NCAA Basketball 09 Community Event Recap - Part I: Features (9/17)

[cdj]

NCAA Basketball 2009 Community Event Recap - Part I: Game Features

Held at the EA Canada studios in Burnaby, British Columbia on September 9-10, ncaaStrategies.com was one of eight sites in attendance for the first ever NCAA Basketball Community event. Formerly known as March Madness, NCAA Basketball has been re-branded as EA Canada attempts to get the franchise back on track after years of falling behind the competition.

This report is solely for giving you guys a feel for the event and info directly from the producers. In-depth gameplay notes and impressions/opinions will come in later reports.

Layout of the Event - This community event was comprised of a format that had not been used before. Day one of the event was filled with producer presentations and feedback/discussion with community members. Though we did not play NCAA Basketball 09, we were given a walkthrough of the features & changes in the game. During this time, members stated what they liked & disliked about previous incarnations of the game, asked clarification on game features (how they work, logic behind decision to include), and also what features/aspects they preferred in other basketball titles, including NBA 2K8 and College Hoops 2K8.

Day two of the event featured 10+ hours of attendees playing the game, while producers were available for interaction. Each community member had their own television and game console available for playing. Throughout the day, most mixed up solo gaming with some human vs. human matchups.

Day One

Day one featured presentations from the producers where questions could be asked and feedback submitted. Here is a list of the producers in attendance: Brent Nielsen (executive producer of the basketball titles NBA Live & NCAA Basketball), Sean O’Brien, Connor Dougan, Joe Stallings, Novell Thomas, Chris Winters, & Sean Campbell.

The following is a recap of the presentations given during the day.

The event began with Brent discussing how NCAA Basketball will be using the same engine as NBA Live. With a release tentatively scheduled for approximately two months following the release of NBA Live, the game should see the bugs that exist in Live eradicated in NCAA Basketball. March Madness 08 utilized the same engine that was used on last-gen. The Live engine is in its third year and provides a great base for March Madness to build upon. Producers will take the Live engine and give the game a ‘college’ feel via atmosphere, for example.

Next up was Sean O’Brien who laid out some of the goals for NCAA Basketball 09:
- 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.

In order to achieve the above goal, the development team aimed for success in the following areas.

- Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay.
- File sharing – EA Locker 3.0.
- Feature depth.
- Community building – TWC in Campus Hoops; Rival Challenge.

With gameplay being the primary focus of NCAA Basketball 09, the mantra for the year was “Better & Different.” In year one of this common gameplay engine (though it has been improved for three straight years in NBA Live) & animation system, the team feels that they have a very solid base for this re-branded franchise.

This year, the new gameplay feature is “Set the Tempo” – which will be fully explained in tomorrow's report. O’Brien & Dougan discussed the gameplay features throughout their presentations.

The next presentation belonged to Novell Thomas, who walked us through the presentation aspects of NCAA Basketball 09.

In an early slide, Thomas posted several quotes from community wish lists that the team used in game development:
- Give indication of what players are entering games when subbed in. Detracts from the ‘match-up’ aspect of basketball without it.
- A lot of the in-game music was used back on last-gen March Madness. Time to get all-new music (cadences, etc). Get the Stanford, Duke, etc. pep bands to play some licensed music.
- More stat overlays. Stats for top players (regardless of success) throughout game, updates on game stats, etc.
- You have GOT to give us the foul situation after each personal foul. Too tough to keep track of all players info.
- Commentary about players is too vague. What team are they talking about? What player? What sideline and coach is Erin Andrews talking about? Needs better lead-in from Nessler.

To address the concerns from the community, the development team has added in the following presentation aspects:
- 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.

This year, the crowd (now 3D and not 2D) has been greatly improved to reflect the nature of college basketball with atmosphere being very important. The crowd focuses on the “highs” – crowd audio has been addressed, the crowd responds with behavior to certain events including traditions and school uniqueness. For example, there over 300 different crowd chants & more fight songs added. Visually, there will be approximately 45 authentic arenas in the game (arenas mapped with complete accuracy), while those without authentic arenas will have their correct home court in a generic arena picked to semi-match their actual arena.

Next up was Joe Stallings who discussed more game additions added due to community feedback.

- 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.

One of the new features is the ESPN Classic Tournament of Legends. Gamers can pick one of the classic teams in the game and play through a full 64-team tournament comprised of classic teams.

Also added into the Tournament feature and Dynasty are the Anaheim Classic, Old Spice Classic, and the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

NCAA Basketball 09 contains 400% more data than was found in March Madness 08. Every arena in the pre-game Arena Select features info about the selected court. In addition, gamers unfamiliar with college basketball teams can view the Blue Ribbon Analysis for every team in the game. They will see a letter grade in four areas – backcourt, bench/depth, intangibles, frontcourt – and also a paragraph discussing the team.

Other features found within the game:

- 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.

The final feature shown by Stallings was the Rival Challenge, an online-based feature. This feature starts with gamers selecting their favorite team. They can then go online and view how many gamers are online and have designated a favorite team that is a rival of theirs. IE: If I have Kansas selected as my favorite team, I can go online to see how many gamers have Missouri/Kansas State as their favorite team and are willing to play. This appears in the form of a US map with team icons placed on their current geographic position. This way, you can attempt to play someone close regionally to help minimize lag.

Online play has undergone a two-month optimization process to improve online connection and gamers can stay in touch with others via the Player Hub, as found in NHL 09 and Madden 09. Similar to NCAA Football 09, the online mode of NCAA basketball 09 will feature the ESPN College Basketball Game of the Week. Gamers can go online to play that match-up, and results will be tracked and announced on ESPN programming.


The final presentation of the day belonged to art director Chris Winters who detailed the visual improvements in the game.

- 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.)

To end the day, the presentation wrapped up with a roundtable. One of the main points of discussion was the visuals of EA Sports basketball titles compared to 2K Sports basketball titles. One of the attendees stated that they felt the players in NBA Live& NCAA Basketball looked ‘cartoony’ compared to NBA 2K, decreasing the visual realism of the title. After analyzing the player models in the game and discussion, several theories on why they appear ‘cartoony’ emerged. They include: lack of cloth movement on players in NCAA BB compared to NBA 2K & NBA Live, inability to scan in actual faces into NCAA games, lesser known players in college basketball, the length of player shorts in NCAA BB (at/below knee), and the shoulders on EA basketball player models.

Day Two

Day two of the event featured 10+ hours of playing NCAA Basketball 09 and discussing the game with producers. They walked around watching us play, sat down and discussed our thoughts, answered questions, and some even played the game against attendees. The format of this event and willingness of producers to sit down with us for two days should not be taken for granted. Tuesday evening I asked EA Canada Content & Community Leader Marcus Stephenson (‘EAcrazylegs’) how many members (percentage) of the NCAA basketball team came down for that day’s event. He quickly responded with “that was the team.” The team showed a very strong desire to get feedback not only for tweaks to NCAA Basketball 09, but also for the future of the franchise. They agree that their basketball titles have not been up to par the last few years, but definitely want to change that.

Also on day two, we were able to play NBA 2K8 and compare it to the visuals of NCAA Basketball alongside the producers of the game. Those in the group who play NBA 2K8 strongly felt that the visuals in that title were more impressive and accurate than those of EA basketball titles. Upon further examination and comparison (to NCAA Basketball and actual basketball clips on YouTube), we were able to see differences.

Visually from a distance, the players in NBA 2K8 looked like their real-life counterparts – tattoos & gear helping to make that happen. During a close-up, player faces did not look as accurate – eyes popping out, faces not accurate. In NCAA Basketball, we were playing with the roster file from March Madness 08 (yet to be updated for 08-09 season). The players were not equipped with any arm gear, making it more difficult to distinguish one player from another.

Next, we looked at player size in relation to the court. On one screen we had NCAA Basketball 09 paused and on another NBA 2K8. Initially, some thought the players in NCAA Basketball were too small for the size of the court. However, when compared to actual game clips on YouTube, the group seemed to agree that the player sizes were more accurate in NCAA Basketball and that in NBA 2K, the player models were larger than scale. It was in their movements (shorter, ‘baby steps’) that they were able to move on the court diminishing the larger player size.

During gameplay on each, it was pointed out by some that contact by opposing players (collisions) had more of a realistic impact in NBA 2K8 as compared to NCAA Basketball 09.

Other discussed topics in the day two roundtable included: EA’s two-button shot methodology in basketball titles, the lack of exportable draft classes from NCAA Basketball 09 to NBA Live 09, and the lack of injuries for player-controlled teams.

Dynasty Mode is one area most of us did not look deeply into as it is still being worked on at this time. To answer a very popular question, when you begin a Dynasty you have the option to allow your coach to be fired, receive job offers, start at any school or a small school – similar to the Coaching Legacy in the College Hoops franchise. However, there are no assistant coaches or coaching carousel. From what I could tell, coaches at CPU-controlled schools will stay there for the duration of the Dynasty.

At the conclusion of day two, I was able to play a few minutes of NBA Live 09 and was able to make some comparisons between the two titles, which I will discuss in another report.

This concludes the recap of the NCAA Basketball 09 Community Event. There will be two more articles breaking down the gameplay features of NCAA Basketball and also my thoughts on this title from the hands-on time.

Part II will be posted tomorrow and will contain in-depth discussion on the gameplay features & changes of NCAA Basketball 09.

[Tomba]

Real cool write up Chris!

[cdj]

Thanks, Paul.

Fortunately, the next two reports are much shorter in length than this novel.

[hustle55]

I like what i'm hearing and i will be picking this up.
Wish the dynasty had coaching carousel

[KClolz]

Finally authentic schedules~!

I hope this is for last-gen as well. God, I really need a PS3.

[scdb12]

I wonder why it took so long for them to get authentic schedules

[statum71]

Chris can you please find out another popular thing at the next event if you can :

In dynasty mode, is there more than one user controlled team or can players play any game they want ????

This was another March Madness hangup.

[cdj]

Originally Posted by scdb12

I wonder why it took so long for them to get authentic schedules

I know that Marcus (the EA Canada Community Leader) made a post on a fellow community site shortly after the release of MM 08 and said this title would have them. It sounded like the team heard the outcry of inaccurate schedules and made that a priority for 09.

Originally Posted by statum71

Chris can you please find out another popular thing at the next event if you can :

In dynasty mode, is there more than one user controlled team or can players play any game they want ????

This was another March Madness hangup.

If we don't hear anything by early November (via blogs, interviews, etc.) remind me and I'll drop an e-mail and see if we can get an answer. Dynasty Mode was a work-in-progress when I looked at it, so I don't want to guess either way.

[hustle55]

How many years does a dynasty last??
Do the players transfer??

[cdj]

Originally Posted by hustle55

How many years does a dynasty last??
Do the players transfer??

- I believe it's 30 seasons.
- Not sure. I'll try and look at MM08 sometime and see. That's a good question to ask later on, if we can submit questions in.

[ecwildcat]

my question is about the terrible , LAGGY online play for all ea sports games , especially the new college basketball game NCAA Basketball 09. i was a strict 2K sports guy myself. i especially loved college hoops 2K8 and for one specific reason - THE ONLINE PLAY WAS TERRIFIC AND MOST OF ALL , IT WAS LAG FREE ,... unlike the EA sports games of the present which are , imo , TERRIBLE to play online. it looks like i will have no choice but to buy EA's NCAA Basketball 09 when it hits the shelves , considering EA bought out 2K Sports' version of college hoops. so please EA , if you are going to fix anything about your college basketball franchise , PLEASE FIX THE ONLINE PLAY SO ITS NOT LAGGY AND IN A STATE OF SLOW MOTION ALL THE TIME. if 2Ksports can do it , and EA bought the rights to 2K's college basketball game , then why in the heck cant EA fix this nasty problem that has been associated with their sports games since online play began. ITS AN ONLINE WORLD ELECTRONIC ARTS , AND IF YOU CANT SEE THAT NOW ,... THEN YOU NEVER WILL. PLEASE FIX THIS PROBLEM !

[cdj]

Just found a small blurb online talking about the Blue Ribbon Analysis in NCAA Basketball 09:

Blue Ribbon preview

Simply put, the Blue Ribbon yearbook is the most detailed preview of the college basketball season. So we consider Blue Ribbon's predictions a thoughtful attempt to perceive the future. Blue Ribbon does not envision a banner year for the SEC. Editor Chris Dortch noted that only one SEC team made the publication's top 25: Tennessee at No. 9. Blue Ribbon can be ordered at www.blueribbonyearbook.com or by calling 866-805-2255.

By the way, this year Blue Ribbon has become partners with EA Sports, which makes NCAA Basketball 09, a popular video game. Blue Ribbon is providing team analysis to give players the same scouting tool that hundreds of D-I coaches use. - Link