gronk

In a Big Game Showdown ahead of Super Bowl XLIX as part of the latest episode of Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer sketch, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, a.k.a. “Beast Mode,” and New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, a.k.a. “Gronk,” engaged in a fight to the death playing Mortal Kombat X as a way to predict who will win the big game on Sunday.

You will see a lot of blood, guts, crotch grabbing (both in and out of the game), and stunned looks of horror at the extreme level of violence. And in a shocking change of events, Lynch not only speaks, he actually gets paid $50 to teach Conan his infamous TD celebration rather than getting fined. Beast Mode and Gronk even get sidetracked for a moment and break into a surprising chat about Mario Kart characters and power-ups.

Oh, and someone kinda-sorta wins the showdown. You’ll have to watch the video to find out who.

Tonight, during the final round of the Madden NFL 15 cover vote on ESPN.com, Seattle Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman was elected cover athlete for this season’s football video game from EA Sports, topping Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton by a 56% to 44% margin. Throughout the voting, Sherman also won popularity contests against Alshon Jeffrey, Jimmy Graham, and Colin Kaepernick.

Richard Sherman is considered by many analysts to be the premiere cover cornerback in the NFL, so it’s only fitting that he landed the cover athlete gig. It’s also an appropriate choice since EA Tiburon’s main focus for this season is improving upon the Madden defensive game plan with a more intuitive tackling system, smarter coverage logic, new pass rush moves, and new camera angle options promising to add greater immersion and excitement to playing on the defensive side of the ball.

Another all-pro defensive player, reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Luke Kuechly, joins this evening’s festivities by appearing front and center in the first official Madden NFL 15 gameplay trailer. OK, so the trailer really only shows maybe 15 seconds of actual game footage, but hey, that’s better than nothing leading up to E3 where we’ll no doubt get a more in-depth look at the game.

Madden NFL 15 launches August 26th on lead platforms PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Last-gen versions for PS3 and Xbox 360 are in development as well.

Conan O’Brien took his late night show on the road to Dallas, Texas last week, and while he was there he paid a visit to AT&T Stadium, also commonly called “Jerry’s World” by sports commentators. But instead of getting into shenanigans with the Dallas Cowboys or perving out on the team’s cheerleaders, Conan did the first thing any of us would do if given the opportunity. That’s right, he hooked a PlayStation 4 up to the enormous DiamondVision scoreboard to play some video games for the latest installment of Clueless Gamer.

Watch along as Conan plays Madden NFL 25, Flower, Need for Speed: Rivals and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on a 72’x160′ 1.2 million pound screen. His final recommendation: Go rent an NFL stadium to play games on, or at the very least a basketball arena. Thanks for the advice, Coco.

Clueless Gamer: AT&T Stadium Edition [Team Coco]

Ignite is the new game engine EA Sports has crafted to usher in the next generation of sports video games on Xbox One as well as PlayStation 4. For Xbox One in particular, EA and Microsoft have entered into a “strategic partnership” to bring four sports franchises to the console within the next 12 months, including Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14, NBA Live 14 (yes, it does exist!) and UFC. Exactly what the strategic partnership with Microsoft means for the Xbox One versions of these games compared to PS4 is not clear at this time.

Human Intelligence, True Player Motion and Living Worlds are the cornerstones of the Ignite engine, as showcased in the following series of trailers. Ignite promises to deliver 10 times more animation detail, uncanny human AI and immersive stadium atmosphere on a level far above and beyond what has previously been possible. Sure looks and sounds impressive, but I’m not quite believing what’s on display in the trailer is truly representative of what the engine will be able to produce during live gameplay. But I’d be happy to be proven wrong.

If you’re watching football today as most people do every Sunday afternoon, keep an eye out for three players: Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller, Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, and San Francisco 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree. These three players have partnered with Ubisoft to create new signature celebrations inspired by The Hip Hop Dance Experience.

Whenever these players perform their celebratory sack/touchdown dances on the field, Ubisoft will make a donation to their respective charities. Von Miller is sack-dancing for Von’s Vision, a foundation dedicated to providing eye care, glasses, and contact lenses to underprivileged youth. “Shady” McCoy’s TD dances will each bank some cash for the LeSean McCoy Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting people in at-risk communities of Pennsylvania and raising funds for ALS (Lou Gehrig Disease) research. Finally, donations for Crabtree’s celebrations will be made to the Boys & Girls Club.

I’m kind of an old fuddy-duddy when it comes to the excessive dancing and celebrating that goes on after every single play in the NFL these days–great, dude, you got a first down, stop acting like you won the game and get back to the damn huddle!–but if these guys want to strut their stuff for a good cause, who am I to complain?

The Hip Hop Dance Experience is scheduled to launch for Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 Kinect this Tuesday, November 13. Check the videos below for a behind the scenes look at each player’s new charitable dance moves. Also stay tuned for our upcoming 2012 dance-off guide, where Aaron will be taking a look at the latest dancing video games to groove to for the holidays.

We have reached the halfway point of the 2012-13 NFL season, and I have to say that so far this has been the most unpredictable season of American football that I can remember watching in a long time.

The replacement refs turned the first few weeks of the season into a bumbling display of game mismanagement and authoritative ineptitude. The Saints “Bountygate” scandal has developed into a twisting and turning legal battle between suspended players and Commissioner Roger Goodell. Perennial Super Bowl contenders like the Packers, Patriots, and Steelers have looked fairly average (although all three are finally beginning to return to form of late). The basement-dwelling NFC West has suddenly become a competitive division from top to bottom. And just when you think the Giants are going to lose, Eli Manning pulls off another 4th quarter miracle you couldn’t possibly see coming.

The only certainties so far this season seem to be that Michael Vick will turn the ball over at least once or twice a game, the Chargers appear to be nose-diving into their yearly collapse, the Cowboys still find the most heartbreakingly bone-headed ways to lose games that they should win, the Steelers have the most God-awful throwback jerseys ever made (they looked like a bunch of bumble bee convicts running around out there!), and Tim Tebow will be shoved out onto the field for a handful of plays for absolutely no purpose. Hey Sexy Rexy, Tebow may not be a prototypical drop-back QB, but using him as a decoy receiver and a punt protector is just stupid.

This season’s edition of Madden NFL 13 for PlayStation Vita has been just as unpredictable as the sports league it’s licensed from. At launch, the game’s performance was all over the place. I’ve been playing for over a month now, completing a full Franchise season and taking my created superstar through another, and in that time I’ve experienced no less than 10 system crashes (many resulting in lost progress), jittery framerates during play selection and post-play scenes (but oddly not during real-time gameplay), players getting stuck running in place on the field, shaky online performance, commentator gaffs aplenty, and a variety of other random glitch oddities. I know EA Sports wanted the game to launch for the NFL season kickoff, but the original build of this game never should have cleared the final QA certification process for retail distribution.

The announcing is particularly lousy. While the CBS Sports team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms bring broadcast-caliber professionalism to the content and quality of their commentary, the synchronization of what they’re saying as it relates to what’s happening on the field is way off. No, the game didn’t end in a tie, there is this extra period called overtime yet you two dolts just said the game was over…right in the middle of the pre-OT coin flip!

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to color commentary blunders. They’ll say a team needs to kick an onside kick after they just scored to tie the game or take the lead in the closing seconds. They’ll talk like the game is ending during the two minute drill at the end of the first half. They’ll say that the QB needed to slide to protect himself after a regular running play with the RB. After a near-sack of the opposing QB, who will throw the ball away as a result of the pressure, they’ll go off about how he should have thrown a better ball because the offensive line gave him all day to find an open receiver. Shoot, one time on a whim I went for it on 4th and 17 from my team’s side of the field, and when I failed to pick it up they said I should call more plays like that. Really?

Throwing up penalty flags on itself left and right, EA Sports issued a massive patch earlier this month, and fortunately the update has cured much of what initially ailed Madden’s Vita debut. Since applying the update, online performance has stabilized, the framerate has been locked in, and I haven’t had even a single crash. Of course, some glitches still exist (just the other day I encountered three instances of players getting stuck running in place on top of each other, all during a single game) and some new ones have cropped up (performance reports after games and practice sessions in Superstar mode now show a blank page). But overall the major game-breaking problems are gone.

This is all good news, because once you dig beneath the warts, on the Vita playing field Madden 13 presents a respectable, highly entertaining pigskin simulation. When you’re actually playing the game, players resemble their real-life counterparts close enough to be recognizable and the tackling animations are dynamic and realistic, not canned and repetitive. Optional features like Accelerated Clock and GameFlow playcalling streamline play selection and the overall pace of play for quick gaming on the go. The fundamental controls also feel tight and responsive across the board, whether you’re passing, running, or playing defense. Timing in the passing game is particularly smooth.

EA Sports’ extensive efforts to utilize the Vita hardware should be applauded as well. All of the basic football actions remain linked to face buttons and analog sticks, while the touchscreen and rear touch pad open up an complimentary set of mechanics that mostly enhance the game in a natural and effective way. Switching players requires a simple tap on the screen, a far quicker method than the usual tedium of repeatedly pressing a button to cycle through the lineup player by player. Dragging your finger across the rear touch pad has many uses, from performing spin moves with your running back, to swatting down balls as a defensive back, to subtle pocket movements for avoiding the pass rush as a QB. Even the gyroscope is used without feeling gimmicky—lining up kickoffs, punts and field goals by physically tilting the Vita in your hands actually works great. Off the field, you can also use the on-deck camera to snap a photo of your face to plaster onto your created superstar avatar.

The biggest advantage provided by the touch screen, though, is when it’s time to make pre-play adjustments. Sending players in motion is as easy as tapping and swiping the screen, and by tapping on the quarterback or wide receiver you can quickly access audible and hot route options. By pulling down on the left shoulder button, you can also pull up a Call Your Shots feature that literally allows you to trace out individual wide receiver routes like you are drawing things up in the dirt with your finger in a playground pick-up game. Scouting the coverage and drawing up the perfect route to beat the defense gives you the chance to feel like human football computer Peyton Manning, if only for a moment.

Except for the touch controls and other Vita-specific mechanics, this version of Madden 13 is largely based on last season’s content model. Disappointingly, console features like the Infinity Engine physics, Ultimate Team mode and Connected Careers are missing in action. Don’t expect to be able to transfer progress cross platform if you already own the PS3 version either, as such functionality is not supported. EA missed an opportunity to make some extra bucks on that one for sure.

However, even without some of these key players, this game suits up a strong mode roster. Exhibition, Franchise, Superstar, and Practice modes cover the basics, in addition to two-player online play with regular roster updates to download. Online connectivity in general deserves high marks. Once you’re connected to EA’s servers, a live news and scoreboard ticker scrolls across the bottom of the menus. Then there is Madden Moments Live, a mode that allows you to relive/rewrite signature games and player performances from the past few seasons, including regular updates from this season’s top weekly games.

For example this week you can jump into the end of the Cowboys vs. Giants game and attempt to finish off the comeback, erasing the heartbreak of Dez Bryant’s out-of-bounds-by-a-fingertip overturned touchdown grab. Similar challenges are available from previous weeks, from Big Ben’s game-winning drive against the Eagles to the Packers vs. Seahawks hail mary debacle, dating all the way back to games from 2010 and 2011. Once you’ve finished a scenario, you are given a score that can be compared against your friend list and a Top 100 leaderboard, adding a social beat-my-high-score touch that motivates multiple replays.

Madden 13 on the Vita reminds me a lot of last season’s New York Giants. During the regular season they were barely above average, just sneaking into the playoffs with a win in the final week to push their record up to an unimpressive 9-7. But once they got hot and performed up to their capabilities in the postseason, the Giants proved that they had the collective talent of a Super Bowl champion.

Madden 13 similarly underperforms in many areas on the Vita, but when it hits a bug-free groove it really is a great handheld NFL football simulator to keep in your pocket throughout the remainder of the season. Due to the incomplete level of polish and all around poor optimization for the platform, though, I can’t in good conscious outright recommend a purchase. The game just isn’t up to snuff in too many areas. However, as far as Vita football games go, this is your only option until next season. If you’re able to look past some technical faults, I think you will be pleased with the overall experience—just download the demo first to be absolutely sure you know what you’re getting in for.

Pros:
+ Solid core game of simulation football
+ Effective use of touchscreens/gyroscope/camera without going overboard
+ Madden Moments Live keeps you coming back for new weekly challenges
+ Post launch update fixed many major technical problems

Cons:
– Riddled with bugs at launch, with issues still lingering even after a patch
– Laughable commentary blunders
– Feature set, stats and rules largely based on last season

Game Info:
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Tiburon
Release Date: 8/28/2012
Genre: Sports – Football
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1-2 (online multiplayer only)
Source: Review copy provided by publisher

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I’ve been playing the PlayStation Vita version of Madden NFL 13 for roughly a month now. I’ve completed a full franchise mode season, and have just a few games left in my create-a-superstar campaign and some final online play testing to do before wrapping up my review.

Overall, I’ve been quite pleased by the game, despite how poorly optimized for the Vita hardware the initial build turned out to be. The game’s crashed on me nearly 10 times, and I’ve encountered many instances of chuggy frame rates and random animation glitches. It’s been an underlying disappointment for what has otherwise been a solid handheld performance from gaming’s only NFL franchise.

Fortunately, things have improved drastically of late. Earlier this week, I popped the game in to continue my superstar career and was greeted by a prompt to download a title update. I had patiently been hoping for such a patch, but when it came I didn’t expect much until I found the patch notes on the Madden website and restarted the game with the latest update applied. To my great surprise, EA Sports has addressed damn near every single issue I’ve had a problem with, and then some. Take a look:

Gameplay:

Noticeable hitches during cut scenes in between plays, which caused a drop in framerate, have been improved.

Call Your Shots on Defense can now be called during the Offense’s walk to the line instead of having to wait for the Offense to be set.

Gameplay camera adjustments. Cameras should now be closer to the field.

Call Your Shots camera can be accessed during the pre-play walk to the line and will indicate when it is able to be used after the players get set.

Out of memory crash has been fixed when loading in and out of games.

Fixed Left Stick issue during playcall when trying to scroll.

When the user exits from a playbook to a package and starts scrolling, the selection will now move to the top.

Coin toss cameras have been reworked.

Online:

Overall online stability improvement. Various issues that may cause a user to disconnect from another user have been addressed.

Unranked games will now influence player skill points.

Franchise:

Team Records have been updated for the previous NFL season in Franchise Mode.

Audio:

Various commentary issues have been addressed.

Fixed music stacking issues during gameplay.

Art/UI:

Sky textures during dusk have been improved.

Clear and Smoked visors will now show up correctly in game.

Players that had graphical issues where their skin was appearing glossy have been addressed.

Sideline players now have been assigned numbers.

Removed unsupported player equipment.

Cut scene camera issues have been fixed.

Dolphins’ alternate uniform pants issue has been corrected.

Players’ uniform pants flickering issue has been fixed.

Stadium wall texture issues fixed.

Fixed player model chin strap not being attached to the player correctly.

Cowboys Stadium texture issues resolved.

In my experience, the game is just a lot more stable and smooth after the patch, as it should have been from the beginning. So, if you put your Vita copy of Madden away (or deleted it from your memory stick) due to the glitchiness, dig it back out and try it again with the new update. If you’re still deciding whether or not to buy it in the first place, check back this coming week for our full review.

Reports are coming in indicating that the Wii U version of Madden NFL 13 will be missing key online features and the all-important Infinity Engine real-time physics system that is one of the cornerstone upgrade of this season’s simulation video game football champ.

That’s too bad, because similar cutbacks have always been a detriment to multi-platform games for the existing Wii, so it’s somewhat alarming to see the same thing happening all over again for the launch of the Wii U, a system that’s not supposed to be lagging behind the other consoles any more.

Combing over these first screenshots, I’m not so sure the Wii U version of the game is even up to snuff graphically, as a lot of the textures and background stadium/sideline details are looking kinda rough.

On the bright side, however, the Wii U version will offer features that should make hardcore pigskin enthusiasts squeal like a hog rolling in mud (or some other icky brown substance). I’m pretty skeptical about the GamePad controller in general, but for Madden 13 the touch pad is being utilized to put the full playbook in the palms of your hands with easier access and navigation than has ever been possible. Like dragging a stick through the dirt in the playground, players will even have the opportunity to draw up plays and hot routes on the fly. Now that’s useful!

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Hungry gamers looking for some munchies to go along with their new copy of Madden NFL 11 should head over to the nearest Target when the game ships this coming Tuesday. Along with a free $10 gift card, buying this season’s Madden at Target also comes with two free 11.5 – 12.5 oz. bags of Doritos nacho chips. And on top of that, specially marked Doritos packages will also include some form of Adrian Peterson downloadable content exclusively available at Target retailers.