So as many of you may have read about already, I was lucky enough to showcase NCAA 08 at our draft event up in New York City. We hosted a 6 hour premiere of hands-on gameplay at Tao Restaurant, an extremely posh place in Midtown Manhattan. There were a ton of people there, not just gaming press, and most everyone came away with a lot of positives about the game.
It’s crazy actually how nervous I was. I’ve done tons of events for the press while here at Tiburon, from in-house presentations to E3, but this one was definitely different. I truly was anxious to see how people reacted to the all new gameplay stuff that our team has poured so much effort into.
Being that it was very early, there were still a lot of bugs, so those frustrated me a bit. Outside of that, I think overall it went really well. Even for the annoyances (there were a ridiculous amount of fumbles and dropped passes in that build – both of which are already fixed), I got a ton of feedback that everyone seemed to have a lot of fun playing the build, which is what we really hoped to hear. I got plenty of good feedback to work off of too. It’s not often you get a chance like that to get basically a “play test” from hardcore and casual gamers with time to spare to actually fix things, so I’ve been working away to make sure we address all the things people were seeing and commenting on.
So not only did I get a free trip to NYC and dinner at one of the trendiest restaurants at the city (even though I was working), I also got to hang out with my sister (she lives up there) and one of my long-time friends from school (he was up there trying out for some TV show). But most of all, I got to go to the NFL Draft! We all sat up in the first mezzanine, and I could look right down into the ESPN crew broadcast. Seeing how they work throughout such a crazy long day was very interesting. I had to catch a flight out Saturday night, but I hung around long enough to finally see Brady Quinn get picked up...what was that, like 5 hours in?
At this point in my life I’ve turned into more of a fantasy football fan so I really follow players more than teams, but still I am a Giants fan…being there to see all those crazy fans was quite a trip too. I think Aaron Ross was a great pick in the 1st…I’m looking forward to putting him in and returning kicks this year in Madden. Maybe by year 3 in my Franchise I’ll have him breaking Hester’s records. I love Steve Smith too in the 2nd, I think he could turn into a dangerous receiver out there. Seems like a lot of teams really like the smaller receivers nowadays huh? Overall I think the Giants did pretty well, especially with a first time GM at the helm. Well, that’s all for now, my build is done so I’m back to tuning. Sound off on the comments – how did your team do in the draft?