Physical Education with Madden NFL 13: Hot Coffee’s Back to School Gaming Guide

Whether you're getting yourself together to head back to class in fresh new kicks or you're at a point in your life where this is just the hot time of year when you hate your job, you've only got a few weeks left to make summer count. Around here this means there are only a few long days left to avoid the sun and knockout some highly anticipated titles from our video game to-do list.

With heavyweights like Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and the Wii U arriving as the weather turns cold and the NFL returns, these end-of-summer titles are hoping to get our last few laidback gaming moments before things turn really hectic. You've gained and lost your tan, you're back from vacation and your grill is off duty until Labor Day. Here are the games that will educate and stimulate --broken down by school subject matter-- before you have to face that dreaded lunch lady again……even if she's at a four star restaurant.

Madden NFL 13 - Physical Education

In the world of sports games, Madden NFL used to be king. Now, in its EIGTH iteration on the Xbox 360, the football franchise that used to be king has been surpassed in metacritic ratings and sports gamer mindshare by cousin FIFA Soccer and the NBA 2K franchise. That's why you're going to see more enhancements and tweaks to more areas of the game than ever before in this year's version.

Connected Careers is an ambitious attempt to let gamers run a career as a coach, their favorite player, a created player or general manager and have the game keep track and yield rewards for all of it. It's comprehensive and will come with plenty of things to do when you're not in front of your Xbox or Playstation but it comes at the cost of no more fantasy draft in franchise mode. Ouch. Especially now that the companion app and web app for Madden NFL 13 seems like it's going to something useful.

Other than this, NCAA 13 has given us a glimpse of how the on-field football is going to change. Essentially QBs can throw over defenders now thanks to pass trajectories and defenders have to be able to see the ball in order to make a play. Brilliant. Madden 13 should look more like real football than ever.

For anybody that's ever played Madden NFL competitively or even with a bunch of high-intensity buddies, you can easily break into a sweat. I've been in a competitive league for three years now and I have to take a shower after every loss I'm sweating and cursing so much. I drink champagne after every victory though. My doctor says my liver needs me to stop winning so much. Madden lands August 28 and please don't get caught up in that Season Ticket madness. It's silly.