EA Sports is ramping up the hype machine for its very crucial FIFA franchise, as it has issued out a new teaser trailer for the latest installment, FIFA 10. Thankfully, it's not your average teaser trailer, as though it is short, it does contain actual gameplay footage. It looks like the one big improvement for this year's version will be bullet time.

Like trying to watch a foreign language film on a tiny TV, it seems that our buddies at Engadget can't figure out if they've got problems with the Wii MotionPlus technology, or just the way it's being used. The site recently did an exhaustive hands-on with Nintendo's new add-on, the fruits of which you can see here.

The best implementation/demonstration for the super-sensitive tech seems to be manipulating an e-frisbee in 3D space, which is almost too precious and appropriate for our brains to comprehend.

The sweet science enjoys a fondness in the United Kingdom, as EA Sports' Fight Night Round 4 enjoyed quite a debut this past week by bobbing and weaving its way to the top, according to Chart Track data. In fact, what makes this even more impressive is that Fight Night Round 4 is the first boxing game ever to reach the top spot on the All Formats chart. We guess our mother was wrong; violence may not solve everything, but it will solve the problem of wondering what type of game will sell extremely well in the UK.

Okay, we're going to have to step very lightly here to avoid inciting a full-on boycott/panic/riot. A subtle piece of information slipped under the radar during a mid-June IGN interview with Fight Night Round 4's producers. The tidbit came in response to a query which asked whether the game would allow face button punching controls (it doesn't) -- a query which producer Brian Hayes answered with, "there is no option for face button punching in the final version, but we are investigating providing the option via DLC."

Now, we're somewhat confused as to why the button-mapping options featured in previous Fight Night titles aren't already present in the most recent iteration of the sweetly scientific sim -- not everyone appreciates the stick-based punching control scheme. More importantly, if the folks at EA Sports are thinking about charging for this option -- and we're not saying they definitely are -- then they are high on pot.

We've contacted EA Sports to find out what the deal is.

[Via Evil Avatar]

Like any good sports star, the launch trailer for Fight Night Round 4 that just landed on us does a good bit of strutting around and letting us know who's the best. And who, you ask, is the best? Why clearly Fight Night Round 4 which dropped earlier this week -- albeit with some technical issues -- a full week earlier than we had originally expected. If you're looking for another dose of ridiculously detailed boxers throwing punch after punch at each other, look no further. If not, well, maybe you're smoking lettuce, ya lettuce smoker.

According to Team Xbox, there's a nasty glitch bogging down players in Fight Night Round 4. This glitch causes the game to suddenly freeze, forcing players to actually get up and turn off their Xbox consoles. Wait, get up? That's crazy talk!

Supposedly, this is an issue tied to certain files and the HDD, though there isn't any explanation beyond that. And what makes this so surprising is that the game's demo had a few glitches, including a freezing glitch just like this one. We've put in word to EA to get to the bottom of this issue and will be sure to get back to you with what we find.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon host, uh, Jimmy Fallon, laid down the gauntlet for one golf legend Tiger Woods recently, challenging him in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on Wii. Kotaku reports that Tiger has accepted and will play Fallon on his late-night show this Thursday.

We take special interest in this because we've always had a dream of challenging Bill Laimbeer in his stellar SNES basketball romp, Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball, so you can bet we'll be cheering Fallon on all the way.

EA's getting a new slapsticker for its NHL series of games, as the Chicago Blackhawks' right winger, Patrick Kane, will be gracing the cover of NHL 10. Drafted in 2007, the kid has been a great player since hitting the ice, and is a solid choice for the cover. But is he a better choice than the competition's cover guy?

All we want to know is: where's the Sidney Crosby love? The Penguins did win the Stanley Cup this year, after all. Also, we looked that up on Wikipedia.

It's tough to follow the Jesus Shot, EA's viral video for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 and tongue-in-cheek reference to a glitch found in Tiger Woods 08. But, we must say, EA has managed to strike rich, comedic gold again, as the video after the break for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 featuring Rocco Mediate is pretty damn hilarious. Like, grandpa-with-an-open-fly hilarious.

Oh, and some of you may notice something at the end of the clip, to the tune of EA awarding someone with $50,000 for their own viral video. For more details on that, check out the official site.

Gamasutra has published a very lengthy interview with EA Sports guru Peter Moore, in which he discusses the current plans of the label and the strategies behind sports game development and publishing. Perhaps most interesting are Moore's thoughts on the new motion control technology revealed by Sony and Microsoft during E3. Moore speaks about the possibilities of the new motion controllers, saying they will impact EA Sports "very positively."

Moore says that the company is already making plans to bring its "licensed product" and its "fitness product" to these new interfaces. Specifically, Moore imagines how a game like Fight Night or the upcoming EA Sports MMA would work with them, saying, "if it were in a first-person mode it would be very very cool." Agreed. He calls the new motion controllers a "huge opportunity."

Other topics in the interview range from the possibilities for smaller, regional titles (like cricket), the future of the Madden series and how EA plans to keep EA Sports Active ... um ... active in consumers' minds. Incidentally, this is the same interview in which Moore stated that Metacritic scores aren't necessarily relevant to the sales of Wii titles.

Apparently, for the Nintendo Wii (according to Lost Winds developer David Braben), the folks reviewing Wii games are the wrong people for the job. Responding to comments made by EA Sports' Peter Moore earlier this month regarding low metacritic scores for Wii games and its less than serious effect on sales numbers of said games, Frontier Developments head David Braben told Eurogamer that, "Most reviewers are what are often called 'core gamers' - and these family-focused games tend to appeal less to them."

And he makes a good point. If Joystiq's readership is primarily "core gamers," what's the point in covering casual fare meant for more mainstream crowds? Braben continues, "It throws up a difficult dilemma for those reviewers ... are they reviewing the game for those people likely to play it, or for those people who form the bulk of their readership?" We put it to you, Joystiq loyalists: Continue to cover games intended for a "casual," more mainstream audience (as well as more "hardcore" titles), or focus on "core" games coverage exclusively?

Dwight Howard probably wasn't much consoled by his image on the recently revealed NBA Live 10 box cover after losing the NBA Finals to the Lakers on Sunday, but the honor must have meant a little something (if not just more pocket change) to the Magic's superman -- until now. Kobe Bryant, winner and MVP of the NBA Finals, has been selected as the boastful NBA 2K10 cover athlete, cementing another dominant victory over Howard. 2K Sports' b-ball franchise has long been superior to EA Sports' annual effort, after all. We're thinking Howard should demand a trade.

Source - 2K Sports Congratulates Four-Time NBA Champion Kobe Bryant
Source - Dwight Howard Named Cover Athlete of EA Sports NBA Live 10

Say what you will about the American legal system, at least the thing is speedy. After all, in late April EA was denying it knew anything about a lawsuit between the NFL Players Association and retired players, and now said players have been awarded $26 million dollars a judge decided they were owed from the sale of games like Madden.

Oh, and sorry if you thought we were talking about that other Madden suit, that one is still in the courts. Man, how do the players keep getting suits on over all their pads?

We've heard stories of PR reps and devs obsessing over Metacritic scores, but EA Sports' Peter Moore's not sweating them, at least when it comes to Wii games. Noting that some titles in the low 70s can still move millions upon millions of units, Moore says that the people buying casual games and health titles like EA Sports Active aren't getting their info from Metacritic.

Moore's bigger concern? User reviews on Amazon. We'd like to snicker, but that's how we buy vacuums, so what do we know?

EA Sports is the very definition of an early adopter. During a lengthy interview with us, the company's Peter Moore confirmed that his teams were working on how to bring the mega-successful EA Sports Active franchise to PS3 and 360, taking advantage of the PS3 Motion Controller and Project Natal respectively.

"Absolutely," Moore said. "Natal is the perfect example of what you could do there. If you could imagine EA Sports Active done via Natal ... and we are working on that right now, we saw Natal a couple months ago and we started thinking about how we could bring health/wellness and fitness to a Natal-type experience. Same with Sony with the motion controller, how can you utilize what they showed on Tuesday to bring fitness to that. But I think Natal is a huge opportunity."