Video Games

You faithful readers may recall all the way back to last week when I wrote about accusations that the quality-control department at Electronic Arts has been asleep at the switch with recent versions of NCAA and Madden football.

Well, the folks at EA sure noticed.

I received notes from both the Madden designer to whom I referred in the column as well as the company's public-relations department, both of them complaining that I had been unfair to their games.

There are software patches coming for NCAA, EA said, while the complaints about the lack of traditional manual settings for computer-controlled opponents in Madden are groundless because the game automatically adjusts the skill level as needed.

So let's take those rebuttals in turn:

I think the defense that "The patches are coming" for NCAA is pretty lame.

I guess it's nice that the company is at least recognizing the flaws in the original software, but the scope of the fixes indicates the game was clearly not finished when it was rolled out to retailers.

And gamers who haven't connected their consoles to the Internet probably won't ever get the patches.

Given that the college football season hasn't even started yet, I don't think it would have killed EA to delay the launch to get these issues ironed out.

On the Madden front, I think the debate about whether manual settings are better than auto settings is a bit esoteric for most gamers, and I'm willing to cut EA some slack here.

But I've been reading through the forums where the most hard-core Madden-ites hang out, and the auto-adjustment feature doesn't seem to have mollified them.

So we'll see.

Speaking of Madden, the game goes on sale Tuesday, and several retailers will be hosting midnight launches.

GameStop and Best Buy, for example, both have numerous stores in the Dallas area with midnight openings. You can check each company's Web site for a list.

Even if you hate the franchise or are seriously ticked about the gameplay settings, at least the cover photo of Brett Favre in a Packers uniform should be something of a keepsake.

And speaking of midnight (man, these segues are writing themselves), the Midnight Gaming Championship, a free video-game tournament, kicks off in Dallas today.

The tournaments will basically run every Saturday night for the rest of August from 6 p.m. to midnight at participating McDonald's restaurants.

For more information, go to www.midnightgamingchampion ship.com.

Victor Godinez covers technology for The Dallas Morning News. He blogs about video games at punchbutton.wfaa.com.

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