This took place on Halloween, but it's funnier if you pretend it didn't. Two men dressed as a beloved video game character and his much-less-beloved brother assaulted a cab driver on Staten Island not with the red shell, but with their fists.

Investigators are on the lookout for the two and their suspected accomplice, a bipedal mushroom. If you're wondering how they've eluded capture this long, it's suspected they possess the Tanooki suit, and have been mistaken for statues by police.

Costumed duo rob SI cabby [NY Post]

There hasn't been a serious competitor to the Madden franchise since NFL 2K5. That's because EA signed a deal to license the NFL's intellectual properties, meaning real teams and players could be used in Madden — and nowhere else.

That means the only other options for gamers are failures like All-Pro Football 2K8 and Blitz: The League II, both with fictional teams and players. And who wants fictional players?

No one, says a judge. And that could mean that EA's deal with the NFL is exclusionary, and therefore a possible antitrust violation. So, if you're one of the millions of people who bought a Madden game since 2005, keep your eyes peeled. As this moves through the courts, you could have the opportunity to pretend like you were personally hurt by this, and make a little money.

Video Game Buyers Seek Class Cert. In EA Suit (Subscription required) [Law360]

Believe it or not, NHL training camps open this weekend and that means press junkets galore. Ovechkin is the cover boy for 2K Sports' NHL game this year, so that seemed like as good a time as any to invite a couple of pasty-faced bloggers out of their basements for a little throwdown. In Russian!

Since he was on roughly Hour 36 of his whirlwind tour, Alex wasn't that talkative (unless you talk Russian), but he was very interested in winning the games. He seemed genuinely upset when some kid—who won a video game tournament to get there—bested him in the first game. (He demanded a rematch.) Fortunately for him, I did not put up such a valiant fight.

Yes, I lost. BUT! He had already played two games against other people and I think that he was able to use that valuable game experience against me. Also, he had the crowd behind him (the fans at the NHL Store loved him and he was mobbed with every move he made) and his handlers supplying him with water mid-game. Water! I did not receive these valuable performance enhancers. Plus, who wears a jersey with their own name on it to a game? Come on!

AND! I didn't want to point this out to his face lest I get a mouth full of Wiimote, but before our game he "inadvertently" switched from the Capitals to the Penguins—and then scored two of his goals as Sidney Crosby. I'm not sayin' ... I'm just sayin' is all.

I have many more excuses if you'd like to hear them.

(Top Photo: Michael Cohen/Getty)
Ovechkin Dismisses Boomer Esiason, NYC [D.C. Sports Bog]
Alexander Ovechkin made his way through NYC in style to promote NHL 2K10 [NHL.com]

Radford University point guard Amir Johnson was convicted of petit larceny yesterday, after breaking into the off-campus apartment of two former teammates and stealing their "PlayStation," some games for it, and an iPod. (I'm going to assume it was at least a PS2, but that the Roanoke Times doesn't know the difference.)

Meanwhile at Ohio University, cornerback Travis Carrie and defensive lineman Corey Moncrief each plead guilty to charges of receiving stolen property after they were found in possession of computers stolen from two residence halls.

So who got off better? Johnson merely had to pay a fine and reimburse his teammates for their electronics. But Carrie and Moncrief each have to serve two days in jail, and write a letter of apology to the computers' owners. If I know college athletes, they can do the jail time standing on one leg, but that whole writing a letter thing's gonna be a bitch.

Radford University's Amir Johnson Enters Alford Plea to Misdemeanor Charge [Roanoke Times]
Second OU player Sentenced in Computer Theft [Columbus Dispatch]

I got the chance to play both the XBox 360 and Wii versions of Madden 10 this week and like the systems they're made for, the two games are drastically different. Both feature compete NFL rosters, full-season campaigns, co-op modes, online modes, and a slate of mini-games and tutorials. The XBox being the XBox, however, their souped up version takes the realism to insane levels.

Aside from the graphics being just ... wow ... the franchise options are completely over top. I can barely manage my own personal finances, and now I'm supposed to figure out the nuances of the NFL salary caps rules? I'm negotiating contracts with fake Plaxico Burress? He's not even allowed to play real football and he's playing hardball with me. All the headaches and sleepless nights that come with owning a real NFL franchise can be yours!

Of course, if you get off on that stuff (and you probably do) then you are in heaven. One major addition to the game this year, is that you and your friends can create a full online league—a full schedule of head-to-head games, playoffs, trades, stats, even a draft—for up to 32 teams. Do you even have 31 friends? Would they all commit to a full season of video game fantasy football? Are they recently unemployed?

XBOX

When it comes to realistic simulation the XBox is superior in almost every way, but ... the game so damn hard. I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer, but I like to think I have my moments. Still, I could not get this game down to save my life. I got crushed in every round I played on "Pro" mode, and that's the second easiest setting. If, like me, you lack a wide-screen TV, running any kind of passing offense is a major challenge and it doesn't matter because you're going to get sacked on every play anyway. I want to know what's its like to be Tom Brady; I don't want to know what it would be like if I was quarterbacking the Patriots.

WII

The Wii, on the other hand, is the goofy arcade version that allows you to actually play football. Not realistic cover-two misdirection audible-heavy football, but you know ... fun football. The controls are a little harder to get used to at first, and the players are more balloon-like caricatures, but it feels way more like the earlier, sillier versions that made you fall in love with Madden 20 years ago. (Yes, we are all old.) The Wii still has enough of those franchise features to keep you interested and if you want to get fancy with the play calling, go right ahead. But this is the game you can play with both your six-year-old nephew and your mom, and you won't spend two hours of your life doing virtual bench presses at training camp.

So the Madden you choose depends on your personality. Are you a weekend warrior or the "sleep in your office on Wednesday so you can study the playbook" kind of guy?

My favorite feature of the XBox verison is the "Madden Moments," that allows you to recreate (and possibly change) some the best real-life scenarios from last season, including the Steelers' magical game winning drive for the title. As a parting gift to Arizona fans, here's how Super Bowl 43 should have ended....

Madden NFL 10 [more previews and info @ EA Sports]
Madden NFL 10 Review: Slow and Steady Wins the Game [Kotaku]

It's been awhile since I've played an up-to-date version of one of EA Sports' football games and it's good to know that they continue to push the envelope on massive time wasting. There are so many options and modes and mini-games, that you can get lost in this thing forever and never find your way back out. Would you like to simulate 60 years worth of a college football dynasty? Why not! Who needs family and friends? (But first personalize every player in the game by choosing from one of 30 different faces.)

I can't even begin to fathom the time commitment required to master every level of this game. There's dynasty mode, which requires a Kiffin-like dedication to slander and innuendo to woo digital recruits to your team. There's online dynasty mode, where you create your own fake schools and earn them accreditation, like the University of Phoenix. There's a massive online competition that will take place during the real college football season, where the games you play at home somehow win prizes and glory for your favorite school in real life. Oh, and there's an actual football game in there somewhere.

There's also a single-player career mode that allows you control an individual player from his high school state playoffs to college graduation. I think I like this one the best because it really captures the torment and endless soul searching that comes from being a fifth-string running back on a Big Ten also-ran. When I say control the player, I mean you control his life. You go to practice every day, you have to decide whether he goes to the library or the gym in the evenings, and you're not even guaranteed playing time. Now that's realism.

The other thing I like about career mode is that you don't have to call your own plays, because I barely understand the playbooks as it is. On the rare occasions when I was playing an actual game, I was completely flummoxed by the various schemes, particularly on defense. (There was no way in hell I was pulling off a "defensive hot route." What is that?) I'm going to need at least another month of two-a-days to get this stuff down. I didn't do this much homework when I was actually a college student. Fortunately, there's a "family" (i.e., dumb guy) mode for old people with bad hand-eye coordination like myself.

I have no doubt that you could play this game for weeks without ever participating in a full football game and you would still not run out of features to mess with. Even more amazing, you wouldn't get bored. If you like that level of minutiae and nerd-ery then you will definitely get your money's worth.

Since I obviously have no idea how to play or review video game, would those of you who don't have the game yet like to know more? Tell me what you'd like to know or see and I'll try to figure it out this weekend and report back. And if you do have the game, feel free to share your tips and tricks in the comments. Help me, help you.

[Images from EA.com]

Sam Keller, who played quarterback at Arizona State and Nebraska, has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all NCAA football and basketball players, claiming that Electronic Arts conspired with the NCAA and their licensing arm to "to violate bylaws that prohibit the use of collegiate athletes' names and likenesses in the publisher's NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball sports sims." Even though the games contain no actual player names, nearly every player in the NCAA 2009 football game can be linked to a real world doppelganger. Coincidence? Keller doesn't think so.

With rare exception, virtually every real-life Division I football or basketball player in the NCAA has a corresponding player in Electronic Arts' games with the same jersey number, and virtually identical height, weight, build, and home state. In addition, Electronic Arts matches the player's skin tone, hair color, and often even a player's hair style."

"Eugene Jarvis, for example, stands a mere 5'5" and weighs only 170 pounds. He is also an African-American red-shirt junior from Pennsylvania who wears number 6 for the Golden Flashes. And although he is extremely talented, Mr. Jarvis is unusually small for a college football player. For these reason, one would expect a randomly generated virtual running back for the Golden Flashes to be somewhat dissimilar to Mr. Jarvis." The suit goes on to note that Number 6 for the Golden Flashes in NCAA Football 2009 perfectly matches Jarvis' real-life information.

Also, the game makes it extremely easy for users to upload actual names or create their own virtual players that mirror real-life people. A group of retired NFL players won a similar lawsuit on this issue last year. Every one will know that's Colt McCoy leading your Fake Texas Longhorns vs. Fake Sam Bradford and the Fake Oklahoma Sooners, even if the names aren't on the back of the jersey. Maybe the real Colt and Sam get some kind of compensation for that.

On the other hand ... the game is so damn fun. If college players had to be compensated for their exact height and weight, EA would simply stop making "authentic" rosters and that makes the game a lot more boring. And doesn't the money that the NCAA makes off the deal go back to the schools, which goes to scholarships? Is that fact that you can play a video game as yourself reward enough?

Just how shady this practice is probably depends on which side of the "college athletes should be paid" argument you fall on. And how quickly you can replace Sam Keller when playing Dynasty Mode with Nebraska.

Ex-NCAA Quarterback Sues Electronic Arts Over Games (Update2) [Bloomberg]
EA, NCAA sued over sports-sim likenesses - News at GameSpot [Game Spot]
Former College QB Has Strong Case Against NCAA & EA [CNBC]
EA Sports, NCAA sued by former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller? What a mismatch [Orlando Sentinel]

Their first project is "Ghetto Golf," a planned downloadable game featuring a scrappy young guy named Vonte in the Bay Area who has to find and complete tricky holes of golf that are set in the wilds of the city - and in the line of fire of gangsters, cops and enemy golfers....

One of the playable scenes they showed involved the hero Vonte needing to use his exploding golf ball to blow up a car that someone was ghost-riding. The player could sheath Vonte's machine gun, flick past his spiked golf ball and his rubber golf ball to try his explosive golf ball and aim it with a swing at the car.

Ummm ... okay. I was just thinking the other day that what the sport of golf really needs in more assault weapons. I just wish there was easier way to bring that old school racial intolerance back to the links, because I don't think my local private clubhouse has a Playstation 3.

‘Ghetto Golf' Combines Golf With Guns, Needs Publisher [MTV Multiplayer]
Ghetto Golf: The video game that will inspire no outrage at all [Devil Ball Golf]

Trade Manny Ramirez and Alyssa Milano for Joba Chamberlain. Sell your franchise to The Netherlands. Order Bronson Arroyo to wear the Mr. Redlegs costume. You can do it all with MLB Front Office Manager, the video game whose chief spokesman is, no surprise here, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane.

By bringing in Beane as the game's celebrity spokesperson, 2K Sports is making a big bet that the baseball stat-heads out there will jump at the chance to impersonate Beane, instead of the more common video game proposition of taking on the role of big league players and swinging for the fences.

MLB Front Office Manager is all about trying to navigate the millions of little details that go into the operational side of running a baseball team. From scouting amateur players to drafting them to making trades to figuring out what to do when stars get injured to sucking it up after a losing season and trying again next year.

Unfortunately I can never find the sucking it up button until it's too late.

But my favorite part of the game is changing the toner in the copy machine because it's after 5 and everyone else in the office had gone home.

Billy Beane's Video Game Pitch: You, Too Can Be A Baseball GM [CNet News]

Now that Michael Jordan is exclusively selling Hanes merchandise, these are pretty much the four most marketable athletes in the (non-soccer) world, so it's quite an (expensive) coup to get them all in one ad. But how many people in the GH target demo even remember "Risky Business"? Heck, half of Kotaku's readers probably think Cruise was born on Oprah's couch. Plus, we've all seen Michael Phelps in his underwear, so big whoop on that front.

It's a curious choice that Electronic Arts would hold its 20th anniversary Madden release hoopla in Los Angeles, given a number of factors, the most obvious being the city's reputation for not being the most receptive to professional football. Another salient one is the proximity to the movie and television industry, which many pundits will tell you is just years away from being throughly outstripped by the video game bidness. So to see the publicity machine of traditional broadcast media backing - or at least latching onto - a video game is a very interesting sight to behold and one I got to observe in various degrees of intoxication during a recent trip to the Left Coast for Maddenpalooza.

Because it's L.A., the Palooza was split into two events: a launch party at the Rose Bowl on Monday and a pre-launch party at a trendy steakhouse in West Hollywood last Thursday. Still waiting on that after-launch party.

Having not shed all of my print journalism punctuality, I arrived early even for the media check-in on Thursday, watching the marketing and PR people flit about the red carpet/take-my-picture-in-front-of-the-big-placard area. I will say the one thing I miss about my days at WaPo was the way PR people fell over themselves trying to accommodate you because you worked for Big Nationally Known Publication. Online writers might as well be staggering in from the muck, like there's anything wrong with the muck.

I waited around for an hour, just long enough for my legs to get tired and my stomach to press for free food. But I was awarded, for then the stars did come out. Let's see: there was some hot coquettish girl who's apparently on Nip/Tuck, this dude from some reality show, an actor who I think was one of Eric's friends on Boy Meets World and, hey, Masa Oki. Molto celestial.

A huge bus bearing the Cowboys logo stopped in front of the restaurant momentarily and things start to look up. Dallas holds camp in California. Some Cowboys could be here. Better yet, some Cowboys cheerleaders could be here. I could be on Hard Knocks! Sadly, no Wade or Jerry or T.O. or anyone with boobie tassles emerges. The bus takes off, to be followed by the arrival of a guy who looks like Al Snow pulling up in a Lamborghini. This does not bode well.

A young fat Samoan guy in a Tar Heels hat nearby cracks a joke and finally I've found someone else who doesn't give a shit about this pre-party rigmarole. The Samoan guy is the first person I've talked to at the event who's genuinely excited about trying the game for the first time. So too am I, unlike the assorted PR folk who can't conceal a snicker when you tell you them you're looking forward to playing a video game. Also, somehow he's a Steelers fan. Yup, we're cool.

Mr. Samoa, who writes game reviews for a local newspaper and runs a not-very frequently updated gaming blog on their web site, is none too impressed with the shitshow. "Talk to any of these celebrities tonight and all of them will tell you 'Oh man, I love video games' but they're just paying lip service to this subculture they don't respect, but don't want to alienate because it's so large. These people still have no idea about who gamers are." You mean to tell me there are phonies in L.A.? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME!?

Sure, the yearly release of the Madden game has become a legit event in the pop culture calendar. This doesn't mean its fans aren't above some needed mocking, which you'd know if you've ever played against some of the mouthbreathers on Xbox Live. Or seen any of the untold personal Madden highlights that very sad people post on YouTube. The game has become something of a symbol for unproductive male lunkheadedness, which was further pointed out to me when fellow KSK and With Leather writer Matt Ufford accidentally sent me this e-mail intended for his girlfriend:

"Hey hon, just looking around for another story after finishing the recap. Should be kind of a tough day for me, as Mike's off in LA for the Madden '09 release party. That's right, he flew across the country to get an early look at a video game. When you think about how awesome I am, be sure to include the fact that I don't play video games."

See that gamers? Even bloggers are making fun of you. And they get pushed around by pussy journalists. Think about that.

Anyway, Samoan guy (not intentionally leaving out his name, I forgot it) and I decide we've had enough of the faint glitz and head in, camping in front of one of the 13 42-inch flatscreens set up around the interior. I also start down the perilous road of whiskey orders.

The game's graphics are breathtaking, an appreciable step up from last year's installment. The stadium and the players look more crisp, the motions more fluid, the atmosphere more game-like. Considering a good deal of the people at the party are content to fiddle with the game for a few minutes, it's not hard to get some time to give it a test drive. The gameplay is essentially the same from last year and so too are some of my main gripes. For instance, it's still fucking impossible to run the ball between the tackles. And running outside them is feast or famine, a three-yard loss or a skate to the house. For a guy who only plays with the Steelers, this is a critical point. Sure, the early '90s editions of Madden where you could run countless 8-yard gains up the gut with Barry Foster on halfback leads was nice, but if I want to be chucking the ball from four- and five-wide sets all day, I'll pick up the next Blitz game.

One new bell for this year's game is the Replay feature, which gives each player the chance to take a mulligan on one play every game, be a sack, a 95-yard pass play, whatever. Of course, I accidentally trigger this unspeakably retarded feature for the first time after I intercept a Tarvaris Jackson pass when down 14-10 in the 3rd quarter (Samoan guy is forced to be the Vikings because I'm an insufferable asshole who refuses not to be the Steelers). Two plays later, I get burned for a score and end up losing 24-10. "That's probably the only time you're going to see Tarvaris Jackson throw three TD passes," Samoa jokes. I kind of hate him now.

Not wanting to squander the whole party in front of the console (it's tough when you have a server bringing you free drinks), I make the rounds. The party has picked up some and everyone is abuzz because Hugh Hefner is there (Thanks for spoiling the surprise, Clay!). I find him a back table sandwiched between eight or so playmates and cordoned off by velvet rope from the gawking partygoers, myself included. I offer a handshake and compliment him on his harem. He smiles sagely.

But wait: More middling stars! JC Chavez! Verne Troyer! Tom Arnold! *Gasp* Jamal Anderson! Someone who actually played football (albeit not for a long time). I am legitimately starstruck though when I spy Tristan Wilds, the guy who played Michael Lee on The Wire. He endures my Wire fanboy gushings politely and I wish him luck with the new 90210 series, despite the fact that he's wearing a Brewers hat. In line at the bar, I strike up awkward convo with Masi Oka, who was also at the Maxim Hot 100 party I went to a few months ago. It's like I really know the guy, except I don't and I've never watched the show he's semi-famous for.

Me: Hey, nice meeting you.

Masi: Oh hey.

Me: How's the new season going?

Masi: Pretty good. We're filming it right now.

Me: I saw you at the Maxim party a few months ago.

Masi: The Hot 100 party?

Me: Yeah.

Masi: They ran out of booze way too early.

Me: Yeah, that kind of sucked.

Masi: ...

Me: You into the game at all or just here for the party?

Masi: No, I play Madden. I'm about to get into an arrangement with them.

Me: Like what?

Masi: I can't really talk about it.

Me: All right. What team do you root for?

Masi: Chargers. They're the closest.

Me: Hmmm. Sooooo...that Philip Rivers. Cool guy, huh?

Masi: Yeah, I like him.

Me: ...

Masa breaks the tension by grabbing the girl in front of him by the shoulders and shaking her vigorously. She giggles. You can do this when you're semi-famous.

At this point, the place is incredibly packed and the rest of the night is split between getting more and more hammered while shuttling between Xbox consoles and rubbing against some out-of-my-league ass on the dance floor. Eventually the place thins out and I stagger home, where, fuck!, I don't have the new Madden yet.

This is kind of stepping on a soapbox but isn't this what happens when only one video game company can make football games? It used to be Electronic Arts had to make a better product to beat the competition, now they can throw lame launch parties that also feature Tom Arnold and Verne Troyer. (Both are pictured at the party.)

But the name I can't get past is Hugh Hefner. Because when you look at Hef you think: He always runs the slant on third and 8. Or not. Damn you Madden and your sweet monopoly. I'll be there on August 12.

Madden NFL 09 VIP Premiere Party [First Cuts]

[Video via SI's Extra Mustard and Home Run Derby]

Escapist Magazine asks: why doesn't anyone play baseball video games anymore? Heck, people still just talk about RBI Baseball. Why do current games kind of suck?

Baseball has eight players acting independently on every defensive play, and as many as four base runners functioning with only minimal support from a human. Sure, programmers can give us increasing levels of control over these in-game players, but the learning curve skyrockets. The only other option is to put most control over these players' actions in the hands of AI, which ultimately takes away from the player the bulk of the responsibility for any single game's outcome. And no matter what kind of game you're talking about, that's a formula for disaster.

It's a shame too, because we always buy baseball video games, thinking they're going to be cool, and we end up just admiring how good a job they did rendering the stadiums, and then we never play the games themselves.

Peanuts And Cracker Jack [Escapist Magazine]

The best part about it: You get to be a member of the marching band!

"Step into the boots of a drum major: Halftime offers no respite as you suit up, grip your baton and lead your band of musical maestros through intricate formations as the crowd roars in amazement. It's the Battle of the Bands: Win this and you just might give your team what it needs to prevail in the second half."

You can see a trailer for the game here. That looks really fun, though we wonder if we can somehow transfer Wes Welker to the game.

Madden 2008 Rendered Irrelevant [Nation Of Islam Sports Blog]