In this edition of the Waiver Wire Podcast, Chase Becotte from Operation Sports and I discuss the NCAA Football demo and our thoughts on how it compares to what we played while out at E3. In addition the issues with the rosters and the downloadable content cheats are gone over at length. Also on the plate for this podcast are impressions of The BIGS 2 demo and some wrap-up feelings on Madden 10 and Backbreaker coming out of E3.

To download the podcast click here and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Having played the full game at E3, which was probably built off a different and slightly more recent build, it makes it difficult to evaluate the demo. There are some things that seemed better at E3, yet there are also some things that seem better in the demo. So I’m not sure exactly how valid some of my impressions can be as they relate to the final build. Because of that I won’t go into much detail on those things.

Continue on to read some general thoughts on the game/demo and check out the videos of a full demo play-through.

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The demo for The BIGS 2 was released yesterday for the 360. No word on when it will be reaching the PS3 but within the next couple Thursdays would be likely. The demo features a three inning game between the AL and NL All-Stars as well as Home Run Pinball in the Vegas venue.

Coming off The BIGS, one of my favorite sports games of this generation, hopes are high for the sequel. Just some initial impressions from the short time playing it so far the first being the ingenious strategical elements are still prevalent. I really appreciate how you can go at the games, and each individual pitch, so many different ways and nothing about it is frustrating unlike other arcade style games. The “Legendary” tag is a nice addition giving those fielders special abilities which I saw right away when the NL catcher jumped high into the air and onto the dugout to attempt to catch a foul ball. What I liked is they don’t always make those catches but they have a shot at them. The one thing I’m not really a fan of is the zoomed in camera which is just too tight in on the action. Since it follows the ball, which is thrown at laser speed, it is difficult to track what is happening and you miss some of the impact of all the action that is taking place.

Continue on to view the two videos I’ve captured thus far showing off the HR Pinball and a three inning game. Leave your impressions of the demo or videos in the comments!

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Thanks to the product listing from Gamestop we have new info on NHL 10. Until now most of what has been relayed has been about the physicality and fighting enhancements. However this features list provides details on specific modes such as a new GM mode and Playoff mode with improvement to playoff atmosphere.

New Battle for the Cup Mode: Experience the intensity of NHL playoff hockey. Play through injuries, intimidate rivals, and match lines as storylines carry across the entire series.

Build a Stanley Cup Champion: All-new GM mode lets you scout amateurs, put players on the trading block, hire staff, and earn experience points to become a legendary GM.

Battle on the Boards: Shield the puck with your body, kick-pass it to teammates, or pin your opponent against the boards with an all-new board play engine.

All-New First-Person Fighting: Change the momentum by trading blows with an NHL enforcer. Tug an opponent’s jersey to gain an advantage—before or after the whistle.

Become the Ultimate Pro: Improve your draft status by dominating the prospects game, then use new coaching tips, improved teammate AI, and detailed position instructions as you build the ultimate career.

Capture Multiple Championships: The coveted EA SPORTS Hockey League Cup is always up for grabs as new seasons start on a monthly basis online.

New Intimidation Tactics: Fore-check defenders, pressure the puck, and finish checks to force your opponent into mistakes, as players fatigue, bobble passes, and avoid collisions under threat of physical pressure.

All-New Post-Whistle Action: The action never stops! Antagonize opposing players, finish checks, retaliate for late shots on goal, draw penalties, and pick fights—all after the referee blows the whistle!

The demo for NCAA Football 10 is now out on the XBL Marketplace and will go up with the PSN update this afternoon. Featured is a National Championship rematch of the Florida Gators against the Oklahoma Sooners with two minute quarters. The difficulty level is adjustable which is probably a factor in its large size of 1.57 GB.

Leave your thoughts and impressions of the demo in the comments! I’ll get some videos to go up this evening and maybe some observations based on what may be different in the version I played at E3 which was likely a slightly more recent build than what the demo was built off of.

While at E3 I was satisfied after my time with NCAA Football 10. You can read back through my impressions if you haven’t already, but basically the game has a similar feel but with numerous additions and improvements from last year that become more evident the more it is played. Unfortunately after I got back all that was soon overshadowed by news of the rosters being in terrible shape and the DLC “boosts” for dynasty that would also affect Online Franchise.

First on the topic of the rosters the NCAA team has been working to find a solution. While there are no specifics at this time on how that will be done, after a series of comments including one on Twitter today it sounds as though they are going to be able to come up with a way to fix the rosters. I can’t imagine they would be making these comments unless they were confident in the ability to do so. Hopefully that can be completed without losing all the teams that have been built through Teambuilder this month.

While that was somewhat a given I was even more encouraged by the reference to the downloadable content issue. Producer Jeremy Strauser mentioned this in his message to me on Twitter: “NCAA team working on a patch so that DLC can be deactivated in Online Dynasty”. That would pretty much eliminate the reasoning behind being upset about that DLC. If you can imagine last year people would argue over the legitimacy of restarts. Having the cheats activated in online dynasties and no way to prevent them would surely have led to accusations, potentially spoiling the enjoyment since no one would know for sure of the validity of their dynasty.

If they can get both these issues fixed by release I think that would show a commitment to the community that maybe has been lacking in the past. So this is good news and hopefully we’ll hear that both come to fruition in the near future.

Even though it had been stated that Fridays would be the official day for NBA Live 10 postings on the Inside EA Blog, the first one has arrived today. In what is basically an introduction to the game and the people working on it there is some sense of the direction for this year as well as the first screenshot featuring Lebron James (which can be viewed full size in the gallery). You can check out the full article here.

The direction this year has been about making LIVE a great playing basketball game again, while focusing on improving our in game presentation, visuals and atmosphere, getting to a never seen before level of authenticity with our players, providing you with a brand new way of playing OTP and taking Dynamic DNA to an entirely new level, both with how it impacts players and gameplay throughout the NBA season as well as how you as a connected user use it to change the way to play NBA LIVE.

Even though I’ve soured on the NBA in the past few years I’ve continued to enjoy the games, especially with the introduction of Online Team Play and having a full-fledged Be a Pro mode on the way. The introduction of 365/DNA last year was revolutionary although I didn’t feel it impacted the game to the extent that it probably could going forward. This should be a really interesting year for Live as they have had the unique features but with the right advancements to gameplay and presentation could really make a charge.

Last week we got a Q&A about the Online Franchise mode in Madden 10. This week brings a general Franchise mode Q&A that goes into more of the basics of what has been worked on. You can read through the entire blog posting here.

As I’ve mentioned before my goal was to clean up the logic and get this mode back to where it needed to be. I’ll repeat my favorite analogy for those of you who haven’t heard it before: If you found out you had termites in your house, would you build on another addition or clean up the foundation so that you could build on the house in the future? That was exactly our attitude and my sole focus since I joined the Madden team halfway through the development cycle. I enlisted the help of one of my top programmers from NFL Head Coach ’09 (Jeff Keyek) and worked with the rest of the Madden team to address many of the core aspects of the mode that really needed fixing.

While there may be a lack of revolutionary additions to the mode (outside of the interface redesign) it seems as though they’ve been able to accomplish a good deal in getting the base of it to where it should be. It is just unfortunate that many of those areas that have been addressed such as free agency and trade logic won’t come into play in the Online Franchises.

Gamestop has just updated their Madden 10 product pages to include information on an exclusive demo being offered to those who preorder the game. Basically it sounds as though people who don’t preorder will still be getting a demo, but it will offer abbreviated quarters or be something similar to the “Madden Moment” that made up the demo last year. And actually that is what will happen as the public demo will be Cowboys vs Giants with two minute quarters.

Reserve Madden NFL 10 and receive the GameStop exclusive Super Bowl XLIII rematch demo with full length quarters. The demo will feature four 5-minute quarters between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. Available for online and in-store customers while supplies last.

This continues to be a disturbing trend having demos linked to preorders. At least in this case it appears that everyone will have access to some form of a demo at the same time unlike Fight Night Round 4 which withheld it from everyone else for several weeks. According to the info the demo will be out in late July.

A handful of postings on Twitter confirm that the NCAA Football 10 demo is expected to be out later this week. In all likelihood that means on Thursday we’ll be getting the demo on the 360 in the early AM and on the PS3 in the afternoon.

I suspect that this demo will do little to change the negativity surrounding the game right now. Most of the improvements are subtle and overall the game feels an awful lot like 09. In a demo with abbreviated quarters those improvements will be less likely noticed. The good news is that it has been mentioned the difficulty levels will be adjustable. No word on the teams yet though it seems a safe bet that it’ll be a rematch of the National Championship with Oklahoma vs Florida.