I’ve mentioned on a few occasions that I’ll be live blogging during the draft on a number of subjects and anything else that happens to come up. From posting the Madden 09 rookie screenshots and pointing to other additions to the Madden draft site, some general thoughts on what is known so far about Madden & NCAA 09 (again I can’t speak to the hands-on time until 5/2), to draft reaction, I’ll be updating it on a regular basis throughout the day. It’ll all start up right as the draft begins at 3et/12pt and run through the first round. Be sure to leave any comments and I’ll post responses to some of them throughout the day.

Also Jon Robinson @ Gametap has posted an interview with Madden 09 producer Phil Frazier which you can check out here. It contains a good deal of new information delving deeper into some of the new features and improvements that will be found in the game this year.

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.

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With all the events of this week I thought it would be beneficial to make everyone aware of what you can expect over the next several days. Below I’ve laid out my initial expectations. Keep in mind though that things may play out differently depending on the circumstances. If things change wildly then I’ll try and drop a note about it on here.

Despite being tied up with various things at times I will attempt to update the site as much as possible (as I generally do even when away attending a function). However the updates will probably come in flurries and at random times.

Look for more focused type posts (such as listing top rated teams, hardest places to play, top rated players, ect) and some others that will be more game detail and impression focused. When I’m on I’ll be checking the comments that have been left and replying to what I can as time time allows.

Wednesday: I arrived earlier this morning in NY after a red-eye flight. Expecting to get to play NCAA Football 09 throughout the day. I don’t believe I’ll be able to discuss anything about it just yet.

Thursday: Expecting to play during the day. Will be at the NCAA PS3 cover reveal event (Matt Ryan) in the evening but may be back on after that. Late evening after the event may be the first opportunity to post up info and impressions about the game (as soon as I know for sure I’ll update here).

Friday: More posts in the morning and late afternoon assuming we have been given the green light. Attempting to answer questions and requests from the comments. Madden cover athlete will have been revealed by Friday morning so that will be up for discussion as well. Will be on a flight headed back home in the evening.

Saturday: Live blogging during the NFL Draft. I’ll be on updating frequently with thoughts on the draft, NCAA Football, Madden, adding the rookie Madden screenshots as they’re released, responding to comments, and anything else that comes up.

Any questions feel free to drop them in the comments. If they’re related to requests around NCAA Football 09 than leave them in the previous posting.

Later this week I will be in NYC for an event surrounding the unveiling of the NCAA Football 09 cover athlete. Also attending is Chris Jacobs from NCAA Strategies and David Wales from PSU. While there we will have an extensive amount of hands-on time with the game which should occur on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ll be coming back on Friday evening and then holding a live blog during the NFL Draft on Saturday.

We are expecting the latest build and we have been given free reign to discuss anything about it. Originally I had imagined a restricted build similar to what we used to get at E3 but apparently it will be the full thing. That means we’ll be able to dig into aspects such as online dynasty menus, campus legend changes, ect.

Keep in mind that this will still be an early build and I wouldn’t expect everything to be fully implemented and certainly the gameplay won’t be tweaked and balanced the way that it will by release time. While there should be a sufficient amount of time with the game it will still be somewhat limiting (please don’t expect extensive reports on Dynasty mode for example). The good thing about the timing is that our feedback will be directly considered and potentially acted upon. So given the circumstances look for the reports to be more informational than opinionated with full details of the feedback that has been given.

If you have any questions or areas you’d like to hear impressions or information on feel free to leave them in the comments. I can’t promise that I’ll get to all of them but I’ll definitely take them into consideration.

NCAA screenshot update: EA is releasing a new alternate uniform screen every weekday. The first one is Kansas which can now be seen here.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the site. It began as a side project and after about two months become my main sports gaming focus. It has been pretty remarkable to me the growth that has occurred in such a short period of time and the increased influence that has come with it for the community. I thought I’d leave a few statistics about the first year for your enjoyment!

802 articles
9,593 comments
884,000 visits
2,702,000 page views
In just the last month 176,000 visits and 507,000 page views

Thanks for your continued support by visiting the site and feel free to make suggestions for how it could be even better this year!

Here is the full recording of my interview today with EA Sports President Peter Moore on the topic of the NFL exclusivity extension. Check out my earlier post for a preview of what you can expect to hear discussed.

The interview goes on for 22 minutes. Given the short amount of time available I basically just bounced from question to question to try and get as much in as possible.

Click this link to download the audio file from rapidshare. Scroll down and click “free”. It’ll make you wait a short amount of time before the code that you enter into the box appears and you can begin the download.

EA has granted an opportunity for an exclusive interview with Peter Moore to discuss the breaking news that the exclusive license with the NFL has been extended. This will take place early this afternoon so a brief recap will be available soon after with a more detailed transcription of the interview sometime in the evening hours.

If you have any suggestions for questions to be asked or concerns to be addressed feel free to post them in the comments or email them to me directly. Please keep them all related to the topic of NFL exclusivity. They’ll be taken under consideration but there are no guarantees that each and every one will be discussed.

This is a pretty unique opportunity to have a direct one-on-one interview. Thanks to everyone who got some thoughts in to me for this. Check in later today for the summaries.

In the meantime Jon Robinson at Gametap has posted an interview he conducted with Peter Moore on the news. Check it out here.

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.

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Earlier today I was able to take part in an hour long conference call with Peter Moore of EA Sports. This was a unique opportunity to have direct communication and responses to questions with the president of the company on a wide variety of topics.

The overall theme of the call could be summed up with the importance that EA places on the community. Just having this take place is a sign of that, but it was reiterated throughout. Moore discussed how he takes it very seriously and likes being involved with the community. It is important to them to help guide where the brand goes as they listen to the feedback and work towards satisfying the consumers.

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Update: Click here to read the summary of the call. 

I have been invited to sit in on a conference call with new EA Sports president Peter Moore. I am expecting a wide array of topics to be discussed and will attempt to get in a couple questions of my own.

Look for a recap of the call with a full summary and my thoughts on everything tomorrow evening (Wednesday October 10th).