Some random topics and poll for today
by 
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.
Which upcoming football game are you most anticipating?
May 13, 2008 at 8:18 am
Crackdown was a great game.
May 13, 2008 at 8:21 am
Hey Pasta – we may not always agree, but on this topic you and I are in lockstep:
Viva Pinata ROCKS!!
Seriously.
May 13, 2008 at 8:25 am
You should have an option on that poll for None, I continue to be disappointed in all of EA Sports football games.
May 13, 2008 at 8:26 am
Also, the lack of In-game saves is total crap. I’m so disappointed in EA’s effort, but I ranted in the link on OS, so I’ll leave it at that.
May 13, 2008 at 8:27 am
[quote comment="21071"]Hey Pasta – we may not always agree, but on this topic you and I are in lockstep:
Viva Pinata ROCKS!!
Seriously.[/quote]
Online co-op this time around too makes me even more excited.
May 13, 2008 at 8:46 am
Pasta,
I am pumped for NCAA Football 09. Two questions:
1. When are you going to tell us the top players?
2. Can you throw us UDUB fans a bone and tell us some of our top players? Jake Locker, Juan Garcia (if he is in the game), Daniel TEO, etc.
Thanks
May 13, 2008 at 9:02 am
I’m not sure if this was mentioned before, but the will the custom music work in online leagues for NCAA?
May 13, 2008 at 9:31 am
NCAA 09 looks to be the stand out football game this year because they have implemented everything you can do in an offline dynasty to an online format. Outstanding work by the guys working on NCAA. The online leagues for madden are a serious disappoint due to the fact it is not a true online franchise as you would get playing an offline one. They should have at least implemented spawned games with the merge working properly for those running online franchises with the PS2 version of Madden. I know it will be really tough for my online league to switch to a next gen version without some way of having an online franchise.
May 13, 2008 at 9:39 am
I was thinking the same thing about the feature sets. Improved presentation and online leagues are not a selling point for a game in 2008. When 2k did it in 04 it was note worthy, now it just seems to point out the way game always should have been.
May 13, 2008 at 9:41 am
My feelings on the feature sets for NCAA and Madden are mixed… I am really excited about online dynasty & custom sounds for NCAA. But for me here is the issue… Why can EA not make these 2 games equal? If they are going to keep these games so closely linked (as they should be) with things like importing draft classes and some new features. Why do they not include the same new features in both games? What brought this on for me was the Action Cam announcment yesterday. It is obvious that EA developers realize that the camera angle was a problem in last year’s games or else they would not have added this to madden. So why is this NOT addressed in NCAA? I am not simply trying to bash EA all I am saying is that it is little things like this that temper my enthusiasm (just a lilbit) for what should otherwise be a great set of games! End of novel!
May 13, 2008 at 10:05 am
[quote comment="21073"]Also, the lack of In-game saves is total crap. I’m so disappointed in EA’s effort, but I ranted in the link on OS, so I’ll leave it at that.[/quote]
I struggle to understand why In-game saves are not implemented. Sometimes, things change where you have to save and shut off the game. This, to me, should be a no-brainer. Sure, some people can be lame with it (saving before trying for that 4th and 20, then redo it if they fail) but, even if you just limit that to single-player games, let it happen. The ability to save and come back to it later, to me, is crucial.
May 13, 2008 at 11:13 am
That’s a great point – and here’s something developers should think about: I paid my damn money, let me play how I want to
IF I want to save it after every 3 and long situation in single player – let me! I wouldn’t do that, but if people want to, let them. 2K did the same thing with their sliders for MLB2K this year. If you used them, you couldn’t unlock Wild Cards during gameplay, I guess because they thought people were “cheating” if they did that, ie, make their sliders condusive to acheiving things
Silly – I understand even playing fields for online play, but for the single user, let them enjoy their $60 purchase how they want to
May 13, 2008 at 11:23 am
No ingame saves for the 4th straight yr, but look atleast you can dance in a box in the endzone!
May 13, 2008 at 11:40 am
[quote comment="21087"]No ingame saves for the 4th straight yr, but look atleast you can dance in a box in the endzone![/quote]
LOL. At least EA is trying to have some fun with the game. I’m sure they’ll take in-game saves “into consideration” for next year.
I also read that the online leagues will not have divisions. It will just be a list of teams with the best record on top, even if you have 32 teams. I actually don’t mind that, since a lot of leagues may have less than 32 teams.
May 13, 2008 at 11:59 am
[quote comment="21090"][quote comment="21087"]No ingame saves for the 4th straight yr, but look atleast you can dance in a box in the endzone![/quote]
LOL. At least EA is trying to have some fun with the game. I’m sure they’ll take in-game saves “into consideration” for next year.
I also read that the online leagues will not have divisions. It will just be a list of teams with the best record on top, even if you have 32 teams. I actually don’t mind that, since a lot of leagues may have less than 32 teams.[/quote]
Yeah, its actually a positive in a sense. I know there are some who are disappointed that there won’t be divisions, but from my experience running leagues in the past the more simple the setup is and the more flexible the scheduling made, the more potential there is for a league to succeed.
May 13, 2008 at 12:02 pm
[quote comment="21073"]Also, the lack of In-game saves is total crap. I’m so disappointed in EA’s effort, but I ranted in the link on OS, so I’ll leave it at that.[/quote]
In-game saves are in Madden this year….
May 13, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I swore I read that you can save mid-game in Madden and / or NCAA Football in the list of features….
May 13, 2008 at 12:06 pm
NCAA 2008 was >>> Madden 2008.
NCAA 2009 sure looks like it will continue the trend. I think the one thing holding back NCAA in the past from being an outstanding game instead of just a very good one was the online element. As long as the folks at Tiburon hired the right people to debug their netcode and get things running smoothly, Online Dynasty will blow away Madden, even with the 12-player limit.
A 12-man, 60-season SEC battle-royale to PROVE who is the best player AND recruiter and program builder is simply waaaaaay more enticing to me and a single season 32-team league. I have been doing those via league daddy for years – and unless EA has almost totally automated the stat tracking for their Madden Leagues, I bet there will still be Madden Leagues on League Daddy again in 2009…
I like what I have seen for both games, but I believe the NCAA team is taking it to the Madden team and truthfully have been doing so for a few years running now…
May 13, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Boom Blox is a puzzle video game by Electronic Arts for the Wii and mobile devices. The objective of the game is to knock a structure made of blox over so that all of the blox fall flat. The game was developed with the guidance of film director Steven Spielberg.[4]
Boom Blox is bigger than GTA 4 Pasta? SMH
May 13, 2008 at 12:23 pm
[quote comment="21094"]I swore I read that you can save mid-game in Madden and / or NCAA Football in the list of features….[/quote]
You did. EA came out today and said “We tried and really understand that people would like to have in-game saves, but it just wasn’t something that we could get done this year. We were too busy working on clever marketing and bullet points for the back of the box as well as counting that assloads of money we make by releasing a half-assed game every year.”
I only made part of that up….
May 13, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Yea just to make sure there’s no confusion EA had basically said in-game saves would be in at the event. Also I believe one of the major outlets (maybe GameSpot?) wrote that in-game saves were in, but it was more confusion than press error. EA basically said they would have it in at the end or were thinking it would be in but it just wasn’t in the build being showcased last week.
May 13, 2008 at 1:14 pm
[quote comment="21093"][quote comment="21073"]Also, the lack of In-game saves is total crap. I’m so disappointed in EA’s effort, but I ranted in the link on OS, so I’ll leave it at that.[/quote]
In-game saves are in Madden this year….[/quote]
wow. way to go. did you even read Pasta’s blog/post?
May 13, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I am keeping NCAA 2008 and buying Madden 09 this year. I have yet to keep a Madden game for more than a week since the new gen has arrived. If Madden blows I will drop it and pick up NCAA, but in the past I have bought NCAA first and Madden has never been as good so far. I think Madden for me will be good for a change because I am thirsty for the NFL and I have been quinching that thirst with 2k5 for a while. That game just seems so old school now and I really hope Madden is good. One of the main reasons I dropped Madden was the presentation. I just got bored during the game (radio announcer?) and the season CPU stats were garbage. NCAA has allways had the better presentation so we’ll see.
May 13, 2008 at 3:47 pm
aside from the pore runnig agility and no names in ncaa 08 it was a lot better then madden but they fixed its only problems its only getting better from here cant wait to play with west virginia and other spread offensive running teams immagine being able to switch a juke to a spin with noel devine!!
May 13, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Viva Pinata 2!!! FUCK YEAH! Also Banjo looks sweeet too.
May 13, 2008 at 4:10 pm
it sux that i cant get the ncaa football 09 rosters because i have a hard drive and dont want to spend money on a memory card and a xbox transport kit. also i dont have xbox live. WHY CANT THEY JUST PUT THE ROSTERS ON THE GAME?
May 13, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I am really excited for Head coach but I’m a minority in this. I am excited to run the Giants my way and to implement the systems I want in my offense.
Pasta any idea if you can create a team in head coach?
May 13, 2008 at 4:17 pm
[quote comment="21116"]it sux that i cant get the ncaa football 09 rosters because i have a hard drive and dont want to spend money on a memory card and a xbox transport kit. also i dont have xbox live. WHY CANT THEY JUST PUT THE ROSTERS ON THE GAME?[/quote]
Because it is against ncaa policy and rules.
May 13, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Are you kidding me pasta, are you smoking crack. Boom Blox over GTA 4!!!
May 13, 2008 at 4:47 pm
http://www.maddenwars.com has a great interview with the guy that implemented the online dynasty for NCAA. I think the Madden team should have made this guy work with them.
May 13, 2008 at 6:31 pm
To me Backbreaker is the most anticipated football game.
May 13, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I’m sorry but I haven’t seen this written anywhere I’ve looked for sure, can you have just 2 guys in an online franchise? I know Madden you have to have all 32 players which is ridiculous, but NCAA seems ahead of the game on this. Any word? Thanks, guys.
May 14, 2008 at 4:11 am
You can have how many ever players you want up to 12. It also give the commissioner the option of removing or adding players.
May 14, 2008 at 4:47 am
Pasta, what about Backbreaker??? I am more excited about that then Madden or NCAA combined. It is going to revolutionize the way we play sports video games and it could potentially be one of the best football games to date.
May 14, 2008 at 7:29 am
[quote comment="21150"]Pasta, what about Backbreaker??? I am more excited about that then Madden or NCAA combined. It is going to revolutionize the way we play sports video games and it could potentially be one of the best football games to date.[/quote]
Until I see some actual football PLAYS on the Backbreaker demo I will definitely withhold final judgement, BUT right now all I have seen about Backbreaker is a very enticing graphics and physics engine (Euphoria) and absolutely NOTHING regarding AI, gameplay or features.
Don’t get me wrong…I believe and have believed for years now that EA should have brought the Euphoria engine to Madden and NCAA already, but when I see the tech demo video I immediately noticed something – defenders had a VERY annoying tendancy to dive at the runner and miss, a lot. I know its just a tech demo meant to show off the different and unique animations and tackling physics, but graphics and animations alone do make a killer 11-on-11 football sim or game for that matter.
I hope that Backbreaker takes all the best features and AI and functionality of both EA and 2K games and wraps it up in that pretty little Euphoria bow, but until I see hands-on footage of people actually PLAYING it, it remains vaporware for now…
May 14, 2008 at 8:23 am
Boom Blox over GTA4, im a fanboy but damn…
LOL, wow.
May 14, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Madden has sucked the last 5 years. Why do they keep taking out features that no one complains about and keep adding crappy new features. No one complained about slide protection and yet they removed it in 08. Now they are going to re-introduce it as a new feature in 09. What a bunch of BS. People that are buying this recycled game every year are morons. I don’t care if you’re a billionaire, $60 is $60.