Upcoming football community event
by 
As mentioned yesterday there are a couple of community events taking place in the near future. The first one covers the three football games as NCAA Football 09, NFL Head Coach 09, and Madden 09 will all be available for significant hands-on time. There will also be some presentations and producer interaction taking place. This will be held next Thursday and Friday (5/29-30) with travel days buffering.
When it comes to the subject of embargoes this is how it will likely shape up. NCAA will be wide open for discussion for obvious reasons. Head Coach should be wide open as well given that essentially everything there is to be known about the game has been revealed. When it comes to Madden though I suspect that we will be held back on a few of the features that have not been made public. Still though there should be a ton to talk about right away including general impressions of the game and majority of the features. There is even the potential of holding a live blog at some point during my time out there.
While I will be concentrating mostly on Head Coach and Madden, there is a good opportunity to spend at least some time with NCAA to compare the most recent build to what was played late last month. I should be able to communicate any adjustments or changes that have been made which really can only be done through the feel of it. Both myself and Chris Jacobs from NCAA Strategies should be able to give that perspective on the game and how it has progressed.
This will be another chance to give input and hopefully see that reflected in the release versions as Madden and Head Coach are still early enough that feedback could be considered and acted on.
As always feel free to leave comments on what you would like to hear back on. I can’t guarantee that everything will be gotten to but I do take the suggestions and requests into consideration.
May 20, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Pasta can you please find out if they have made any upgrades to online area in NCAA. Like ea nation on reg. xbox that would be nice or if you can check like player profiles.
May 20, 2008 at 2:11 pm
This is early but is there any idea of when the demo of ncaa 09 might come out?
May 20, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Also, will stats carry on previous awards? for example if I see John Lynch’s stats it will mention somewhere that he is 9 time pro bowl, 2 times all-pro, somethin’ like that and not start counting awards from the season I started on franchise mode.
Hope we could help you man, thank you very much, again.
May 20, 2008 at 2:46 pm
franchise features please…..offseason, draft, free agentcy, preseason, the ability to change positions, team chemistry, playbooks, playbook schemes, scouting reports(draft/offseason),custom personel packages, expansion teams, create-a-team, importing players from ncaa 09,how many plays per custom playbook (off/def)from head coach, player personalities, player suspensions, any new attributes(off/-def)
May 20, 2008 at 2:49 pm
oh yea i forgot please, please, please, check to see if long snappers have their own attributes. thank you pasta
May 20, 2008 at 3:20 pm
what exactly is a community day ????????????/
May 20, 2008 at 4:34 pm
[quote comment="21613"]franchise features
please…..offseason, draft, free agentcy, preseason, the ability to change positions, team chemistry, playbooks, playbook schemes, scouting reports(draft/offseason),custom personel packages, expansion teams, create-a-team, importing players from ncaa 09,how many plays per custom playbook (off/def)from head coach, player personalities, player suspensions, any new attributes(off/-def)[/quote]
Second that. Am really interested to see what they did (if anything) with Franchise mode.
May 22, 2008 at 8:56 am
I am always good about asking dumb questions, but I am wondering since the online league feature is not a true online franchise similar to online dynasty is their an option to spawn franchise game like last gen with a proper merge fix in place. This will at least allow those that were running online franchises to continue doing so on the next gen consoles. Love Moostaches post in the thread about rewind because he makes some great points about the developers wasting time on unnecessary features being implemented instead of working on the online elements like the NCAA team has done with the dynasty.
May 22, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Yeah I’m a bit curious about why they didn’t implement an Online Franchise mode. That would have been awesome. But since we don’t have that, Pasta, I was wondering if you could get some detailed information on the Franchise mode. How has it improved? Draft/scouting/player progression/FA, etc?? Thanks.
May 24, 2008 at 9:10 am
Could you ask about some of the rationale behind the decision to make online leagues in Madden “flex scheduling” only, especially since they cite this as the reason there are no injuries?
The problem with this is of course that when my friends and I draft teams there’s no reason whatsoever to go for depth with the exception of things like a change-of-pace RB.
Since my league will definitely have a set schedule (we’ll just ignore the flex thing and make our own offline), I’d love it if you could get a little more elaborate answer on this/ persuade them to consider adding back injuries.
Right now I’m pretty jealous of the very-full featured online dynasty in NCAA this year, and since there’s no way I’m talking my friends into getting NCAA instead, it really seems a shame that the college game has a more full-featured online league/dynasty component.
Thanks for a great site!
May 24, 2008 at 2:56 pm
pasta madden and ncaa need more options with customization like more shoe models like the players wear now, the need eye black, towels, new wraps around things like the legs, also madden needs to make their spectaular catches more spectacular. their campus legend needs to be deeper like walking around campus or you actually train in practice with drills not just gaining yards. kind of like ncaa 07 before ur in college they also need a spring game again like white vs blue. I would be completely satisfied if they had these things it would be the best game ever.
May 24, 2008 at 8:33 pm
The only thing I’m wondering about, for NCAA 09:
Would it be AT ALL possible to port Madden’s new passing camera (the one that zooms and rotates to make sure all receiving options are viewable on the screen no matter what) into NCAA in time for their release in July, and if not could it be patched in through DLC?
May 25, 2008 at 9:02 am
pasta do u know if the play calling will be better for campus legend because it is horrible in 08
May 27, 2008 at 11:08 am
I would just like to see an afternoon game or 1:00 game at tampa bay against jacksonville… try to make a note of the shadows… if you start a 1:00 game I would like to see if the shadows appear later in the game…
Try to see if the shadows are different based on the time of the year…
May 27, 2008 at 11:28 am
I know this is kinda cheesy, but if you get a chance could you see if Reser Stadium has been fixed…EA screwed up the scoreboard last year as it wasnt yet completed (they had 2 scoreboards in the south endzone) so I’m wondering if it has been addressed this year.
May 27, 2008 at 11:42 am
I know this is rather trivial. But I did see some improvement in the authenticity of the sidelines. In some NFL stadiums the back of the endzones include X amount of camera personel in addition to event staff. Can you please address this matter. Thank you.
May 27, 2008 at 11:49 am
Does EA have any plans for a download later in the year that will have the rest of the alternate uniforms that they didn’t put in NCAA 09?
May 27, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Please find out about franchise features if possible. Thanks Pasta
May 27, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Pasta do you know if the in booth play by play is like it was in Madden 97 where it would show cut scenens of john madden and pat summrall talking in the booth during the game and stuff or is it just like its been in the past with commtary only
any chance that it just like madden 97 or different if so how as i really hope t shows cut scrences of Collinsworth and Hammond in the booth see if you can get this awnsered for me or find out once u get there thanks man
May 27, 2008 at 1:37 pm
For all three games:
1. Export a team
minor for some people, but if you play franchise modes it is a fun thing to use the team you built online, against friends, etc. instead of just having them in your franchise.
2. Progression details
Could you find out any details on player progressions for the games. Also important for some people who play franchise modes.
Thanks
May 27, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I’m curious about in-game saves; yes or no?
I’m also interested to know if there will be more randomness to the weather; more wind, etc. And, will something like wind effect the passing game?
May 28, 2008 at 1:02 pm
There are so many questions, but here’s a simple one:
Does Madden 09 have a halftime show?
Madden 08 had that strange, poorly conceived highlight list. Hopefully, that’s gone.
May 28, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Hi Pastapadre,
Can you check to see if improve the playbooks for both Madden and NCAA. From the look of the videos the look the same. Thanks
June 2, 2008 at 11:24 pm
if its possible can they make it so that u can save your roster once u have downloaded updates for the roster during the season. cause i had the saints and they change some lineups on the wr and whenever i played i had to change my wr around to how i like them.