The PlayStation Blog announced today that the God of War himself will be available tomorrow as a downloadable character for PS3's Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. Kratos, sporting the "clubs of chaos," is taking some time off from battling the gods of Olympus to try and sink a couple putts.

The Kratos DLC will cost $2, but this isn't just a fancy new character model for the game. We give Sony props for bringing in T.C. Carson, the voice of Kratos, to record some new lines for the Ghost of Sparta to use in the game. Don't expect any of Kratos's trademark rage, though, the game will continue to be rated E.

With all the recent announcements and pick-ups, you'd think EA would be bursting at the seams with upcoming titles, but it's just crammed one more under its belt: A new tennis franchise that will debut on Wii (though it will later come to other platforms) and take advantage of the Wii MotionPlus accessory.

Besides the control gimmick innovation, its other claim to fame is being the only video game that includes the All England Lawn Tennis Club, where Wimbledon is played. So, with tennis added to the list, what's left for EA Sports? Curling? Cup stacking?

FIFA 09 cover athlete Maurice Edu has been traded to another team, meaning EA Sports will, yet again, have to change the box art on one of its games. Edu, who would have been featured on the cover wearing his Toronto FC jersey, will now wear the uniform of the US Men's National Team -- not Scotland's Glasgow Rangers, which is the team he'll actually play on. EA Sports tells IGN that the cover of the game will ship with the correct art -- no "print out" version necessary.

This would be the second time in a month that EA Sports had to dump extra resources into changing a cover due to an athlete changing teams. Earlier this month the publisher had to fix the art for perennial high-profile American football title Madden 09 when cheesehead favorite Brett Favre unretired and left for New York New Jersey.

The Virtual Console just got its weekly nostalgia injection, offering fans of all colors -- but mostly blue and green -- something else to download and play as we wonder where the weekend went and why exactly there is a receipt for a Magnet Beam on the kitchen table.

• Mega Man (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): With the Blue Bomber set to don pixelated pajamas next month, his freshman adventure marks this week's most noteworthy addition to the Wii's window into the past. Assuming you haven't bought the original Mega Man in one of Capcom's many other compilations, Guts Man and company are waiting ever so patiently for you to drop by.
• Neo Turf Masters (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points): This is 133 megs of hot golf action right here, straight from 1996 to your living room. You don't have even to admit to your friends that you like video game golf. We'll keep your dirty little secret.

Peter Moore is on a mission. In an interview with MCV, the EA Sports president is looking to poise his company as "the leading sports brand in the world." That's a rather ambitious claim, given the brand dominance of sports industry companies such as ESPN, Nike and his former employer Reebok.

Said Moore, "We need to globalize our business, provide even more opportunities for our customers to interact with us online, knock down the barriers to those who find the learning curve of our games too steep, and discover new areas in sports – and health and wellness – in which our brand can truly make a difference." In other words, Moore is looking to expand the demographic and potential audience of EA Sports titles to every human in existence. May we suggest Michael Phelps Pro S-wii-ming 2009 for the Nintendo Wii?

So, we've got good news, and we've got potentially bad news. We're going to mix it up and give you the bad news first: There's a demo for SBK08 on Xbox Live right now, but if you live in Asia or North America, you can't play it. Maybe it's not that big a deal, but what if we told you that SBK stood ... for superbike? We thought regular bikes were cool, but these bikes ... wow, they're just so far beyond that. We feel bad for anyone (ourselves included) who's stuck with a last-gen non-super-bike. You've won this round, Europe.

But, hey, dry those tears, rest of the world, because today you can also download a demo for Tiger Woods 09. Experience the thrill of Joystiq editor Ludwig Kietzmann's day-to-day life as you play three holes at the Gary Player Country Club in South Africa. Hey, just because Little Steven avoids it doesn't mean you can't play Sun City!

(P.S. We're assuming that at least the Tiger Woods demo will show up on PSN today. We'll let you know when we see an update.)

Source -- SBK08 Demo
Source -- Tiger Woods 09 Demo

It may come as a surprise, but there are a few Olympic gold medals that Michael Phelps forgot to nab, magpie-like, for the gold medal throne we imagine he's begun constructing. One of those, the gold for the men's 100m breaststroke, was won by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima. How did he best longtime rival Brendan Hansen? Why, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, of course.

"See, Mario does the breaststroke," he recently told Yomiuri Sports. "And thus, it's perfect mental training for envisioning the actual Olympic hall."

... Let's, umm ... let's try to keep this from Jack Thompson, OK?

[Via Kotaku]

The biggest question we hear every single year with the Madden franchise (and in fact, most EA Sports titles) is, "How is this game any different than last year's?" Snarky responses about the roster change aside (and even that gets fumbled sometimes), the gridiron gang at our sister site X3F have assembled the Season Update, calling out the differences (both good and bad) between Madden 09 and its immediate predecessor. For those still on the fence about picking up a copy, click here for the play-by-play.

In order to offset the cost of printing posting an alternative cover for (most versions of) Madden 09, it looks like EA had to raise the price of the new Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack to the tune of: $10,000! Graciously, Circuit City has elected to eat a full $9,800 of that cost, leaving pre-orderers with a much more manageable price tag. [Note: Circuit City has since removed the pricing error.]

Retailer bloopers aside, the Madden Entertainment Pack (MSRP $200) includes: a very blue PSP, 1GB Memory Stick, Madden 09 (game), download code for Beats ("game"), and -- what's this? -- a movie ... on UMD (they're collector's items you know).

[Via PSP Fanboy]

It's times like this we're happy there's a Metareview. Because, honestly, if we had to say something intelligent and clever about football, it's probably going to be related to The Waterboy or Superpro. We're sports dumb, to put it more directly. Luckily, the internet is here to put the new Madden through its paces.

• 1UP (A): "Madden's the sports-gaming superpower, though, so it's hard not to nitpick some of this stuff. But even with the listed complaints, this is a football game that one-ups the stakes between the sidelines, and it's so visually impressive that it's likely to stick in your system all season long -- even on Saturdays."
• GameDaily (80/100): "Despite all the this cool stuff, Madden commits some penalties. The game supposedly has more dynamic camera angles, but you'll often see the same one repeat up to ten times per game. As for the computer, it often makes strange decisions, such as running out the clock when it needs a score or wandering out of bounds for no reason."
• IGN (88/100): "It may not look all that different to the casual observer, but football aficionados and Madden veterans alike will be able to appreciate the small enhancements."

Huh, looks like EA doesn't have everyone ... covered. Less than a week after Madden 09's cover athlete Brett Favre jumped ship for the Jets (single-handedly thrashing millions in Madden marketing materials) EA has come through with its "plan": you can now download a replacement cover (in handy PDF format) for your copy of Madden NFL 09 featuring Favre donning his new team's colors ...

... that is, if you happened to purchase either the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, or PS2 release. Those of you that bought the Wii or DS versions, sorry. And for the four of you that bought the Xbox version ... you should know better.

Also released today: a "new online roster download" for Xbox 360, Xbox, PS3, PS2 and Wii which "features Favre as the starting quarterback on the New York Jets." Rocking something a little more portable, are we? EA advises you hit up Franchise Mode, transfer "NFL Great" Favre to the free agent roster pool, and then scoop him up "on any of the 32 NFL teams for the 2008 season."

[Update: If you don't want to blow all of your green ink printing out the new cover, stop by either Sam's Club or Wal-Mart to pick one up in-store. It's unclear if you'll need to purchase the game there as well but our money's on "probably."]

The Rose Bowl was Madden-ified yesterday to make way for the 20th anniversary of Madden games, as well as the new Madden NFL 09 game that went on sale at midnight last night... or 9 PM Pacific if you were lucky enough to be in the stadium in Pasadena. The upper deck was wrapped in gigantic Madden sail cloths promoting the game and featuring poster boy Brett Favre in his Packers gear. The playing turf featured autograph sessions with NFL legends, skill games, free Pepsi schwag (which we forgot to photograph, whoops), a Slurpee booth complete with Hooters-esque booth babes, a mini Wal-Mart store, and a giant gaming tent full of tons of Xbox 360s, and a scant few Wiis, PS3s, and PSPs.

Read on, dear gamer, to discover the rest, including a confab between rapper Busta Rhymes and EA's Peter Moore. Plus you can click on the gallery below for loads of photos.

Break it to Make it! Did you hear? This week's Virtual Console update includes a video game adaptation of 80s dance flick, Breakin'. Finally we can live out our closet fantasies of break dancing in the shoes of Kelly, Ozone and -- personal fave -- Turbo. Oh, wait, that's not what the game is about? Monday mornings are so cruel.

• Break In (TurboGrafx16, 1-4 players, 700 Wii Points): No, there's no fancy footwork here. Instead, Nintendo offers up this decidedly break dance-free game of pool. So, yeah, it's pool.
• Star Parodier (TurboGrafx16 CD-ROM, 1 player, 900 Wii Points): Well, at least this is something to get excited over. A parody of Hudson shooter Star Soldier, here you'll be able to fly about and shoot down colorful bad guys as Star Soldier's Paro Ceaser, iconic pyro Bomberman, or a giant flying PC Engine that shoots cards and discs at enemies. That almost makes up for this morning's dissapointment.

With Brett Favre booked for a one-way ticket out of retirement and into New York (as a Jet!), Madden NFL 09 will look decidedly vintage when it releases next week with Favre on the cover ... as a Packer. Some may attribute the gaffe to evidence of the "Madden Curse" at work (c'mon, it can do better than that!), but EA Sports boss Peter Moore assures, "There's a plan."

While IGN has already confirmed there will be no second printing -- Favre will remain a Packer on the surface of Madden 09, at least -- a Crispy Gamer interview with Moore and marketing director David Tinson published last week addressed the possibility of Favre switching teams; to which Moore offered his vague assurance. "It will ship with what you've seen. Yes. And then we'll have a plan if he's not [a Packer]," Tinson added. Day-one roster update confirmed!

Update: EA will indeed release a day-one update placing Favre on the Jets (and reflecting any other relevant roster changes), reports MTV Multiplayer. But that's not all: "We do not plan to re-issue packaging, but WILL offer a free downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Brett Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09," a company spokesperson revealed to MTV. See, EA did have a plan! ... But if you're not feelin' it, why not make your own cover?

[Image credit: FirstCuts]

Although it's probably wrong to call Frank Caliendo a "John Madden impersonator," because he does a billion great impressions ranging from President Bush to William Shatner, he's definitely best known for his spot-on send up of the white-haired football legend. Both Caliendo and Jay Mohr are joining the voice cast of Midway's upcoming footballer, Blitz: The League II.

Caliendo will play three different characters, the prison warden, the offensive line coordinator and the color commentator, and Mohr will be playing The Agent, which will probably be similar to the role he played in Jerry Maguire. Midway probably wants to avoid a lawsuit with NBC, the NFL, and Madden himself, so it's doubtful Caliendo will be speaking as The Coach when we get blitzed this Fall... but here's hoping.