Earlier I posted my general experience and thoughts on things more related directly to the gameplay. Now in part two of my hands-on with NCAA Football 09 I’ll detail some of the new features that have been added. There are some big ones that should be really well received and others that will greatly enhance the overall gameplay experience.
After getting a significant amount of time with NCAA Football 09 I’ve compiled my initial thoughts on the game and details on features. The games were played on All-American difficulty and five minute quarters and I took part mostly in head-to-head. You can check over at NCAA Strategies and PSU for more hands-on details as well.
Because of the vast amount of info there is to lay out I’ve broken it into two parts the second of which can be found here. Part one goes over things that relate more to the gameplay and part two will concentrate more on the new features (homefield, online dynasty, ect). Keep in mind that this is an early build still very much a work in progress and that some of the issues mentioned can be improved on or fixed by release time and hopefully the feedback will help lead to that happening.
Some of you may have noticed that my initial hands-on impressions of NCAA Football 09 are no longer up. Apparently there was some sort of miscommunication and we were not informed of an embargo which holds until May 2nd. I’ll have my full gameplay and feature impressions up then.
So I thought I’d throw up a short recap of the PS3 NCAA cover reveal event with some pictures. Jake Long, Matt Ryan, Darren McFadden, DeSean Jackson, Chris Long, and Owen Schmitt were in attendance along with the game on display. I was as able to speak with some producers including NCAA’s Ben Haumiller (the guy behind online dynasty) and Madden’s Phil Frazier along with getting to meet Peter Moore.
The highlight of the night was having the opportunity to play DeSean Jackson in a game of NCAA 09. I had overheard at the event that he was the cover athlete for the PS2 version of the game and he was excited about that. I asked him where he thought he might end up and he mentioned the Cowboys and Bucs. He came across as a really good guy and it made the game a lot of fun. It got quite competitive with a little trash talking involved as well. I took Washington and he went with 6th ranked LSU (by the way the top rated team is Georgia). After jumping out to a 7-0 lead he would go on to score three touchdowns and go up 21-7 late in the third quarter. However I came back and scored the game tying touchdown with about 2:30 left. Unfortunately this is when the game froze on us. It likely was an epic ending we missed out on as the Pastapadre-DeSean Jackson rivalry ends in a draw.
Continue on to view some more pictures.
EA Sports recently had a community day for NHL 09. The timing is especially encouraging considering the game won’t release until September. By bringing in the community for feedback and suggestions at such an early point in development it allows for the team to potentially act on what they hear for 09.
The first time EA really did this was last year with NBA Live 08. That one was held over three months ahead of release and there were positive results in the final product that could possibly be attributed to the event. Here NHL 09 is about five months away from release so there is even more opportunity that the game could be affected thanks to the direct thoughts of the community. Understandably game details out of the event are under embargo but sites were still free to discuss their thoughts on it in general such as over at 5WG.
Here is short recap video of the event from Inside Xbox which can be found on the 360 dashboard. You can watch the video by continuing on.
I was able to get a substantial amount of time in with NFL Tour at the PR event over the weekend. Tour is a game designed for those who have found others such as Madden to be too complicated or just a change of pace from the simulation experience. It strives to be simplistic and easy to play while providing a fun time.
Tour has really turned out to be a fun game head-to-head but it isn’t going to provide a deep or nearly as satisfying experience from playing the CPU. That isn’t a knock on the game but just how all “arcade” style games tend to be. With the reduced price of $39.99 those who would like a pick-up and play type game that isn’t going to require hours of practice and button combo memorization should really enjoy it.
Before playing I had a number of questions about the game and for the most part was able to get closure on them. I have some of the details spread throughout my impressions.
I have arrived in New York for the NFL Tour event where I’ll have the opportunity to get some hands-on time with the game, discussion with producer Phil Frazier, and a chance to chat with Trey Wingo who does the commentary for the game.
While I’m out here the site will continue to be updated though it may come more in bunches than at different times throughout the day. Look for my initial impressions of the game to come by early Monday morning although I may have something sooner than that.
Continue on to see the full list of questions that I will be looking to find out. Feel free to leave any comments with additional things about the game that you would like me to attempt to get answered.
Back at the end of June when EA held the NBA Live 08 Community Event there were advantages and disadvantages to having it take place that early in the development process. On one hand it was at a point where not everything had been implemented and was still in the midst of intense tweaking. It was very much unfinished as compared to what is usually seen at community days which are generally representative of the final product. However having come in at that time allowed for producer interaction and feedback that could be directly acted upon for this year’s release.
At the Madden 08 Community Day it was evident to me right away that the high rate of fumbles, injuries, and overpowered kickoffs were big problems. But at that point there was nothing that could be done about it. That is the downside to attending them that close to the release of the game. It is more about collecting information and impressions and getting some input towards the next year’s version unlike the opportunity we were given for Live.
When I wrote up my Live impressions from the event I stated that it would be interesting to look back at it following release and see how much of an impact it had. EA would either get credit for taking this route or they would receive deserved criticism if it seemed that it had amounted to nothing. So lets look at some of the points I brought up and how they turned out.
As stated previously, one of the biggest benefits to having the Community Event for NBA Live 08 back in late June was how the game was still at a point in development where feedback and suggestions could be evaluated and potentially implemented. You can read my full impressions from then here.
This being a demo and with only the 2 minute quarters it is difficult to get into a flow and fully evaluate the game. However there are some topics which I feel could be compared. Of course it isn’t really a balanced experience putting a six hour stint up against only the handful of minutes and restrictions of a demo so nothing can be determined for certain based off the demo.
I’ll go ahead and pull out some of the issues I addressed back then and discuss how different they are (or aren’t) in the demo which has been described by EA as a representation of a “late but not final” build. This will be discussion on what I felt to be the problems and won’t be about some of the best aspects of the game I pointed out such as the floor spacing, 60fps, and off-ball movement (which are all still as good now as back then). Continue on to read the quotes from my full impressions back in June and my initial reaction to how the demo compares.
Here are a handful of pics I took of Madden while at the Community Day. I didn't spend much time doing them since I'll be able to grab them much more easily at home. The couple videos I have I may upload once I'm home if they turned out decent enough. I made sure to check out the Cowboys throwbacks because I had seen discussion wondering what the "Blue on Grey" and "Classic Cowboys" represented. Also included is my freak of a Superstar QB. Click the thumbnails below for the full size images.
My laptop isn't picking up the internet connection for some reason at the hotel, so this is being posted from the business center. Therefore I am not able to upload the pictures and videos I took from today. Cowboys fans wondering what their alternate jerseys look like will be especially interested. I will do so when I get to the airport or when I get home. I have my copy of Madden 08 in hand and will be starting to roll out a lot after I get home. So look for that all to begin late Friday night.
As I mentioned previously, my concentration while at this event was on general gameplay since I would be more effective going through the other aspects of the game at home. So here is what I have to say about my experience with the game thus far.
