NCAA Strategies NCAA Basketball 09 Community Event Recap - Part 3: Final Impressions & Thoughts |
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Written by Craig Gonzalez
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Friday, 19 September 2008 |
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"Layout of Community Event – First off, I’d like to thank EA Canada Content & Community Leader Marcus Stephenson for organizing this event and also the NCAA Basketball development team for meeting with us and being open to hearing our feedback and thoughts. Not playing the game at all on day one may not seem exciting, but being able to hear producers explain what features are in the game (and why), their thoughts on the franchise, and also taking our feedback (positive and negative) is a process I hope takes place at more community events. They have made it very easy for attendees to go back and tell the community their feedback is heard and implemented when they show us direct quotes from community members found in threads, wish lists, etc. I hope they continue this in blogs leading up to the release of the game.
Gameplay – Right off the bat, the new engine (from NBA Live) has helped eliminate two of the biggest issues found in March Madness 08 – poor ball physics and a poor rebounding system. The game plays faster and smoother than MM08.
The NCAA Basketball team has put a focus on making the game play as accurate as possible the last two years, making the big feature addition each year gameplay related. While it would have been easy for them to respond to the slow, sluggish March Madness 08 with a run & gun, completely offensive minded feature in NCAA Basketball 09 to attract the casual crowd, the team responded with a feature that makes gamers play to their team’s strengths.
Making cross-court passes is ill-advised in this game. You must make smart passes or they will be picked off. Beating the press takes work. It can be done, but it takes patience and smart passing & correct ball movement; as in real-life.
As stated in the earlier reports, the team has put a focus on making the offense & defense play as realistic as possible, while still being a fun video game.
With the addition of the NABC license, NCAA Basketball has put a focus on getting each team to play like their real-life counterparts. Tennessee & Memphis will push the ball up the floor and apply full-court pressure defense, Colorado will run a half-court offense, Syracuse utilizes the 2-3 defense, etc.
Game Tempo Control - During the presentation on day one, this feature sounded gimmicky and several attendees wondered how this feature would appear when actually playing the game. However, after playing the game this feature works as intended. It stresses that gamers execute a gameplan that matches their roster. No longer can people just run and gun (shoot 3s and press all-day), if it doesn’t fit their personnel. The Game Tempo Control helps reflect the game pace and reminds gamers via Coach Feedback about their gameplan and to stick with it. " READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
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