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Man, EA Sports just can't catch a break. Not only is it reportedly under fire from a number of retired NFL players, but they could be facing litigation from incensed NCAA football players as well. The complaint is similar to that of the aforementioned pro ballers -- former Arizona State and Nebraska football player Samuel Keller recently filed a class action suit against EA for using the likenesses of his fellow collegiate athletes in NCAA Football and Basketball titles without any compensation.

Just like in the NFL lawsuit, Keller claims that while the digital players lack monikers, they have the same jersey numbers, home states, height, weight, skin tone, hair color and hair style of their real-life counterparts. Sounds pretty similar to the complaints featured in the NFL retirees' successful suit against the NFLPA. We'll keep an eye on this one to see if Keller and the other college players get similar results.

[Via GamePolitics]

This morning, EA placed a freshly picked NCAA Basketball 09 demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace and, really, what more is there to say?

It's an 875MB download. It's also rated "E". Umm, the demo also features an orange basketball and a bunch of college teams. We're guessing the court is made out of wood. Did we mention the NCAA Basketball 09 demo is 875MB? Well, it is ...

This week's most notable release is surely Camelot's latest and greatest golf game, We Love Golf. We've been covering the title for quite some time and are glad to see it finally release. Will it offer up a better experience than other competition on the console, such as Super Swing Golf 2 and Tiger Woods 09? Only time will tell.

• We Love Golf
• NCAA Football 09
• Rock Band Track Pack Vol. 1
• Space Chimps

So, who is picking up what?

If you enjoy football games but aren't into the NCAA, it looks like NCAA Football 09 might still have something entertaining to offer. Granted, it's the silliest of features -- and rather pointless, in the grand scheme of things -- but we'll be the first to say that watching teams of mascots throwing the old pigskin made us smile. Where else can you play football as a team full of elephants?

Of course, if you do like college football, this is just an added bonus. Interested parties can NCAA Football 09 All-Play to release next week on the 15th in North America.

Following word that they would be doing so, EA has revealed its EA Sports 'All-Play' line-up of Wii games. These Wii titles feature a new casual approach, which include mini-games, as well as simplified controls. The titles also include simplified versions of each individual sport, including 5-on-5 in Madden or 8 vs. 8 in FIFA.

[Via Joystiq]

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq, a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

Summer is typically a "low season" for game releases, except for one particular annual tradition: new football games. As of late, those games have been all from EA, most notably the Madden and NCAA franchises. Last week it was made public that two gamers brought suit to disrupt EA's stranglehold over the football game market. Since the pleadings are online, I thought I would take the opportunity to offer some commentary on the issues presented. Of course, these are just my thoughts on the matter, not a prediction as to what result a trial may bring. EA's actual response may vary.

Professional sports are no strangers to antitrust and other anti-competition based legal actions. More or less every major professional sports league has faced these suits in the past, and some of them even hold specific anti-trust exemptions. For example, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 is a specific anti-trust exemption for the NFL to be able to negotiate the broadcast rights for all teams. While none of the leagues have a true monopoly over the sports they represent, the barriers to entry are fairly great and most leagues are ultimately unable to compete (need I remind you of the XFL?). From the perspective of the NFL or MLB, exclusive licenses are likely viewed the way TV rights are, and I'm somewhat surprised that exclusivity has only become an issue in recent years.

This year's iteration of EA's annual NCAA Football franchise is pulling a Soulcalibur with its covers. Every platform (PS2, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii) will feature a unique cover athlete. Representing the PS3 this year is Matt Ryan, winner of the 2008 Manning Award -- an award that's reserved for the nation's top senior quarterback. The press release reminds us: "In his senior season, he helped lead the Eagles to an 11-3 record and a victory over Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl."

Maybe it's because we're fanboys, but we certainly think this is a better choice for a cover athlete than the Wii version (no, that's not a joke).

Making a surprise arrival onto the Marketplace this weekend is a brand new NCAA March Madness 08 demo. The March Madness 08 download is only available to US and Canadian Xbox Live members and weighs in at a rather hefty 927MB. And seeing that we don't have a description of the demo, we'll take an educated guess and say that it includes a period or two of college basketball fun. But that's just a guess, because there's a chance that the demo could end up being a period or two of mind numbing college basketball boredom. Yes, we went there.

They've been embraced by major publishers. They've infected everything from first-person shooters and MMOs. They even occasionally served as the entire basis for a game's existence. Now, in-game advertising's inevitable extension is reaching into a new area -- Xbox Live Achievements.

A quick skim down the list of achievements for EA's upcoming NCAA 08 Football shows sponsored goals such as the "Old Spice Red Zone Perfection" and "Pontiac 4th Quarter Comeback." Each achievement is accompanied by a logo for the company in the achievement's image.

We can only imagine the possibilities for future Xbox 360 games. Halo Around the Collar, sponsored by Tide? Mass Effect sponsored by the Axe Effect? Grand Theft Auto IV's Bounty Beatdown (great for sopping up blood spills)? The possibilities are endless.

Football is a game of split second decisions, and simulating the sport on the Xbox 360 will soon let you split those seconds more finely. 1UP is reporting that this summer's major pigskin simulators -- EA's Madden NFL 08 and NCAA Football 2008 and 2K Sports' All-Pro Football 2K8 -- will run at 60 frames per second on the Xbox 360 and 30 frames per second on the PS3. The move represents a jump from previous Madden games, which ran at 30 frames per second on all platforms, including the Xbox 360 and PS3.

While the additional frames mean smoother, more fluid animation in the 360 versions, it's still unclear how the jump will impact graphical fidelity or resolution. A comparison between both versions of last year's Madden 07 conducted by Gamespot showed the 360 version had "sharper textures on the character models in the close-up shots shown between plays." In comparing this year's games, 1UP simply stated that "All-Pro Football 2K8 definitely runs better on Xbox 360."

The reasons behind this frame rate difference are hard to pin down. Todd Sitrin, EA Vice President of Marketing Sports Branding, told 1UP that there are trade offs in designing football simulations and that "every company making a football game this year made a decision that the best experience for the Xbox 360 included 60fps whereas the best experience for the PS3 was 30fps." Extra time and familiarity with the Xbox 360 hardware could have influenced the development, as could the purported difficulty in programming for the PS3's multi-processor architecture.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

1UP is reporting that all the heavy hitting football games coming out this year (Madden 08, NCAA Football 08, and All-Pro Football 2K8) will be running best on the Xbox 360. 30 frames smoother to be exact. 1UP says that they've confirmed with developers that the 360 versions of each football game will run at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second while the PS3 version will have to settle for 30 frames per second. What does that mean? Well, it means animations will be smoother, faster and less jarring than the PS3 version. And that's a good thing.

We aren't sure why the PS3 versions of the games are stuck at 30 FPS, but we're thinking the dev teams just didn't find it worth the extra cash to optimize it for the platform. But even if that were the case it should still put a feather in Microsoft's ego cap, because it would just further prove that the 360 is easier to develop for.

Xbox 360 Achievements got their hands on NCAA Football 08's Achievement list earlier this week. It looks like this year, EA's making an effort to require you to play the game, rather than just simming your way through it, though we can't say for certain that you can't get any of them via simming. The last three did grab our eye, though, they all have blatant product placement for Pontiac and Old Spice, even using the company's respective logo. Fight Night Round Three kind of did the same thing, though the events were "sponsored by the companies". Still, give the list a look, and if your like EA Sports previous offering, hopefully this will fit the bill this year.

A new trailer for NCAA Football 08 popped up on Xbox Live Marketplace this morning. Try as we might, it's hard for us to find ways to colorfully describe it. It is football, of that we're certain. There are players, a field, and there is most certainly a ball. The graphics look decent enough, and the hits look good. All in all, it looks to have most of the necessities required by a football game. What more do you need, right? Check out the trailer for yourself, conveniently embedded at the top of this post.

The other day EA released a new recruiting video to show off NCAA 08 Football's new and improved system for recruiting players. Not only will you be able to schedule campus visits, make sweet offers, track which schools each player favors and set a lunch date, but you'll even be able to give their mom and pops a call. It's quite the recruiting system if we've ever seen one. But what are your feelings about implementing such a hands on approach to creating your college team? Does this busy work add to the game's overall value or do you just want to play some college football?

[Update 1: Fixed official host of March Madness to DS Fanboy. Hellz yeah!]

Can you feel it? The millions of dollars of productivity just slipping away in a bracket-induced frenzy? This month, eight of the biggest contenders will go toe to toe in a winner-take-all bloodbath of pain and glory.

The DS, by virtue of winning the last nineteen straight tournaments, has been officially eliminated from the competition. Vegas is giving 3:2 odds on the Wii, but inconsistent supply performance puts them on shaky ground. The PSP, which charged back late in the season to earn the number 1 seed, is playing its best right now, but the in-state rival PS3 is still a force to be reckoned with. The Xbox 360 has also shown marked improvement, with wonderful individual performances by Blue Dragon and Trusty Bell.

We're totally picking the Gamecube, though. It's the cinderella story of the season!

(Seeds were determined using this week's numbers. Next week's sales charts shall determine the winner!)

(And go Gators!)

- DS Lite: 108,512 3,302 (2.95%)
- PSP: 56,175 9,981 (15.09%)
- Wii: 44,495 13,477 (23.25%)
- PS3: 32,115 11,885 (27.01%)
- PS2: 14,585 779 (5.07%)
- Xbox 360: 3,333 46 (1.36%)
- Game Boy Micro: 812 7 (0.87%)
- GBA SP: 679 59 (7.99%)
- Gamecube: 240 63 (20.79%)
- DS Phat: 119 7 (6.25%)
- GBA: 13 12 (48%)

[Source: Media Create]