NASCAR 09

Eurogamer reports that EA Sports and Gillette will be running an enormous Xbox Live competition in October to win a trip to Florida and chance to take on sports stars such as Tiger Woods at their own game. Other sponsored clean-shaven celebrities Thierry Henry and Roger Federer will be there as well, but neither of them actually have their own game, which would have made the bit above sound strange. There will be plenty of other prizes besides - consoles, games, razors, shaving foam, David Beckham maybe - and all you need to do to win is be good at EA Sports titles.

Kotaku writes: What is going on at EA Sports? First came the manifold glitches and problems in NCAA 09, now we're seeing accounts of corrupt profiles forcing Xbox 360 racers to ditch their gamesaves and start all over. After reaching a certain level of progress - the theory is cumulative laps driven, as it's struck gamers at differing points in their careers - the profile becomes corrupted and freezes the game right at the load screen. There is no other way to play the game except to delete the file and start all over. You can see a video of it here - but it takes 7 minutes to explain what was just said above. There is, however, a swell parakeet whistling in the background. Of course, using a memory stick and disabling auto-save is one workaround. That doesn't help anyone who had no idea he'd bought a defective game and finds out about this after putting 20 or 30 hours worth of effort into it. Reader S.H. (who tipped this bug to kotaku) says EA Sports is not responding to forum posts, emails or any calls for help (which the video helpfully points out). No wonder they're putting Peter Moore's face into a boxing game. That'll probably crash, too. Seriously, EA Sports, why is it amateur hour all of a sudden? What the f**k is the matter with you people?

GamesIndustry.Biz writes: Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello says that his company doesn't usually get the benefit of the cult when it comes to game ratings. While speaking to investors gathered for the William Blair & Company's 28th Annual Growth Stock Conference, Riccitiello was asked to estimate the Metacritic review scores for EA's upcoming titles. I always hate answering questions like this. It is a little bit like you're jinxing the play, you know - 'We expect the New York Times to love this play.' And you sort of feel a little bit like a twit getting out ahead of it because there's a certain cadre of journalists that would love to prove me wrong. Riccitiello said that he has looked carefully at EA Sports titles - NASCAR, NCAA, Madden and NBA Live - and found them to be better products than last year.

The spotlight is on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots this week. If you live in New York or California, be sure to check out the Metal Gear Solid 4 Worldwide Tour Events. For Xbox 360 gamers, there's a new boxing game to check out, Don King Presents: Prize Fighter. Wii gamers, check out the creative shooter Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy.

NASCAR 09 Demo is out on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the demo is free and the size is 598.34 MB. It's rated E for Everyone. The following is some information about the demo: Race your way with NASCAR 09 NASCAR's four-time champion Jeff Gordon takes you under his wing and guides you through the NASCAR 09 demo.

GamingShogun writes: NASCAR 09 will feature the electrifying mix of rock, country, metal, and punk music that will make up the explosive soundtrack of NASCAR 09. Hit music from artists such as P.O.D., AFI, and The Black Keys, just to name a few, will set the heart-pounding mood as gamers prepare to hit the pedal and race their way to victory...

EA announced legendary NASCAR driver of car #24 Jeff Gordon will be featured as the cover athlete for NASCAR 09, scheduled to ship in North America on June 10 and will offer an authentic, exhilarating stock car driving experience for racing fans of all ages.