NCAA Football 08 gets a patch of its own

While the upcoming patch for Madden has been looming for a while, there wasn’t much expectation that NCAA Football 08 would receive one as well. Despite that one was released just recently (under the radar) for the PS3 and seems likely to be out for the 360 in the near future. I am hoping to get word on the status of the 360 patch soon. **See update below the summary for the latest news.**

Unfortunately some of the major issues such as the depth chart button lag were not dealt with, however the gameplay will be affected significantly due to the adjustments. Here is what the patch takes care of:

Gameplay: Fumble Chance has been tuned to more realistic values and logic. Fumbling has been tuned to occur during more realistic scenarios such as big hits and collisions.

Gameplay: Defense Secondary aggressive coverage has been addressed. Defensive players AI has been better tuned for only certain percentile of defensive backs have the ability to make aggressive moves that are effective.

Gameplay: Pass Lead Tuning on Lob passes has been improved.
The user has the ability to lead receivers with lob passes now.

Update 11/1: I have done some digging and found out that due to some technical conflicts there will be no patch released for the 360 version.

Update 11/2: It appears that EA is now attempting to determine if the patch for the 360 could be possible. It had originally been planned to come out for both consoles but the technical conflicts arose for the 360. This does not mean that it is coming, just that they are looking into making it happen. I’ll keep you updated as any news is made available.

Update 11/11: No news on this yet. With Monday the 12th being a holiday, I get the feeling we’ll probably hear something about the 360 version mid-late this week.

Update 11/16: There will be a patch for the 360, with initial expectations being that it will be out in December.

FIFA 08 MLS Interactive Playoffs

Fans of FIFA 08 and the MLS will be interested that EA is currently running a competition using the interactive leagues feature in the game to support your favorite MLS playoff squads. Play as your MLS team in the current match-ups and accumulate points for them by winning to see which team has the ultimate fans. Check out the link in the EA forums here for more details and discussion.

Suggestions for EA GameShow

Here is a list of suggestions/ideas I have come up with for GameShow. Most of these were just noted as I was playing and I feel could make GS even better. If you have any of your own feel free to leave them in the comments and I can have those passed along as well.

-Friends lists so you can find them when they’re on and invite them into rooms or easily pull up their stats.

-It would be nice to have chat ability. Even if it is just for in between sessions.

-Have updated leaderboards/stats on the website.

-Have the full day’s session schedule on the website.

-Keep track of region and overall wins in stats.

-Changes to the power-ups (this is something they’re well aware is needed). I think a cool one would involve it only working on the star question which is generally the toughest or one that is used on a random question so it’s riskier. Maybe a streak one, where it pays out big if you get 5, 10, however many right in a row. I’m sure if I thought about it I could come up with a few cool ideas for power-ups.

-Guest hosts, or have players call in and go on the air with the hosts.

-I know its probably a userbase thing, but Mac support would be good. I’ve gotten a couple responses from people who have Macs and are disappointed they can’t get in on it.

-I think its cool that there will be avatar items that are there one day and gone the next. Hopefully keep the items fresh and updated on a constant basis. Nothing new has been added since I started and there isn’t a big variety right now.

-Tokens seem a little easy to come by. They come in handy for the raffles, but if they were a little tougher to earn they would seem more valuable. The balance would still be the same. I am already at a point where I can buy any power-ups and avatar items I would want from here on out and never come close to getting low.

-Rather than only being able to go into rooms that are in your favorites, maybe open up all states to select from.

-Add arrow to scroll when selecting options. Right now its just the bar and it is a little tough to control.

-There isn’t a way to change or set the time and/or time zone and right now mine is an hour behind.

-All of the sudden the last two couple times I’ve logged in all my preferences have been reset/completely different. That includes the ticker, full screen view, and the keys that correspond to the answer selections and power-ups.

March Madness 08 and College Hoops 2K8 updates

Gamespot has a hands-on of College Hoops 2K8 Legacy Mode which you can check out here. Also a few new features for have been revealed.

New to this year’s edition of the 2K Sports’ College Hoops series is PlayVision, allowing gamers to execute every play on the court to perfection. PlayVision draws out each play step-by-step, detailing where on the court to pass, move, and watch for a screen. Each step of the play is illustrated with a different graphic, making plays easy to execute with accuracy and precision. PlayVision also works when playing with two or more people on the same team by indicating where the gamers need to set up their players to execute the play.

“Among many other exciting new features this year, we focused on making plays easier to execute while also adding the ability to create your own types of plays. PlayVision and Play Designer work hand-in-hand to allow gamers to learn the fundamental movements of basketball plays and in turn enable users to get a much more realistic college basketball experience,” said Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio.

With the all new Play Designer, gamers can create their own plays from beginning to end and customize their playbook. Gamers can determine where their players begin a play, tell each player what to do using numerous moves, and then bring in various types of defenses to test their plays against. Once created in Play Designer, any play can be executed during a game and seen on the court with PlayVision.

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I have added 10 new March Madness 08 screenshots in the gallery. Here is the full feature list for the game which was just released:

• Dynamic Post Control: For the first time, you have complete control over dozens of new offensive post moves, including finesse ones like an up-and-under, drop step, hook spin, jump hook, and pump fake, and the ability to combine moves together. Animations can be interrupted at any time to transition into a new move, enabling you to read and respond to the defense, just like real life.
• Defend The Post: Take command of the post on defense with strategic positioning to dominate down low — guard your opponent man-to-man, front him to deny the entry pass, or read the offense and go for the steal!
• Classic Teams: Replay classic games in college basketball history with over 70 classic teams available to create your dream match-ups. In addition, the ultimate teams for dozens of Division I schools have been created enabling you to determine the best team in college basketball history
• Feel the Intensity: Feel the crowd come alive and watch as it affects your players’ composure in the most hostile environments in college basketball. Your players respond differently based on their individual player composure ratings, influencing their success or failure on the court.
• Impact Moment: When the timing is right and the Team Intensity Meter is full, activate your Impact Moment to pump up the home crowd, give your teammates a boost, raise your own level of play or intimidate your opponent.
• Authentic College Atmosphere: Experience the electricity of game night with the band playing fight songs and students cheering their team. With new authentic arenas and interactive environments, your players can chest bump the mascot, pump up the crowd, or fire up teammates.
• Broadcast Team: ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews makes her videogame debut joining Dick Vitale and Brad Nessler to provide strategic observations throughout the course of each game and real-time injury updates.
• Complete ESPN Access: Feel the total ESPN experience with new ESPN in-game visuals, access to scores, news, and insightful commentary with ESPN Motion, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and ESPN Sports Ticker updates.
• Enhanced EA SPORTS Lockdown Stick: Get in your opponent’s face using the EA SPORTS Lockdown Stick. Pressure your opponent and dictate his every move by playing physical on-the-ball defense, trapping, forcing turnovers, denying passes and jumping into passing lanes.
• Floor General Playcalling: With the most sophisticated play calling system and authentic customizable playbooks to date, you can run your school’s actual plays or create your own playbook to play to your own style.
• Build your “School Pride”: Build your program from a mid-major to a powerhouse. Win games to attract more fans, build traditions and earn rewards like cheerleaders and a school band at home games.
• Deeper Dynasty Mode: Simulate your games with the ability to interrupt the action at any point and take control to make sure your team seals the victory. Plus, there is more tournament content than ever before with Pre and Post season NIT and the McDonald’s High School All American game. All-new recruiting and alumni challenges help you track your progress and achievements on your way building an NCAA Championship program.

EA clarifies on Madden 08 franchise fix in upcoming patch

As I suspected the patch for Madden 08 will include a fix to the franchise mode that has been causing people to prematurely end their franchises. Unfortunately this information was apparently cut off from the previous blog posting by EA that detailed what the patch was fixing. How they managed to miss that and take four days to clarify I don’t know, but now everyone can calm down.

In addition to everything mentioned earlier the patch will will address:

Franchise - Fixed bug where the FA pool would run out of certain positions

Online Game Reporting- fixed a number of issues where games weren’t being reported correctly or people weren’t getting the right number of ranking points for a win. This will also make stats more accurate.

EA SPORTS World- Accomplishment ‘20 consecutive completions’ not awarded when completions ends up under 100%

Running up the score

Over the past couple weeks the Patriots have taken heat from some of the media and many fans for what is being perceived as running up the score. It got me to thinking about how it is viewed when playing head-to-head video games. In many online communities running up the score is viewed as being cheap and unsportsmanlike. However there are many people out there who will keep playing and trying to score even with an insurmountable lead.

When it comes to the Patriots, I don’t have a problem with what they’re doing. They shouldn’t be expected to just stop playing because the other team is over-matched and has no answer for them. I don’t believe it is done over concern that the Dolphins or Redskins could actually have mounted a comeback (clearly they couldn’t have) but the idea that they should just give in while the other team continues to play seems odd to me.

In the end it is just one game, the score doesn’t change that it is only one win/loss, and many teams have experienced blowouts and continued on to have successful seasons. The Patriots risk injury to critical players by leaving them out longer than necessary and it could come back to bite them. So it doesn’t bother me what they’ve done in these crushing victories so far this season.

When it comes to gaming it’s interesting to see the divide between those who would follow the Patriots example and those who would stop trying to score and gladly give the ball back to the other team when the right situations presented themselves.

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Quick Sunday notes

There are a couple of things going on in the community that are worth mention. Before I get caught up in the NFL games and my addiction to GameShow I wanted to post a few items that are of interest.

(1) EA is trying to get a feel of how many people use the vision cone in Madden. They are considering removing it from the game completely for 09 in order to free up the right analog stick for another use.

I appreciated the attempt to appease the hardcore crowd but it was a flawed idea that ultimately made the game less fun. It made little sense overall, as you already have to scan the field with your own eyes yet the feature essentially forced you to do it twice. That led to sacks becoming even more frequent than usual. It essentially became only an extra button press, far from being something that required more skill to execute successfully. Add on to that how it did little to separate the best QBs from the mediocre ones, especially in the case of people who liked to use the cone to look off receivers and get defenders to cheat towards them. While Peyton Manning’s entire field being lit up was supposed to be an advantage, it took away the opportunity to look off receivers, but made it possible for someone like Rex Grossman to dominate with the quick extra button press.

EA immediately recognized that the feature was not going to be widely accepted, which is why it wasn’t even in the 360 version of Madden 06 which came out only a couple months after the PS2/Xbox versions that introduced it. It has been an afterthought ever since. To keep it in simply to keep it in is silly. It should just be taken out completely to allow for addition of more useful feature.

Go here to vote on whether or not you use the vision cone. Currently “no” is winning by a 2-1 margin. In actuality the true % of gamers who use the cone in its current state is probably well under 10%. However the poll is going to be skewed because of the heavier presence of hardcore players in the online communities that would spend the time to go and vote. That group has been slightly more forgiving towards it and attempted to justify the use of the feature even though it made little sense and frustrated the majority of Madden players out there.

(2) 5WG is running a scavenger hunt contest to win an NBA Live 08 long sleeve shirt. Trust me these work great during winter to wear under other shirts. Click on over, spend a couple minutes on that quality site, and take your shot at winning the free shirt.

(3) I’ve been so caught up in GameShow over the past couple days that I’ve done little else. I haven’t really played any 360 and I’ve lost out on sleep due to it. I’ll be on more this evening and in the coming days so meet up with me in the Washington room if you decide to get on as well! If you continue on I’ve written up the schedule for the day starting with the 6:30pm ET session. If I decide to create a private room I’ll leave the information there as well.

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More thoughts on EA GameShow

Night number two of GameShow and once again I got locked into it for over four hours. Thought I would add some more observations. Again if anyone has feedback or suggestions I can have that passed along to the team at EA. I made a couple notes on things I’d like to see below as well.

-I’ve added a tag page for GameShow. So any postings related to it can be found there in one place. Just click gameshow in the tags section of the sidebar. Right now it includes the initial news that GameShow had launched with some of the details on it, my full impressions from the first night, and now this one.

-GameShow has a myspace page which can be found here.

-You can text the show at 85186. At different points the hosts may ask for feedback or comments via text.

-I was joined in the room for part of the evening by rdogg1026 and marinerman. I think there was one or two others but I’m forgetting the names. Pretty neat to see some of the guys who visit here get in on it.

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March Madness 08 trailer and producer blog

IGN has posted up an official trailer for March Madness 08 as well as a producer blog featuring Sean O’Brien.

In the blog he goes over in detail some the new features for this year. He covers the Dynamic Post Play, classic teams, atmosphere/commentary. You can check it out here.

There were a couple interesting pieces of info revealed in the blog. The demo will be released on November 19th for the 360 and PS3. Surely not a coincidence, that is the day before rival College Hoops 2K8 is out. Also he mentions the game’s release date as being Tuesday December 11th. Before now all statements and promos stated it as coming one week later on the 18th. I’ll see if I can find out if there has been a change to the release date or if that was just an error.

Continue on to view the trailer

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Madden 08 roster update #4 gets updated

EA has released a revised roster update #4 which originally came out on October 23rd, the details of which you can find here.

It seems likely that the motivation to do so came from having a few players with the incorrect race, such as the newly added Koren Robinson. This gave them the opportunity to make a handful of other changes that occurred too late to get them in before, such as moving Ronnie Brown to the IR and replacing him with the recently signed Samkon Gado.