Testing a Sports Video Game
October 4th, 2008 Posted in Video Game Dev, Video Game IndustryAs a longtime sports video game geek, it was a unique opportunity.
Electronic Arts Canada community manager Marcus Stephenson, a longtime online friend from our years playing Madden football and conversing on the game’s related message boards, sent me a PM (private message) in early September and asked: “How would you like to come out to Vancouver and help us test a game?”
Frankly, it was probably like Cindy Crawford asking Hugh Hefner if she could do a spread in his magazine. Uh, yes, I would.
The game? EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball 09. (Sports gaming companies generally give their games the next year designation. Why? To be completely honest, not sure of the answer, just used to the system.)
My first thought was — should Marcus know I’m not exactly the world’s most diehard NCAA basketball fan (at least since short shorts in the ’80s went out of fashion)?”
There are people infinitely more qualified to test an NCAA basketball game. I’m more of an NBA fan. And, for that matter, would prefer to test EA Sports’ Madden or NHL games.”
Stephenson said the company wanted critical voices to go over the game and bring in-depth suggestions.
Not a lot of convincing was necessary.
The company invited 10 or so “community leaders” — fellow geeks who run websites or write articles for such sites. At the very least, if nothing else, it would be a good chance for an Intelligencer article or two.
The participants were from all walks of life: a farmer from Nebraska, a music producer from Connecticut, a security specialist from Ottawa, a U. S. national sports editor for USA Today who runs his own sportsgaming website ( www.5w-g.com)and a pair of gamers from Atlanta. Ga., who run their own website www.konsolekingz.com.All are hardcore sports gamers. Their ages ran from 20 to the grumpy, old man of the group at 42. (We’ll leave his name out of this article to spare the old man).
The event would run over two days.
On Day 1, the game’s producers spent seven hours telling us their goals for the new game.
The producers fed us info about their game and we tore them apart for weaknesses in their previous college basketball effort — March Madness 08.
The game was re-named NCAA Basketball for a few reasons — the biggest probably the fact that EA Sports will be the only company producing an NCAA basketball game this year. It’s No. 1 competitor, 2k Sports, dropped NCAA basketball to solely focus on its excellent NBA2k series.
For an hour that day, we spent time at EA Canada’s NHL 09 launch event.
During that event, we found out about Belleville native Matt Mahar, a producer for NHL 09. Ding, ding, ding! Intelligencer article taken care of. Later, two more Belleville natives were found at EA Canada’s Burnaby, B. C. facility– Matt’s brother Mike and Brian Hayes — both producers on EA’s boxing game Fight Night 4. That article appeared in The Intell Sept. 17.
Day 2 of the event was around 12 hours of non-stop gameplay. It was both fun and gruelling. (I know, cue the violin, playing a game for 12 hours).
During the testing phase, if we saw something we didn’t like, we paused the game, took down notes and talked with the producers. Halfway through the gameplay testing, we sat down as a group to give our impressions of the game and what the producers could do better.
It was an eye-opening experience. EA Canada is an impressive facility.
A couple of hours with NCAA 09 might change your mind about EA and basketball.
That is not a misprint. Seriously.
I want this game in my home. Now.
When NCAA 09 lead producer Sean O’Brien opened the event with the line “Different, but better” I almost hurt my head when I rolled my eyes sarcastically. By the end of the event and 12 hours of gameplay, that skepticism was dead.
While the game shares NBA Live’s core engine, this is not NBA basketball. Like the NCAA, team play must be your focus. This is not the NBA, where individual matchups are the big thing.
Press and trap defences truly work in this game and give it the proper college feel.
GAMEPLAY
After a marathon 12-hour session with an alpha build of the game, using teams like Louisville, Air Force and a few others … I came away absolutely convinced that EA has finally gotten it.
Rebounding is fixed — period. In 12 hours with the game, I saw one ball (seriously) hit the floor — a revelation for EA Sports’ basketball games.
Passing has also been fixed. The days of blind cross-court passes are over. If you make a blind cross-court pass in this game, it will be intercepted almost every time. If you throw it down the court blindly, it will be inaccurate and likely end up out of bounds.
Defensive pressure, a big time component of NCAA basketball, felt realistic.
Playing NCAA 09 gameplay producer Connor Dugan, I used an intensive full court press and half court trap all game — and he had difficulty dealing with it.
Now on to a bit of bad news — two-button shooting remains. Ugh. Most the gamers hate it and were more than vocal about it. However, if you accidentally hit the dunk/layup button this year outside the paint, it will be a regular shot and has the same percentages.
Shot percentages were a tad high, but I never touched the gameplay sliders. Not one. So that’s something that will likely be addressed with sliders.
This year’s free-throw system is identical to Live 09’s. Fouls themselves were called frequently and correctly. I especially like that open layups were contested properly.
GAMEPLAY DIFFICULTY
I only played all-conference and all- American levels with no slider adjustments. Neither seemed unreasonable. There are four difficulty levels.
GRAPHICS
If you’ve played the NBA Live 09 demo, just think cleaner and sharper where NCAA is concerned.
It’s not a big leap over Live 09, but the difference is there.
ATMOSPHERE
Novell Thomas from EA was the lead on gameplay atmosphere this year and deserves loud applause.
My jaw literally dropped during key moments in the fourth quarter when I would make key shots or free throws and the crowd would be noticeably louder. Sports video games rarely get this right.
ONLINE
We never played an online game. All games were either vs. the cpu or a live opponent, so impressions are impossible.
ONE-ON-ONE PLAY Simply a blast.
BIGGEST NEW FEATURE
Game tempo. Period. End of story.
There are three gameplay tempo settings: high pressure, half-court and balanced.
If your team is a plodding half-court team that likes to bring the ball up slowly and use most of the shot-clock, you have to play this way– or you’ll pay.
CONCLUSION
I left thinking that this is a game I truly want to buy. An EA basketball game. How the heck did that happen?
Hell, this community event actually has me amped for NBA Live 09
During the airplane ride home, I felt somewhat jaded. I was thinking to myself “Geez, I’m coming out of this with almost universal positive thoughts. I enjoyed the game, truly enjoyed the game. How am I gonna convince the message board guys that these are my legit feelings — and not just euphoria from attending an admittedly cool event that was paid for by EA?”
Source: The Intelligencer