For the second year in a row, gamers will determine which athlete will grace the cover of the latest Madden NFL game.

That way if the cover boy’s leg breaks in six places, he’ll have only his own fans to blame.

This year’s vote is part of an extensive promotion with ESPN. Although Madden NFL is a football game, the contest has a March Madness basketball-style theme. Each of the 32 teams has a representative and they will face off in a bracketed tournament.

Perhaps the only people who take Madden NFL more seriously than gamers are real NFL players. In addition to pestering Madden designers about ratings, players often compete to see who has the most virtual game. The Madden Bowl pits real athletes play Madden NFL against each other to determine who truly has game.

I wasn’t sure I was awake when I flipped on ESPN December 7, 2010, and saw 6-foot-4, 307-pound defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh doing his best Michael Jackson.

The hand that drew a penalty for nearly decapitating Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler December 5, 2010, was wearing a sequined glove.

It really happened, though.

The new Xbox Live dashboard update was released a couple days ago. The dashboard had been in a beta phase for weeks prior to the public launch. During that time there were a lot of updates working up to November 1. However many users were experiencing problems updating their consoles, avatars and experiencing game freezes. Fear not, Microsoft has fixed the majority of those problems and are on the lookout for more.

If you’re one of the thousands of hopefuls who signed up for the Xbox 360 fall preview, you may want to turn on your consoles now. Microsoft already started rolling out the update to registered users. This update will give you a taste of what’s to come later this fall when everyone’s Xbox will adapt to this new change. You don’t have to do anything special to receive the download prompt. Just turn on your console, sign in to Xbox Live and let the computer do its thing.

Microsoft is almost ready to start testing its latest update to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Therefore, it needs thousands of participants to sign up and test out the new features. Applications are currently being accepted for the program. Anyone can attempt to be selected, but Microsoft will give special consideration to Xbox Live Gold members first.

ESPN is not the just worldwide leader in sports, it’s a piece of the world’s pop culture fabric. Athletes refer to each other’s plays as “SportsCenter” moments and ESPN commentators such as Dick Vitale are more famous than many of the athletes they cover. Microsoft talks about the Xbox 360 as a total entertainment machine and the ESPN partnership announced June 14, 2010 is a huge step in that direction.

How big a deal is the return of NBA Jam? ESPN’s NBA insider Marc Stein took an edition of his “Daily Dime” column exclusively to talk about the highly anticipated arcade-style basketball title.

Stein is not some sportswriter looking for an easy way to fill space. He admits to pouring more quarters than he cares to think about about into the 1993 original.

Microsoft has been in talks with Disney about incorporating some kind of subscription-based channel offering programming from ESPN into the Xbox Live service. This is far from a done deal but the partnership could allow Microsoft to broadcast ESPN shows and also include some kind of interactive games.

This would indicate that cable networks are seriously thinking about jumping on the console bandwagon. After all, there are tens of millions of possible subscribers – counting Xbox and PS3 owners, who already have the hardware connected in their living rooms – so that would be a lucrative business for everyone involved.

At his pre-Super Bowl press conference Friday (January 30, 2009) National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell fielded questions on everything from international expansion to revamping the league’s overtime system. One reporter asked about famous broadcaster John Madden, who is celebrating his 30th anniversary as a commentator. Goodell talked about the numerous ways Madden has become an ambassador for the league and even mentioned his now legendary football video game.

“His name is associated with the most popular game of all time in the electronic games world,” Goodell said. “And he’s had a huge influence over millions of who watch our game and play the Electronic Arts game.”

The Madden franchise has been the subject of controversy since…