pastapadre.com » The Line Drive

The Line Drive 11/8/09

pastapadre — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:34:57 +0000

EA Sports has announced the details of another patch for Fight Night Round 4. A full listing of changes to the game that will come with the patch can be found here.

The 360 achievements for NCAA Basketball 10 are out. Sadly they are the exact same as last year minus one achievement that has been removed.

Just over a week before the release of NCAA Basketball 10 and still nothing detailing the “dynamic updates” that appeared in the feature list and were inexplicably missing from the EA provided fact sheet. NcaaStrategies has some speculation on what the feature may be about.

Kotaku has “reviewed” the Madden 10 KFC box. First time I’ve seen a meal reviewed.

As mentioned late last week sign-ups in the forum are being taken for those interested in receiving one of the few limited spots in the Pastapadre Madden 10 Online Dynasty. Selections will be made within the next couple days for the handful of teams available.

The Line Drive 11/1/09

pastapadre — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:23:17 +0000

The first look at EA MMA will come during the November 7th Strikeforce event on CBS. The game will be used to preview each fight before they begin.

The original first screenshot for EA MMA, which was first found and scanned from Sports Illustrated, can now be found in the screenshot gallery.

While I generally don’t cover WWE games it is worth noting that the license has run out for THQ and the period to extend it has now been pushed back to the end of the year. Presumably WWE has done this to give THQ more time to make the deal. If it doesn’t happen then one has to wonder if EA Sports will jump on the WWE license.

A few outlets have given some hands-on thoughts on Madden Arcade. You can check them out at IGN or 1Up.

Kotaku has posted up a good interview with NCAA Basketball 10 producer Connor Dougan. Mentioned in the article is that the dual-presentation took up around 60% of the development time. That right there probably explains the lack of much else being added to the game this year.

The Line Drive 10/16/09

pastapadre — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:29:09 +0000

EA Sports and the Brees Dream Foundation are now offering pink and black Drew Brees jerseys for the avatars on Playstation Home. The jerseys are sold for $2 with all proceeds going to the foundation which supports breast cancer awareness. The jerseys will be available until November 11th.

NBA Live 10 is coming to the iPhone later this month. After the success of Madden 10 on the iPhone it’ll be interesting to see if a basketball game can translate as well to the platform.

I have FIFA 10 on hand and will post some videos and basic impressions in the coming days. I am by no means able to break a soccer game down but have enjoyed it especially for the online play in the past and now looking forward to playing with the Sounders.

EA Sports has launched FIFA Earth. The website tracks all happenings with FIFA 10 which can be narrowed down to teams, regions, ect. It also tracks the total number of games played which at publish time was already over 33 million worldwide.

A while back there was some discussion on the community initiative for inductees into the Madden Hall of Fame. Now you can leave your thoughts in the HOF forum by posting your nominations in this thread. When you do make sure to mention you’re from Pastapadre and by doing so you’ll be eligible to win a prize. I will have a Larry Fitzgerald jersey to give away to one winner and the choice of a Madden 10 360 faceplate or PS3 skin to present to another. I’ll have a reminder post about this before the deadline is reached.

The Line Drive 10/8/09

pastapadre — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:38:11 +0000

The alternate uniform for the Seahawks is confirmed to be included in the next patch for Madden 10. No word on if there will be any other additions or adjustments to uniforms within the patch or an estimate on when it may be out. I think it would be great if they were able to include the pink accessories celebrating National Breast Cancer Awareness Month that will be seen throughout October in the NFL.

The free Madden 10 Online Franchise app for the iPhone has been out for about a week now. Has anyone gotten a chance to try it out? How useful is it?

There are now NFL avatar jerseys available on the XBL Marketplace for 320 MS points ($4) which you can view here. That, to me, is a ridiculous price and they don’t even look all that good especially since you’re stuck with the 00 number. Playstation Home also has the jerseys available and you can read about that here.

Nothing really has been discussed about Madden Arcade since it was announced back on August 4th. The downloadable only game will be releasing this holiday season. The first sign of it has arrived though as Donny Moore has started talking about it on Twitter. The game will have 10 players from each team, and you may want to tweet him about which players you’d prefer because of the limited slots. For example there will only be one linebacker so he is asking Bears fans whether that should be Brian Urlacher or Lance Briggs.

The PS3 demo for NBA 2K10 will not be out until Thursday October 15th due to the demo exclusivity 2K granted to MS.

Will be setting up a time to meet and play some NBA Live 10 Live Run with the Pastapadre squad, probably on Saturday. Keep an eye out for a posting beforehand. If you’d like to join in make sure to request to join the squad which can also be done from the website.

Currently working on compiling online impressions for NBA Live 10 and NBA 2K10. Expect those within the next few days.

The Line Drive 9/13/09

pastapadre — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:20:25 +0000

It is now down to the Final Four in the NCAA Football 11 Wishlist Tournament over at ncaaStrategies. Formation subs go up against custom playbooks and correct option blocking faces better offensive playbooks. My favorite out of those would be custom playbooks, an option I feel should be in Madden as well. You can place your votes in their forum.

Another former college football player is suing EA for past use of his likeness in the NCAA Football series. This time it is a player that certainly couldn’t make the case that any profit was made off their name, having been a sometimes starting guard from North Carolina. Whether or not these lawsuits end up being successful, it seems to reason that the poor job done this year may just be the beginning of a trend towards more generic rosters.

IGN did a comparison of player faces in NHL 10 and NHL 2K10 which is always fun to argue over. This is one of the few ways to directly compare the games given that the perplexing decision was made not to release a demo for 2K10. Both games release tomorrow.

The BIGS 3 is early in development planning as confirmed by 2K Sports. It will probably follow the every other year pattern and release in summer 2011. The BIGS 2 was well received but not nearly as enthusiastically as the original was.

The 360 achievements are out for both NBA 2K10 and NBA Live 10.

The Line Drive 9/2/09

pastapadre — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:54:02 +0000

In response to the story on the AFL Legacy downloadable content EA has informed me that they are working on a “comprehensive” DLC pack that includes AFL content. However the description and pricing listed on the PSN store in affected regions apparently was incorrect. So it appears there will be even more to what was already a worthwhile DLC pack but it will probably not be free.

The next roster update for Madden 10 will come post final cuts. Most likely it will arrive Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday next week in time for the NFL season’s opener on Thursday night.

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands of people to experience the excitement of Season Showdown (according to the official press release)? No? Well get caught up in the fever as the regular season of Season Showdown in NCAA Football 10 has opened!

EA Sports has posted a podcast with Mike Wang of NBA Live 10. Discussion is centered on what to expect from the gameplay enhancements and additions.

EA Sports has made it official that they will no longer be producing Nascar licensed games. Not really a surprise here even with them attempting to champion sales for Nascar Kart Racing. The Nascar license isn’t necessary for an arcade racer targeting that demo on the Wii and they had already dropped the sim offerings.

NaturalMotion has announced the Backbreaker Tackle Alley mini-game will arrive in the iPhone app store later this month. Tough to say how it will translate as I didn’t find the full blown mini-game terribly compelling when I tried it out at E3. It could potentially work well however as a distraction on a mobile device.

Joe Rogan has posted up a video of himself and Mike Goldberg recording some audio for UFC 2010. Nothing about the game to learn from the video except that clearly it’s in active development and likely to be out next summer to compete with EA MMA.

The Line Drive 8/27/09

pastapadre — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:09:04 +0000

The Art Designer for Madden 10 mentioned in a tweet that the 49ers helmet color is being fixed in an update coming soon. Now that the Seahawks alternate lime green jersey is looking like a reality the indications are that will be added to the game as well as the AFL legacy uniforms. No specification on how this would be done yet whether that be through a patch, free DLC, or roster update.

TeamXbox takes an extensive look at the NHL Shop in NHL 10. Similar to the Madden Shop and DLC offered in NCAA Football it will provide boosts based on equipment that can be purchased. Most disheartening is that it appears those boosts will be allowed for the EASHL.

Operation Sports has two different previews for NBA 2K10. You can check out the more traditional style of preview here or read through extensive detailed impressions here.

The NBA Live 10 demo will be out for the 360 and PS3 on Thursday September 10th. It is expected to be the same demo that was previewed from being the Magic vs Lakers in two quarters at four minutes each.

The FIFA 10 demo will be out for the 360 and PS3 on Thursday September 17th. Six teams will be playable and the demo will include the ability to save and upload video highlights.

The Line Drive 8/17/09

pastapadre — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:22:22 +0000

The Madden 10 Online Franchise app for the iPhone will not be out until sometime in September. Apparently delays have caused it to be pushed back from the intended release alongside the game.

The Gamestop preorder incentive for NBA Live 10 is now known and thankfully it is not tied to a demo or any particular game feature. Instead it will be a copy of the soundtrack given away.

ESPN takes an amusing look at the lowest rated players at each position or category to put together the worst possible team in Madden 10.

Grand Slam Tennis for the 360/PS3 has been delayed indefinitely. The reason being provided is that the team is working on the expansion for EA Sports Active. It would not surprise me though if GST has been scraped outright however.

FIFA 10 release date has shifted to 10/20 after initially being slated for the first week of October. No surprise there since EA was not going to release two games the same week (NBA Live 10).

A big deal was made out of a press conference to announce the signing of a legend to EA Sports MMA this past weekend. That legend ended up being Randy Couture, who we not only have been aware was attached to the game for months now but was also known to be the cover representative.

The Line Drive 7/21

pastapadre — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:21:57 +0000

Updating on the public Madden 10 demo (the one with the one minute quarters) will now be out on the 360 for XBL Gold members on Thursday the 23rd. Silver members and PS3 owners will have to wait until the 30th.

A new name has been added to the confirmed or rumored roster list for EA Sports MMA, that being former Green Beret Tim Kennedy. He joins Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Frank Shamrock, Fedor Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi as those who are believed to be connected to the upcoming game. I’m starting to believe that EA will be able to put together a decent roster but they’ll have to do a lot of promotion to raise the recognition level around the majority of them. It would be mutually beneficial for EA to present stories and backgrounds for these fighters and in return their presence in the sport will be boosted whether they are permanently banned from ever competing in the UFC or not.

5WGaming takes a good look at the downfalls of football demos that offer only two minute quarters. This was written before the news about Madden’s one minute quarters, so the examples presented would be even more extreme in that case.

Also at 5WGaming is another article of interest analyzing the early NCAA Football 10 Season Showdown returns. Whether the feature actually is working by encouraging people to play more realistically and respectfully remains in question. However it is nice to see confirmation that not only do the majority of users who pick Florida tend to play with reckless abandon (which to me is still a coaching strategy) but they show little respect to their opponents in how they conduct themselves during games. The Gators currently have -1.8 million sportsmanship points.

First Cuts has news that ex-Tarheel guard Quentin Thomas will be rapping the intro to NBA Live 10.

For those involved in the NCAA 10 Online Dynasties being hosted in the forums they are now just waiting on the 360 patch to arrive before starting up. Soon I’ll begin putting together the official Madden 10 Online Franchise (360). If you’re interested in participating be sure to sign up in this forum thread. Again because of the limited number of people who can be included I apologize to everyone who is not selected. There is also a PS3 Online Franchise being arranged with details found here.

The Line Drive 7/5

pastapadre — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:12:50 +0000

Some Fight Night Round 4 patch news as word comes that the stamina problem, seen primarily with online play, will be addressed in a patch. As to the button controls being added with DLC they continue to string that out saying that they are still investigating the possibility.

With the full reveal of Road to Glory mode for NCAA Football 10 several media outlets provided previews. You can check out the takes on it from TeamXbox and ESPN. The leaderboards sound like a particularly nice addition but I remain concerned that any position outside of the premiere ones on offense will continue to be neglected.

A patch for Tiger Woods 10 is expected to be out tomorrow with info coming from Back Nine Blog. It appears most of the items are balancing issues that should help improve the experience especially online.

There may be points during this evening or the next few days where the site goes into maintenance mode. Improvements to the site are being made so if you come to that message check back a little later on. Thanks for understanding!