Madden NFL 09

Madden NFL 09 is the twentieth installment of the Madden NFL series set to debut on all major consoles on August 12, 2008. The game remains similar to prior Madden series releases. Players control a team and play football against the computer or an opposing player. In one mode, two players can team up and be on the same team, competing against two other players or the CPU. The game features former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre on the cover, the first time a retired player has been used as the cover player of a Madden game. A secondary logo has been revealed honoring the twentieth year of Madden video games.

Among the features expected to be in Madden NFL 09 are:

• Madden IQ: In a training mode, players earn a "Madden IQ" based on 12 different exercises. The game adjusts its difficulty based on the players' IQ.
• EA Sports Backtrack: The game does an analysis of the player, pointing out several plays made.
• Picture-in-picture: Players can see key information and call plays and routes without leaving the current window he or she is using.

Madden NFL 09 offers all of the standard Madden NFL style game modes, including Franchise, Season, and Superstar. Each of these modes presents the user with a different degree of difficulty in order to win the game. Alternatively, you can increase the difficulty to make the game even tougher to complete.

On April 3, 2008, it was announced that Madden NFL 09 would not be made available for the PC. Peter Moore, the president of the sports division at Electronic Arts, said that porting the game over to the PC faces "serious business challenges". Moore claims that the game will probably be played more on the consoles than on the PC.

EA Sports announced in mid-August that due to the fact that Favre decided to come out of retirement, prompting a trade from the Packers to the New York Jets, that fans could download and print out an updated version of the cover featuring Favre in a Jets uniform.

• Joystiq: Madden NFL 09 Hands On (June 25, 2008)

• 1up.com: Sports Anomaly Gets Hands-On with Madden 09 (May 29, 2008)

• GameSpot: Madden NFL 09 First Hands-on (Xbox 360) (May 22, 2008)

• IGN: Madden NFL 09 Hands-on (Xbox 360) (May 21, 2008)

• Xbox 360 Fanboy: Fix your mistake, rewind added to Madden 09 (May 19, 2008)

• IGN: Bozon Previews Madden '09 (Time 03:20)

• GameTap.com: Interview with Lead designer Phil Frazier (April 25, 2008)