EA released a new Producers Blog with Ian Cummings explaining the new sideline catches as well as a video to accompany the blog.

Here's a link to the vid... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMpnahHNnjA

" Hello again faithful blog readers…welcome back for another installment of game play goodness by your old pal Ian Cummings. I was really happy to see the feedback from my last post regarding gang tackles, so here's another follow up for a highly requested video...sideline catches. This should give you an idea of what to expect in this area for Madden NFL 08. Disclaimer again - this isn't slick editing or marketing approved really - just me and an extra 5 minutes of my day. There's not all that much to explain either - I think it speaks for itself, but some key points:   

1. You can see how we actually take awareness into account on these videos - a highly rated player like Gates is consistently getting his feet in, but then you can see a player like Vincent Jackson who's rated lower than Gates still can play the catch but possibly not get his feet in. It's a small detail but it really helps separate out some of the elite players, which has been an overarching goal for Madden across the board this year. I really love this aspect too because in previous years, often times we would just not allow a player to play certain catches, where realistically I think probably any NFL receiver or TE (or RB for that matter) can play that catch, but not everyone is as "aware" to get both feet in. I'm curious to hear what you think on that point though…We still do limit animations based on the new spectacular catch rating for this year, but should we do that more or based on awareness too? Do you agree with me in that you'd rather see them attempt the animation and possibly play it out of bounds, or would you rather them just play a normal animation that doesn't even look like they are getting their feet in (a la last year)?   

2. The last catch actually has some parameters to make it endzone specific…and we have a number of those as well. They are endzone specific because the player typically falls down during the catch and then we even have special getups with celebrations at the end. This one in particular is also tagged with a minimum spectacular catch rating requirement I mentioned above - so you wouldn't see a backup fullback pulling off that kind of circus catch animation. I have to say - these are very impactful moments when they happen in game…and I think you'll agree when you get your hands on it. 

4. You can get a glimpse at a few of our new pass animations in here as well.

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