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Another Take on the Steve Phillips Situation
Following the news on Steve Phillips last week I broached the question of what that meant for MLB 2K10. The commentary was probably the only redeeming quality from 2K9 and the duo of Gary Thorne and Phillips was made a big marketing point. After these developments it would appear that 2K would have no choice but to make a change. Still with only four months until release the opportunity to do so is limited and makes it a difficult task.
Owen Good at Kotaku (and also featured on Deadspin) has chimed in on the topic and agrees that he can’t stay in the game as the scandal is too significant to ignore.
Phillips is a recidivist philanderer, and the latest ESPN scandal is top-of-mind for baseball fans. If his only television appearance in 2010 is on a gaming console, it makes his dismissal more conspicuous by half, and it’s 2K’s problem to manage, not ESPN’s.
It would be one thing for Phillips to disappear out of the spotlight now but if he were to show up in 2K10 everything would come back to the surface. 2K would not even be able to advertise their commentary team. We’ll see if 2K is willing to respond to the situation as it would be really interesting to hear what their plan is at this point. If they do respond I’ll have another posting regarding that.
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NBA Live 10 Dynamic Season Begins
The start of the NBA season means the activation of the main new addition to NBA Live 10 this year with the Dynamic Season mode. Dynamic Season allows you to play alongside the real NBA while incorporating the updated DNA and rosters throughout and importing actual stats from the other games. You can choose to play any games on the schedule you want and it can be the same day or you can utilize the “Rewind” feature and play a game from a previous day.
Currently there are some issues that are being worked on with the Synergy data not coming through. So the results and stats from last night’s games are not shown. Those should show up soon though once everything has been ironed out. This doesn’t affect anything to do with the user side it is just the real life data that has not arrived in the mode yet.
I have chosen to stick with one team and play through the season as the Portland Trailblazers with the games set to All-Star difficulty and 12 minute quarters. While I won’t be doing an update on every single game along the way I will update regularly on the status of my Dynamic Season. Continue on for a recap of the first game from my Dynamic Season with a game at home against the Houston Rockets.
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NCAA Basketball 10 Features List
The NCAA Basketball 10 features list is now out thanks to Gamestop. With only three weeks until the game is released and a little over a week until the demo there has been reason to wonder why no other features or improvements have been discussed. Now having the list it becomes seems that there is just little else to go on except for one new addition that will probably be talked more about in the coming weeks.
NCAA Basketball 10 appears to best described as college-hybrid of NBA Live 10 gameplay with the addition of the CBS and ESPN presentation. Most disappointing is a lack of Online Dynasty, Online Team Play, Teambuilder, or individual career mode in the mold of Road to Glory. I was hoping especially for the Online Dynasty or a career mode. They have the ability to extend the value of the game and reach those who aren’t completely invested in the sport. As is there just isn’t much pull to the game except for those who are huge college basketball fans.
The most intriguing thing found on the list that hasn’t come up is the dynamic updating. This sounds as though it is along the lines of the Synergy provided updates found in NBA Live though less concentrated on individuals and more on team styles and performance. It could be one way around being unable to do roster updates because technically they aren’t supposed to be real players. By presenting it as “team” updates they may be able to change the individuals in the process.
Continue on for the full list of features and leave your thoughts in the comments.
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2K Calls Out EA on NBA Live 10 Patch
In a post on their official forums (which has since been deleted) 2K Sports community manager Ronnie Singh responded to the wide-spread sentiment that the recently released NBA Live 10 patch took into account community feedback. The patch for NBA 2K10 won’t be arriving for some time still and the positive response to the Live patch along with it being out in time for the start of the NBA season prompted the following response:
To say that the Live patch was based on community feedback is outrageous. There is no way they could get days/weeks of feedback, build a patch to fix all their issues, have passed cert, etc. without a very simple thing: they were building the patch before release. I shouldn’t even have to make you clear about this. You guys saw our efforts to get actual feedback as we put up countless threads about it. That’s real effort.
Just like the constant shots at EA on Twitter this statement is at best unprofessional. It would be one thing if 2K10 was overwhelmingly well received but with the poor framerate, numerous glitches, and non-functional online play there isn’t much reason they should be taking shots at the competition. It doesn’t take community feedback to recognize those core issues with the game.
One aspect that isn’t being taken into consideration here is the early release of the NBA Live 10 demo. Feedback started being collected then with one prime example being suggestions that EA add a manual backdown mechanic, which they immediately responded to and included in the patch. The early demo has proven beneficial as community feedback has been directly taken into consideration in recent games such as Live and NHL 10. They both arrived nearly a month in advance of their respective release dates. On the other hand NBA 2K10 did not release a demo for the 360 until a week before the game came out while the PS3 got it over a week after release and they chose not to put out a demo at all for NHL 2K10.
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Week Seven Ratings Change Suggestions
Having no roster update for Madden 10 last week most of those same suggestions apply. Some teams have shown they deserve more in how they are represented in the game such as the undefeated Broncos, Saints, and Colts. Other teams like the Rams, Bucs, Redskins, Raiders, and Titans probably will never be rated as low as they should be.
For individual players it will be taking into account two weeks where many have displayed they are deserving of a boost. In addition to the week six thoughts those players include Sidney Rice who has become a big-time target for Brett Favre but is only rated a 77. Miles Austin had another outstanding game and has become the #1 receiver for the Cowboys. He should go up to the low 80s from where he is now as a 76. Matt Schaub leads the league in passing yards and TDs but is only rated an 84. Cedric Benson should see another leap as he leads the league in rushing and will move from his 86.
On the way down there are a handful of QBs to choose from. JaMarcus Russell is too high as a 68. He was benched this weekend, has a 2-8 TD/INT ratio is only completing a dreadful 46% of his passes. Jake Delhomme has been picked off 13 times already and it appears he will be getting benched as well. The 76 is too high when there are competent QBs rated in the high 70s and low 80s. Shaun Hill has been a decent game manager but now that he has been replaced he should see a drop as well. One more player to consider is Roy Williams who has clearly lost his stance as #1 receiver in Dallas and has not performed up to the level of an 84. He has only 12 catches and 1 TD on the year.
This update will move Alex Smith into the starting role with the 49ers. While it would be premature to judge him based on a single half of football against a team that didn’t gameplan for him he should see a slight move up. He is currently a 70 and could move to 74 with Shaun Hill maybe sliding down to a 73.
Injury wise look for players such as Kris Jenkins, Leon Washington, Will Allen, and Antwan Odom to hit the IR. The trade of Will Witherspoon to the Eagles will also be reflected.
As always feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments on players that deserve a ratings hike or should see their ratings drop with this week’s Madden 10 roster update.
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Steve Phillips News Affects MLB 2K10
2K Sports may be scrambling after the recent news of Steve Phillips firing from ESPN and sex scandal. Phillips has admitted to an affair with a co-worker that ended up resulting in what has been described as “fatal attraction-like” behavior by the woman towards Phillips’ wife and family. He has since entered a treatment facility that deals with sex addiction.
From a public relations standpoint 2K cannot feature Phillips in the game. Phillips was one half of the commentary team in MLB 2K9 and presumably would be in that same role in 2K10. The commentary was one of the few positives that game had to offer and now could be in big jeopardy.
It is nearly November and at this point most of what will be in the final version of the game has been locked in. It is unknown if the commentary could be re-done at this point. If it is it certainly would not be up to the level of quality that was seen with 2K9 and would have potentially been in 2K10 with another year to add to the library.
There are no indications as to anything having to do with MLB 2K10 yet and it seems unlikely that 2K will make a statement on the issue anytime soon. The game will release the first week of March. Generally little to no news is made on the game before the new year outside of a possible cover athlete announcement.
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Online Franchise Divisional Playoff Preview
The Wild Card Weekend saw a three tight games and one blowout with the Pastapadre Madden 10 Online Franchise having now advanced to the Divisional Playoff Weekend. One underdog has advanced while three favorites have moved on. They now face the tough task of playing top seeded teams that rolled through the regular season.
Continue on for a preview of the Divisional Playoff Weekend in the online franchise.
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NBA Live 10 Patch Details
The patch for NBA Live 10 is out now for the 360 and will be arriving for the PS3 sometime this week making it just in time to coincide with the start of the regular season. This is a significant update that addresses much of the community feedback on the game. Continue on for the full list of changes that come with the patch and leave your thoughts in the comments. Will be posting impressions on the changes once enough time has been had with the game to evaluate it.
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NBA Live 10 Patch Expected This Week
On release day for NBA Live 10 it was mentioned that the first patch was being targeted to arrive the first week of November. However it now appears that it will be arriving early as lead gameplay designer Mike Wang tweeted on Saturday that it would be out “next week”. Releases of patches are dependent on Microsoft and Sony certification. So there is no set day or time and it may be out for one console earlier than the other unless they have cleared it and provided that information in advance to the developers.
Full details on the patch have not been made available but a blog will be coming soon that goes over the changes. Some of the things that have been confirmed for the patch are the addition of a manual backdown mechanic and the fixing of the exploitable step-back threes.
Update: Full details on the patch can be found here.
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First Image of EA MMA
Though there has been some news on EA MMA in the months following the initial announcement of the game that has been limited to fighter reveals. Details about the game, which is expected to release next summer, are still largely unknown. The first screenshot though has now appeared in Sports Illustrated with the image provided by Middle Easy.
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