TheXboxLife

Alright all you collegiate basketball lovers out there, EA is making a name change from the tenured “March Madness” title, to the new and improved “NCAA Basketball 2009″. The reasoning for this name change comes in part by the fact that there is much more to the college basketball season then just March Madness. It takes a lot more hard work through a long, physical, as well as academic, season to reach the Big Dance. The goal of the new game, which is to be released in the late fall, is to promote the rivalries, home-court advantage, loud arenas, mascots and overall setting for collegiate basketball games.



EA has announced that the cover design for this years release will include UCLA Alum, and Timberwolves Rookie Forward, Kevin Love. Love, who led the Bruins to a Final Four birth, along with being crowned Pac-10’s Player of the Year, will be the spokesperson and celebrity promoter for the release.

The new game will offer some much improved tweaks to the only college basketball game being released this year, including improved ball-physics, 1,000+ new sequences and animations, accompanied by Division I Coach advice.

The game will be running on the same engine being used for NBA Live 09, which will allow for smoother body movements and sequences, better ball physics, and an overall improvement to the rhythm and feel of the game. A new “tempo setter” feature will also be included. At the beginning of the game you will choose the type of “tempo” you want your team to run at. Whether it be half-court balanced, up and down offense, or a slow, low energy game, you choose how you want your team to play the game. The feature will allow you to play “your schools” tempo of basketball, which will lead to more strategic game plans, and overall enjoyment with victory.

Along with the tempo feature comes something never before seen in any NCAA game release: coach advice. During the game you will have the option to take coaching advice from your sideline instructor. From improvements on your sloppy play, to taking advantage of opportunities, coach’s will chime in and give you their 2cents on how you should improve.

Of course the commentating will be handled by none other then Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale, leading you through your exciting and “sensational” season. As for Online play, you probably won’t see it until 2010, when “more then 2 player” online play will be guaranteed. Sorry all you XBOX Live fans, you’ll have to wait one more season.

Look for the Canadian EA Developer Team to ship to the US in late Fall, 2008.

My wife keeps telling me I’m wasting my precious time on games, then I just tell her to shut up =D