MontanaHatchet on 11 August 2008
Maybe EA actually decided to put some effort into this year's version (as the couple review scores would indicate), and thus it took longer to develop than normal (especially with the added effort towards the Wii version). I wouldn't be surprised if several reviewers were still in the process of playing/critiquing the game.
Just a theory, since Erik Aston's idea seems pretty likely as well.
