First of I'd like to Thank everyone for taking the time to provide some direct feedback for NCAA Football 10 it really helps us in keeping things together instead of filtering through 100's of wish list/feedback posts on the entire game across multiple forums .

With that said I'm very interested in starting with Progression, given the initial feedback from the game and the released patch which changed it. I'm curious about what are your thoughts about the current state of progression in NCAA 10 and was the patch a step in the right direction in your opinion or not? Secondly I'd like to know what you feel is the most important aspect of a player progression both in our game and in reality (personally I feel they should be the same if not similar).

Some examples include:

• A players Potential - Some guys are just going to get good as they get older; sure playing time and coaches might help... but the kid is going to have All American talent
• The Team - Coaches and Facilities build great players; while a recruit has some ability he really can't get much better unless someone helps him along the way
• On the Field - The only thing that matters is what you do on Saturday (or any other day the Sun Belt schedules a game ); meaning that his stats drive how good he can be.

I'll be reading through every post here in my new NCAA Football sub forum and we will have a Live Chat in the near future on this topic, so if you have questions put them in your post. I'll try and get some free time to post as well, but we are working hard on the game right now.

Hello. I'm new to this blog. People in the office call me Jorge. I've been around the EA-Tiburon offices since 2000. Like a lot of folks who work in the gaming industry I started in QA as a tester. A year and a half after starting with QA I moved in with the Marketing department. I took the screenshots and video you saw online, in magazines, and in TV commercials for all of EA-Tiburon's products.

Recently I've moved into more of a support role within EA SPORTS itself. I was asked if I wanted to contribute to the EA SPORTS blog with gaming commentary. It was made clear, my topics aren't to focus on sports or sports gaming, just gaming. This offer makes a lot of people in the office nervous because I tend to say things that would make me a PR nightmare, so I jumped at the chance.

For my first blog I'd thought I'd pull back the curtain and show you some information I provide internally here at EA SPORTS. Every month NPD provides sales figures for console hardware and software. It's kinda my favorite part of the month. So I take the information NPD releases and put in my two cents for folks to digest. Some people find it useful, some don't. Why the discrepancy? Even though NPD and I both look at the numbers by individual sku, folks in the industry really only care about combined sales. So X360 fanboys may want to chest bump over Borderlands selling more on their system, but Gearbox only cares that it sold a combined 531,000 units on both consoles (added to whatever it sold on PC).

Software

Sales are way down year-over-year. The strange thing is that even though the market is hurting, new IPs are breaking out. I think Borderlands is just another example of how shooter happy Xbox 360 owners are. Borderlands was dropped in-between ODST and Modern Warfare 2 and still sold a bunch.

1.       Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

How does Naughty Dog lose their way with the Jax series and then make such an incredible game? Good for them.

2.       Wii Fit Plus (Wii)

$20 gets you a bunch of exercises only a soccer mom could love. Taking bets at my desk to how long this stays in the top ten.

3.       Borderlands (X360)

The game 'sent to die' knocks it out of the park. Now, somebody get Randy Pitchford his medication. He's become 2009's Denis Dyack.

4.       Wii Sports Resort (Wii)

Nintendo's plan to seed houses with MotionPlus devices is working. Now, what's the next game from Nintendo that'll actually use it?

5.       NBA 2k10 (X360)

I'm guessing there's about three hundred thousand fans who wish reviewers would have mentioned NBA 2k's online issues.

6.       Halo 3: ODST (X360)

ODST has sold 1.8 million units after two months. Less than half of what Halo 3 sold during the same time period. Not that anybody's counting.

7.       NBA 2k10 (PS3)

Wait, forgot to include PS3 owners. Make that half a million basketball fans who are having online issues.

8.       Forza Motorsport 3 (X360)

Better, cleaner, deeper . . . Turn 10 knocks it out of the park. But it's another example of sales that are lower than the previous version.

9.       Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)

This brings its total to 370,230 copies after two months. Yoichi Wada has to be excited about that number.

10.   FIFA Soccer 10 (X360)

Whoa, there's soccer fans in this country?

11.   Demon's Souls (PS3)

How does the most hardcore game to come out this year sell so well? PlayStation 3 owners are an eclectic bunch. Odds 3D Dot Game Heroes does this well next year?

12.   Brutal Legend (X360)

An eye opener and a half. I'm halfway through this game and it's awesome. What's Tim Schafer got to do to get a winner on his hands?

13.   FIFA Soccer 10 (PS3)

You know what this proves? There are a higher percentage of soccer fans amongst PlayStation 3 owners than Xbox 360 owners. That's all.

14.   Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)

Almost four hundred thousand units in two months for a Mario RPG? Man, Nintendo must be glowing right now.

15.   WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 (X360)

High review scores, strong marketing push . . . disappointing sales. Not a good time for THQ during their licensing contract negotiations either.

16.   Tekken 6 (PS3)

Yes, Tekken is historically a PlayStation franchise, but it's still always surprising when the PS3 is the lead sku. Sales being lower than WWE, though, is a real bad sign for them.

17.   Borderlands (PS3)

Proving once again that PlayStation 3 owners aren't into shooters like Xbox 360 consumers.

18.   Madden NFL 10 (X360)

Three months in and hanging tough. Can't wait to see fan reaction to playing Ultimate Team.

19.   Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky (DS)

This underwhelming first month of sales is only a hiccup for the popular brand. My guess is that poor reviews are likely keeping this Pokemon title down.

20.   Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

The lowest rated Mario Kart in history continues to sell even when Wii Play has disappeared off the chart.

EA SPORTS Replay is a simple video tool that allows you to take the in-game video clips you have uploaded to EA SPORTS.com and create your very own Video-of-the-Day-style highlights package. All you need to do is register, log in and access your videos.

Over the past few weeks, we have overhauled, revamped and rebranded the tool so it now includes:

- Official EA SPORTS graphics
- Easy-to-use video transitions
- Stylish new video effects
- A choice of music beds to accompany your edits

Check out a great example of the kind of highlights package you can make.  This NCAA Football 10 themed EA SPORTS Replay reel was sent to us by CapnCwby1969

Think you can make one that's just as good?  Post a link in the comments to your EA SPORTS Replays using any EA SPORTS title.  If you've got a great highlight package, we might feature it here on the blog or as one of our EA SPORTS Replay VIPs. 

Sit down with Environment Modeler Eric Sherwood and get an inside look at how he takes the University of Minnesota stadium and recreates it...in the game!

The process of creating a stadium is a long task, it takes almost 2 months, to build a NCAA stadium (not counting all the debugging and testing time) and get a polished, shippable stadium.  First we gather reference and information on the stadium; in the case of Minnesota, as with most stadiums, we did a photo shoot of the new stadium and got schematics breaking down the layout and giving us measurements of the facility.  In the photo shoot we try and capture as much information as possible, from taking pictures at the field level to up in the press box.  After that we start modeling the stadium based off of camera matches inside Maya so that we know the scale and relative size is correct.  The images for the camera match are taken from photos during our photo shoot.

        Above is a "wireframe" of the camera match inside Maya.

        Above is a schematic of the stadium layout

Once we have the stadium blocked in and know our layout is correct we start adding in all the details to the scene.  We model out as much information as possible within our budgets for the scene, from edge wall tunnels, to the interior of the press boxes, and everything in between.

After the modeling is finished we move onto texturing the stadium.  For texturing we will try and use information from the photo shoot when applicable, during the photo shoot we will take close up pictures of just the brick or concrete to then use those images in our scene so they match the real life reference as much as possible.  This process is usually as time consuming as the modeling, both being around 3-4 weeks.  In the end of the texturing process we will have all the materials in the stadium, from the base color, dirt on walls, and self shadowing of the objects.  The last step is for lighting to light the stadium, where we apply shadow information, illuminate scoreboards, and assign light intensities.  After all of these steps, the end result is a polished stadium similar to the others you have seen in NCAA.

After losing my first game of the NCAA Football 10 Community Playdate to BiH Patriot and his UFC Trojans by a final score of 38-21, I came out looking to avenge my loss, but suffered the same fate with Ohio State. This time it was against Texas and their high powered offense. Check out the screens below for highlights of the matchup.

The game started out very good for me and seemed well on its way to being a defensive battle which usually favors me. I received the ball to begin the game, drove down the field and fumbed the ball inside the red zone. steveadler76 capitalized on my turnovers and took an early 7-0 lead.

Trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, I came out running with the intention of setting up the deep ball. About 7 plays into the drive, I was able to hit my receiver for a huge gain to move my team into his territory. A few plays later, I was able to close out a 12 play drive to tie the game at 7-7 to end the first quarter.

The second quarter featured more of the same as steveadler76 continued to pass the ball on my defense with little success, but he was able to control the game with his defense and made a key interception to again take the lead at 14-7.

Again, I was able to move the ball down field and score to tie the game at 14 right before the half, but without luck. stevadler76 drove down and kicked a late half field goal to take a 17-14 halftime lead. As the second half began, I moved the ball again to tie the game at 17-17. Little did I know that this would be the high point of the night. stevadler76 comes back and takes the lead at 20-17 with :47 seconds left in the game.

Finally my defense holds up and returns the favor, giving me a chance to win the game. I take the kickoff, head left, and fumble the ball. steveadler76 picks the ball up and runs it in for the game clinching TD, leaving me speachless and winless for the evening.

What a way to lose the game right? Regardless, it was a great game and stevealder76 is a great gamer to compete against!