For the first time since the Xbox 360 debuted, a “next-gen” console’s version of Madden is finally up to snuff with the series’ past greatness from its PlayStation 2 heyday. But it’s not perfect - no game is.

Certainly, more patches are forthcoming, but online issues and AI quirks still frustrate many Madden gamers. Based on my time with the game, there are a few reasonable changes that I believe could be made that would make the game better and fit within the current development cycle - which is always the real catch.

Madden is still the 800-pound gorilla of gaming, and as such, Electronic Arts isn’t going to fix what isn’t broken, so a complete revamp of the game won’t be happening any time soon. Thankfully, based on what’s been seen in Madden 09, it’s no longer necessary, either. But a tweak here and there would work wonders. Here are some of mine:

• The AI needs to be better aware of down and distance. On third-and-eight, AI-controlled teams shouldn’t be calling five-yard out routes, despite what Broncos coach Mike Shanahan does. Moreover, players need to fight for that first down, taking big hits instead of veering out of bounds. As it stands, AI-controlled players don’t seem to recognize when a failure to reach that yard marker ends their possession - and they should.

• Offensive linemen who let their man blow right by them quickly end up looking for a new team in the real NFL. More than any other part of the game, offensive line play needs the most TLC. Counter plays are almost never effective, and in the running game, you can all but expect one or two of your linemen to completely botch their assignments on every play. Blitzes are a different animal, to be sure, but line play’s still not working the way it should. On the flip side, while it’s been improved, the linemen are far too good at holding blocks for a scrambling quarterback. This means that the best play in Madden is still to scramble outside the pocket and play backyard toss-and-catch. Colts QB Peyton Manning, in the real NFL, might do that only a handful of plays during the entire season - and his coach would probably prefer that it never happened. If EA were to improve the offensive line play, they’d be improving the whole game in equal measure.

• Online, online, online. Disconnects and lag are far too frequent, and Madden’s online leagues are still embarrassingly far behind what 2K Sports put up an entire console generation ago. With the man who launched the Xbox at the helm of EA Sports, Peter Moore, there’s leadership that knows the value of online play. That leadership needs to translate into action.

• It’s a nitpick, but uniforms shouldn’t ever be inaccurate in the only licensed NFL game available. If the NFL isn’t being forthcoming, then EA needs to push for updated data. The NFL makes millions from apparel sales, including licensed jerseys, and it behooves them to help EA get the teams in the game looking like the teams do in stadiums across America. As comedian Jerry Seinfeld once noted, being a pro sports fan essentially means you’re cheering for laundry; so make sure you’ve got the right stuff in your wardrobe.

• While we’re on the subject, the NFL has hard-and-fast rules regarding jersey numbers, and it shouldn’t be hard at all to make sure they’re implemented in Madden. Watching rookies in Franchise Mode mill around the field with illegal jersey numbers gets annoying after one season; after multiples, half the league is wrong. It should relatively easy to assign a jersey number to an NCAA Football player imported into the game that complies with the NFL rules based on position instead of leaving them wearing their old college number. Upon being assigned to a team, the player gets assigned a number that complies with the rules that isn’t taken by an existing player. It’s a simple data check. Since gamers can edit those jerseys if they like, it hampers no one, and to those who just wish to play, it’s easier to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in a fictional football world when the players appear to be following the rules.

I’m sure you, the reader, have many of your own suggestions, so please feel free to discuss mine - or add your own - in the Comments section below. I’ll take the best of the bunch and forward them to the Madden team.

Working for the weekend…

• Madden NFL 09 has been out for four days and it has its first patch. The patch is said to fix online and stability issues, but it’s also supposed to improve coverage of kicks and improve defensive backfield play. It’s good that the Madden team is trying to keep abreast of the game’s issues, but it’s a certainty - given the timing of the patch - that the team knew about these issues before shipping the game, which is somewhat unsettling. Nevertheless, I suppose progress is progress, and the fact is that Madden 09 is by far the best version of the next-gen console era. Now, if the team can keep providing timely roster updates, and take care of the bizarre and annoying issue of AI-controlled players inexplicably running out of bounds, we’ll really have something special.

• NBA 09: The Inside doesn’t have the mindshare of NBA 2K9 or NBA Live 09, and in all honesty, it probably shouldn’t. But SCEA San Diego, who makes the single best sports game on the market in MLB 08: The Show, should be ignored at your own risk. The team is making strides, and while they probably won’t match the two bigger titles this year, they’re intent of making a realistic NBA product with an interesting career-based angle. To that end, their recently-unveiled cover focuses on six athletes (Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Carlos Boozer, LeBron James, Paul Pierce and Dwyane Wade) instead of one, conveying an overarching sense of a “league” experience. Obviously, very little should be read into cover art, but it this case, the fact that Sony’s gone away from what everyone else is doing may be a sign that their differences might be more than skin deep.

• The Godfather 2 will be released by EA next February, and they’ve released a preview site for the game that looks promising. The game, which seems to be offering the play of the original game coupled with a new overarching strategy mechanic, looks intriguing. The first Godfather, which was fairly maligned for its nickel-and-dime approach to downloadable content, was in actuality a better game than most people gave it credit for. Visitors to the site can sign up for “The Inner Circle”, which will keep you updated on the game and make you eligible for contests - the first of which will involve having an in-game character named after the winner. Whether that character will be sleeping with the fishes is still up in the air.

• I’m trying to figure out exactly who EA’s Celebrity Sports Showdown is created for. The forthcoming mini-game fiesta for the Wii’s main feature is that you can play as one of an extraordinarily odd mix of celebrities. How odd? How about NFL player Reggie Bush, NBA player Paul Pierce, boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, soccer great Mia Hamm, pop singers Avril Lavigne, Nelly Furtado and Fergie, and country crooners Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes. Yes, I’m serious. Expect the wackiness of playing as Canadian punk princess Lavigne against Keith “Mr. Nicole Kidman” Urban in a game of “Smash Badminton” to ensue. I guess. We’re through the looking glass here, people.

• Idiocracy reigns supreme in America, where a survey from parental gaming website What They Play revealed that parents are more afraid of video games than… anything, it seems. Thank you, Fox News. According to the survey, parents said that a man and a woman having sex in video game was the most offensive thing (37% of respondents), two men kissing was second (27%), followed by a severed head (25%), and multiple uses of the “F-word” (9%). So, let me get this straight: kissing and sex are worse than severed heads? But it gets worse: when children are at friends’ houses, parents are more worried about them playing Grand Theft Auto (19%) than watching pornography (16%) and drinking beer (14%). Fearmongering works wonders, doesn’t it? Video games and the Iraq-Pakistan border, that’s what we should be worried about in America. Sigh.

Subtlety isn’t EA Sports’ style, so when they launch their most important title of the year, they make sure it gets noticed. Taking over the site of five Super Bowls, two Olympics and a World Cup ought to do it…

Monday, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Electronic Arts (with an assist from some other corporate sponsors) took over the historic 92,542-seat venue, complete with a painted logo at the 50-yard line, carnival-styled football tosses, a mini-Wal-Mart for game sales, a main stage for musical performers and a grand tent filled with over 300 large high-definition televisions, all inviting attendees to come out play EA’s latest football opus.

EA Sports President Peter Moore (pictured at right, with author at left) beamed after entering the redressed Rose Bowl, grinning at the 400,000-square foot (and 100 percent recyclable) tarp that encircled the historic stadium and covered nearly every seat in the house. In scope, the event was startlingly impressive, but due to the (relatively) low number of attendees, “Maddenpalooza” felt uncrowded, subdued and surprisingly intimate despite the grandiose setting.

Over 6,000 tickets were distributed for the event, and football fans and gamers seemed to be matched in proportion by the media attendees from the NFL Network, ESPN, Spike TV and many others. Many of the NFL’s greats appeared at the events as well and mingled with the gathered crowd, including luminaries such as Ronnie Lott, Eric Dickerson, Rod Woodson and so many others, including 49ers great Roger Craig, one of the most personable athletes I’ve ever met. While a few of the footballers didn’t seem terribly excited to be there, the four I’ve mentioned were affable and went out of their way to meet and greet smiling fans.

Of course, the Madden development team was in full force, and many of the game’s designers seemed at ease after watching fans sprint across the Rose Bowl’s field to the gaming tent and listening to the hooting and hollering that came out of it.

Within the gaming tent, the diverse array of people was impressive. From young children to adults, from the good sports to the chest-thumping loons, men and women, boys and girls alike seemed to have a grand time taking a sneak peek at this year’s Madden, and many left the gaming tent and strode across the field to the Wal-Mart tent to pick up their own copies before departing.

Sure, the TV cameras loved to focus on the loudest and most boorish among the crowd; the types that seem to think that they somehow made a game-saving tackle instead of what they actually did - pushed a button - and insist on barking in others’ faces about it, but it was refreshing to hear so many gamers laughing and having fun with friends and even strangers instead of acting like their faux-jock fantasies had somehow come to life. There was a real heart to “Maddenpalooza”, a spirit of fun and camaraderie that permeated the event, as refreshingly sweet as the frozen Slurpees that flowed from the 7-Eleven tent on the scorching day.

A wide array of live bands played on the main stage during the event; a blend of rock, punk, hip-hop and rap that provided a thumping soundtrack during the event. As the sun went down, Busta Rhymes and Good Charlotte took to the stage to finish off the evening before sending tired-but-excited fans home into the pleasant, breezy California evening.

Of course, most of those fans were likely headed home to plant themselves on the couch for another game of Madden - or three - and on this night, EA wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

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UPDATE (8/14/08):  Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb has uploaded a Flickr gallery of photos from the “Maddenpalooza” event. He was able to go places that most were not, and as a result, he has some great pictures that better convey the impressive scope of the event. Check them out here.

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Some of the above photos were taken by and courtesy of Rod Lane of NJMaddenBallers.com.

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last two days; my cable modem finally gave up the ghost Thursday. Turns out that on the Internet, voices don’t carry…

Anyway, Madden NFL 09 arrived this week, and I’ve been trying to get in as much time with it as possible. The game’s far more refined and playable than NCAA Football 09, and the game looks terrific to boot. There are a few annoying details, like the highly repetitive announcing (though, by default, it’s much improved over the horrible AM radio guy from the last two years), wacky and inaccurate player jersey numbers and some odd uniform issues (The Broncos’ home uniform isn’t in the game and has been replaced by one of the team’s alternate duds, for example), but these can be forgiven if the game plays well.

Fortunately, it does - and what’s more remarkable is that the game’s “Madden IQ” difficulty system actually works very well. Now, the opening tests in the “Tron” arena really don’t, but the adjustments that the “IQ” makes after each game are sensible and akin to methodical manual slider tweaking. I’ve found - to my surprise and delight - that the more I play the game, the more like real-life football the game feels. Certainly, that won’t be enough for the hardcore slider tweakers, but as a recovering tweakaholic myself, the “Madden IQ” system has been a revelation thus far.

Unfortunately, it appears as if the game’s online leagues will be vastly disappointing - again - and if you want a realistic number of NFL plays (roughly 110 a game), you’ll need to play with at least 10-minute quarters, but the game finally gives off a much-needed big-game vibe that’s recognizable as NFL football, with shutterbug fans, an all-new and informative broadcast-like presentation and a vastly improved in-game camera that finally keeps all the receivers in view when passing.

It’s immediately obvious that this is the best Madden in years, and the game might have finally caught up in quality to their greatest competitor; the now four-year old NFL 2K5.

Better late than never.

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I’ll be traveling this weekend to Pasadena, California to take part in the “Maddenpalooza” (man, that needed a better name) event at the Rose Bowl. I’ll be back on Tuesday, but I don’t expect to be able to post any coverage of the event until Wednesday.

Musings for a Wednesday afternoon:

• Madden NFL 09 hasn’t even been released yet, but the EA Sports design team is talking about at least two patches already. Sigh. The first patch, which is due around the time of the game’s release next week, is purported to fix issues with kick returns being too easy (a major problem in EA’s other football title, NCAA Football 09) and safeties reacting to run plays (which is a pretty important part of defense). Possibilities for a second patch include stopping CPU players from juking out of bounds and fixing quarterback accuracy (which is another big-time problem in NCAA 09). Future free downloadable updates may include an accelerated clock option to give games a more realistic flow and adding AI sliders into the game (something that the game’s new “Madden IQ” is supposed to render unnecessary). The “release, then patch” mentality is in full swing here, and EA’s been releasing their patch information very carefully and in an under-the-radar fashion for most gamers. Some of the things in these patches should clearly have been working prior to release, and the fact that they apparently won’t be is disheartening. Obviously, Madden is going to sell tons of copies no matter what, so perhaps they don’t mind making gamers wait for the “completed” product after purchasing it, but it’s poor strategy and whether intentional or not, it gives of an air of disdain regarding their customers. I’m certain this is not EA’s intent, but they’ve been taking a number of missteps regarding their football products of late, and it makes one wonder where EA’s products (and their promotion of them) will be headed in the future.

• As the EA world turns, MTV’s Stephen Totilo has a brief discussion with John Ricitiello, EA’s CEO, about the company’s on-the-fly re-invention; predicated on less licenses (minus the sports division, of course) and more original games. It’s not the most revelaing article, but it’s worth it just to get a hit of Totilo’s snark, including what might be the best video-game quote of the year: “The EA that brought you Catwoman and other unsavory licensed games is no more, the head of EA told me. Original content is king. Goodbye, licensed games about women running across rooftops stealing stuff. Hello, original games about women running across rooftops stealing stuff.”

• Gears of War 2 will have an optional filter that changes profane in-game dialogue into something less offensive, and a violence filter that turns blood into sparks. Of course, the game’s assuredly going to be a hard “M for mature” when its rating comes out. It’s a fine idea, I suppose, but we’ll have to wait an see how it all works… seeing as part of the game’s new feature set includes being able to chainsaw aliens in half.