I finally picked up a Nintendo Wii just recently (Boom Blox is currently my favorite game across any of the three consoles) so look forward to some coverage of sports titles on the Wii going forward. The first on the docket is NCAA Football 09. For the first time the NCAA Football series is on the Wii and it would appear to be an offering with a lot of potential (outside of the omission of online play which Madden 09 on the Wii has).

This is the first game that will tout EA Sports’ new “All-Play” for their Wii games which is the furthering of the “Family Play” initiative started last year. The idea behind it is to create an environment where the games aren’t too intimidating or confusing for newcomers. It will offer options for simpler controls while making the games quicker to play. Apparently the Wii titles will be receiving more attention as they’ll be designing the games completely to tailor to the unique experience that the console offers instead of just taking ports and tacking on motion controls and mini-games.

IGN has released the first details on what to expect from the game along with Gamespot adding the first three gameplay videos in the form of mascot games. Continue on for a recap of the info and to view the videos.

Read the rest of this entry »

Through numerous recent previews the online dynasty feature of NCAA Football 09 continues to be a central topic of discussion. With most of the previews touching on the same things below are two that are worth checking out.

NCAA Strategies has posted up an interview with NCAA Football 09 producer Ben Haumiller. This was recorded on the night of the cover reveal event. It mainly covers the online dynasty feature but does briefly delve into other areas of the game. There were also some follow-up questions/responses after. You can find both the podcast and Q&A here.

Gamespot’s preview goes into the feature at great length. It has been stated that anything done in the offline dynasties will work in the online ones. Despite that it is good to hear each one specifically such as how named rosters will transfer through. There may not be a whole lot new here but it presents a good compilation of everything that is known.

I’m curious for those of you out there looking forward to playing in an online dynasty are you more interested in having every user involved in a single conference or spread out wherever they choose to be?

With Operation Sports having released a video which displays team rankings and ratings I feel comfortable in going forward with listing out the top 25 teams in NCAA Football 09 (I’ll continue to hold off on the toughest places to play and top player ratings). When it comes to the actual team ratings I wouldn’t put much stock into those. I began taking them down before realizing that the numbers were different each time I viewed the team.

While the top 25 may not be finalized (LSU will probably drop) this should at least offer an idea of how the best teams in the game will fall in place.

Read the rest of this entry »

EA Sports is continuing to release screenshots on the official NCAA Football 09 website of the alternate uniforms that will be present in the game. Below are some of the latest ones which include UTEP, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Utah. Look for Friday’s release to be Clemson. All of the screens released thus far can be found in the gallery.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

IGN has posted up four new gameplay clips from NCAA Football 09. These offer easily the best representation of the game so far, although I didn’t really see any “wow” moments in these like were witnessed first hand. Don’t forget both parts of my hands-on with NCAA 09 will be coming tonight at midnight eastern. Make sure to check out the videos in high-res by clicking here.

Gametap has posted up a new preview of NCAA Football 09. In it areas such as the online dynasty, QB challenge (after interceptions), home field advantage, roster sharing, custom music, and atmosphere are discussed. You can read it in its entirety here.

“Our full stat tracking that goes in for dynasty will be in the online version,” Haumiller explains, “and we’re also working with EA Sports World to get our stats displayed on the Web as well. You’re going to be able to see your Top 25 lists, your Heisman results and so forth up on EA Sports World. We also finally have roster sharing. I can create a roster on my own, edit players, then upload the rosters for other players to download from my locker. We’ve really opened this up to the community so that if they don’t like our rosters, they can go in and change them to the way they think they should be.”

It’s good to see that some of the stats and info from your online dynasty will be displayed on EA Sports World. While the screenshots and videos are still the most fun aspect it’ll be nice to be able to view those things on the website.

Check back on Thursday night at midnight ET for part one and part two of my NCAA Football 09 hands-on report.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

While the news of the PS2 cover athlete for NCAA Football 09 wasn’t expected to come for a few more weeks, Gamefly has accidentally let the secret slip that WR DeSean Jackson from California has gotten the cover. He now joins Matt Ryan (PS3), Darren McFadden (360), and Sparty (Wii) as the console specific covers. The PSP is expected to be shown off in May.

In an interesting coincidence I actually got to play DeSean Jackson in a game of NCAA 09 at the event this evening. Look for some details on that in an upcoming writeup.