SB Nation St. Louis - Madden 13 Ratings Rumors: Rookie List High On David DeCastro, Down On Michael Brockershttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/49009/stl-fave.png2012-09-14T14:24:55-05:00http://stlouis.sbnation.com/rss/stream/28160602012-09-14T14:24:55-05:002012-09-14T14:24:55-05:00Wii U Will Make It Easier To Follow Your Fantasy Football Without Annoying Your Friends
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/udxen_CkerNq9S-Cf1G8gw1rd5g=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828135/large_stlouis.sbnation.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>Universal fact of internet and real life: Nobody outside your fantasy football league cares about your fantasy football team. Enter the Wii U and its new, adorably named "<a href="http://www.theverge.com/tag/nintendo-tvii" target="_blank">Nintendo TVii</a>" feature. Your friends may be polite enough to listen to your story of how pissed off you were when <span>Jamaal Charles</span> got hurt, or how desperate you were when you picked up <span>Brandon Gibson</span> off the waiver wire, but what they're really hearing is, "I don't pay any attention to actual football, and am also a narcissist."</p>
↵<p><img alt="0_medium" src="http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1190251/0_medium.jpg" width="290/"></p>
↵<p>So turn on your Wii U, come Thanksgiving, and follow the drive chart and stats on the GamePad, which apparently will provide something like this as a service for football fans and people who don't want you to hog the computer and the TV all day while you sit on StatTracker and yell at <span>Aaron Rodgers</span>.</p>
↵<p>I mean, don't get me wrong—<i>I'm</i> going to buy a Wii U so that I can play Smash Brothers for seven hours in a row with my college friends. But <i>you</i> can buy a Wii U to make your fantasy football habit a little more low key.</p>
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/2012/9/14/3333460/wii-u-will-make-it-easier-to-follow-your-fantasy-football-withoutDan Moore2012-06-13T08:53:43-05:002012-06-13T08:53:43-05:00Madden 13 Has Fake Twitter Updates, Not As Mesmerizing As Real Twitter
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/udxen_CkerNq9S-Cf1G8gw1rd5g=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828135/large_stlouis.sbnation.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>One of the weirdest new <i>Madden 13 </i>features, <a href="http://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/6/5/3064929/madden-13-physics-rumors/in/2816060">less impressive than the real-time physics </a>but almost as visible, is... Twitter. Not real Twitter—I'm sure you wanted another Twitter client, but you'll have to wait—but <i>fake</i> Twitter, set up with pretend accounts from real people. Have you ever thought to yourself, while playing <i>Madden</i>, "I wish Skip Bayless could ruin this for me?"</p>
<p><a href="http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/june/madden-nfl-13-to-feature-twitter-feed-from-skip-bayless-and-others.html">Voila</a>. </p>
<p>People slightly less annoying—Rich Eisen, et al—will also be around, talking about the league your franchise is in while speculating about player movement, achievement, and rumors. It's actually a pretty cool idea, one that solves the long-term problem of being able to keep up with all the computer's teams like you would the actual rest of the NFL. If they have enough fake Tweets that we won't see Rich Eisen and Skip Bayless repeating each other in the same week, this could be a big deal. Not as big as real-time physics, but better, at least, than Skip Bayless's actual Twitter account. </p>
<p>More: The <a href="http://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/5/27/3046269/madden-13-ratings-rumors-rookies/in/2816060"><i>Madden 13 </i>ratings rumors</a> are bad news for fans of the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/st-louis-rams">St. Louis Rams</a>' first-round draft pick. </p>
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/6/13/3082689/madden-13-twitter-updatesDan Moore2012-06-06T07:16:43-05:002012-06-06T07:16:43-05:00Madden 13 Rumors: Wii U GamePad Could Offer Fascinating Functionality For Sports Games
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/udxen_CkerNq9S-Cf1G8gw1rd5g=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828135/large_stlouis.sbnation.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>We only cover <i>Madden 13</i> rumors here—this being a sports website—but as a civilian I've been watching E3 2012 with more interest in Nintendo's unveiling of the Wii U GamePad, the strange, tablet-like controller at the heart of its next-generation console. We know <i>Madden</i> is coming to the Wii U, but right now anything else is speculation. So let's speculate—here are three things I'm hoping the GamePad will bring to video game football. </p>
<p><b>1. Real playbook functionality.</b> Not just a playbook hidden from your prying-eyed peers, a vague possibility since <i>NFL 2k</i> brought the Dreamcast VMU into the action, but a playbook that both looks like a playbook—possible on the Wii U's big, color touchscreen—and offers the kind of play-altering functionality a stylus and a bored college student can make a reality. Imagine losing a tough game against your roommate and, after the TV's turned back to ESPN, walking over to your room with the tablet and drawing up new plays. That's what I want. </p>
<p><b>2. Real co-op gameplay. </b>The second screen will allow for genuine independent interaction at different positions while sitting on the same couch. I don't think anybody's going to want to spend a lot of time playing offensive line—even with <a href="http://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/6/5/3064929/madden-13-physics-rumors"><i>Madden 13's</i> new real-time physics engine</a>—but two first-person screens for the quarterback and his top wide receiver could really change the ambience of <i>Madden</i>, which is so wedded to its top-down format. </p>
<p><b>3. A good <i>Madden</i> game for a Nintendo console.</b> Look, it's been a while. I'm just happy the Wii U appears powered-up enough to get a few years of the big-boy versions of sports games before the PS4 and next-generation X-Box come out. </p>
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/6/6/3067543/madden-13-wii-u-gamepad-rumorsDan Moore2012-06-05T07:30:32-05:002012-06-05T07:30:32-05:00Madden 13 Gets Real Physics In What Could Be An Enormous Upgrade
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/udxen_CkerNq9S-Cf1G8gw1rd5g=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828135/large_stlouis.sbnation.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>Okay, <i>now</i> I'm interested in Madden 13. It's always seemed strange to me that, as much as the graphics have improved in the 13 years since, the actual physical play of football games has worked more or less identically to <i>NFL 2k </i>for the Dreamcast, for my money the first modern football game. But if the <i>Madden 13 </i>physics upgrades are everything <a href="http://kotaku.com/5915444/the-real-time-for-physics-is-now-says-madden">this Kotaku preview</a> suggests they might be, then I think things might finally be changing. The first time <span>Bruce Irvin</span> sacks <span>Sam Bradford</span> during my <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/st-louis-rams">St. Louis Rams</a> season and I scream out to the heavens, it might at least not be a canned animation I've already seen a million times. </p>
<p>Real-time physics are the future of all sports games, and I'm glad to see the usually conservative EA Sports take a real risk here, in the face of a legitimate chance that their franchise game briefly becomes, before it's patched, an <i>NBA Elite</i>-level laughing stock. Sure, things might be rough at first, but version 1.0 has to ship eventually before you can work on version 2.0—and it's extremely important that they started now. </p>
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/6/5/3064929/madden-13-physics-rumorsDan Moore2012-05-27T08:15:05-05:002012-05-27T08:15:05-05:00Madden 13 Ratings Rumors: Rookie List High On David DeCastro, Down On Michael Brockers
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/udxen_CkerNq9S-Cf1G8gw1rd5g=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828135/large_stlouis.sbnation.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>There's a Madden 13 rookie ratings list floating around on the internet, and the rumors portend bad things for the virtual <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/st-louis-rams">St. Louis Rams</a>' No. 1 draft pick, <span>Michael Brockers</span>—rated 69 as a defensive tackle, according to <a href="http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2012/5/26/3045581/micheal-brockers-madden-13-rating-rumors" target="_blank">this roundup on Turf Show Times</a>. I was an NFL 2K guy back in my sports-gaming prime—I stick to platformers and JRPGs now—but I'm willing to get infuriated off the fumes from this fanpost, which is not happy with Dontari Poe's 75 rating by comparison. Brockers's rating is even lower than <span>Ryan Tannehill</span>, who will be lucky to start in 2012.</p>↵<p>Brockers, with <span>Chris Long</span> and <span>Robert Quinn</span>, make for potentially one of the best young defensive lines in football, but if you buy these unconfirmed Madden 13 ratings it looks like you'll have to wait until next year for that potential to be reflected in your Madden season. Unless you just edit the ratings yourself, of course, or make your own Michael Brockers, a tradition I have honored in sports videogames going back to NBA Action 95 starring Marv Albert for the Sega Genesis.</p>↵
https://stlouis.sbnation.com/st-louis-rams/2012/5/27/3046269/madden-13-ratings-rumors-rookiesDan Moore