NCAA March Madness 09 News Post

NCAA Basketball 09 Producer Blog #1 w/ OS Exclusive Screenshots

05:15 PM - October 10, 2008 by Steve_OS

We have just posted our NCAA Basketball 09 Producer Blog #1 with Gameplay Producer, Connor Dougan. He explains the gameplay engine and how the team made NCAA Basketball 09 better and different.

Check out the Operation Sports exclusive screenshots, right here.

Quote:


	"Hey what�s up everyone, my name is Connor Dougan and I�m a Producer on NCAA Basketball. I�m here to give you some details on NCAA Gameplay and the adoption of the EA SPORTS basketball engine into NCAA Basketball 09. Some of you may already be aware, NBA LIVE re-wrote their Gameplay engine a few years ago and it has seen significant improvement in 08 and in 09. At the end of the 08 product year for March Madness we felt that the basketball engine (shipped in LIVE 08) was in a state where we felt that that there was a strong, core foundation and ultimately, in a position for us to take it. The March Madness Gameplay engine was suffering from old tech resulting in poor animation blends, questionable physics and a code base that was very difficult to manage/maintain/enhance (to name a few issues). So� the EA SPORTS Gameplay engine was a go for NCAA Basketball 09."

NCAA Basketball 09 screenshot gallery - Click to view

Game: NCAA Basketball 09Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 29 - View All

NCAA Basketball 09 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 Jay Bishop @ 10/10/08 06:17 PM

Damn I wish they could DLC their improvements to LIVE. I would love to have that "cut the gather off from the block animation" joint. All of the responsiveness issues should be patched to Live!

# 2 asu666 @ 10/10/08 07:20 PM

EA still has a lot of major hurdles to clear in getting its college game up to the level of NCAA College Hoops 2K8. NCAA Basketball 09 will probably be decent, but will still need a lot of work to take the crown.

# 3 tril @ 10/11/08 01:27 AM

sounds promising!!

# 4 texbuk84 @ 10/11/08 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wsu_gb23


	If March Madness is going to have the same engine as Live, consider me out.....The players in the Live series have never moved right; everything just looks awkward....

amen to that brotha

# 5 texbuk84 @ 10/11/08 01:41 AM

i think they need to add the 2k engine to there portfolio then March Madness will be a good game

# 6 PaperLantern @ 10/11/08 01:52 AM

LOL @ the second to last picture.

Cole Aldrich looks like a clown in this game. He looked bad in 2k8, but this is just horrible. He's almost bald IRL, but they've got him with a LAME hairstyle in this pic.

# 7 DubTrey1 @ 10/11/08 01:29 PM

I suppose I will wait for the demo on this one before I absolutely dismiss this game.

# 8 Alliball @ 10/11/08 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaperLantern


	LOL @ the second to last picture. Cole Aldrich looks like a clown in this game. He looked bad in 2k8, but this is just horrible. He's almost bald IRL, but they've got him with a LAME hairstyle in this pic.

Gamekiller?

Good Lord

# 9 whittleboy615 @ 10/11/08 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaperLantern


	LOL @ the second to last picture. Cole Aldrich looks like a clown in this game. He looked bad in 2k8, but this is just horrible. He's almost bald IRL, but they've got him with a LAME hairstyle in this pic.

So edit his appearance.

College games are not allowed to make their players look just like the real persons. It's against NCAA regulations.

# 10 Tomba @ 10/11/08 03:22 PM

The team is intent on establishing itself as a good college basketball brand. Sean and company listened to all of us carefully and I directly saw the excitement they had over their alpha build of the game even though we did pick it apart as much as we could and gave enough suggestions that would hopefully benefit this years title more.

I'll say right now it was better playing then NBA Live 09 and that is exactly what they were ehaded for and wanted. To be a better basketball game then NBA Live because they improved on the engine they were given. NBA Live 09 was roughly like 2 months done when we saw NCAA 09 so the improve from that game to NCAA was fairly decent.

These producer blogs and EA being on these very boards themselves and getting us guys involved is so that the right information comes out...

# 11 Glenn33 @ 10/11/08 05:21 PM

After playing NBA Live 09 - I am PLENTY excited for this game. I am a Believer!

# 12 Behindshadows @ 10/11/08 07:41 PM

Love the screenshots, thanks Steve for sharing. Player models look good

# 13 Cusefan @ 10/11/08 10:06 PM

The Carrier Dome Looks Sexy, Cant wait...

# 14 Ceothachosen1 @ 10/12/08 12:27 PM

im a 2k guy but i will give it a try if they are really putting work into it how is the recruiting?

# 15 sportdan30 @ 10/12/08 09:17 PM

I'd love to hear if they changed the responsiveness in regards to the jump button. The delay is quite frustrating.

# 16 whittleboy615 @ 10/12/08 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sportdan30


	I'd love to hear if they changed the responsiveness in regards to the jump button. The delay is quite frustrating.

See here:

-We cut off the gather from our block animations so you�ll get up much faster to challenge the shots.

# 17 PaulZweber @ 10/13/08 12:19 PM

Looks like a rental, I wasn't impressed by this years Live, so hopefully the "improvements" actually happen or improve gameplay.

# 18 HechticSooner @ 10/14/08 02:40 AM

Yet no talk about recruiting college is all about recruiting and not one single thing about it. That worries me bigtime.

# 19 Brandwin @ 10/15/08 12:29 AM

ON my radar, but i need some dynasty mode info too.

# 20 ravensfan53 @ 10/20/08 06:37 PM

I agree, gameplay is important and all of the improvements sound nice, but I loved the 2K college series and not just because of the gameplay, but because of the recruiting and all the rest of the dynasty features. It's what college sports are all about and I hope we don't just see a knock off of NCAA Football's recruiting engine, a different sport deserves a different style of recruiting. I love college hoops and will probably give this game a shot, but if not I always have 2K8 to fall back on.

More Links

NCAA Basketball 09 Producer Blog #1 w/ OS Exclusive Screenshots