Gamertell

Boom! If you don’t have to be the first kid on the block to play Madden NFL 2010, Sports Illustrated has a deal for you.

You can get 28 weeks of Sports Illustrated and a copy of the wildly popular game for $49. There’s also an NFL films DVD about John Madden’s road to the Hall of Fame.

If you cancel the subscription you can keep the game and DVD for $26 (you get the rest refunded, they don’t hit you for an additional $26).

Needless to say, they’re not going to ship it to you before the game’s official release. EA’s a multi-billion corporation for a reason, folks. But if you can just wait 4-6 weeks, you can get the game for less than half of its regular retail price. If you can’t wait, well, I bet you’ve already got your pre-order turned and been obsessively playing the demo for weeks now. Yeah, me too.

Initial indications are that whichever route you take to purchase, this could be one of the years that Madden is more revolutionary than evolutionary. The big improvement EA is touting this year is the Pro-Tak animation technology. This reportedly allows players to break out of any tackle animation, so the play isn’t over until it’s over. This, in theory, makes it easier for running backs to keep throwing out the special moves and for quarterbacks to evade sacks.

As a defender, you can keep adding to the pile up to nine-man gang tackles. Fights for the fumble are getting more interactive with a button-pressing mini-game.

Yes sports fans, quick time has come to Madden Football.

Read [Time Inc.] Also Read [Examiner]