In North America, there are two videogame releases on a yearly basis that draw more crowds than any other game release. These happen to be NCAA and Madden football, which are developed and published by EA Sports. After a couple of lackluster seasons from both franchises, the teams at EA have bolted down and revitalized these two titles into a respectable state that you should be wanting to purchase come release night. Though a lot of gamers buy NCAA as their football fix and to help tide them over for the Madden release, that shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying the $60 you spent to its full potential.
I’ve included below the best places to obtain fully named NCAA rosters, an opportunity to win Madden 2009 for free, and various other tips in creating the best bang for your buck come July 15.
Fully Named Rosters: Being a longtime NCAA football player, I’ve always hated playing the game with “RB #5” in the backfield and having numbers scattered all over the field. This year, EA Sports has included the ability to utilize the EA Locker to download completely named NCAA Rosters. Instead of seeing “QB #15” on the field, you’ll see Tebow on the Gators taking a three-step drop. This is obviously a huge difference in providing an authentic college football experience and will make the game that much more enjoyable.
The problem with this is the fact that there will be so many options made available through the EA Locker that you won’t know who is offering the best NCAA Roster download. That’s where I come into play as I’ve been made aware of a recently created website that was designed with authenticity and accuracy in mind. FreeNCAA09Rosters.com is a site created by a handful of hardcore college football fans in order to provide other fans fully detailed rosters without the added expense of a price tag. Due to the fact they use these rosters themselves, you’re sure to get a quality yet accurate roster for the low-cost of free. They expect to have their fully named rosters available upon the first week of release, as they’ve received a copy of the game early in order to get a head start. So stop on by to check out their EA Locker name for the PS3 that they’ll be making available as the game draws near.
Championship Series: If you’re buying NCAA 2009 in order to tide yourself over to Madden 2009, then you may be interested in earning the opportunity to win a free copy of the game. The guys over at Madden Wars are running their third annual Madden Wars Championship Series. This event pools some of the best str8/sim competition in football gaming together in order to find out who reigns supreme on the gridiron of college football.
If you’re interested in taking part, you can click HERE and it’ll take you to the information page where you can sign up and figure out if the event is your type of thing. If you’re joining up from PlayStation Universe, make sure to represent us proudly and take home the title.
Get the Band Right: One of the coolest additions to NCAA 2009 was the ability to customize your stadium sounds and events. This means you can literally choose what sounds or melodies will play on that big 3rd & 1 or what band song will play after a huge touchdown drive. Regardless of if you’d like a realistic touch to your game or if you’d like to just go crazy and pick random songs of your own to enjoy, I’ve found a great resource to help you make your experience as authentic as possible.
NCAAStrategies.com has created an entire sub-forum for the stadium sounds and events. It is currently a work in progress and they have fans helping create the exact list of songs and events utilized for their favorite team’s game moments. Chris Jacobs, one of the site’s administrators has also been in contact with several schools who have helped out by giving out accurate lists of which songs play and where. This has helped make the section of their forum a great addition for college football fans nationwide. If your school’s lineup still isn’t filled in, perhaps leave a note saying you’d like help figuring the songs out and I’m sure they’ll do their best in order to make it happen.
Highlight Reel: Next up you should probably be creating an EA Sports World account in order to upload your highlights from NCAA 2009 to show off to your friends. Stories are great, but nothing speaks louder than a highlight reel of impressive plays. EASW will allow you to download these videos onto your PC. While this may start to take up space depending on how great you are at creating plays worth keeping, you’ll probably want to upload them to share with the world, right?
There are a couple of sites worth mentioning in order to do this. The most obvious choice is YouTube.com as it is very user-friendly and known by all. However, some of the lesser known possibilities are Fliqz.com and MyMaddenPad.com. Both of these sites will allow you to upload as many videos as you’d like to keep on file. From there you’ll be able to embed them on forums or your blog to further push the experience.
Online Dominance: Take advantage of the Online Dynasty feature to its full potential. Don’t waste your time signing up for random leagues, find a good group of individuals from a forum or out of your real life friends and create something special. Nothing proves you’re better than them like hosting a virtual championship in your favorite video game. Competitive gaming has been going on for decades now and it is finally possible to take down real life Longhorn fans in a season even if they live 1,000s of miles away.
The online dynasty offered by EA Sports is looking like it will be a complete success. So take advantage of it the best you can and enjoy the college football season ahead.
Following these five simple steps will better help you on your way to getting the most out of your $60 purchase. PlayStation Universe will have a full NCAA 2009 review up by the midnight release. Even though I’ll personally be in Los Angeles keeping tabs on E3 for you guys, I’ll be sure to have our NCAA 2009 review done in time. So get ready for those war chants, throw on your team’s colors and march onto that virtual gridiron and claim what’s yours – victory.