Archive for the ‘Community Days’ Category
NCAA 10 Community Day Reflection: Terps vs Terps!
TERPS VS TERPS: MADSCI vs SHOPMASTER
FEAR THE TURTLE!!!
ShopMaster and I were able to lock horns and play an online game, Maryland vs Maryland, while down at Community Day. Yes, the connection was flawless, but hey, we were in the same room and connected through a local area network of some sort. Both ShopMaster and I are from the Maryland area, so, hey, we both had to represent.
The MD Terps are looking serviceable, even with the lost of big time speedster WR Heyward-Bey. In terms of ratings, and granted these numbers are preliminary (as in don’t quote me bama, you and I know the rosters have been updated by now), the Terps were 80 OVR (B-), 84 (B+) Offense, and 73 (C+) Defense at the time.
We played the game on All American. If you know me — I always roll on Heisman. The rest of the guys played mostly on All American, so, I had to drop down a weight class to get the game in (lol). I started my boy QB #12, who had 84 SPD (you know how I love them mobile QBs son), 88 THP and 84 THA (decent numbers). No speedsters this year on the Terps; The WR corps were around 92, 92, 91, and 90 SPD. The two top HBs were 92 and 93 SPD. The second fastest QB, #2, was 82 SPD, with 84 THP and 80 THA — Somewhat of a drop in overall SPDability (lol), but what can you do? I was just hoping #12 did not get hurt (lol).
As you can see, I am enamored with SPD — please forgive me. Even though the defense (at the time) was rated a C-, the Terps had decent SPD at the LB position, with several in the mid 80 range. The two starting CBs were decent, both with 95 SPD and good CTH (70 or better). The Safeties had decent SPD as well, both with at least one player with 90 or more SPD. The DTs were 79-73 OVR range — top SPD 68. Both Kicker and Punter were high 80 OVR. One LE had 80 SPD. So, not bad, however, in NCAA 10, speed has been turned down quite a bit, so, faster, is not always better, and faster is not as fast as it used to be (lol).
It was a tough game with a couple big plays. The final score was 35-25. I did win, however, I wouldn’t call it a victory since I got my cheese on (lol). I really just wanted to test a couple things out, so I played the two starting CBs at WR. Hell, they were both 95 SPD and 70 CTH—can you blame me? After hearing that changing player positions no longer take the same rating hits (SPD, ability) as has in the past, I just had to test it out. The CBs did fairly well as WRs, except they did not have high Catch in Traffic and it showed, big time! I also subbed in a WR at QB to start the game off and that resulted in an epic failure! After a couple horrible passes in a row and a lack luster option performance, the WR was taken out, and QB #12 was put back in the game.
End of Game Stats:
PASSING
QB #12 (Mad) 14 for 20, 199 yards. 1 TD, 2 INT, 2 Sacks
QB #10 (Shop) 9/14 for 231 yards. 2 TD, 3 INT, 3 Sacks
QB #12 (Shop) 2/3 25 yards. 1 INT.
It looks like Shop was not happy with QB #12, so he benched him for QB #10 (not as mobile) who did a little better, but still chucked up 3 INTs.
RUNNING
HB #23 (Mad) 13 attempts for 101 yards (7.7 average), 2 break tackles (BTK). There was a long run in there, which accounted for much of the yards.
QB #12 (Mad) 5 attempts for 9 yards.
HB #23 (Shop) 14 attempts for 48 yards.
RECEIVING
HB #23 (Shop) 5 for 120 yards. He caught me in the flats a couple times. I think one of the catches was the 75 yard TD, which accounted for the high total.
CB #6 (Mad) 5 for 132 (26.4 average), 1 TD. My experiment was pretty successful, but risky. If #6 were to get injured, at 95 SPD, the defense would have been at a disadvantage. In college ball, players do move around. So, if I need him, it’s great to know I can sub #6 in for a couple WR reps.
Overall, it was a fun game. One of my favorite memories was the time I went back to pass and my WR slipped as he made his cut and the pass was intercepted. Pretty crazy! When you don’t know something is in the game and it just pops up like that, man, it trips you out!
In terms of Season Showdown points, here is what we earned from playing the game:
| SEASON SHOWDOWN POINTS | |
| Skills | |
| 36 Mad | 8 Shop |
| Strategy | |
| 10 Mad | 0 Shop |
| Sportsmanship | |
| 10 Mad | 10 Shop |
| Underdog | |
| 0 Mad | 0 Shop |
Until the next update my friends!
Holla atcha boi!
MadScientist06
-The Architect
NCAA 10 Community Day Reflection: Why NCAA 10 Rocks!
Here is a little somethin’ somethin’ to get you AMPTED for NCAA 10!
First off, just let me say that I can wait to get my hands on NCAA 10 having played it at EA NCAA 10 Community Day a couple months back. I know there has been some talk in the community about just how horrible NCAA 10 will be, which is total nonsense! Calm down a little fellas—we are looking good for the 2010—trust Da Scientist when I say that! All the attendees of the event have been held to secrecy about unannounced features, understandably so. However, our gag orders have contributed to the lack of information available, because, normally, attendees are allowed to take video and screenshots, and if you know me and the fellas, we always come back from community day with hours of gameplay footage and follow up on that with impressions. So, compared to the last couple years—information has not been as plentiful.
Luckily, for all of us, E3 is upon us! Now it’s time to EA to show its cards. Big info will be dropped from now until the end of E3. Hell, it’s already started! There are tons of NCAA 10 stuff that has not yet been dropped, and just when you thought you knew it all—guess what? You don’t! So get AMPTED! This big info dump will also free the community day attendees to provide more insight as well. This is a WIN-WIN for everybody.
Here are my TOP REASONS why you want NCAA 10.
TEAMBUILDER
TeamBuilder has got to be one of the top 5 reasons you want NCAA 10. If you were ever a fan of Create-A-Team in the past, you’ll love TeamBuilder. The great thing about this feature is it’s online. Game designers always struggle with disk space and performance issues. Having this feature online is a great way to expand the game’s feature set without compromising disk space. This also allows gamers to use the feature, via computer, without having to be in-game or near the console. Not only that, this also opens up the possibility for easy updates that are not tied to development cycles (say goodbye to game patches). Hopefully, this trend will continue and more features are pulled from the constraints of the disk and housed online. Allowing the community to share created teams is incredible, just think about the possibilities. Once created, it takes merely seconds to get your team in the game. Even if you are not a fan of Create-A-Team, you have to love the innovation and the promise of this feature.
Get ready, TeamBuilder should be operational soon. If not during E3, expect it soon after. My sources indicate between June 1-June 15, so get those custom logos ready!
CUSTOM CONFERENCES
Custom Conferences is another top 5 NCAA 10 feature. If you play in or run NCAA online dynasties, this feature is one that you have been waiting for. This season, DaONE League ran 6 dynasties at the same time, managed by myself and JoseBoza (Boza SFMB). In order to run such a large number, we had to create (and PAY FOR) multiple XBL Gamertags. Each dynasty focused on a different conference (ACC, Big 10, PAC 10, SEC, etc). In order to accommodate our veteran ballers, who all wanted their favorite teams, we had to fill all the conferences that housed their teams. This was a tricky proposition.
This year, we can allow everyone to run with their favorite teams and save money by moving them into custom conferences. We may still run one or two regular conferences, but most will be custom. Not many ballers want to jump in a conference where all the power teams are taken and all they have left is some bums team nobody else wanted. We’ll also be able to max out the conferences as well, as every one of the 12 slots can be utilized. Choice is a wonderful thang.
ALTERNATE UNIS
ALT UNIS is DA HOTNESS! In a recent ESPN interview, details were finally revealed about Alternate Uniforms.
Jon Robinson (ESPN): I saw the ability to mix and match uniforms in the game for each team. How will that work?
Ben Haumiller:
In years past, you had your home uniform, your away uniform, and you might have a couple of alternates. But this year, we wanted to break these up into individual pieces because there are so many uniforms that are just the change of a pant color or something like that. So we broke all of these up so you can set your helmet, your jersey, your pants and your shoe color independent from each other. Just doing that right there, the number for the potential of alternate jerseys grew exponentially, especially for a team like Oregon who has different helmets and like eight different jersey tops and three or four different pants. If you’re playing as Oregon, you can have a completely different uniform every game of the season.
Alt Unis have been a highly requested feature since the move to Next Gen. Now we have Da HOTNESS. This is by far the best Alt Uni feature of ANY GENERATION! The Alts for teams like Oregon or DaU seem unlimited. Being able to mix and match options (jerseys, pants, helmets) is incredible. If, by some chance, the combination you want is not available, be slick about it, go to TeamBuilder, import your roster, add whatever missing jersey and pants you want, ADD THEM…PRESTO! Look to hear more about this at E3.
NCAA 10 Community Day Thoughts: Player Lock and Defensive Assist
DEFENSIVE ASSIST
Even before Defensive Assist, many of us have clicked on players and not immediately taken control. The result is the CPU would continue to control the player until we made a move with the stick, one way or the other, or pressed a button. The advantage of doing this was, on defense, you’d trust the defender until it was time to swat the ball or go for the INT. At that point you would press the catch or swat button and try to make a play. On offense, you might click on, let the CPU run the route, then press the catch button when it was time to make the catch. Another advantage is that you taking over quick control may pull the player out of position, especially if the last player you were using was a DE rushing the QB (south) and you switched to a DB, who was running the opposite way (north)…oftentimes, the DB you switched to would change direction as some of the last bit of control from the DE would switch over as well…causing the DB to blow his coverage by changing direction of stopping.
In comes Defensive Assist (DA). For many of us, we were already using a similar technique, but in round about way. Now though, DA takes things to a higher level. I primarily used Defensive Assist during the NCAA 10 play test as a LineBacker. This, to me, was a great way to get a quick read of the play (run vs pass). What I would do is use DA for just two seconds or so just to let the MLB reach and take a couple steps. Then I would take control and follow the play. This feature reminds me of the great WallStreet Baller from MWS fame. When he tutored me as a young Madden Baller, he would always tell me when I took control of a player to honor the player’s responsibility for that play, whether that be man or zone.
EA NCAA 10 Community Day
Six of some of the most hardcore football community contributors, you boi included, were invited down to attend EA’s NCAA 10 Community Day, March 21, 2009. We were allowed to give the upcoming title a 16-hour, no holds barred, test drive, mixed in with presentations on many of the new “not-yet-announced” features.
Unfortunately, for you and I, we all had to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (the dreaded NDA), and were sworn to secrecy until each feature is revealed.
