First NCAA Basketball 10 Details

The press releases that accompany cover announcements generally include a brief description of the game. For announcing Blake Griffin as the cover athlete of NCAA Basketball 10, EA Sports has included some details on what to expect this year. Nothing in the way of new modes have been revealed but it does present some of what has been worked on and enhanced for 10.

NCAA Basketball 10 brings the emotion, intensity, and spirit of college basketball by capturing every detail in the stadium, from cheerleaders and mascots to wild crowds and real NCAA Basketball announcers. NCAA Basketball 10 builds on a new game engine introduced last year, refining and improving core gameplay functions, and adding more depth to the popular ‘styles of play’ and ‘set your tempo’ features, making NCAA Basketball 10 a strategic and entirely unique basketball gameplay experience.

I’ve added the first two screenshots for NCAA Basketball 10 which feature Griffin. You can check them out along with the cover art in the screenshot gallery.

Blake Griffin Gets NCAA Basketball 10 Cover

USA Today has revealed that Blake Griffin will be the cover athlete for EA Sports NCAA Basketball 10. Griffin is expected to be taken first in the NBA Draft this week by the LA Clippers and was considered to be the clear cut best college player in the nation. In my preview article I had Griffin listed as the third most likely candidate. Along with Dwight Howard on NBA Live 10 they represent a big step up over the covers from 09.

NCAA Basketball 10 Top Cover Candidates

The cover athlete for NCAA Basketball 10 is set to be announced on Tuesday June 23rd, just one day before the NBA Draft. Last year EA clearly didn’t put much importance into their cover, likely because there was no need to once 2K dropped out as competition. The selection was Kevin Love making for one of the most boring and uninspired cover choices in recent years.

This year there are a handful of names that could make sense as the potential cover athletes. Continue on to check out the top cover candidates.

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Lawsuit Threatens Future of College Sports Games

Over the last couple days there has been a great deal of talk around a lawsuit filed by former ASU and Nebraska QB Sam Keller. In the class action suit he claims that the NCAA and EA Sports profited off his name as they do all other collegiate football and basketball athletes in games such as NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball. He cites the players in the games as having the same number, representative player ratings, similar builds and accurate hometowns of the actual players.

Of course no one buys these games because of Sam Keller or any individual. Instead college sports are all about the schools. Certainly part of the appeal of playing with Florida is because of Tim Tebow but more so it is about playing as Florida. This is in stark contrast to jerseys that the colleges sell which don’t have names on them but are selling based on the current players who wear them.

The lawsuit isn’t likely to be successful but if it was there would be huge ramifications when it comes to college sports games. Players would have to be completely random and file sharing may be removed. That could potentially make the games not financially viable to even create as demand would drop significantly or at least there would be a decrease in the amount of money invested into them.

There isn’t any reason to worry about this yet as there is a long way to go. But it will be interesting to follow and will definitely have an impact on just how realistic college sports titles can be.

UNC Named Toughest Home Court

After collecting over 200,000 votes it’s North Carolina that comes away with the distinction of having the toughest place to play in college basketball. The Tarheels will be rated as such in NCAA Basketball 10 with the top 15 having been determined through the voting.

“College basketball fans have spoken and they have determined once and for all the most difficult places to play in college basketball,” said NCAA Basketball 10 Producer Connor Dougan. “Now we are going to design a feature that authentically reflects how difficult it is for opposing teams to play and win at these venues.”

While I was not a big fan of NCAA Basketball 09 I do appreciate that they have made noticeable effort in areas such as atmosphere, team play styles, and home court advantage. It looks like this new feature will work to enhance all of that. This news also makes me think that Tyler Hansbrough has become the leading candidate for cover athlete.

1. North Carolina
2. Clemson
3. Xavier
4. Pittsburgh
5. Duke
6. Kansas
7. Louisville
8. Syracuse
9. Tennessee
10. Arkansas
11. Maryland
12. Illinois
13. UCLA
14. Florida
15. Texas

NCAA Tournament Featured Game 3/21

The round of 32 begins today and for the featured game I’ve selected #7 Texas vs #2 Duke. Both teams were impressive in their first round victories. The Blue Devils go into this game as a seven point favorite and the tip-off is estimated for 8:15 ET. I was going to do another highlight reel however the clip uploading to EASW hasn’t been working. Continue on to read a short recap and check out the stats.

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PSN Bandwidth Charges May Explain No MME on PS3

When the March Madness edition of NCAA Basketball 09 was announced many people wondered why it was exclusive to the Xbox 360. EA Sports didn’t make any comments as to the reasoning behind that. News that came out today though may provide the basis for why that decision was made.

MTV has an article about how publishers have become frustrated with the charging of bandwidth fees for both paid and free content on Sony’s Playstation Network. It appears that this is another (unrealized) benefit to the paid XBL subscriptions that now publishers are hesitant to provide content for PSN because they have to foot the bill for it.

Until October 1 2008, video game publishers who wanted to offer downloadable content on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t have to worry about getting a bill from Microsoft and Sony. That situation changed with the PS3 on October 1 of last year, when Sony implemented a 16 cents per Gigabyte fee to publishers for paid and free downloadable content, according to publishing sources familiar with Sony’s policy. Game publishers are not happy about it.

So this probably explains why EA chose to bring a downloadable game such as NCAA MME only to the 360. It wasn’t expected to make the company a lot of money but instead intended to build the fanbase and increase awareness for the franchise going forward. Taking the hit on bandwidth costs may have made the prospects for a PS3 version uninviting. The article goes on in detail about the costs related to demos and how much Sony’s charging can really add up and affect the way publishers distribute content.

NCAA Tournament Featured Game 3/20

For day two of the NCAA Tournament I went with #5 Florida State against #12 Wisconsin. This East regional match-up will be played on Friday night scheduled at 9:55 ET. The downloadable “Bracket Pack” is now working. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear they’ve gotten the courts properly assigned. This game was played on Villanova’s home court yet the real game is taking place in Boise.

This time around I decided to create a Top Five highlight reel via EA Sports World. Continue on to read a short recap and check out the stat screens and video.

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NCAA Tournament Featured Game 3/19

Throughout the NCAA Basketball Tournament I’m going to feature a game on the slate for the following day. I’ll play through one of the games I find most intriguing with NCAA Basketball 09 and post up the results.

While the Bracket Pack is being advertised as out on the XBL Marketplace I don’t believe it actually is. You can download it but the updated brackets and ratings don’t show up. I’ve got an email in on this now to find out the situation. So for this first game I just made some adjustments to last year’s brackets in order to play it.

A reminder to get your brackets in by tip-off of the first game for the Tournament Challenge. I’ll be giving out a 360 3 on 3 NHL Arcade code at random tomorrow pulling a name from the entrants. Full details here.

I’m going to control the favorites in all the featured games. The first one I chose was the 7 vs 10 in the West with California facing Maryland. This is a 2:55 ET tip-off. Continue on for a quick recap, stat screens, and videos.

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NCAA Tournament Challenge 09

One of the most exciting times of the year for sports fans has arrived with the NCAA Tournament starting on Thursday. I have set up a bracket challenge for the site which will be tracked throughout the course of the tourney.

I’m currently attempting to secure a few small prizes that will be given out to entrants randomly selected from the group which may or may not happen. Even if that doesn’t come about the winner will still receive a prize being their choice of a 1600 MS points card or a $20 PSN Network card.

Click here to be taken to the ESPN Tournament Challenge page. Sign into the group pastapadre.com and the password is dinner.