RockTheCasba
03-03-2007, 03:46 PM
i always buy this game i am looking forward to this one for sure.
Ncaa Football 2008 (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/769/769435p1.html)
NCAA Football 08 First Details
Surprise cover athlete Jared Zabransky and EA Tiburon explain Leadership Control, Campus Legend and, oh yeah, the Statue of Liberty.
by Jonathan Miller
March 2, 2007 - Troy Smith. Chris Leak. Brady Quinn.
A Heisman Trophy winner, a national champion and a household name.
These would have been the easy picks to front NCAA Football 08, the next installment in Electronic Arts' vaunted franchise, slated to hit the Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 this summer. Look back at past covers and that's what you see: Heisman winners, national champs and marketable household names. That's what college football fans expect.
But doing what everyone expects has gotten EA Sports into trouble as of late. Its library of next-generation sports titles have received lukewarm reception from fans for being feature-light and a tad, well, boring. At the same time, interest in current-generation games is waning as they seem to have reached an innovation plateau. So, EA decided it's time to do the unexpected.
The cover athlete of NCAA Football 08 will be Jared Zabransky.
Jared Zabransky?
Casual football fans around the country are wondering, "Who the heck is Jared Zabransky?" Hardcore fans already know the answer. The former Boise State quarterback led the Broncos to an undefeated season in 2006, and Z, as his friends call him, compiled a 32-5 record as a starter. For those keeping track, that's more wins than Smith, Leak and Quinn, and more than every other quarterback at the 2007 NFL Combine.
Most recently, Zabransky was named the 2007 Fiesta Bowl MVP after guiding the underdog Broncos over Oklahoma, bringing his team back from certain defeat in the final seconds, scoring on a miraculous hook-and-lateral trick play on fourth-and-18 to force overtime. After scoring on a halfback pass in OT to get within one, Boise State opted to go for the win with a two-point conversion. Cool as ever, Zabransky faked a throw to his three receivers to the right, slyly handed off to Ian Johnson who then outran the Sooner defense for the win, a Statue of Liberty play that cemented the game as one of the greatest ever played.
That's leadership. And that's what EA is banking on in NCAA 08.
"A lot of intangibles go into being a leader," says Zabransky. We're eating breakfast at Disney's MGM Studios in Orlando, Fla., in between an ESPN Radio interview and an appearance on Cold Pizza where he would officially break the news that he's on the cover of NCAA 08. "We were fortunate to have a core group of seniors, 23 seniors and 13 senior starters, so we had a lot of leaders on our team."
But how do you incorporate an intangible like leadership in a videogame? "Um, maybe extra turbo?" Zabransky jokes. EA's Kendall Boyd has an idea. The product manager of NCAA 08 wants to reward players for, well, for making plays. While the game is still deep in development, Boyd says the new Leadership Control will reward users that select a player and stick with him. On defense, if you're a linebacker and fill your gap and stuff the run, you'll be rewarded. How exactly we don't yet know. But we do know that you will receive a report card at the end of every game detailing how you played individually, how well you led your team.
"It's about your ability, not letting the AI catch balls and make tackles for you. It's about what you can do," stressed Boyd from the Green Room at EA Tiburon in Orlando, Fla. Posters and pennants line the walls and a sign outside informs us the room is reserved for Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN talent that dropped by the day before to lend their voices to NCAA 08. "We want to reward users who do all the things it takes to win at that level."
In the revamped Dynasty mode, player leadership and coaching integrity will be integral to your team's success, inspired somewhat by the journey of the Boise State football team. The Broncos have barely enjoyed a decade as a Division 1-A school, having been among the dominant Division 1-AA schools in the early '90s. In the last ten years the Broncos have won more game than any other D-1 team. Former coach Dan Hawkins compiled a 92-23-1 record before leaving for Colorado last season and handing the reins to Chris Peterson, who went 13-0. The Broncos rise to prominence and their recent bowl victory has been so inspiring that a -- you guess it -- inspirational sports movie is in the works - not bad for a team that plays its home games on blue turf.
"Yeah, it was a marketing idea like 20 years ago and it stuck," Zabransky says of the Smurf turf. "It was brand new five years ago, but now it could use some work." Maybe a few million BCS dollars can get the ball rolling.
Indeed, if anything can keep the ball rolling for the Boise State program, it's that amazing victory. Over the past decade, with the leadership of players like Zabransky and former quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie and tight end Jeb Putzier, little Boise State won more games, which in turn helped little Boise State land better recruits, which in turn helped little Boise State win more games. Suddenly little Boise State isn't so little anymore. In NCAA 08, it's up to you to improve your school's prestige.
"If you take your team from a three-star rating to a five-star rating and you win the BCS title game, you'll be the reason," says EA's Boyd.
The Broncos' amazing run helped spur the NCAA to consider a plus-one game in as early as 2010, a game that, if played this year, could have pitted Boise State against Florida, a game that would have let the undefeated Broncos argue their case for a title on the field.
"The BCS is getting better, but I don't think it will ever be perfect," says Zabransky, who recommends a top 25 playoff with the No. 1 team getting a first round bye. BCS complaints aside, we've come a long way in college football if we are arguing for Boise State to be included in a national title game. That's prestige.
EA is putting a focus on prestige with new features like coaching integrity and a new recruiting system for Dynasty mode. Potential recruits will latch on to coaches that deliver on promises, and they'll bolt on coaches that don't.
"If during the recruiting process you promise a player that he will start as a freshman and you don't start him, he's going to transfer," Boyd says. "Recruiting has never been this dynamic."
A new recruit search tool will ease the process as well, helping you as coach/athletic director/God of your team better fill your offseason gaps. You want a possession receiver with hands or a burner that can stretch the defense? How about a scrambler like Vince Young or traditional pocket passer like Matt Leinart? Look him up. And if you're trying to bring respect to a tiny school like Louisiana-Monroe, you can find the best the bayou has to offer, if LSU hasn't already snatched 'em up.
As a high school recruit, Zabransky grew up on a potato farm in little Hermiston, Ore., a town better known for its seedless watermelon than star-athletes. And Zabransky was a star, a Jimmy Chitwood of football, baseball and basketball and named Eastern Oregon's Athlete of the year as a junior in 2000. For fun, there was little more to do than ride dirt bikes, pop in Tecmo Super Bowl, play a lot of sports, and, oh yeah, throw potatoes.
"We'd just get bored and see how far we could throw 'em. I'd say I could get one about 80 yards," said Zabransky. Yeah, he's a small-town kid, modest but confident in his athletic ability, and he should be. At the NFL Combine last week he topped the list of quarterbacks in the 40-yard dash and tied for first with QBs and receivers in the 20-yard shuttle. (They also peppered him with interviews, asking questions like "If your house was on fire, what one thing would you bring with you?" Zabransky chose a gift from a friend, a bible.) As you can imagine, little Hermiston is oh so proud of its native son and proudly proclaims itself as "Home of Boise State Quarterback Jared Zabransky" every chance it gets. He's every bit a campus legend.
Don't be jealous. You'll get your chance too as Campus Legend mode makes its next-generation debut in NCAA 08 and is still going strong on Xbox and PS2. In Campus Legend, you'll create a raw freshman and compete for a position on the starting roster of your chosen school. Tiburon is experimenting with different camera angles, but it sounds as if the mode will resemble Madden NFL 07's Superstar mode in which you control your created player from a third-person perspective for the duration of his career.
This time, you'll have to earn your starting spot week in and week out in practice, Boyd says. Through a series of drills and position-specific mini-games, we assume, you'll work your way up the depth chart. But if you expect to sign on at Columbus and usurp a guy like Troy Smith at quarterback, you're in for one helluva challenge. Last season, academics came into play too, although Tiburon is still deciding whether or not exams will be included this year.
For the PS2 and Xbox, EA reached out to the community and asked fans to vote on new features they would like to see in the game. Boyd thought they'd go for medical redshirts, but the fans voted instead for summer workouts. Look for those to play a part as well. Unfortunately, there will be no girlfriends in Campus Legend on the 360 or PS3, but the fan-favorite feature will return on Xbox and PS2. Zabransky sees the argument from both sides.
"Girlfriends can be a distraction if you let it," he says. "After my junior season, I broke up with a girlfriend to focus completely on football."
Yeah, if you get past the girls, the parties and the dorm food, you just might find yourself in a BCS bowl, ready to run your own Statue of Liberty. Trick plays will make it onto the 360 and PS3 this year, although they will be specific to each team's playbook. EA wouldn't say much, but we do know that Boise State will have the Statue of Liberty and Hook and Lateral ready to go. But can you execute?
"We made it look pretty easy," Zabransky says of his famous Statue of Liberty. "That play never worked before."
That's what EA is hoping to bring to NCAA 08.
"Trick plays are not going to work every time," Boyd says. "These aren't 'gimme plays,' and there's a lot of risk-reward involved."
What, like winning the Fiesta Bowl and landing on the cover of a videogame and going down as one of the greatest athletes ever to play for your university? That's plenty reward for Zabransky, now expected to be drafted next month into the NFL, thanks in a very small part to a couple of trick plays in one of the most exciting games of all time. The rest of it might have something to do with putting up good numbers and a career of winning games his team wasn't supposed to win. And just like that, teams like Oregon State, Utah and Oklahoma changed their tune from "Who's Boise State?" to "Holy s***, it's Boise State."
"That game is what it took to get us on everyone's radar and get the respect we deserve," Zabransky says of the Fiesta Bowl.
And what legacy will NCAA 08 leave? Boyd smiles when he thinks about it, listing new stadiums like Cal, BYU, Vandy and Texas Tech, but then he gets quiet.
"I can't say much now, but we've got some surprises. Fans are going to be happy this year."
Ncaa Football 2008 (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/769/769435p1.html)
NCAA Football 08 First Details
Surprise cover athlete Jared Zabransky and EA Tiburon explain Leadership Control, Campus Legend and, oh yeah, the Statue of Liberty.
by Jonathan Miller
March 2, 2007 - Troy Smith. Chris Leak. Brady Quinn.
A Heisman Trophy winner, a national champion and a household name.
These would have been the easy picks to front NCAA Football 08, the next installment in Electronic Arts' vaunted franchise, slated to hit the Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 this summer. Look back at past covers and that's what you see: Heisman winners, national champs and marketable household names. That's what college football fans expect.
But doing what everyone expects has gotten EA Sports into trouble as of late. Its library of next-generation sports titles have received lukewarm reception from fans for being feature-light and a tad, well, boring. At the same time, interest in current-generation games is waning as they seem to have reached an innovation plateau. So, EA decided it's time to do the unexpected.
The cover athlete of NCAA Football 08 will be Jared Zabransky.
Jared Zabransky?
Casual football fans around the country are wondering, "Who the heck is Jared Zabransky?" Hardcore fans already know the answer. The former Boise State quarterback led the Broncos to an undefeated season in 2006, and Z, as his friends call him, compiled a 32-5 record as a starter. For those keeping track, that's more wins than Smith, Leak and Quinn, and more than every other quarterback at the 2007 NFL Combine.
Most recently, Zabransky was named the 2007 Fiesta Bowl MVP after guiding the underdog Broncos over Oklahoma, bringing his team back from certain defeat in the final seconds, scoring on a miraculous hook-and-lateral trick play on fourth-and-18 to force overtime. After scoring on a halfback pass in OT to get within one, Boise State opted to go for the win with a two-point conversion. Cool as ever, Zabransky faked a throw to his three receivers to the right, slyly handed off to Ian Johnson who then outran the Sooner defense for the win, a Statue of Liberty play that cemented the game as one of the greatest ever played.
That's leadership. And that's what EA is banking on in NCAA 08.
"A lot of intangibles go into being a leader," says Zabransky. We're eating breakfast at Disney's MGM Studios in Orlando, Fla., in between an ESPN Radio interview and an appearance on Cold Pizza where he would officially break the news that he's on the cover of NCAA 08. "We were fortunate to have a core group of seniors, 23 seniors and 13 senior starters, so we had a lot of leaders on our team."
But how do you incorporate an intangible like leadership in a videogame? "Um, maybe extra turbo?" Zabransky jokes. EA's Kendall Boyd has an idea. The product manager of NCAA 08 wants to reward players for, well, for making plays. While the game is still deep in development, Boyd says the new Leadership Control will reward users that select a player and stick with him. On defense, if you're a linebacker and fill your gap and stuff the run, you'll be rewarded. How exactly we don't yet know. But we do know that you will receive a report card at the end of every game detailing how you played individually, how well you led your team.
"It's about your ability, not letting the AI catch balls and make tackles for you. It's about what you can do," stressed Boyd from the Green Room at EA Tiburon in Orlando, Fla. Posters and pennants line the walls and a sign outside informs us the room is reserved for Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN talent that dropped by the day before to lend their voices to NCAA 08. "We want to reward users who do all the things it takes to win at that level."
In the revamped Dynasty mode, player leadership and coaching integrity will be integral to your team's success, inspired somewhat by the journey of the Boise State football team. The Broncos have barely enjoyed a decade as a Division 1-A school, having been among the dominant Division 1-AA schools in the early '90s. In the last ten years the Broncos have won more game than any other D-1 team. Former coach Dan Hawkins compiled a 92-23-1 record before leaving for Colorado last season and handing the reins to Chris Peterson, who went 13-0. The Broncos rise to prominence and their recent bowl victory has been so inspiring that a -- you guess it -- inspirational sports movie is in the works - not bad for a team that plays its home games on blue turf.
"Yeah, it was a marketing idea like 20 years ago and it stuck," Zabransky says of the Smurf turf. "It was brand new five years ago, but now it could use some work." Maybe a few million BCS dollars can get the ball rolling.
Indeed, if anything can keep the ball rolling for the Boise State program, it's that amazing victory. Over the past decade, with the leadership of players like Zabransky and former quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie and tight end Jeb Putzier, little Boise State won more games, which in turn helped little Boise State land better recruits, which in turn helped little Boise State win more games. Suddenly little Boise State isn't so little anymore. In NCAA 08, it's up to you to improve your school's prestige.
"If you take your team from a three-star rating to a five-star rating and you win the BCS title game, you'll be the reason," says EA's Boyd.
The Broncos' amazing run helped spur the NCAA to consider a plus-one game in as early as 2010, a game that, if played this year, could have pitted Boise State against Florida, a game that would have let the undefeated Broncos argue their case for a title on the field.
"The BCS is getting better, but I don't think it will ever be perfect," says Zabransky, who recommends a top 25 playoff with the No. 1 team getting a first round bye. BCS complaints aside, we've come a long way in college football if we are arguing for Boise State to be included in a national title game. That's prestige.
EA is putting a focus on prestige with new features like coaching integrity and a new recruiting system for Dynasty mode. Potential recruits will latch on to coaches that deliver on promises, and they'll bolt on coaches that don't.
"If during the recruiting process you promise a player that he will start as a freshman and you don't start him, he's going to transfer," Boyd says. "Recruiting has never been this dynamic."
A new recruit search tool will ease the process as well, helping you as coach/athletic director/God of your team better fill your offseason gaps. You want a possession receiver with hands or a burner that can stretch the defense? How about a scrambler like Vince Young or traditional pocket passer like Matt Leinart? Look him up. And if you're trying to bring respect to a tiny school like Louisiana-Monroe, you can find the best the bayou has to offer, if LSU hasn't already snatched 'em up.
As a high school recruit, Zabransky grew up on a potato farm in little Hermiston, Ore., a town better known for its seedless watermelon than star-athletes. And Zabransky was a star, a Jimmy Chitwood of football, baseball and basketball and named Eastern Oregon's Athlete of the year as a junior in 2000. For fun, there was little more to do than ride dirt bikes, pop in Tecmo Super Bowl, play a lot of sports, and, oh yeah, throw potatoes.
"We'd just get bored and see how far we could throw 'em. I'd say I could get one about 80 yards," said Zabransky. Yeah, he's a small-town kid, modest but confident in his athletic ability, and he should be. At the NFL Combine last week he topped the list of quarterbacks in the 40-yard dash and tied for first with QBs and receivers in the 20-yard shuttle. (They also peppered him with interviews, asking questions like "If your house was on fire, what one thing would you bring with you?" Zabransky chose a gift from a friend, a bible.) As you can imagine, little Hermiston is oh so proud of its native son and proudly proclaims itself as "Home of Boise State Quarterback Jared Zabransky" every chance it gets. He's every bit a campus legend.
Don't be jealous. You'll get your chance too as Campus Legend mode makes its next-generation debut in NCAA 08 and is still going strong on Xbox and PS2. In Campus Legend, you'll create a raw freshman and compete for a position on the starting roster of your chosen school. Tiburon is experimenting with different camera angles, but it sounds as if the mode will resemble Madden NFL 07's Superstar mode in which you control your created player from a third-person perspective for the duration of his career.
This time, you'll have to earn your starting spot week in and week out in practice, Boyd says. Through a series of drills and position-specific mini-games, we assume, you'll work your way up the depth chart. But if you expect to sign on at Columbus and usurp a guy like Troy Smith at quarterback, you're in for one helluva challenge. Last season, academics came into play too, although Tiburon is still deciding whether or not exams will be included this year.
For the PS2 and Xbox, EA reached out to the community and asked fans to vote on new features they would like to see in the game. Boyd thought they'd go for medical redshirts, but the fans voted instead for summer workouts. Look for those to play a part as well. Unfortunately, there will be no girlfriends in Campus Legend on the 360 or PS3, but the fan-favorite feature will return on Xbox and PS2. Zabransky sees the argument from both sides.
"Girlfriends can be a distraction if you let it," he says. "After my junior season, I broke up with a girlfriend to focus completely on football."
Yeah, if you get past the girls, the parties and the dorm food, you just might find yourself in a BCS bowl, ready to run your own Statue of Liberty. Trick plays will make it onto the 360 and PS3 this year, although they will be specific to each team's playbook. EA wouldn't say much, but we do know that Boise State will have the Statue of Liberty and Hook and Lateral ready to go. But can you execute?
"We made it look pretty easy," Zabransky says of his famous Statue of Liberty. "That play never worked before."
That's what EA is hoping to bring to NCAA 08.
"Trick plays are not going to work every time," Boyd says. "These aren't 'gimme plays,' and there's a lot of risk-reward involved."
What, like winning the Fiesta Bowl and landing on the cover of a videogame and going down as one of the greatest athletes ever to play for your university? That's plenty reward for Zabransky, now expected to be drafted next month into the NFL, thanks in a very small part to a couple of trick plays in one of the most exciting games of all time. The rest of it might have something to do with putting up good numbers and a career of winning games his team wasn't supposed to win. And just like that, teams like Oregon State, Utah and Oklahoma changed their tune from "Who's Boise State?" to "Holy s***, it's Boise State."
"That game is what it took to get us on everyone's radar and get the respect we deserve," Zabransky says of the Fiesta Bowl.
And what legacy will NCAA 08 leave? Boyd smiles when he thinks about it, listing new stadiums like Cal, BYU, Vandy and Texas Tech, but then he gets quiet.
"I can't say much now, but we've got some surprises. Fans are going to be happy this year."