NCAA Football 09 to have platform specific covers
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As speculated upon after the news that Darren McFadden would be the Xbox 360 cover athlete for NCAA Football 09 broke, EA has made it official that there will be four platform specific cover athletes this year that will come from different regions of the country. If you count the mascot on the cover of the Wii version that means all five will have their own exclusive covers. The PS3 version will be announced on April 24th with the PS2 and PSP covers being announced in early May.
“These four athletes represent the best and brightest of college football, but our selections aren’t just about Heisman candidates and All Americans,” says Sr. director of marketing Tom Goedde. “They represent the spirit and passion of the sport in the same way EA SPORTS video games do.”
Thinking in regional terms (assuming McFadden is repping the south) I would look at players like Matt Ryan or Chris Long from the east, Mike Hart or Rashard Mendenhall from the north, and Dennis Dixon or DeSean Jackson coming out of the west as good possibilities. Who do you think will make the final three covers?
Also the first mention of what will be focused on in the actual game this year was made and I like the sound of opening up the gameplay in general. Over the past few years that has been something I’ve wanted more of from the football games.
NCAA Football 09 will unveil the all-new Break Away Animation Engine which allows gamers to break in and out of moves giving the user more direct control as well as instant influence and responsiveness on the field. At its core, NCAA Football 09 will focus on wide-open collegiate style gameplay featuring unique animations that you will only find on college football Saturdays. This style of gameplay will allow agile backs like McFadden to show off their break out speed and maneuverability in-game.
March 6, 2008 at 9:51 am
Interesting what theyre doing with the covers. If there is a east and west and McFadden is thought of as the south rep then who comes from the north? No one comes to my mind right now.
March 6, 2008 at 10:04 am
[quote comment="14993"]Interesting what theyre doing with the covers. If there is a east and west and McFadden is thought of as the south rep then who comes from the north? No one comes to my mind right now.[/quote]
Matt Ryan
March 6, 2008 at 10:40 am
It SOUNDS like they are focusing on game play. I’m probably wrong though. Most likely, they just mean that they are adding a new gimmick.
March 6, 2008 at 11:20 am
love the sound of the new feature. pasta do you think its probably the same thing as nba live did with quick strike ball handling? instead of having certain animations you basically could do a bunch of small moves?
March 6, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Isnt the breaking animations (or branching animations) what they touted last year? Seems a bit repetitive, but i guess we will all wait and see
March 6, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Ummm..so I guess we can count out D1AA teams, and alternate jerseys, and presentation, and bowl patches, and cleaar visors, and bowl pageantry, and lively atmospheres…etc etc etc…because after EA adds the new breakaway feature they won’t have any more memory to put those things in. Not to mention they could only fit in 70 teams on the Wii version of the game (aka Bill Walsh College Football for Genesis).
March 6, 2008 at 12:52 pm
[quote comment="15002"]love the sound of the new feature. pasta do you think its probably the same thing as nba live did with quick strike ball handling? instead of having certain animations you basically could do a bunch of small moves?[/quote]
It sounds like that in a way. Like you can interrupt an animation at any point. I think they’re wanting to take the idea from NFL Tour (obviously not using a button to break a tackle) but in the sense that you should have full control at all times which should result in potentially more explosive plays. That doesn’t mean craziness all the time, but I think its good because right now you pretty much only see big plays on the deep ball over the top. I’ve always wanted it to feel more loose, like you get into the open field with a McFadden and you can feel that space and speed.
March 6, 2008 at 12:56 pm
[quote comment="14994"][quote comment="14993"]Interesting what theyre doing with the covers. If there is a east and west and McFadden is thought of as the south rep then who comes from the north? No one comes to my mind right now.[/quote]
Matt Ryan[/quote]
I would think Matt Ryan would be considered as coming from the east. Looking back at my preview of possible candidates the only guy who fits the north that I had mentioned was Mike Hart. I’m not really sure he’d be the guy though. Maybe Rashard Mendenhall has catapulted himself to the level for cover consideration. Thats a tougher region to peg it seems.
March 6, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I’m with Bumble here a little bit, I’ve been really hoping for FCS teams in 09 since I always used them in the PS2 versions. I guess I was holding out hope for an App State cover the way they did with Boise State last year.
Doesn’t kill that hope, but I could see EA throw App State on the PS2 cover just because FCS teams (with outdated rosters) are already included. That would be a big bummer.
March 6, 2008 at 1:20 pm
i wish it wasnt just for platform.i have a 360 and mcfadden is a stud but if some1 from michigan was on 1 then i would get that
March 6, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Chris Johnson from ECU should be on the easts
March 6, 2008 at 2:02 pm
It sounds like they took the Back Breaker scheme with being able to switch from agile to power in order to control which move set you want.
Like if you want to go into agile mode u hold down a button like (LT) and then if you need to plow someone over quick you switch (Rt) into power back mode. And maybe there is 4 different moves on the r-stick for each mode (agile,power,speedyect…)
Im thinking thats how that will work.
March 6, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I hope they add autothrow for the quarterback like they have in the original XBox and PS2 versions of the game. The computer will throw the ball for the quarterback if one chooses to just call the play. I REALLY miss that in the 360 version! (And if they don’t include it, I won’t buy it!)
Fred
March 6, 2008 at 2:42 pm
[quote comment="15020"]It sounds like they took the Back Breaker scheme with being able to switch from agile to power in order to control which move set you want.
Like if you want to go into agile mode u hold down a button like (LT) and then if you need to plow someone over quick you switch (Rt) into power back mode. And maybe there is 4 different moves on the r-stick for each mode (agile,power,speedyect…)
Im thinking thats how that will work.[/quote]
I hope it doesn’t work like that. Either way, it’s good to see they are shifting their focus to gameplay and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come for Madden as well.
March 6, 2008 at 3:24 pm
The new feature break away animations means that players can break in and out of moves like spins and stiff arms. This is exactly what Madden 08 had already but with a name attached. In Madden, they called it branching animations.
March 6, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Although I am from Michigan, if EA puts Mike Hart on the cover I would rather have a generic case…..He is poop….
March 6, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I wish they would actually make the fans look better and make it a better atmosphere I mean seriously they did a lousy job cause the opponits fans cheer when your team scores and i wish they would add D2 teams back but still im very excited about McFadden being on the cover since i gota XBOX 360 this is very awesome!!!!!
March 6, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Oh Yeah i wish they would let you create a school again!!!!!!
March 6, 2008 at 4:20 pm
[quote comment="15036"]Although I am from Michigan, if EA puts Mike Hart on the cover I would rather have a generic case…..He is poop….[/quote]
I hope your joking.
March 6, 2008 at 5:48 pm
some how i take this news as “same ol game” snazzy one liner feature=poor presentation lack of refs field goal nets and the same good stuff that this game had on old gen? yep looks the consumer inside of me tells me cha you know what? uh uh.
March 6, 2008 at 6:09 pm
[quote comment="15033"]The new feature break away animations means that players can break in and out of moves like spins and stiff arms. This is exactly what Madden 08 had already but with a name attached. In Madden, they called it branching animations.[/quote]
That’s news to me. I haven’t seen this in Madden 08 on the 360.
March 6, 2008 at 6:25 pm
To be completely honest I could care less who is on the cover. They could have a photo of the 3rd string punter from Lakeland College on the cover for all the difference it makes to me.
I’m a little more concerned about what’s on the disc, and I see nothing from EA lately to make me feel too confident about that.
March 6, 2008 at 7:23 pm
DeSean Jackson.All Day
March 6, 2008 at 7:53 pm
isnt he goin to be drafted this year? why put him on it when he isnt going to be playing college anymore?
March 6, 2008 at 8:02 pm
[quote comment="15073"]isnt he goin to be drafted this year? why put him on it when he isnt going to be playing college anymore?[/quote]
NCAA rules don’t allow for any active players to be on a cover. So it always is a player that has declared themselves for the draft (or graduated).
March 6, 2008 at 8:57 pm
[quote comment="15062"][quote comment="15033"]The new feature break away animations means that players can break in and out of moves like spins and stiff arms. This is exactly what Madden 08 had already but with a name attached. In Madden, they called it branching animations.[/quote]
That’s news to me. I haven’t seen this in Madden 08 on the 360.[/quote]
Search google, it’s everywhere but not many people noticed it because it is integrated into the highlight stick. Here it is on the ign review:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/812/812241p1.html
March 7, 2008 at 5:02 am
It’ll be interesting to see if they do the same thing for Madden 09.
March 7, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I bet Matt Ryan will be on the cover for the PS3 version. I checked out the NCAA 09 website and it shows a silouhette of a quarterback, so that would be my guess.
Also, I think the Madden 09 cover should go to Brett Favre. He deserves it.
March 9, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Armanti Edwards for the East anybody?
March 13, 2008 at 3:08 pm
From the north my guess would be it could be Mendanhall or Hart. Maybe even Mario Mannigham.
March 17, 2008 at 3:43 am
Dido the Favre thing
March 20, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’ll go with Dennis Dixon from the West, Mike Hart from the north, and either Ray Rice or Chris Long from the east.