With the help of our readers and EA Sports, we had an opportunity to interview Ben Haumilller, Assistant Producer and Ian Cummings, Associate Producer of NCAA Football 08.

Operation Sports:  We keep hearing about the “new and deeper recruiting”. Can you give us some detailed information on this?

Ben/Ian:  This year recruiting will be much more in-depth. The entire year’s recruiting database is available to you at the start of each year as you truly recruit year round. The new telephone mechanic allows you to interact with the prospects as you learn how the prospect feels about each of the 14 different pitches compared to how your school rates in those pitches. If the recruit isn’t really feeling what you have to offer you can attempt to sway his opinion of the pitch. You can assign activities for on-campus visits as well as decide what you are going to talk to a recruit about when you are on an in-home visit. For the first time you can recruit a player without offering them a scholarship, and get on the spot commitments if a scholarship is offered to a recruit that is interested enough. We have implemented a new search engine that allows you to filter through the prospect database to find the players that best fit the needs of your program. Additionally, you can make promises to recruits in order to help seal the deal and get a commitment. The better you are at keeping promises the more weight they will carry, and you will unlock more promises to use.  However, if you are not a man of your word players will transfer and your promises will not be as effective.

Operation Sports:  Will corner routes be defended better?

Ben/Ian:  Yes. As you’ve probably read from many of the previews, our deep zone coverage has improved 10-fold, and that came from a re-write of our Deep Zone AI. You’ll see deep safeties really pushing deeper right at the snap and also using the sideline to their advantage much more realistically.

Operation Sports:  Will we see gang tackling? If so, how many variations of it will we see?

Ben/Ian:  Yes, gang tackling is in and it’s a major game changer. It’s not just about canned 3 man animations.  Tackles and broken tackles can all be stolen and added onto to get a really dynamic feel. There are even branch points where a defender can knock off another defender and have a ballcarrier slip out of a tackle that had already started. I can’t talk enough about the technology – you’re going to have to play it for yourself and you’ll really see the improvement.

Operation Sports:  Will the inside running game be a bit better this year? Most inside runs last year ended up being bounced outside too often.

Ben/Ian:  The inside running game has improved drastically, due mostly in part to the all new blocking systems we’ve implemented this year. More details on this to come at the EA Producer blogs.

Operation Sports:  What can you tell us about the ESPN implementation?

Ben/Ian:  For ESPN we will have ESPN Motion video that will be played on the video wall in the Shrine, ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates, ESPN News articles, as well as the ESPN ticker with live sports scores. In addition to this we will still have commentary with Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso. We have added Chris Fowler into the mix this year.  He provides the voice for the tutorial videos as well as provide the audio for each of the trophies. Fowler will give the history behind each trophy you have won as you view the trophies in detail. ESPN Instant Classics will list out the top 10 games you have played in.  In addition, you will also be able to view any highlights you have saved from these games. In Dynasty mode we have added ESPN.com, this acts as the hub for your dynasty as you will be able to see the top story lines on both the national front as well as for your individual team. Here you will also be able to view the top 25 polls, take a look at the conference standings, see the top 25 toughest places to play and other dynasty based screens.

Operation Sports:  How has momentum been tweaked?

Ben/Ian:  We have gone away from team based momentum and brought it down to an individual player basis. Through your actions on the field and through the performance of the players you will be able to affect individual player’s motivation levels. As players move into different levels their ratings will change accordingly.  If a player is having a bad game you will notice a hit to their ratings, while players that are having good games will be rewarded with boosts to their position specific ratings. Any player can now become “In the Zone” if they are playing well enough. Once a player is in the zone they can trigger a motivation boost for their teammates by making a big play. Once the motivation boost is triggered the other 10 players on the field at that time will all received boosts to their motivation.

Operation Sports:  Are there any new player ratings?

Ben/Ian:  We have added the following ratings:

-         Spectacular Catch determines how often a receiver will make a “highlight catch”. There are catch animations that are specific for spectacular catches and only receivers that have a high enough rating will be able to perform these catches.

-         Catch in Traffic determines the receiver’s ability to catch the ball in a crowd and while getting hit.

-         Route Running determines the receiver’s ability to get open when running a route.

-         Release determines how well the receiver is able to beat press/bump coverage.

-         Press determines how successful the defensive back is at playing press/bump coverage.

-         Hit Power determines how often a tackler makes big hits and forces fumbles.

Operation Sports:  Is there a progressive fatigue system?

Ben/Ian:  The new fatigue system is one of the features I’m most proud of. It tracks dynamically throughout the play, based on each animation and move you do. It also factors in weather and your ratings too, so if a cold weather team goes into Miami, the Hurricanes won’t be getting as fatigued at home. You’ll even get to see it in special animations – running, hurdles, jukes, dives, stances, fakeouts, post play, and more. Basically, when your player is fatigued, you’ll be able to visually see it instead of having to check a screen or a meter. It’s a really killer moment when you run a big kick back where you had to break a few tackles and cover a lot of ground, and you see your guy really start to chug once he gets close to the endzone.

You describe Dynasty Mode as a “revolutionary dynasty experience”. Can you give us some detailed information on this? Will we see early entrants, decommits, guys with grade problems, etc.?

Obviously the big dog for the new dynasty experience this year is the new recruiting mode. Recruiting is all about the relationships the prospects develop with coaches and this year you will really get a chance to get to know a prospect during the recruiting of that player. You are able to build up an association with each player to the point where they are not just another nameless face showing up for the first practice in the fall.

Speaking of practice, you will now be able to enter practice mode at any point during the season. So now you don’t need to throw that freshman QB taking over for a four year starter to the wolves in their first game.  You will have a chance to give your players some reps in practice to get your depth chart just right before heading into a game.

Additionally we have added ESPN.com which was mentioned above. In addition to the stories and features on ESPN.com we also utilized our photo technology so that if you save a photo from a dynasty game, and there is a story about your game on ESPN.com, a photo you saved will be displayed on the ESPN.com screen.

We have modified the in-season progression of player ratings so that they can be updated after each week instead of at set points during the season. Now you will see players that are progressing well during the season go on hot streaks as their ratings improve.

Operation Sports:  Will we be able to fully customize everything (Equipment, Ratings, Positions, #’s, etc.) on Next Gen?

Ben/Ian:  Yes, you will have full control over the bio, appearance, equipment, and skills of both the players on the roster as well as any created player.

Operation Sports:  Have any changes been made in the kicking game?

Ben/Ian:  The main changes with kicking come from tuning. Last year poorly rated kickers were pretty much spot-on accurate, all the time, even with the sliders adjusted. We scaled this down much more for college to more accurately reflect the difficulty of the game, and also tuned the effect the sliders have on gameplay. You’ll definitely see a lot of variance from kickers with lower ratings where – they don’t just kick down the middle. You may even see a missed PAT every now and then!

Operation Sports:  How much bigger are the play books this year?

Ben/Ian:  The playbooks have been expanded to add in all the trick plays, auto-motion plays, and just in general to get a more accurate representation of play calling for each school. You’ll see the Statue of Liberty and Flea Flicker, as well as some great ones returning like the Fake FB Dive HB Toss. Auto motion really expanded the play creation possibilities.  Now we can correctly model things like the Wildcat formation as well as add some cool trick plays. Also be on the lookout for the Florida playbook – it’s got some really unique plays in there as well.

Operation Sports:  What Current Gen features will be coming over to the Next Gen game this year?

Ben/Ian:  Campus Legend makes its debut on next gen this year.  You will be able to either select a player on a current roster or create a player from scratch. If you select a current player you will take over that player in their current class year (i.e. selecting a senior QB will begin the mode at the start of his senior campaign). If you create a player from scratch you will guide them through their high school playoffs as you attempt to earn a scholarship offer. Once on campus it’s up to you to work your way up the depth chart through in-game performance and performance in practice. Once your college career is complete you will be able to export your player into Madden’s SuperStar mode. The dynasty feedback system is back in next gen in the form of ESPN.com.  It is here where you will be able to follow all of the action that is going on during your dynasty experience. The dynasty record book returns this year that tracks not only NCAA records but team records as well. There is a full create-a-player that allows you to edit all aspects of your players. Trophies make their return in the all new Shrine. You will be able to win rivalry trophies as well as championship trophies and individual awards during Dynasty and Campus Legend mode.

Operation Sports:  Could you give us the top five rated teams and players in the game?

Ben/Ian:  The top 5 teams are: USC, Michigan, LSU, Florida, Texas.

The top 5 players are: Arkansas HB#5, Penn State MLB#40, USC LT#79, Michigan LE #55, and Louisville QB #12.

Operation Sports:  How many new stadiums are in the game?

Ben/Ian:  We will have 116 unique stadiums this year as well as updates to stadiums for schools like Alabama, Texas, NC State, as well as others.

Operation Sports:  Have things such as "phantom tackles" been addressed?

Ben/Ian:  Yes…the phantom sack and any other phantom tackles should all have been addressed.

Operation Sports:  We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the interview, is there anything else you would like to add?

Ben/Ian:  The main point we can make is that with any chance you get – try to get your hands on this game and try it out. We can confidently say that 08 is definitely the year you should make the switch to nextgen and give it a shot. From the gameplay side of things the dynamic control and branching animations, silky 60fps gameplay, dynamic gang tackling, and all the “wow” moments from our spectacular catches, mid-air collisions, and the hundreds of other new animations really make this our best game to date. We hope you enjoy it – it’s been an extremely technically challenging year, but the end-goal has made it all worth it.

In addition to rock solid gameplay there are a ton of features in the game this year. From Campus Legend mode, where you can create a player from scratch and lead them through their high school playoffs as you try to earn a scholarship offer, and eventually work your way through your college career before having the ability to export him into Madden’s SuperStar mode, to the improvements to Dynasty, to even smaller features such as the Weather Channel live feed that allows you to play in the current weather conditions for the stadium you are playing at, there is plenty for everyone in this year’s game. And with our new video highlight technology you will be able to show everyone your greatest moments by saving the replay during the game then uploading it to the web so you can share it with your friends, or just view the replay over and over again from the comforts of your Shrine.