Can’t wait til Sunday for the big game?  Still having trouble deciding who you want to place your wager on? Will the spread will be covered?   The good folks at EA Sports hypothetically answer all these question with their annual Super Bowl Simulation on Madden 10.  In the offensive slugfest we’re all hoping for, the Saints egde out the Colts 35-31 with Drew Brees taking home the MVP honors.

Going back to 2004, EA’s simulation has correctly picked each winner except for 2008 when the Giants shocked the world.  So they’ve got a track record in getting this right so that goes a long way to show how realistic the game has become, but not why I find the controls so complicated that I didn’t even buy Madden this year.  Read below as EA explains how they went about this and check out a video of the simulated highlights.

Utilizing each team’s current roster and the latest player statistics, Madden NFL 10 was able to accurately predict the outcome of both the NFC and AFC Championship games within a margin of three points for each game. EA SPORTS utilized this same simulation formula to predict the outcome of Super Bowl XLIII (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals) with unprecedented accuracy – down to the final score and individual player statistics. EA SPORTS has correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner for five out of the last six years, since the official Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation began in 2004.

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The hype over Madden 10 has settled and it’s time to look at it with a clear head. Many critics of the series (myself included) said Madden is more or less the same year after year. That’s arguably true for previous iterations. But Madden 10 introduces a bunch of tweaks and features that separate it from the old games as the franchise steps in a new direction. Read the rest of this entry »