We announced the Practice Round feature a few weeks back, so I thought I’d spend a little time today going into dmore etail about how the feature works.  Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 is just over a week away from hitting the shelves, so this will give you a detailed breakdown of the ins and outs of this mode before you get the game.

The Practice Round (PR) feature is located within the My Career section of TW10.  So you’ll be using your created golfer when you participate in a PR.  First thing you’ll do when you select PR is set up the course and playing conditions for the round.  This is done just like in our Traditional Game Modes, so it should feel fairly familiar to you if you’ve played any of the other Tiger Woods games. (click on each of the images to enlarge)
    

Selecting the course


Selecting the round settings

Once you’ve finished this, you will load into the course to start your PR.  There will be a custom load screen entering this mode that will remind you of the unique controller configuration for PR.  The controller configuration you set in the game options screen will always apply in this mode, but there are some unique button presses in PR that this load screen will help to remind you of.


Practice Round’s load screen displaying the unique button callouts.

Once you load into the first hole, you will notice that the game sequence in this mode is a little different.  You will start each hole at the tee box, but will have the opportunity to either drop the ball on the tee and tee off, or move the aiming arrow to choose another location to play from.  Practice Round does not track stroke counts or scores, so if you just want to hit approach shots or putts, you can do that as long as you want on any hole on that course.


Starting out each hole you’ll have the opportunity to drop the ball at the tee box or change locations.

If you decide to change locations, simply use the directional pad to move the aiming arrow and place it in the spot you’d like to take your shot from.

Selecting a new spot to hit from is as easy as moving the aiming arrow to the desired location…


        … and then dropping the ball there.

At any time you can choose to change locations by using a single button press to access the change location state with the aiming arrow.  The pause menu will always remind you of what the button press is to re-place the ball in a new location.  While you are moving the aiming arrow, if you decide you’d rather just take the shot from its original location, just hit the CANCEL button.  You’ll see a callout for this on the screen whenever you are changing locations with the aiming arrow.

From the pause menu you can choose several options including restarting the hole you are currently playing or advancing to the next hole on that course.  For the purposes of this walk-through let’s choose to RESTART the hole.  


The Practice Round pause menu.

When choosing RESTART HOLE, the ball will be placed back at the tee box and you will once again have the option to drop it there or change locations.  We’ll choose to place it on the tee.


Back at the tee box after restarting the hole.

Once you choose the DROP BALL option, you will be ready to swing away and execute your shot.  Just aim and swing as you normally would in any other round of golf in the game.  


Choosing to drop the ball at the tee box will place me at the default tee location.  You can choose to place the ball at any of the selectable tee boxes in game (White, Blue, Black) during your Practice Round.

Remember, even while you are addressing the ball, you’ll still be able to back out to the CHANGE LOCATION state to move the ball to another spot on the course if your wish.  For now though, we’ll just tee off to further explain the shot for shot sequence of PR.

Once the ball comes to rest after each shot, you’ll be taken to the spot where the ball stopped.  You’ll be given the option to accept the shot and drop the ball at that location for your next shot.  Or you can retry the previous shot or change location manually to somewhere else on the course.  This sequence will continue after each shot until you hole out.  


After each shot you have three options: Drop the ball at that location, change locations manually or retry the previous shot.

Once you hole out you can use the MULLIGAN button to return to your previous shot location or let the game automatically finish the hole and take you to the load screen for the next hole.  Again, there are no scores kept in PR, so you can jump around from hole to hole as much as you’d like.


Loading to the next hole after holing out.

One of the coolest things about PR is that you can access the Club Tuner feature within this mode to tune up your clubs while on the course.  You’ll notice a call-out in the upper left of the screen whenever Club Tuner is available.  

Once Club Tuner is accessed, you’ll go straight into tuning your clubs just like you do in the stand-alone Club Tuner feature.  One difference in this mode is that it will automatically choose the group of clubs to tune based on the club you are holding at the time.  Here’s a look at how the tuning options will appear in the PR version of club tuner.


 Power tuning


Workability tuning


Loft tuning


Spin tuning



Bias tuning

Once you’re done tuning, select DONE and you’re ready to test your newly tuned clubs on the course.  You’ll be able to hit ball after ball from your current location with the swing feedback trails just like in regular Club Tuner.


Hitting balls in Club Tuner within Practice Round.

Once you are done with your tuning, exit Club Tuner to return to your round.  You’ll be given the option to save you clubs or discard your changes when you leave Club Tuner.



Saving your tuned clubs within Practice Round.

In PR, you will have the ability to use unlimited putt previews.  This will help you learn the slope of the greens and how hard you’ll need to hit your putts under different weather conditions and ground soak.


Feel free to use the putt preview as often as you’d like in Practice Round.

We’ve integrated PR into the PGA TOUR Season mode by placing a practice round in the calendar on the day before your first tournament round.  Before you start the tournament you’ll be able to enter and practice as long as you’d like on the course for that week’s tournament.  This will also allow you to make any last minute club tuning adjustment based on the upcoming tournament course or the weather conditions.


You’ll have the option of playing in a practice round before each tournament on the TOUR Season calendar.

I hope this blog has given you some more insight on the new Practice Round feature in TW10.  We think that players of all skill levels will find this mode to be helpful in fine tuning their game.

- Mike D.

Hey guys, Yuri B. here welcoming you to our first designer blog entry for Madden NFL 10 on the Wii.  For those of you who aren’t regulars on the EA forums and don’t know me, I’m one of the designers working on this year’s version of the game.   As is typically the case with these blogs, we’ll be covering a wide range of features that are new to this year’s version of your favorite football game on the Wii.  In this particular blog however, I’ll be revealing a lot of the new ways in which you’ll be interacting with the game when you’re out on the field.

You know, it’s crazy to look back and see how incredibly different this game has turned out to be in comparison to last year.  If you’ve been following the progress of this game (or even casually browsed a gaming site in the last month), you already know that this year’s version of Madden on the Wii has a whole new look and feel, starting first and foremost with our new player models and stadiums.  They’ve been getting the bulk of the spotlight recently, and rightfully so, but by far the next biggest impact this year will be some of the great innovations we’ve made with the addition of the pointer, both as part of the interface and on the field.  I think you’ll find that it’s opened the door for a number of exciting new features that once again change your Madden experience on the Wii for the better.

Play Call

The play call system has undergone a bit of a makeover this year and one of the first things you’ll notice when it’s time to call a play, is how we’ve restructured the system to incorporate the skill level of the person using it.  You’ll be able to choose from one of three play calling styles:  All Play, Intermediate or Advanced.

All Play

As you’d expect, All Play presents your plays in a very simple way so that anyone can pick it up and understand what they’re doing.

 
Intermediate

Intermediate play calling gives you a bit more variety.  If you’re someone who’s intimidated by the often times complicated world of formations and sets, you’ll feel right at home in this play calling style.

    
Advanced

Advanced play calling gives you the whole enchilada.  Browse through the multiple formations and sets contained within your entire playbook.  You’ll also have the ability to flip plays and swap in custom personnel packages.

Aside from the new skill level play calling, you’ll also notice the small, yet significant, addition in the ability to quickly select play call menu options with the simple press of the directional pad.    Not only will it allow for quick selection, but it’s also an effective way to conceal what you’re selecting when you’re playing against that buddy who watches every play you call.

Pre-Play

After you’ve picked a play and your players have lined up on the field, you’ll be able to access our newly re-organized Pre-Play system.  Gone are the days of hard to read and ridiculously long laundry lists of pre-play commands!  In Madden NFL 10, when you want to make a pre-play adjustment you simply point at a player and press the B button to open their pre-play menu.  Now, instead of opening a huge list of options, each player has their own list of pre-play adjustments that are specific to their position.  In other words, if you’re pointing at the QB, you’ll only be shown options that are available to a QB, like audibles or flipping the play…point at a WR and you’ll have the option to put them into a hot route or set them in motion…etc.  There’s also no longer any need to memorize multiple buttons and directions to access these options.  In the new system, everything is easily accessible by either pressing a direction on the directional pad or simply pointing and selecting it.

Call Your Shots – Defense

Last year, Call Your Shots was a huge success and redefined the way Madden was played on the Wii.  This year, we’re letting the defense in on some of the fun.  Now you can match your opponent shot for shot by quickly pointing at defenders and changing their coverage.  Want to triple cover Randy Moss?  Easy, just point at each of your defenders and drag their icons onto Moss for quick Man Coverage.  Want to bring the house in an all out blitz?  Done…just drag your defender’s icons into the back field and put them into a blitz assignment.  With Call Your Shots on defense, you’ll be able to quickly move your defenders into and out of Deep Zones, Hook Zones, Flat Zones, Man Coverage, Blitzes and QB Spy assignments all with a simple click and a drag.  The possibilities are endless.

During the Play

Once that ball is snapped, you need to be on your toes to make quick effective decisions in order to beat your opponents.  This year we’ve made some changes and additions in order to help you do just that.

Gesture Simplifications and Additions

Although the Wii ?version? is known for “waggling” the Wii Remote around in order to perform moves in the game, we felt that some of last year’s gestures were a bit excessive and decided to scale them back a bit for this year.  One of the obvious ones that you’ll notice right away is catching the ball.  Instead of having two types of catching gestures (passive and aggressive) we’ve cut it down to just one.  The new catch gesture no longer requires you to lift both the remote and nunchuk above your head or pull them towards your body, but rather just do a simple upwards flick of the Wii Remote.  Blocking has also been simplified from the four different gestures in last year’s game, down to just two:  Impact Block (push forward) and Cut Block (hold down on the directional pad and push forward).

One of the new, and often requested additions we’ve made to Madden NFL 10, is the new QB Avoidance gesture.  Now when your QB is feeling pressure in the pocket, simply shake the Nunchuk and, if the evade is successful, watch him shake the defender loose to buy himself more time to throw the ball.

Game Speed

If you’ve ever played Madden and felt that the game moves too quickly for you to make proper decisions on the field, then this next addition will bring a smile to your face.  This year we’ve changed the speed of the game to scale with the difficulty level you’re playing at.  If you’re a Rookie, you’ll find that the game moves at a much slower pace, allowing you more time to scan the field and make a play.  Graduating to the Pro, All-Pro or All-Madden difficulty levels incrementally increase the speed of the game with each level.

All Play Defense

This may not be relevant to some, if not all, of the hard-core sim-heads out there, but for all the rookies in the audience, the new All Play defense controls are right up your alley.  One of the biggest challenges we faced for rookie users was how to make playing on defense fun since most would just put the controller down and let the CPU do all the work.  This year, our new All Play Defense will make you want to pick that controller back up.  Now when you’re using All Play controls and you’re on defense, you can simply point at a player, hold the A button down and watch your defense converge on the ball.  Then as they get close to the player, perform a Big Hit or Swat gesture to put the finishing touch on the play.  It’s super easy to do and way more fun than just watching the CPU do all the work.

Point and Pass

One of the most exciting new features for this year is our new passing mechanic, Point and Pass.  The name pretty much says it all…use the on-field pointer to point at and highlight a receiver, then just simply press the A button and watch the pass land right in their hands.  If you find yourself needing to pay more attention to your QB, you can always lock-on to a highlighted receiver by holding down the Z button.  Locking-on will allow you to pass them the ball at any time after that point.  You can change the speed of your passes by simply tapping the A button for a lob, pressing it for a normal throw or holding it for a bullet pass.  And for those of you uncomfortable with the notion of changing the way you play the game, don’t worry, we’ve kept the original Directional Passing controls intact.  Before each game you’ll be asked which type of passing controls you prefer to use.  If you change your mind, you’ll have the ability to switch between them at any time during the game from the pause menu.

This is just a taste of some of the new things you can expect to see this year in Madden NFL 10 for the Wii.  Overall, I feel like we’ve got a solid lineup of new features and modes that complement our new look and feel and hopefully you will too.  In the next designer blog, we’ll be taking a stroll through one of our cool new multi-player modes, Madden Showdown.  Until then though, please take the time to visit our forums and let us know what you think about the new features revealed here or just take a moment to introduce yourself to our Wii community.

-Yuri B.

It used to be that you could sit back, call the same play over and over again, and just “out athlete” your opponent. It used to be that you could hop around the playbook jumping from I Form, to Ace, to Shotgun without a care in the world for creating an offensive identity. And it used to be that you could know exactly what your opponent was going to know, know exactly how you would stop it, but didn’t have a way to tell your players that that without a doubt the next play is going to be a run to the right, go shut it down.

Thankfully those days are behind us. With NCAA Football 10 strategy takes on a huge role with three new gameplay features that put the emphasis on out thinking your opponent instead of just out maneuvering him on the sticks. By gameplanning, setting up plays, and keying in on what you think the offense will be running you can affect the outcome of the game just based on your coaching decisions.

And you are going to need to strategize your opponent like never before. With the inclusion of Adaptive AI CPU controlled defenses will learn what you are doing, and focus on shutting it down. Rush up the middle for a few big gains? Good Job. The next time you come to the line you will see that the defensive tackles have pinched in to take away the running lanes. Found that route you love to run if you need to pick up a first down? Be careful, you run that route too much the defense will be looking for it and blanket your receiver. Even if you try and get sneaky by calling the same route from a different formation, the CPU will be watching for that route, not the play, and shutting you down.

It’s not all about defensive upgrades for the CPU either. While on defense the CPU is going to test you deep to try and open things up. If you are the type of guy that likes to press all of the time, you’re now going to be the type of guy that also likes to chase a receiver down after they got past your DB and got hit wide open on a streak.

Gameplanning

The first feature we will talk about is Gameplanning. This feature is all about determining how aggressive, conservative, or balanced you want your team to play during certain situations.  There are six defensive situations and five offensive situations you can adjust at any point during the game, based on your preferred strategy for that moment.

The Gameplanning screen comes up automatically after the coin toss, and at the start of the 2nd half, as well as after any timeout. You can also manually bring up the screen any time you are in the playcall screen (pressing LT/L2). From here you will be able to adjust your gameplan as you wish. While you may want to play more aggressive at the start of the game, if you are protecting a lead you will most likely want to ease off the throttle a bit and play more conservatively.

Each gameplan option has its own risks and rewards. For example, if you want your defense to always attempt to strip the ball, you will see the strip ball animations play on almost every play, and the chance of successfully stripping the ball increases. However, the more the defender is going for the strip, the more likely they are to get a hand up a little too high and grab hold of a facemask. If you don’t mind tacking 15 yards onto a play every now and then in order to force a turnover then you can set your strip ball gamplan to aggressive. You can also go more of a conservative route and tell your defenders to focus on making the tackle instead of stripping the ball. In this case you will get less facemask penalties, but you will have little chance of ripping the ball out. If you don’t want to play one way or the other you can set this option to “normal” which will allow for the defenders to choose how to play on their own (as they have in previous versions of the game).
All of the options for both offense and defense default to Balanced. You will be able to see what your current setting is by looking at the color checkmark next to the each option. Green means you are set to Balanced, Yellow is Aggressive, and Blue is Conservative. Based on your Gameplanning settings, you will earn Strategy Credits for Season Showdown when your Gameplan settings were successful on the field.

Since the screens do a great job of listing out what the pros/cons of each option are I’ll let the screenshots do the talking for each gameplan event:

Defensive Options (click to enlarge)

 Offensive Options (click to enlarge)
 

  

  
Setup Plays

The next new Strategy feature is the Setup Play. This feature allows you to run one play successfully in order to “setup” a variation of a similar play. The easiest example of this is to run the Power O play to setup the play action pass based on the Power O play (PA Power O). At the playcall screen you will be able to tell which plays set each other by the chain links that connect the two plays. Here’s a screenshot of the Power O example:

 While the play action off of a run play is the easiest example, Setup Plays are not limited to just this type of playcalling strategy. There are pass plays linked to other pass plays, where one play may have a “mesh” route where the receiver streaks across the field, the linked version of that play involves the same receiver cutting that mesh route off and instead running a hook route. Another example is how a draw play can be used to setup a HB screen.

You can run either play to setup their linked play, so you can either setup the PA Power O by successfully running Power O, or you can setup Power O by successfully running PA Power O. As you run one play, you will see how close you are to fully setting up its linked play.  Once the linked play is at 100% setup, the defense will be at its highest likelihood of getting faked out, increasing your chances of successfully executing your setup play. The chance that the defender will get faked out is all based on their individual ratings, so a top rated defender will still be less likely to fall for the play action than some walk-on freshman. The Setup Play just means that the defenders have the highest chance of getting faked out when you run that play.

The Setup Play only works once before you need to work on setting it up again, and if you run a play you are setting up before it’s reached the 100% Setup status, you will need to start over again as that play will be reset to 0% Setup.  Here is a screenshot showing a play in the process of getting setup:

 
There is no time limit on how long a play will be setup for. If you setup a play in the 1st quarter, and never run it again, the play will still be setup and ready to go in the 4th quarter.
The speed at which a play is setup is based both on the success of the play as well as the difficulty level. If you want to get a play to 100% setup on Heisman you will need to do a lot more than a couple of 5 yard gains.
If you are able to run a play that is 100% setup and either get a 1st down or a touchdown you will earn Strategy credits.

Defensive Keys

If you have ever been in a game and you knew, without a doubt, that your opponent will be running to the strong side of the formation, or its 3rd and 1 and you know a run up the middle is coming, or if you know your opponent will be throwing to a specific receiver on the play, but you have never been able to shut the play down based only playcall/defensive shifts alone then Defensive Keys is what you have been waiting for. During preplay while on defense you will be able to bring up the Defensive keys menu by holding LT/L2. You will then be able to choose what you want the defense to key on for that play. Here is a screenshot of what this looks like:

 
With the right stick you will be able to pick your defensive key for that play. If you choose Run Right, at the snap of the ball you will see your defensive players flood toward the right, and if you guess correctly, the ball carrier will have nowhere to go. Now, if you guess Run Right, and your opponent instead runs a toss to the left, well you’ve just opened yourself up for a potential big gain by the offense. Selecting to play the pass will basically prevent your defenders from getting faked out by a play action play (which is a nice counter if you know your opponent is going to run a setup play action play).

In addition to this you can also choose to spotlight a specific receiver for that play. When you bring up Defensive Keys the camera goes into Coach Cam and each of the offense’s receivers will have a button callout over them. Select the receiver you want to spotlight, and the defense will make that player the focus of their pass coverage to make sure he doesn’t get into any open space. Since you are focusing on one guy the potential is there for another receiver to get into some open space and burn you.

The addition of Defensive Keys adds a new wrinkle to the chess match that is playcalling. If you are too predictable in your playcalling your opponent will be able to pick up on your tendencies and shut you down. Or you can try and out think your opponent by always running on 1st down only to surprise them by calling a deep bomb out of the blue when they are expecting another HB Dive.

You can only choose one key per play. If you select to spotlight a receiver, then select to key on a pass, you will no longer be spotlighting the receiver.

If you don’t want to key in on something, but you do want a quick way to mass shift your defense in a direction you can use the left analog stick towards the direction you want your players to shift. This will not change their assignments, only shift where they line up.

If you key in on a run and stop the play for a loss, or break up a pass play through a sack, swat, knockout, or interception you will earn Strategy credits.

Well, that’s a rundown of the three new gameplay features that make up the Strategy component of Season Showdown.

-Ben Haumiller

Alright, I’ve been waiting all year to write this blog and I finally got the green light to do it.  Our NEW Live Tournament feature is one we have been hinting at on the forums for some time now.  We’ve been talking about what we were going to be doing “differently” with Daily Tournaments and this is it…and then some.  Since you’ve all been waiting patiently (some impatiently) to hear what this feature is all about, I am going to try and go into as much detail as possible for you.  I am currently on a plane out to Los Angeles where we will be unveiling this new Live Tournament s mode to the media.  My laptop is draining battery as I type this, so let’s get crackin’…

THE BASICS
In a nutshell our new Live Tournaments feature is going to let you play in a variety of tournament types against online gamers from all over the world.  We’ve taken the concept behind our existing Daily Tournaments and blown it out to create an entirely new mode revolving around playing tournament rounds, then posting your score(s) to that tournament’s leaderboard and beating other player’s tournament scores in that tournament.  After each event the tournament purses will be distributed and your goal is to earn tournament cash to climb as high as possible on the overall money rankings leaderboard. 

Live Tournaments are broken up into 3 unique tournament types:

•    Daily Tournaments – Similar to in years past these will be 24hr long tournaments that crown a new winner each day.   You’ll play your round and submit it to the tournament leaderboard.  At the end of the day, that tournament ends and a new one begins.  Within Daily’s there will be a number of different difficult levels to play.  Each difficulty level will have its own unique settings.

•    Weekly Tournaments – These will be tournaments that last all week long.  They will start on Sunday, for example, and players can compete all week long.  In Weekly’s you’ll submit four tournament rounds.  The player with the lowest total four round score will win that week’s weekly tournament.  Like in Daily’s there will be several difficulty levels to choose from, so you’re sure to find the right competition level for your golf game.

•    Play the Pros – This tournament type will allow you to compete each week directly against the pro golfer’s scores from that week’s professional golf tournament.  So, for example, when the game ships in June, you will be able to play against Tiger and the boys at the U.S. Open at Bethpage vs. their real life scores, at the course the tournament is being played at, with live weather and as the tournament is happening!  These tournaments will start on the Thursday of that week’s pro tournament and go through the weekend.  There will only be one difficulty setting for Play the Pros, since this tournament type is meant to be the ultimate golf test.  We’ve made sure to customize and tune the settings in Play the Pros tournaments to ensure your scores will be competitive against those of the real life pro golfers.  One other unique aspect to Play the Pros tournaments is that unlike Daily and Weekly Tournaments, here, you will only be competing against the pro golfer’s scores.  So there won’t be any other online gamers to contend with.

PLAYER RATING SYSTEM
Each individual tournament within the Live Tournaments feature will have its own purse.  This is important because the main objective in Live Tournaments is the climbing the overall Money Earnings Leaderboard.  When entering tournaments you’ll have to pick the tournament you enter wisely so you match yourself up with the right competition level for you.  We’ve created a new player rating system for Live Tournaments to ensure that lower level tournaments cannot be entered by those who could run away with the leaderboard.  The object of the player rating is to match people with similar ranks so that the tournaments are competitive and fun.  You can always see your Rating at the top of the Live Tournament screens. 

TIEBREAKING
We got a lot of feedback regarding ties with our old daily tournament mode.  In the new Live Tournaments, we’ve created a unique tiebreaking system that will take care of all ties along the tournament leaderboard.  This new tiebreaking system uses a n umber of in game stats to compile a Tiebreaker Score for each player per tournament. 

The stats that make up your tiebreaker score include the following:

•    Average Number of Putts
•    Average Driving Distance
•    Longest Drive
•    Driving Accuracy
•    Greens in Regulation
•    Hole in Ones
•    Double Eagles
•    Eagles
•    Bogeys
•    Double Bogeys or Worse

The totals of all of these stats are then run through an equation and then added up to determine each player’s overall tiebreaker score.  So if there are people tied on the leaderboard with the same round score, the player with the highest tiebreaker score will get the spot.  Tiebreakers aren’t only used to break first place ties.  Everyone will be generating a tiebreaker score as they play Live Tournaments, so every spot on the leaderboard is subject to the tiebreaker score system.  One cool thing about the tiebreaker system is that it is very tunable once the game launches.  So if necessary, we’ll be able to tweak the modifiers and values you receive for each stat based on community feedback or if we think too many or too little points are being awarded for a particular stat.  This idea of tuning the mode after launch is something we carried throughout the Live Tournaments feature.  I’ll discuss more about this below.

TWEAKABLE AFTER LAUNCH
The ability for us to tune and change Live Tournament settings after the game launches was something that was extremely important for us as we designed this.  So making adjustments to the tournament settings, rules, weather, etc…is something we built into almost every aspect of Live Tournaments.  All of these tweaks can be made in real-time on our servers after you all get the game.  So if we receive feedback from gamers that certain tournaments are too hard, we can make them easier.  If people think that Play the Pros tournament is too easy, we can make it harder.  All of the settings and rules for each individual tournament are tweak-able on the fly, even some that are not exposed on the surface.  For example, we can cap the skill attributes that your golfer takes into a tournament.  This is not a setting that the player can change in game, but it’s one that we wanted to use in this new tournament mode to level the playing field.  This attributes capping system will be used in Play the Pros, for example, so that people are not able to overpower the ball or “take advantage” of any club sweet spots.

POSTING SCORES
In Live Tournaments, you will not be competing head to head against other online gamers like in normal online matches.  You’ll play each round of the tournament and when complete, you’ll sign your scorecard to post that round to an online tournament leaderboard for that particular tournament.  Certain tournaments will have posting limits that will only allow you to post a certain number of rounds.  For example, Play the Pros is capped at four total submissions.  When you have signed your scorecard and submitted those four tournament rounds you will have reached the maximum number of submissions.  Once you have reached your maximum number of tournament round submissions in each individual tournament you will only be allowed to re-submit tournament scores if you purchase a submission with your tournament earnings.  Spending these earnings to submit again once you’ve reached the limit can be a catch 22 since it will draw funds from your existing overall total earnings and this could drop you down on the money leaderboard.  But, that score you just put up may be worth the investment if it’s good enough (as long as someone doesn’t come along later and beat it later).  

This again is one of our very tunable systems.  We can tune everything from which tournaments have submission limits and what the limits are, to how much it costs per submission if you have reached your maximum number of submissions in a tournament.  We can also hard cap tournaments so that no more round submissions are allowed, period, once you have reached the submission limit.  Again, the Live Tournaments feature has been designed with tuning based on user feedback so we wanted to make sure we could make changes to as many components post-launch as possible.

Note to current Daily Tournament players - In the past people have been able to post a score to the next day’s tournament by finishing the tournament after the deadline and having their score carry over to the new daily (which often was at a higher difficulty).  Not only will splitting up the tournaments into difficulties help to solve this, but our new submission system will not let you sign your scorecard once the tournament or round has ended.

MID-ROUND UPDATES
In previous feature blogs we’ve talked about in-game leaderboard and tournament updates.  These will also be included in Live Tournaments.  So if your friend has just posted a score that takes the lead in the tournament or another player has hit a total bomb off the tee, we’ll let you know about it as you are out on the course competing.  In Play the Pros, you’ll also get these tournament updates, but they will be for the pro golfers who are out on the course.  So if you are playing the tournament at the same time as the real life golfers are, you will get these updates as they are happening in real life. 

All these updates are displayed to players using a banner that animates in at the top of the screen and displays the appropriate message for that update.  The idea here was to present these similar to the broadcast score update graphics you see on TV.

MID-ROUND LEADERBOARDS
Exposing tournament leaderboards and making them as accessible as possible was a huge priority for the Live Tournaments feature.  So we’ve created a number of places for players to view the current tournament leaderboards from within the Live Tournament game screens.  We also wanted to make sure that the updated leaderboard information was also available during your round.  Just like in our PGA TOUR Season mode, Live Tournaments will display an up to date top 5 leaderboard (as well as your current position) between each hole.  This way as other people are posting rounds while you are playing, you’ll always know the score you’re shooting for to crack into the top 5.

 
TOUR HISTORY
Above I talked about the importance of leaderboards and how we wanted to make them very accessible to people in this new feature.  The Tour History screen is one place where you can go to see a lot of our Live Tournament leaderboard information.  This screen is going to let you sort through past, present and upcoming tournaments on the schedule in all of the different tournament types (Daily, Weekly and Play the Pros).  For past and present tournaments you will also be able to select the individual tournaments and view their top 100 leaderboard (plus your position) as well as the tiebreaker details for anyone on those leaderboards.

TOUR RANKINGS  
The Tour Rankings screen is where you’ll go to see who’s ruling the roost in Live Tournaments.  This is where you will find the leaderboard for overall money earners.  You’ll also be able to filter between a number of different statistics and re-populate the leaderboards based on that filter criteria.  A cool thing about this screen is that you’ll be able to filter any of the leaderboards to get a customized view of how you match up against your online friends.

TOURNAMENT NEWS BANNER
On the main Live Tournaments HUB screen we’ve placed a news banner that will keep you up to date with everything having to do with Live Tournaments.  Like most everything else in Live Tournaments, this news banner can and will be updated after the game ships.  It’ll be our way to communicate with you, the player, things like:

•    Upcoming Tournaments
•    New Money Leaders
•    Shout-outs to Tournament Winners
•    Hints/Tips
•    New Tuning Adjustments
•    Anything else we think you’d like to hear about

TALK TO THE DEV TEAM
We’ve been stressing how important it is for us to hear from our community of gamers so that we can continue to find out what you think in order to make better games.  This next feature helps us take a huge leap forward in that area.  In the main Live Tournaments HUB screen there will, from time to time, be a “Talk to the Dev Team” button.  Activating this will bring up an on-screen keyboard so that you can send us your feedback on Live Tournaments or anything else you have on your mind.  All you do is type in the comments and hit send.

I’m sure there’s a ton of things I’ve left out of this blog, but I’m hoping that this new feature has got you excited and full of questions to ask.  I tried to keep this focused on the questions I have heard from you all on the forums and those I thought you might have regarding the details of Live Tournaments.  Please feel free to post further questions or comments below or on the forums and we can continue to discuss this feature at length.

-Mike D.

Hey guys, Adam Thompson here to bring you this week’s NCAA Football 10 update blog. This week we’ll take a look at the new stadium additions and renovations for this year.

 

New Stadiums

Mackay Stadium
Forty-four year old Mackay Stadium sits on the campus of the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada and seats 30,000.

Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium
Located on the campus of the University of Tulsa in Tulsa Oklahoma, this 69 year old stadium seats around 30,000.



UB Stadium
Home of the MAC champion Buffalo Bulls, “The Bullpen” was built in 1993 and seats 29,000.

Kelly/Shorts Stadium
Sitting on the campus of Central Michigan University, the Chippewas play their home football games at this 37 year old stadium with a capacity of just over 30,000.

Peden Stadium
The oldest stadium in the MAC conference, Peden Stadium has been located on the banks of the Hocking River in Athens, Ohio for 70 years. Seating 24,000, an over-capacity crowd was on hand when the Ohio Bobcats beat the Pittsburgh Panthers here in 2005.

Doyt Perry Stadium
Opened in 1966, the home of the Bowling Green Falcons seats around 24,000 spectators. This stadium was named after the Falcon’s coach between 1955 and 1964.



Romney Stadium
Named after Utah State’s all time winningest football coach, Romney Stadium opened in 1968 and seats 25,500.



Movie Gallery Stadium
Previously known as Veterans Memorial Stadium, the home of the Troy Trojans opened in 1950. The stadium was expanded in 2003 and now seats 30,000.

Alamodome
The City of San Antonio owns the Alamodome, a multipurpose stadium and convention center that has hosted college bowl games as well as professional basketball and football teams. It was built in 1993 and can seat up to 72,000. There is no basement in the Alamodome.

Stadium Updates

Along with the new, there were many renovations and updates needed to be done. With over 150 stadiums in the game, we are constantly making art updates.

Memorial Stadium (Illinois)
For the last 3 years or so, the University of Illinois has been giving this stadium what they call the “Illinois Renaissance.”



BB&T Field
The Deacon Tower is the centerpiece of Wake Forest’s ongoing six phase stadium renovation.



Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
More and more stadiums are installing LED video scoreboards these days.



Bronco Stadium
Famous for the blue turf, Bronco Stadium now has a state of the art pressbox.



Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium
Another member of the LED scoreboard club is the home stadium for the FSU Seminoles.



California Memorial Stadium
Berkley already has one of the most scenic campuses in the country, so we touched up the backgrounds in addition to removing the stadium tarps and adding flags.



Autzen Stadium
DuckVision is the largest video board in the PAC-10.



Papa John's Cardinal Stadium
Another stadium debuts their new LED video board

 

Other Updates

Davis Wade Stadium – New scoreboard
Carter-Finley Stadium – New scoreboard, player entrance
Nebraska Memorial Stadium – Additional video boards. How many they have now?!
Boone Pickens Stadium – New video board
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium – New video board and player entrance area
Reser Stadium – New endzone seating, new scoreboard
Ross-Ade Stadium – Updated edgewalls
Amon G. Carter Stadium - Added athletic center to the endzone
Neyland Stadium – Update edgewalls
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – New endzone seatings
Legion Field – Removed upper deck from East side
Malone Stadium – Added tarps to seating sections
Mountaineer Field – Updated endzone seating