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Post by kc on Sept 11, 2008 21:16:35 GMT -5
Former UCLA stand-out Kevin Love has been named the cover athlete for NCAA Basketball 09. In 2007-08, Love was a first team All-American while leading the Bruins in scoring with 17.5 points per game and rebounding with 10.6 rebounds per game as a true freshman. Named 2008 Pac-10 Freshman and Player of the Year, Love led UCLA to the Men’s Final Four. The following info comes from the official press release on the game: NCAA Basketball 09 is not just a new name; it introduces a new way to play college basketball that mirrors real life. A new, strategic gameplay feature challenges gamers to replicate their school's style of play, set the tempo and win. Whether your school plays up tempo looking to push the ball in transition, runs a half-court offense that utilizes the clock and limits possessions or features a balanced attack that combines transition offense with set plays, NCAA Basketball 09 rewards the strategic gamer and emphasizes team specific styles of play. NCAA Basketball 09 will feature Division I coaches in-game for the first time. Each coach will provide real time instruction and feedback, helping gamers control the tempo by executing their team's offense and defense to perfection. This year, NCAA Basketball 09 will operate on a new gameplay engine with over 1,000 new animation sequences that deliver a more responsive experience with improved ball physics and more intelligent AI. The new animation system enables gamers to apply pressure defense with new full-court presses and traps. Plus, improved AI and animations enable quicker players to get up and down the floor faster and make better decisions running the lanes and driving to the rim. Animations can be interrupted at any time, enabling you to read and respond to the action on the floor, just like real life. ___________ Thank god they changed it to NCAA Basketball other than March Madness. I would have figured D. Rose would have been the cover guy, Love is cool. Nice choice. Hopefully the game will be better than 07 and 08. I've been waiting for EA to add the coaches in the game for like, ever. Hopefully next on the list will be the importing of draft classes into NBA Live. |
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Deleted
Joined on: Nov 23, 2024 14:17:03 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2008 16:34:22 GMT -5
He definitely deserves it.
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Post by kc on Sept 12, 2008 16:59:14 GMT -5
The following is IGN's First Look at NCAA Basketball 09, courtesy of Jeff Haynes:
"September 11, 2008 - If you're a college basketball fan, you've been keeping a sharp eye on the upcoming basketball title from EA Sports. Now that 2K has relinquished the college basketball license, EA Sports is the only game in town that will provide the experience of rocking the rim in campus arenas around the country. However, forget what you've known about the March Madness franchise up to this point; this year, EA Sports is planning on revamping the sport by focusing on teams and the tempo of the game itself. At a recent press event, EA Sports introduced the newly titled NCAA Basketball 09 along with its cover athlete, Kevin Love (who mentioned that receiving this honor was a "dream come true,") and highlighted some of the details that players will experience later this year.
One of the primary facets pointed out by Sean O'Brien, Lead Producer of NCAA Basketball 09, was the focus on the tempo of the game, which takes center stage in this year's title. If you've watched a basketball game, you know that there's a flow that is established by each team primarily based around their play style. Some squads like to run the ball up and down the court, wearing out the other squad with a hard charging offense and lots of pressure with their defense. Others prefer to play a half-court game, setting up their plays and running down the clock, while others balance the transition game with specific plays. In NCAA Basketball 09, you'll be called upon to duplicate the style of play of your chosen school, using the fast paced play of Memphis or the balanced play of UCLA, for example, to dominate your opponents.
While how you play will have a significant influence on your gameplay tempo, you'll also receive plenty of advice from the sidelines. Thanks to the exclusive deal struck with the National Association of Basketball Coaches, players will get plenty of comments from Division 1 coaches as the game progresses instructing them on how to control, regain or maintain the pace of the game to work in their favor. How this will work is simple: as you play the game and perform according to the style of your school, a meter just above the score will swing back and forth between the three different paces of the game. Depending on how significant the swing happens to be, you'll see a picture-in-picture visual of your coach pop up telling you whether you're doing a good job, if you need to pick up the pace of the game, or things need to be slowed down so you can play your kind of basketball.
These were two of the largest elements that were announced today as part of a multi-year process to overhaul the entire basketball franchise. O'Brien mentioned that since the development team will be using the same game engine as NBA Live, but will have an additional two months of work on the title, they are trying to focus on some of the feedback that will come in on that title but also make sure that NCAA Basketball 09 plays and feels completely different. We were able to find out a few more details from him regarding how the implementation of the tempo and coach instruction has changed the franchise, and how it will wind up carrying over. For instance, the momentum meter and specialized triggers that you could pull off in last year's game is now gone, having been replaced by the tempo meter. O'Brien mentioned that while it was an amusing feature, it was one of those things that was too deep and rarely used by many of the people that they spoke to, so it was removed from this year's game. Kiss the dancing with cheerleaders and pumping up the crowd goodbye. That doesn't mean that the campus atmosphere has been reduced in anyway; far from it – the home team will still go completely nuts at every single score, perform school chants or try to rattle visitors at the free throw line.
However, the development team thought that the tempo and school play style was an excellent way to implement a new online rivalry feature. Let's say that you went to UNC, which would instill a hatred of all things Duke, or (in Greg Miller's case, your love of Mizzou immediately makes you detest Kansas). After you set your favorite team within your game profile, you can instantly go online and select the Rival option, which will go online and search for another player that happens to represent your loathed adversaries. That should make the gameplay much better, particularly with the tempo of each game, because the stakes and emotion over each game will be highly pitched.
As for other gameplay modes, we did ask about the possibility of a Campus Legend mode being included within the franchise. O'Brien did mention that the mode will not be included within this year's game, but that the development team had been looking very closely at the feature that has been a significant feature for EA's NCAA Football series, and mentioned that it could potentially be included within future titles. In fact, he mentioned that it made a lot of sense, particularly with the engine of the game being the same as that of NBA Live. Similarly, he mentioned that the implementation of the DNA feature that's being included within this year's game is one that the development team had looked at as a possible future feature, but that the tempo and coaching style elements were focused on much more for this year's gameplay.
The build at the event was a post-Alpha build, and for the most part was playing rather well. It was easy to get a sense of how the different styles of gameplay affected the action on the court, and you could actually feel the back and forth pace of the game as squads ran plays based on their play style. Similarly, the coaching mechanic was somewhat well handled, with coaches cheering specific plays or asking to have the pace adjust to their liking. There were still a number of glitches that would pop up: for instance, the coach likenesses and picture-in-picture was still a bit rough at times, and breaking out of animations to react to plays as they developed naturally would sometimes break down, but it was a solid taste of what fans will be able to expect when the game comes out on December 2."
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Post by kc on Sept 17, 2008 19:09:59 GMT -5
New updates/features for NCAA Basketballl 2009.
- PS3 Parity. As dictated by EA Sports President Peter Moore, this year NCAA Basketball runs at 60 FPS on both the X-Box 360 and the PS3.
- Re-brand the franchise. With the game taking on a new start in so many ways, the franchise will now be known as NCAA Basketball.
- Gameplay differentiation from NBA. The game may use the same engine as NBA Live, but it will receive some adjustments to help reflect the college game more accurately.
- Win over the 2K consumer in year one. Despite being the only college basketball game on the market this year, the NCAA Basketball team wants to improve the title and get College Hoops 2K fans on-board. They know that the title must deliver in a number of areas to make this goal become a reality.
- Accessible team & player info via increased stat overlays providing constant player stats, foul updates, etc.
- Broadcast graphics & TV-style intro sequences. Some examples: In pre-game, we will see conference standings. Prior to NCAA Tournament games, your bracket will be shown. Prior to televised games, the ESPN College Basketball theme will play to begin the pregame sequence and again in the post-game sequence.
- The game will also feature a Highlight Reel feature, allowing users to post replays & screenshots to EA Sports World.
- More music has been added for in-game and during menu navigation along with more commentary from the crew.
- 15-man rosters
- Authentic schedules
- Improved online/lobby configuration: Rooms for Rivalries, Classic Team match-ups, and headset games. (Unfortunately, gamers will not be able to use named rosters online.)
- In Dynasty Mode, gamers can view box scores for every game in the season.
- In Play Now, users can select what arena they wish to play in. One of the new arenas is the ‘Empire State Arena,’ their non-licensed version of Madison Square Garden.
- Updated Team Rivalries. The rivalry database was wiped out and the team started over to make sure rivalries are as accurate as possible.
- Authentic rosters & ratings. The team has put an emphasis on getting teams to play like and fully represent the playing style of their real-life counterparts.
- Within School Overview, each school has an ESPN Team Prestige and School Pride rating. These help determine crowds in-game, as NCAA Basketball 09 contains dynamic crowd attendance.
- Player ratings are based upon their career as career stats have been backfilled. (IE: junior SF #44 for Nebraska will have his ratings based upon what he has done in his first two seasons on campus, not a complete subjective rating.) Stats for past seasons can be viewed in individual player stat screens.
- Within Dynasty Mode, gamers can view their team Yearbook. In the Yearbook, team/player stats are archived, as well as recruiting info.
- National Association of Basketball Coaches license. All Division I coaches (sans 8 or so) will be in the game and named, including accurate clothes (suits, sweaters [Majerus], Hawaiian shirts, etc. ) and the correct alma mater for each coach.
- Recruits can be tabbed McDonald’s All-Americans, Parade All-Americans, in the ESPN 100, All-State, or Mr. Basketball for their respective state. Each recruit will also show testing results similar to the Nike SPARQ Training (http://www.sparqtraining.com/) results, though it is not officially licensed with Nike (not this year at least).
- Locker 3.0. Similar to 2K Share, this feature allows gamers to share/download rosters, as well as rate them. (One complaint in March Madness 08 was the ratings ‘cap’ that limited player editing. That has been removed. The player editing bug that resulted in players looking like zombies has been fixed as well.)
- 26 Achievements for X-Box 360 users, no Trophies for PS3.
- New sideline characters: coaches, cameramen, videographers, & court squeegee guys.
- 8 new stadiums (including USC’s Galen Center & Texas A&M’s Reed Arena) & four re-lit stadiums.
- 3D crowd.
- Game front-end (Campus Hoops) is now connected to The Weather Channel and will reflect the current weather in the location of your favorite school. The goal of this is to help connect people back to their favorite school/alma mater, particularly if they no longer live in the area. IE: A Michigan grad living in San Diego fires up the game and sees snow and freezing temps listed for Ann Arbor, reminding him how glad he is not to face that weather anymore especially when making the trek to games. (For those unfamiliar with Campus Hoops, it is a front-end feature that lets gamers shoot the ball, ala a free-for-all practice mode.)
FINALLY AUTHENTIC ROSTERS AND SCHEDULES! THANK YOU EA!
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Post by kc on Nov 22, 2008 21:37:01 GMT -5
I rented this game on Friday. I thought this came out in early December, so I was surprised when I saw this at my local video store. From the stores I've been to, none of them have the game in stock yet. Weird.
I haven't really gotten time to play a full game yet, but this seems exactly the same as 07/08. I'm playing this on PS2 btw, so I didn't expect that much 'change'. I like the new tournaments, but the sim-scoring is still way to high, and way to many upsets. I simulated an NCAA tourney, and two 15 seeds made it to the second round. Sure it's fun, but really unrealistic.
I see the ratings have went up a little higher. 84 was the highest last year, I believe Tyler Hansbrough is the highest rated player in the game this year. (87)
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Reasoning through Questioning
Main Eventer
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. -Plato
Joined on: Oct 8, 2005 23:36:54 GMT -5
Posts: 3,598
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Post by Reasoning through Questioning on Dec 2, 2008 13:00:10 GMT -5
Having some fun with it. Took Ball State to the Final Four and beat UCLA. It was tough.
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Post by asherallen on Dec 6, 2008 12:38:42 GMT -5
shoulda been steph curry. love is a douche and I hope Howland never wins a championship until after Pitt wins with Dixon.
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Post by "Living Legend" Duttanized on Dec 9, 2008 18:44:20 GMT -5
Kevin Love deserves it, he was fantastic in the NCAA.
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Post by iyfwkidzc on Dec 9, 2008 20:05:43 GMT -5
Hansbourough will probably be on the cover of '10, considering he's a senior headed for the draft after this year. And he's a beast, plain and simple.
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