But with this year’s game released last week amidst the league’s lockout, how realistic can it be?

Gameplay aside – which reviews of the game say is amazing – how could you go and start a franchise when the league’s system for contracts and free agency is in a state of debate?

When the real NBA comes back, we could see a modified schedule, a hard cap, shorter contracts, a rollback in salaries, a merger of teams or even the contraction of a team or two.

In other words, these real life changes would completely undermine the game’s franchise mode. Would you want to play a game lauded for its realism when one of the main features would be completely unrealistic?

Many of the possible changes could be made with a simple software update through Xbox Live or PSN, but what about the deeper issues? What if the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets were contracted, with the players divvied up in a draft? Could 2K sports even remove a team from their game straight up? In the case of a merger, could the two teams be turned into one, with perhaps a different name, logo and uniform?

I’m sure the 2K sports have some sort of contingency plan for the lockout but, even as a fan of the series, I won’t be rushing out to pick up this game anytime soon. It might be the best substitute around for real-life ball in this lockout, but wouldn’t it be depressing to watch Blake Griffin drop 45 points on the poor Raptors in a hyper-realistic video game when in real life, it just simply can’t happen?

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Now, I have nothing against Hillis as a person or a player – he gives hope to white runningbacks everywhere – but the Madden cover is supposed to be reserved for the best in the game and Hillis is not that. Unless you count it as “best white runningback,” but even then Danny Woodhead should have received some consideration.

I’m no fan of the man that Hillis beat in the final of EA Sports 32-player bracket, Mike Vick, but he was far more deserving to get the cover. He’s one of the most electrifying athletes in all of sports and isn’t that what you want from a video game cover boy?

More than one million votes were cast in the final and somehow Hillis trounced Vick by a 66%-34% margin, although I do have a bit of a theory as to why this may have occurred: The Madden Curse.

I won’t bother recapping what the Curse is, but needless to say, you might not want your favourite team’s player on the cover of Madden. So were Philly fans smart enough to vote against Vick? And were Cleveland fans voting for Hillis because they’re just happy to see their team win something after years in the doldrums? Plus, you can’t rule out the possibility of dog-loving voters picking against the man they despise.

What EA should have done was the same thing they did last year: Let the fans vote, but give them some logical choices. Last year it was Drew Brees (the eventual winner) vs. Reggie Wayne vs. Jared Allen. This year, why could they have had Vick go against Aaron Rodgers and Andre Johnson or someone else?

The ball was definitely dropped on this decision.

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For the first time ever there will be two athletes on the cover and if you had to guess who they were, you probably would get it after only a few tries. They’re Larry Fitzgerald of the NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals and Troy Polamalu of the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. I had guessed a while back that it would be Polamalu, but given that there’s two guys on the cover, his opposite Fitzgerald is the logical pick.

So will the two of them only get half of the supposed curse? Or will it be magnified? My bet is an injury-plagued season for Polamalu — who’s always flying around and playing as physical as possible — and a sub-par season from Fitzgerald, who will no doubt be receiving double and triple teams when Arizona foolishly trades away Anquan Boldin.

The biggest thing that the folks at EA behind Madden have been hyping for this year’s edition of Madden is the adaptive game play. With the new “My Skill” setting, the game actually tailors itself to your skill level and plays. This might be one the best revolutionary features of any sports game and is an amazing help for those who haven’t been Madden their entire lives. Now, anyone can pick up a controller, take the Madden test and the game will know to take it easy on the player. On the other end, the player who whips the Virtual training sim will be playing against stiffer competition. Also for the beginners, play selection — with several different difficulty options for that as well — and the in game navigation and play are a lot easier to use too. And for those who like the preset difficulties, they are still there but who really needs them?
 
Another new feature is the EA Rewind. This will cause fights and fits if you use one when playing against a friend and is a decided advantage when playing against the computer. What is it? Basically, it’s a mulligan and even better (or worse), most of the times that you would probably use it, Cris Collinsworth breaks down the play and tells you what you should have done. Now, I’m all up for innovation, but I don’t like the Rewind. There shouldn’t be mulligans in football and I’m glad that you can turn this off. It will help out newer players to the franchise and guys who like to cheat a little (Patriots fans) but I don’t think this is for real gamers.
 
When you first start up a game, a nice thing you notice is a semi-pregame-ish feature of sorts. It goes along well with the redesigned presentation of the game including the scrapping of annoying radio commentary in favour of a television broadcast style.
 
In the game, it’s very easy to notice how much work was put into making Madden 09 far superior graphic-wise over it’s predecessors. To begin with, the players are far less bulky than last season. The details on weather and even the grass are greatly improved as well but the elements still don’t have as much of an effect on game play as it does in real life.
 
The Madden team took a page out the NHL franchise’s playbook in terms of speed. While NHL 08 didn’t have a speed burst function, Madden 09’s speed burst isn’t nearly as effective as in years past. Using the speed burst at the line to try to burst through the hole can be very detrimental to trying to make a move and avoid a tackler and highlight stick moves aren’t nearly as effective with the trigger pulled.
 
In fact, the entire rushing game has been reworked to be more realistic and, ergo, more frustrating. Gaining four yards per play now seems like a big challenge as opposed to editions past.
 
A pet peeve of mine as well as many people, I’m sure, is non-updated rosters. Due to shipping dates and other reasons, there are many roster moves that need to be made to have your game up to date. And why wouldn’t EA release a new cover for their flagship game after their cover boy Favre’s defection to the Jets? I’m sure the publishing giant could afford to print a new cover.
 
Another piss off is that you can’t download the roster updates unless you are an Xbox Live Gold member. As a Silver member, you can be assured that I’ve tried everything I can to get the new roster. This is a major screw up by EA who could’ve just as easily followed 2k’s lead and make roster patches simple downloads.
 
Lastly, Madden 09 sports many new features that are aimed directly at people who may not have an hour to devote to playing an entire game. The same mini-camp games are back with little change and the virtual trainer is a good time killer for practicing.
 
EA set out to make Madden closer to realistic and as adaptive as it could possibly be and they hit the mark on both. Figure in the ease in which you can pick up and play Madden 09 as a beginner and I figure that EA has earned full marks. There’s always going to be one or two annoying bugs in a sports game and the quality of the new features here outweigh those inadequacies by far.

Take Michael Phelps for example: Sure, it may be seen as a bit of a disappointment if he doesn’t take home 8 golds but, his 5 gold-haul already is spectacular! Five gold medals in a lifetime is quite an achievement but Phelps has done it within the first few days of the Games. Now that’s simply amazing.

Then there are these stories about his diet. Phelps routinely eats thousand-plus calorie meals. His daily intake is roughly 4,000 calories. How can one man eat that much and still stay that incredibly thin and in-shape? There’s also his physical “abnormalities” to gawk at. He has an unusually long torso and stubby legs — which somehow helps, size 14 feet that are extremely flexible, incredible lung capacity, 203 cm arm span on a 193 cm body and to top it all off, a double-jointed chest. I didn’t even know chests could be double-jointed.

I don’t know how it happened but I watched on as Austria defeated Brazil in beach volleyball. Are there beaches in Austria? Shouldn’t Brazil ruin people at this “sport?” How can you consider beach volleyball an actual sport? It’s a recreational activity at best.

I would say something about gymnastics being a “Nancy boy’s pseudo-sport,” but after watching these guys do their thing, I’m actually a little impressed. But more importantly, they can no doubt kick my ass something fierce.

One of the funniest things I’ve learned during these Games has to be a little tidbit from the box score for South Korea vs. United States in baseball. The first four batters for the Korean team were named Lee. Then there was a Kim, followed by another Lee. Oh, at later in the game, yet another Lee entered the game as a pinch-hitter. I never realized how common that name was until now.

And how about how awful Canada is doing? We’re this far into the Games and still no medals? Not even a stinking bronze? There have already been 70 medal events and over 40 different countries have won at least a bronze. Tajikistan has a bronze and I wasn’t even sure that was a country (No offence to my Tajikistani readers). What is wrong with this picture? At least Canada should get something in rowing or softball.