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Continuing With Exclusive MLB 10 Screens
The latest in exclusive screenshots for MLB 10: The Show can now be found in the gallery or by continuing on where the viewer is also present. There are six brand new screens a couple of which feature the latest addition to the New York Mets Jason Bay.
SCEA has released a large supply of images from the game and just recently the gameplay videos started to make their way out. With more of those on the way attention may be turning towards the demo which could be out as early as this Thursday (though nothing has been confirmed as of yet). As always leave your thoughts in the comments!
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EA Fiscal Report Indicates Cancellation of NCAA Basketball and New Fighting Title
Earlier today Electronic Arts released their third quarter fiscal 2010 report which also included a list of titles planned for release in the coming fiscal year. All the usual suspects were listed with the exception of one. In addition to to that the rumored release date frame for a couple new franchises can be confirmed as well as the addition of a new fighting title in the works.
As I’ve been discussing the likelihood of for months it now appears a foregone conclusion that the NCAA Basketball series has been canned. It was not included on the fiscal 2011 list which had every other yearly title on it. The signs have been there for a while and included poor sales, complete lack of any post-release support, development team movement, and continued talk of trimming unprofitable titles. There is also the continued issue with collegiate player representation which has resulted in lawsuits and would end up making future college basketball offerings even less appealing than they already were. EA Sports has not made the cancellation official but that will likely happen in the near future.
There were also a few other games to take note of based on their listing in the report. Both NBA Jam and EA Sports MMA are headed towards release in the October-December quarter. I still think there are way too many sports games slated to release within a period of just a few months that it hurts their potential to an extent. Though with NCAA out of the way November is pretty wide open in advance of the holiday buying rush.
Interestingly there is an as of yet unnamed/unannounced “Fighting Title” slated for release in the January-March 2011 quarter. Let the speculation begin on that…
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MLB 2K10 Adding Check Swings With Patch
There has been a high level of discontent towards MLB 2K10 based on the information that check swings had been removed from the game. After all 2K10 is being promoted with the focus on the pitcher vs hitter battle and lacking check swings, a staple of baseball video games and a critical element of every MLB at bat, is a serious knock on credibility.
Today 2K Sports announced that check swings will be added into the game in an upcoming patch. Unfortunately it was not specified whether it will be in a release day patch or if there will be a wait time until it arrives. The addressing of the topic took place in a blog released today which can be read in full here.
The explanation that because of the new camera angle “you will rarely find yourself in a situation where you are trying to check swing” is completely shallow and doesn’t identify the reasoning why they should be in regardless. It is certainly good news that check swings will be patched in but it should never have come this in the first place. If they are in a release day patch then nothing has been lost but if there is wait time to getting them in the criticism would remain valid.
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Looking Back Over A Wild Week
The last week was one of the busiest ever in terms of news and updates most of which were very substantial in relation to upcoming releases. It all started with sightings of a promotion to vote on the cover athlete for Madden 11. It turned out that three players (Drew Brees, Reggie Wayne, Jared Allen) were the eligible candidates. Brees is a certain lock and the inclusion of Allen after three DUIs was a surprise but ultimately EA shaped the contest to get the player they wanted all along so the risk involved was minimal. That Brees won the Super Bowl and was MVP of the game while Wayne is seen as a goat only establishes that even more.
In other Madden related news the Super Bowl halftime blog for Madden 11 was released offering an opportunity to hear about the vision for the game. The final roster update for Madden 10 arrived with a surprise of recently announced retired players being completely removed. As far as I’m aware its the first time off-season transactions have entered into the previous season’s game. EA Sports president Peter Moore also announced plans to bring a version of Madden to Facebook.
The biggest development that could represent a huge shift in NBA gaming came with lead gameplay designer Mike Wang departing NBA Live and rejoining NBA 2K. While both companies gave their spin on the events I recapped the situation and evaluated what it could possibly mean in the future. Needless to say the state of basketball at EA Sports is in crisis right now and it’ll be interesting to see what they do to attempt and recover. They don’t seem to plan on responding to the statements made about them which is going to leave that image of the company and a worrisome direction of Live brewing in the minds of those aware of the news for the months to come.
Exclusive screenshots for MLB 10: The Show were released at different points throughout the week. All of them can currently be found in the gallery. Another six will be posted likely sometime this evening. Also new gameplay videos, the first drawn from within the game instead of recorded off screen, were released featuring the Tigers @ Twins.
UFC Undisputed 2010 revealed Brock Lesnar as the cover athlete and offered up the first details on the game. Backbreaker appears to be starting its promotional push with the first video dev diary for the game. The two games release within a week of each other with Backbreaker out on May 18th and UFC 2010 arriving on May 25th.
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Madden 11 Halftime Blog
For the second straight year EA Sports has posted a blog at halftime of the Super Bowl. Rather than focus on a feature or addition this time it is a video blog that goes over the development team and direction and vision for Madden 11. Continue on to watch the video and leave your thoughts in the comments!
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Final Roster Update Removes Kurt Warner
An interesting development out of the final roster update for Madden 10 is that players who have announced their retirement have been removed from the game completely. Kurt Warner, Junior Seau, and Bertrand Berry are no longer available for use with the update that arrived earlier this morning.
This caught me by complete surprise because it’s the first time that I’m aware of that off-season transactions have made their way into that previous year’s game. Madden 10 represents the 09-10 season and as such anything that happens after the season is over is not supposed to be reflected until Madden 11.
I’ve sent in a request to get a response as to why this action was taken but have not heard anything back yet. I’m also hoping to get a statement regarding the Online Franchise rosters which haven’t been updated since October. Given the Super Bowl weekend festivities I don’t expect to hear anything until at least Monday.
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New MLB 10: The Show Gameplay Videos
While there have been gameplay videos out for MLB 10: The Show since CES in early January those were all recorded off screen. Today the first directly produced look at gameplay has been released by two different outlets. The first clip runs just over a minute and features the Tigers @ Twins primarily focusing on Joe Mauer’s at bat and the second is of a homerun review. The third has the same two teams but is over five minutes long. Continue on to check out the videos and leave your thoughts in the comments!
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The Line Drive 2/6
- In sales news UFC 2009 Undisputed has passed 3.5 million resulting in it becoming a “Platinum Hit” on the 360 and “Greatest Hit” on the PS3. That makes it the second best selling sports title domestically behind Madden which is extraordinary for the first year in a new franchise. NBA 2K10 has passed 2 million in worldwide sales which is a significant number as well.
- EA Sports has released free NBA All-Star downloadable content for NBA Live 10. Available for the 360 and PS3 it provides the official East and West All-Star jerseys.
- A bunch of updates for MLB 10: The Show from Gamespot which includes a look at Road to the Show, Franchise mode and presentation, and online play. Sony also released a blog that details the online leagues.
- After watching the trailer for MLB 2K10 I realized there were a lot of scenes that flashed by far too quickly especially those of the stadiums. I took screenshots directly from the trailer which you can check out in the gallery.
- The latest blog for MLB 2K10 goes over online play. In MLB 2K9 the online actually performed quite well when not taking into consideration the core problems with the game itself. No mention regarding roster updates in the blog though which were severely lacking last year.
- As most of you have noticed I recently installed a new comment system. There are some great features to take advantage of including the ability to sort comments either by when they were posted or by their ratings.
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