NCAA Strategies has come up with the great idea to compile all the real life sounds for each NCAA team for use with the stadium sounds feature in NCAA Football 09. Broken down by conference in the forum you can find every team and situation that is customizable and the specific music/sounds that correspond to them. This will be the place to get everything you need to utilize the feature and most accurately represent each team.

If you’d like to contribute with your knowledge of what is heard in the situations and/or MP3 files than drop in and add to the collection here.

Here are some random things I wanted to throw out there but wouldn’t have made for much of a full posting on their own. Feel free to leave your comments in response to any of these. I’ve also added a poll if you continue on asking which of the three football games you are anticipating the most.

• There were more areas of confusion coming out of the media event held by EA last week than just the Fantasy Football which was cleared up through my producer interview. Apparently some media outlets have reported that Madden 09 will have in-game saves. Operation Sports sought out confirmation and found out that it will not.

• EA Gameshow has made a major change by turning off the power-ups. I was never a huge fan of the power-ups from the start although once I understood them it added a fun element to the game. I would probably enjoy rounds more where it was just knowledge and speed that determined the winner rather than taking advantage of power-ups which in some cases could simply come down to luck. Not to mention there was only one that was worth using negating the whole idea behind creating strategies (6X Chicken). It also made for a difficult first time experience. Thinking you are doing well but then seeing you got blown out because you didn’t know about power-ups or didn’t use the right ones would be frustrating and confusing. The plan is to bring power-ups back in the future but in a way that is more balanced and easy to understand.

• Who else is more impressed with the feature set for NCAA Football 09 than the one for Madden 09 at this point? Granted there are many more features to come for Madden and it has received a huge lift in presentation. But the features that are known thus far definitely seem stronger for NCAA. While Madden’s Online Leagues sound as though they’ll turn out well it is nothing compared to the interest behind the Online Dynasty. Add in other significant additions such as Home Field Advantage, roster sharing, and customizable music. Compare that to the BackTrack/Rewind and the Virtual Trainer (of which they should probably be seen in action before judging) that are aimed at making Madden more accessible. The screenshots/videos for EA Sports World being added to Madden is exciting but that was in NCAA last year. I highly suspect though as more becomes known about Madden this feeling may shift. They’re not going to hold back in the anniversary year.

• The transition to the full NCAA Football 09 website (which should launch in the near future) has caused some issues and prevented them from posting up the daily alternate screenshots. If you have missed any over the last few days (Clemson, Colorado) because of that they are included in the screenshot gallery.

• I’ve been more excited in general with gaming over the past days than I have in a long time. First came GTA IV but that was even topped by Boom Blox. Lego Indiana Jones is coming in a few weeks. Now news that Viva Pinata 2 is on the way. The original VP along with Crackdown are my two favorite games of this generation.

Another week brings a look at one of the new features or improvements to Madden 09 in the Gamestop Madden Monday blog. This week the focus is on the “ActionCam” which is the new camera angle that adjusts to display all of the players on the field.

Madden NFL 09 will feature a camera system that dynamically adjusts to keep all of your players in view, eliminating the need to blindly pass off of the edge of your screen and hope for the best. When you run a pass play, the ActionCam automatically pans out, zooms in, and adjust angles to keep all of your receivers on the screen.

Once you complete that pass, if the ball carrier happens to break away from his defenders, the ActionCam will rock back and forth, zoom in and follow the ball carrier, giving you that intense feeling that you’re sprinting alongside him. And if a defender happens to really lay into the ball carrier, the Big Hit Camera will rattle the screen with the force of the crunch. It’s like having a tiny producer in your console that constantly assigns the best camera angles.

A camera changed has been needed for a long time. I know personally I’ve tended to shy away from throwing to receivers on the outside, or gone to plays that had them coming into the middle of the field, because I couldn’t see them and it was too risky otherwise. From the videos that have been released and the two new screenshots it doesn’t seem to be a drastic change so it shouldn’t take long to get comfortable with it. The classic camera will remain in as an option however I doubt many will prefer that over this new camera.

This week’s (5/12) roster update for MLB 08: The Show is now available and includes 79 player movements. The highlights of the update are below. For those without online access for their PS3 you can download the file from here.

RP Jack Taschner moved from Giants Starting to Giants Relief.
SP Barry Zito moved from Giants Relief to Giants Starting.
LF Bronson Sardinha moved from Mariners Minors to Indians Minors.
SP Wilfredo Ledezma moved from Padres Relief to Padres Starting.
RP Justin Germano moved from Padres Starting to Padres Relief.
RP Shawn Estes moved from No Team to Padres Relief.
SS Jimmy Rollins moved from Phillies Minors to Phillies Position.

I finally picked up a Nintendo Wii just recently (Boom Blox is currently my favorite game across any of the three consoles) so look forward to some coverage of sports titles on the Wii going forward. The first on the docket is NCAA Football 09. For the first time the NCAA Football series is on the Wii and it would appear to be an offering with a lot of potential (outside of the omission of online play which Madden 09 on the Wii has).

This is the first game that will tout EA Sports’ new “All-Play” for their Wii games which is the furthering of the “Family Play” initiative started last year. The idea behind it is to create an environment where the games aren’t too intimidating or confusing for newcomers. It will offer options for simpler controls while making the games quicker to play. Apparently the Wii titles will be receiving more attention as they’ll be designing the games completely to tailor to the unique experience that the console offers instead of just taking ports and tacking on motion controls and mini-games.

IGN has released the first details on what to expect from the game along with Gamespot adding the first three gameplay videos in the form of mascot games. Continue on for a recap of the info and to view the videos.

Read the rest of this entry »

EA Sports has released some new screenshots from Facebreaker featuring a character going by the name Voodoo along with a new trailer which puts the spotlight on Steve. While there has been an inordinate amount of screenshots and trailers released for the game thus far they have generally centered around Romeo and to a lesser extent Molotov. The original trailer gave glances at a few more characters to come but this is the first time they’ve really shifted the focus to others.

You can check out all 10 of the new screens at the official Facebreaker website. Continue on to watch the trailer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Through numerous recent previews the online dynasty feature of NCAA Football 09 continues to be a central topic of discussion. With most of the previews touching on the same things below are two that are worth checking out.

NCAA Strategies has posted up an interview with NCAA Football 09 producer Ben Haumiller. This was recorded on the night of the cover reveal event. It mainly covers the online dynasty feature but does briefly delve into other areas of the game. There were also some follow-up questions/responses after. You can find both the podcast and Q&A here.

Gamespot’s preview goes into the feature at great length. It has been stated that anything done in the offline dynasties will work in the online ones. Despite that it is good to hear each one specifically such as how named rosters will transfer through. There may not be a whole lot new here but it presents a good compilation of everything that is known.

I’m curious for those of you out there looking forward to playing in an online dynasty are you more interested in having every user involved in a single conference or spread out wherever they choose to be?

With Operation Sports having released a video which displays team rankings and ratings I feel comfortable in going forward with listing out the top 25 teams in NCAA Football 09 (I’ll continue to hold off on the toughest places to play and top player ratings). When it comes to the actual team ratings I wouldn’t put much stock into those. I began taking them down before realizing that the numbers were different each time I viewed the team.

While the top 25 may not be finalized (LSU will probably drop) this should at least offer an idea of how the best teams in the game will fall in place.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was invited to sit in on a conference call with lead producer Anthony DeLuca of 2K Sports’ Top Spin 3 who talked all about the game which is scheduled to release on Tuesday June 24th. This will represent the second game in the franchise to come to the Xbox 360 and the first time it’ll be out on the PS3 and Wii. The general features and improvements of the game were discussed while answering questions that were submitted in advance. Continue on for a recap of the the notes that were taken.

Read the rest of this entry »

With just one month to go until release the first gameplay footage from Don King Presents: Prizefighter has finally appeared. Up until now the storyline has seemed intriguing (despite it being linear) but there have been questions around the gameplay and why no videos had been shown or hands-on time been given.

In a demonstration done on the Gamespot program “On The Spot” executive producer of the game Matthew Seymour walks through some of the aspects of the story mode and fighter creation before getting to the gameplay.

Needless to say the action looks…well the best way to put it may be awkward. I still think that the story mode could be fun to play through but the gameplay shown is rough to watch.

With this being the first look at the game and the big news coming out on Fight Night Round 4 yesterday, it is an uphill battle to keep or gain the interest of gamers right now considering the position Prizefighter has placed itself in.

In something that may be even more interesting than the video, a representative of 2K Sports on the company’s official forum (2K Admin Ron) is publically berating the game’s executive producer for his “ridiculous representation of the game“, that it looked like he had never played the game before, and that the game was made a mockery of. All of those quotes and more can be found in the reaction thread in their forums.

Continue on to view the video which runs for approximately 11 minutes.

Read the rest of this entry »