Last night, EA Sports held its annual Season Opener at The Press Club in San Francisco. At the event, the publisher showed off a number of its upcoming games and technical demos for two of its biggest titles: NCAA Football 10 and Madden NFL 10. Here's a game-by-game recap of (almost) all the games at the event.

NCAA and Madden

Unfortunately, football fans, EA kept mum on any new features about its pair of upcoming pigskin games. Instead, it chose to talk high level about both NCAA Football 11 and Madden NFL 11. On the NCAA front, executive producer Roy Harvey talked about the importance of authenticity both in gameplay and the game's presentation. Harvey also talked about the challenge in creating a college football game, particularly from a playbook standpoint. While NFL teams might run three to four different offenses across the entire league, in college football, there are dozens of offenses to keep track of and create for the game. Harvey's main points were basically a rehash of a blog he posted on EA Sports official NCAA Football 11 site.

The Madden half of the football presentation was just as vague in terms of new features, but executive producer Jeremy Strauser did have some interesting stats to share that were based on data collected by EA from the millions of Madden NFL 10 players online. Strauser said the Madden team now collects somewhere in the neighborhood of 173 million data instances every day from Madden 10 players, which can result in interesting data nuggets like this:

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is coming to Wii.

- Brett Favre (or, more accurately, players controlling Brett Favre) has thrown 7,564,382 interceptions in Madden NFL 10.

- Players have attempted 337,488,922 stiff arms in the game. Of those attempts, 78,527,122 of those stiff arms have been successful (a 23 percent success rate that, according to Strauser, is just about what the developers were aiming for).

- Hit stick tackle attempts have resulted in 518,989,818 successful tackles and 1,135,443,163 misses, or roughly a 46 percent success rate.

- Strauser also showed a graph comparing real-life NFL passing and rushing statistics from this season compared with online statistics from players in Madden NFL 10. A variety of title updates in Madden throughout the year have kept the numbers remarkably similar between the real sport and the video game, thanks to improvements like run blocking.

Beyond those specific data points, Strauser echoed comments that had been made earlier in the presentation by EA Tiburon's general manager Phil Holt: The next Madden needed to reflect and react to the changing habits of its players. With younger players consuming more media than ever, a football game that takes nearly an hour to play with only 17 minutes of actual on-field play doesn't necessarily serve that audience well. In addition, Strauser pointed out that while each team has about 330 unique plays in the game, data shows that players only use about 13 of those different plays in a game. The takeaway, Strauser said, is a ton of depth in Madden that simply isn't being surfaced to the player.

Tiger's sharing real estate with Rory McIlroy this year.

So what does all of this mean for Madden NFL 11? While Strauser didn't go into detail, he did mention three key words that the team at EA Tiburon is focusing on for the game: simpler, quicker, and deeper. It will be interesting to see how these ideas coalesce into gameplay for this year's Madden.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 will build upon last year's online Tournament modes by introducing the Ryder Cup into the game. In addition to playing online or offline, you'll be able to design the format of your Ryder Cup team and even pick your team from the list of pros on the Tiger 11 roster. In addition, EA has announced support for the PlayStation motion controller, but, alas, it wasn't on display at the Season Opener event. Here's EA Sports' Travis Sailer talking about the Xbox 360 version of Tiger 11:

On the Wii, Tiger 11 looks to make another strong case as the best sports game on that console, with a refinement of the Wii MotionPlus controls that worked so well last year. This year, the game will take an even more complete look at your virtual swing by taking into consideration such things as swing plane and where your club makes contact with the ball in determining the success of your shot. Here's Tiger 11 designer Eric Busch talking about the new swing mechanics:

EA Sports MMA

Using a modified version of the Fight Night 4 engine, EA's upcoming MMA game will be at least a little familiar to those who have played the successful boxing franchise. The quick-strike mechanic will use the right stick for punches, kicks, and elbows. This being an MMA game, however, there's still the question of how to play the game once things head to the mat. EA didn't give all the details--and we still weren't allowed to play the game--but here's our updated impressions of the game.

2010 FIFA World Cup 2010

Last month, we got our first peek at the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of EA Sports' upcoming World Cup game. Last night, we saw the Wii version for the first time, which will feature simplistic controls and, among other features, a Dream Team mode that will have you completing challenges to build a team of the world's best players. Here's EA Sports' Tristan Jackson walking us through a demo of the Wii game:

NBA Jam

The upcoming Wii version of the classic Midway series was on hand at last night's event, but, unfortunately, we aren't able to share the details on the game yet. Look out for more on NBA Jam in this space at the end of the month.

Obviously, we'll be following all the progress of all these games, so stay tuned for more throughout the year.

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The 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale is undoubtedly the rowdiest hole in golf. Throngs of fans pack the grandstands that surround the par-3 hole--most recently at the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open--many of them in various stages of undress and even more drinking heavily. Unlike the relatively buttoned-up atmosphere of most golf tournaments, the 16th at TPC is a party where fans' enthusiasm shines through. Some of that atmosphere will come through in the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, which will include TPC Scottsdale on its course roster, complete with a packed-house 16th hole.

Of course the big news surrounding EA Sports' Tiger series hasn't been the game; for the past few months, it has been all about Tiger Woods and his public problems away from golf. Nonetheless, EA has come out in public support for Tiger and, earlier in the year, stated that he would once again be the cover athlete for this year's golf game. What they didn't say is that Tiger wouldn't be the only golfer on the cover--for the first time in the series' history, Tiger will share the cover with another golfer: Irish rookie Rory McIlroy.

Now, you might see this as EA's first step toward pushing Tiger off the cover of the game that bears his name. Or you might remember that 2010 is a Ryder Cup year, when American and European golfers go head-to-head in a series of matches for the storied trophy of the same name. It's arguably the biggest biennial story in golf, and EA is making it a big part of Tiger 11.

When taking part in the Ryder Cup in Tiger 11, you'll essentially be acting as the captain of your chosen team (America or Europe). You'll be able to choose your lineup from the game's roster of real-life PGA pros (when playing the Ryder Cup during your created golfer's career, you'll be able to put your alter ego in the Cup matches). You'll also be able to decide pairings for the Cup's various rounds (which include match play, fourball, and foursome rules). When setting up a Ryder Cup match, you'll have lots of options to choose from, including number and type of rounds, the location you wish to play (including Celtic Manor in Wales, site of the real 2010 Ryder Cup), and more.

While exercising your inner Paul Azinger when selecting matchups is fun enough, you'll have another level of control in Ryder Cup matches that you could find only in a video game. Let's say you've begun a match play round as Tiger Woods and have built a comfortable lead over your opponent. In between rounds, you notice that your teammate Anthony Kim is struggling in his match--you can then take control of Kim and try to get him back in a successful position. This kind of flip-flopping between players is optional but will help you ensure that your favorite team takes home Samuel Ryder's cup each time you go out.

Competing for the Cup offline is great, but sticking it to friends and strangers online is where the real fun may lie in Tiger 11. Online team play in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Tiger 11 will let two teams of up to 12 players apiece go head to head in match play competition that is fast to play and heavy on the trash talk. Teams will be able to chat with each other via headsets to plan strategy or to give one another a hard time when a shot goes awry. This being match play, you'll be locked up in a battle with a specific player on the other team, though you will be able to see the shots of all players participating, thanks to the multicolored shot arcs that have become standard when playing Tiger online these days. As the match continues, you'll get a constant update of not only where you stand against your competitor but how your team matches up against its rival. There's no golfing equivalent of clan support this year--though that seems like an obvious inclusion for Tiger 12--but there will be leaderboards where you'll be able to compare your results against with others.

On course, Tiger's gameplay hasn't changed a great deal from previous years. Noticeable changes include an approach grid that will show you the break of the green in greater detail even from the teebox (especially useful when judging where to put the ball on a par 3), rough of variable lengths, and other minor touches like dynamic skies and players' clothing whipping about in the breeze. The mechanics of the golf swing--including the button-mashing backswing power-ups and midair spin--are still in place (though presumably you'll still have the option to turn them off when playing at higher difficulty levels).

If you're looking for true differentiation in controls, then the Wii version of Tiger 11 is where you need to be. Last year's game introduced the Wii MotionPlus accessory to the game, resulting in a lifelike swing mechanic, and this year, in addition to features like the Ryder Cup, the Wii version is taking the Wii MotionPlus swing control to the next level.

In last year's game, the Wii MotionPlus only measured the rotation of your wrist as you swung the Wii Remote, which would then determine the draw or fade put on the ball in the air. This year, depending on the swing mode you're using, Tiger 11 will take a much more complete look at your swing. For example, when using the advanced plus swing mode, the Wii MotionPlus will gauge your swing plane to determine the degree of inside/out or outside/in motion in your swing. This will also affect the flight of your ball at contact, and you'll get some handy feedback after each shot showing you exactly how you struck the ball.

True golf purists will most likely want to be hacking away using the Tour Pro swing option, which takes wrist rotation and swing plane into account and also factors in contact of the club head on the ball. Add to that a first-person view known as True View, which puts your perspective directly over the ball when hitting. When in this perspective, the camera doesn't move with the ball as it travels in the air--instead, you watch the ball flight from the spot you hit it, as you do in the real-life sport. And, as in a real PGA tournament, you might not know you hit a great shot until you hear the roar of the appreciative crowd. In short, Tour Pro swing mode seems about as close as the Tiger series has gotten to putting you on the golf course.

Noonan. Noonan. Noonan!

The sensitivity of the swing can be punishing, as we found out firsthand. You aren't just trying to swing with good speed to get some power underneath the ball; you're also looking to twist your wrists so they are flat at the moment of impact, have a nice even swing plane, and make contact at the fattest part of the club. In essence there are nearly as many things to think about as there are with a regular golf swing. It's little wonder, then, that when an EA producer put a golf ball on the ground and between our feet for use as a visual guide when swinging our putter, we were able to nail a 20-foot uphill putt.

Or, like it so often is the case with our real golf game, it might have just been blind luck. Look for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 on June 8 on all platforms.

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With the fervor of the men's Olympic hockey tournament still blazing in my veins, I fired up NHL 10 on Sunday night and dove into the Be a Pro mode for a nice long stretch. The next thing I knew, it was after midnight, my created left winger had made the first line of my minor league team (the Hershey Bears), and I was nearly halfway through my team's season. Along the way, I started thinking about how sports games dangle the carrot in front of players' eyes.

My very first game back in NHL 10--after weeks of playing other games--was a revelation on ice for my created player. He was a flash of maroon and white, racking up three assists and a gorgeous one-timer goal in a lopsided 6-0 victory against a division opponent. It was by far the best I'd played since owning NHL 10, and I wasn't exactly sure how much of that success was due to Olympic inspiration, blind luck, or some other cause.

It was that single game's effort, after all, that got me promoted to the first line--for which I rewarded my team with a string of subsequently mediocre performances, a few goals and assists here and there, and at least one game where I racked up three back-to-back interference penalties (which I still think are called too frequently in the game).

Despite spending experience points to upgrade my player's attributes, my uneven play continued throughout my session with the game. So what, then, was going on in that game where I could seemingly do no wrong? Was it simply the fact that I had been away from NHL 10 for a while and that absence had given me a clearer vision of what I needed to accomplish on the ice? Was I just in the right frame of mind when I began--I tend to get antsy when playing sports games--and my performance suffered as my anxiety increased?
Or maybe the game is just screwing with me. Perhaps a line in the code flipped a switch and decided that, at least for one game, my NHL 10 Be a Pro would be playing like an American version of Alex Ovechkin.

Whatever the cause, I can say that I had more fun in that one stellar performance than I've had in the entirety of my mediocre NHL 10 career so far. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, a great night on the ice feels that much better, simply because I've struggled for so long. On the other, half the reason I previously gave up on NHL 10 (and on NHL 09's career mode, and gave up on my created pitcher in MLB 09: The Show) is simply because those great performances were too few and far between.

Granted, this is early in my career, and it can only get better. I've got more experience points to earn, more attributes to grow, and presumably more goals and assists to rack up. Still, even once my player gets called up to the NHL, I'll be a little fish in a big pond. Perhaps those infrequent golden performances are NHL 10's method of keeping me into the game while I continue to work on my player and my skills. But I have to wonder if the occasional taste of being Alex Ovechkin is enough reward for spending the majority of my time being David Steckel.

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There's more to being a top-flight football player than tremendous strength, precise reflexes, and blistering speed. One of the more overlooked attributes of a position like running back is vision, specifically peripheral vision. After all, what good is all that strength, speed, and precision for a ball carrier who can't see a defensive end coming in from the side to clobber him? That's one of the challenges the developers at Natural Motion are facing with the upcoming Backbreaker, the upcoming unlicensed football game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

It's a challenge that is partially the developer's own making; in an effort to bring immediacy to Backbreaker's on-field play, the camera is drawn much closer to the ground than in a game like Madden NFL or the NCAA Football series. And while that lowered camera adds to the impact of Backbreaker's bone-crushing procedural hits--one of the game's biggest talking points--it takes some getting used to, especially when running the ball. If you manage to break through the initial contact, for example, and get a few yards upfield, you might think you have some open ground ahead of you, only to be nailed by a vicious hit from a defender you didn't notice coming from offscreen, something that rarely (if ever) occurs in other football games.

Still, with a few months to go before Backbreaker ships, the developers behind the game are well aware of potential camera issues and are still exploring potential solutions to the problem of peripheral vision. It's doubtful that a complete camera overhaul is likely--which may not be entirely a bad thing; after all, the lower angle and manually panning across the field when playing as quarterback work pretty well for the passing game.

A potential answer to the peripheral vision problem could be found in Backbreaker's focus mode, which is engaged by holding down the left trigger. When you're playing as quarterback, focus mode tightens your field of view onto your locked-on receiver. Passes thrown in focus mode are more accurate, but the reward of accuracy is offset by the risk of a further zoomed-in camera, which further reduces your peripheral vision. During my brief hands-on time with Backbreaker, I gave up multiple sacks by using focus too much, and made more than a few gorgeous long passes too.

But focus mode also works for ball carriers, which is where things might get interesting with some tweaks. The way it works now, engaging focus mode as a ball carrier will put the focus on the nearest threat (read: the nearest defensive player set to make a tackle). It's interesting in theory and can be disconcerting at first in practice; because your nearest threat is often behind you (especially as a wide receiver on a long pass), the camera will often swing completely around. As a result, if you leave the left trigger held down and move the stick, you'll start running in the opposite direction of where you should be going. With enough practice, you'll presumably learn to use the focus mode only in quick bursts as a ball carrier--showing any nearby threats and then reacting accordingly. If focus mode is used intelligently (and the camera reacts quickly enough without giving you motion sickness in the process), it might be a decent fix for the peripheral vision problem in Backbreaker.

Camera angles aside, developers are aiming to make Backbreaker an easy game to pick up and play. There are two basic modes of play--Arcade and Pro. Arcade mode has stripped-down playbooks (basic run plays; short, medium, and long passes; and play action essentially) and lots of on-field indicators to help you with things like primary receivers (who are colored red), receivers you are currently focused on (who are highlighted in yellow), and so on. When playing defense, your offensive assignment will be highlighted when playing in Arcade mode. Pro mode, by contrast, strips out much of the artificial highlighting and adds in more complex playbooks. Those who want a middle ground between Arcade and Pro mode can choose to toggle specific aspects of presentation on or off.

In terms of control, Backbreaker has taken a similar easy-to-learn approach. When you're carrying the ball, most of the moves you'd expect to be able to do--things like jukes and spins--are controlled by moving the right stick; flick the stick left or right for a juke, or turn it in a quick circle for a spin move. We've already covered focus mode, which uses the left trigger; the right trigger engages aggressive mode. Think of it as turbo mode with attitude. When it's engaged, your runner will crouch a bit lower and sprint faster. Using the right stick when in aggressive mode will execute moves like stiff arms either left or right, or the trucking move by pressing up on the right stick.

Before the snap, you can pull up the camera to get an elevated look at the field with coach cam--you can even use the coach cam in the middle of a play and the AI will take over the player you were previously controlling. You can switch between players during a play by pressing the X button, and the game will choose the player it switches to next; producers claim it will be the most "intelligent" player (that is, not necessarily the closest player but a nearby player who is in a position to make a play). There are still some questionable control features in Backbreaker--do we really need a button to manually switch the ball from one hand to the next?--but for the most part, the game's learning curve isn't that steep.

The low-down camera brings an immediacy to the action on the field.

Beyond the on-field play, Backbreaker will include things like online play, the Tackle Alley minigame (which has become a popular iPhone game in its own right), and a season mode that will come in two flavors. The first season mode variety is aptly called Season mode, and it will let you play any of the game's more than 60 teams in an 8-, 16-, or 32-team league. You can play multiple seasons in a row, and there will be college player scouting in between seasons and a team draft before the start of the season (with the number of draft rounds dependent on the size of the league). In addition, there looks to be a monetary system of sorts at play in Backbreaker--you'll earn credits in-game by doing things like winning games or making big plays; you can take those credits and use them to buy free agents for your team as you progress.

The other season mode variety is known as Road to Backbreaker mode. Unlike in the traditional Season mode, you'll be using a created team here, which you create from scratch using the game's extensive team, uniform, and logo creator. You can save up to 32 created teams in the game, and if you aren't much of an artist, you can copy an existing team's logo and adapt it to your liking by changing designs and color schemes (via a Forza Motorsport-like tool of basic geometric shapes).

Road to Backbreaker mode starts you off in an eight-team league, and in a nod to Natural Motion's European roots, the mode will feature a promotion and relegation system. Should you end up in the top three of your league at the end of the season, you'll be promoted to the next league up (either a 16- or 32-team field). Winning a league's championship bowl game will also unlock special stadiums that you can use online (bringing the total number of stadiums in the game to 13). Failure to end up in the top three will mean dreaded relegation to the next lower tier and a long road back to promotion during the next season.

The promotion/relegation option seems like a smart inclusion to Backbreaker's approach to football, which needs to do as much as possible to separate itself from its high-profile competition. There are some lingering questions about the game's depth--for example, there are no injuries in the game (though players do have backups at each position). Amid those questions we do have one cold hard fact: Backbreaker will be released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 18, so stay tuned for more on the game in the coming weeks.

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ESPN has the first details on EA Sports' upcoming college football game, NCAA Football 11. In an interview with the site, producers Ben Haumiller and Russ Kiniry break down nine of the biggest changes and additions to the game, including some feature imports from last year's Madden, as well as a few additions that fans have been clamoring about for years. Here are the features are in the order listed in the article:

- On-field refs

- Gang tackles

- Improved auto-save

- Auto load rosters

- Formation subs

- New equipment

- Single bowl season

- Dynamic conference logos

- Numbers on helmets

A screen from last year's NCAA Football 10.

Formation subs seem like the big win here, especially considering the feature was part of the NCAA Football series on the PlayStation 2. Here's a quote from Kiniry in the article, explaining how the system has been improved for this generation of consoles:

"Formation subs are back & that's the best way to put it," says Kiniry. "It's exciting for us as well because I love running two back systems, and there's nothing better than to be able to set up different formations with different backs. So now, just like how it worked on PS2, you'll be able to go in and for each formation; you'll be able to choose who you want in there. Cool thing is, you can do it while in-game in the pause menu, but for me, the biggest part is that it's a front-end option in Dynasty as well. So now, you can setup your Dynasty and Online Dynasty in the beginning of the year, and barring injuries, you can let it ride out, and those are your formation subs for the rest of the year.

Obviously, there's much more to learn about NCAA Football 11 in the coming months, so be sure to stay tuned.

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There probably is no better time for the release of Curling 2010 than during the two-week window of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Curling--the relatively obscure winter sport that involves Teflon shoes, granite stones, and long brooms--is currently enjoying a dose of worldwide exposure at the Olympic Games. Dadoo Games' Bill Fowler, the one-man team behind Curling 2010--which was released this week on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel--didn't plan the release necessarily to time with the Olympics, though he recognizes that the timing works in the game's favor.

"The timing of its release did work out pretty well," Fowler told me over e-mail. "I wanted to have it released in the fall originally, then a month ago, but it ended up smack dab in the middle of the Olympics. I give a lot of the credit for the interest in curling and the game to team Norway's pants. Man, those are nice pants!"

Even with lovely pants, though, it's doubtful that curling will ever gain a toehold in America in the same way as the NFL or the NBA. That said, the Xbox Live Indie Games channel is proving to be a haven for sports gaming experimentation. Curling 2010 is just the latest in a catalog of games based on under-the-radar sports like bowling, college lacrosse, and even Japanese hand games--with more to come in the future.

I recently had a chance to speak with Fowler over e-mail about Curling 2010 to find out more about the game and his future plans for Dadoo Games (be they involving sports games or home improvement).

GameSpot: Tell me about the development of the game. How did you get started with the project and why did you choose curling? What previous games (if any) have you worked on?

Bill Fowler: I had no experience at all with making games when I began making Curling 2010. My day job involves programming, and I had heard of [Microsoft's game development toolset] XNA, but that was about it. The game was born out of a demo for a 2D physics library I was playing with at the time. I had just started curling myself and decided it would be easy to make a curling game--I was wrong! From there, it was one small improvement after another. There was no master plan, and I had a lot of learning to do concerning the basics of 3D games. When it came to adding features, like the AI and online portion, there was a significant amount of rework needed, but [there] are still parts of that original demo in the final game. Working on the game for two to three hours every other night makes for slow progress, but I'm very happy with how it has turned out.

GS: We've seen curling in games before, often included in larger minigame collections as in Deca Sports. What does Curling 2010 do that those other games don't?

BF: Online multiplayer is the one glaring omission from all other console curling games I've seen. Curling is a very social game, so it only makes sense that gamers would want to play against each other. Curling 2010 allows up to four players to compete in the same game online, which I'm pretty sure no other title allows. The game also includes a practice mode, which is a lot of fun on its own. It's basically "no rules" curling: You can place stones wherever you want on the ice and retry shots over and over. There's no scoring and no end goal, so it quickly turns into a competition to see who can make the most outlandish shot. Finally, there's a target competition mode that is less competitive than a normal curling match and is easy to pick up and play.

GS: How is the game played? What kind of modes and difficulty levels are there?

BF: The mechanics of the game are pretty simple: spin, power, and direction are the only controls you need to master. When you throw a curling stone, it will follow a curved path controlled by the direction you spin the stone handle and how much force is behind the shot. You need take that curve into account when aiming the stone down the ice, then throw and hope for the best. When you find that you need the stone to curve less or travel farther, the sweeping aspect comes into play. The game features a tutorial that explains the basic rules of curling plus walks you through throwing stones and the strategies involved. Once you've gotten the hang of how to throw, it becomes a matter of planning and strategizing.

There are three game play modes: Traditional Match, Target Competition, and Practice. All modes except Practice allow for four-player online play and local play against your friends or family. There are also computer opponents with three levels of difficulty for when there's no one else around. There are little extras as well, including eight unlockable awards and 20 different curling badges you can earn for good (and bad) shots.

GS: The release of Curling 2010 times nicely with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Was the timing intentional or just a happy accident?

BF: When I originally started development, I figured I might be able to get it ready for the launch of the [Xbox Live Indie Games] service (circa November 2008), which was pretty naive looking back. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to be completed for the game to be robust and pass through the XBLIG review process, and it can take a while to work it all out. Fortunately, there is strong community support on the creators.xna.com Web site. Then, I decided to add online multiplayer, delaying the game by another few months. I switched my release date to last fall, hoping to catch the start of the curling season, but that didn't work out so well either. The last few months the target release date switched to whenever it's ready. It was just luck that it ended [up] being released right in the middle of the Olympics.

GS: For viewers who might be seeing curling for the first time on the Olympic broadcasts, what do they need to know about the sport? What separates the great teams from the rest?

BF: Curling is a strategic game. My advice would be to ignore the throwing and sweeping (and yelling) aspects of the game at first and focus on the strategy involved. Most people see curling and think it's easy, but it's a lot harder physically than it looks. I think great curling teams need to be able to roll with the punches, as every stone has the potential to totally change who has the advantage. It's very similar to chess, where you need to plan ahead but still have a solid backup plan. There is also a rumor that checkered pants make you sweep harder, but I can't confirm that.

GS: What's your next project?

BF: I need to finish renovating my bathroom. It has been ripped apart since January, and my wife's patience is at an end. I'll definitely work on another game, though I'm not sure what yet. It will partly depend on how viable multiplayer turns out to be for XBLIG. If there isn't enough of a player base to be able to readily find matches, I'll probably drop it from my next game. One of the biggest advantages of [the] Xbox Live Indie Games service is that game genres and concepts that no studio would touch will find a voice. So maybe a good caber tossing game or online knitting?

GS: We're all over either of those! Thanks for your time, Bill.

Curling 2010 is currently available on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel for 240 Microsoft points.

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The moment you take the field in MLB 2K10's brand new My Player mode, the pressure is on you. Sure, you might only be playing in Double-A ball, but that doesn't mean that you won't need to perform. After you've created your player from scratch, given him a name, worked out his look, and chosen his position on the field, you're immediately dropped into a clutch situation late in a game. If you're a pitcher, your goal is to get a batter out and not let any runners on base score. If you're a batter, your goal is to--you guessed it---get those runners home and win the game.

It's not the end of the world if you don't come up big in the clutch. As a pitcher, I actually let a runner score but managed to send the game into extra innings, where my Tennessee Smokies eventually lost. But completing your goal will earn you extra skill points, which you'll put toward your player's attributes on his way to getting the call up to the big leagues.

My Player mode was included in last year's NBA 2K10 and career modes have become increasingly popular in sports games. As a result, including My Player in MLB 2K10 was a virtual certainty. And while there's little that's utterly new in 2K's version of a baseball game Career mode (beyond the high drama of your debut, with its slow-mo camera pans and tense musical score), the mode does look like a fun alternative to the more traditional modes in MLB 2K10, like exhibition games or Franchise mode.

Getting called up to the major leagues is any baseball player's dream, and in My Player mode, there will be very little mystery about what you need to do to get promoted. A handy menu screen will present you with the precise criteria you'll need to meet in order to earn your way onto the MLB roster for your team. For example, in order for my pitcher to get called up, he had to have at least five starts under his belt, as well as some very specific attribute and statistical goals. These included having two pitches rated at 60 or above, a composure rating above 60, a stamina rating above 65, and a pitching rating against both left-handed and right-handed batters above 60. There's even a meter that gives you an ETA on when you're expected to get the call up that is based on your current attributes--the more that meter is filled, the closer you are to getting the call.

Your first moments in My Player mode will put your on the spot in a clutch situation.

Depending on the situation of your organization, you might get called up earlier than expected--such as when a key member of the MLB roster is hurt. However, if you meet all of the requirements listed on your My Player menu, you are guaranteed to get called up. I haven't played enough of the mode myself to see if this means you'll get an earlier call-up than you might in the Career mode in Sony's MLB series, but it certainly seems that way in the early goings.

You can spend skill points on whatever player attributes you like--dumping all your points into one or two areas or spreading things around and trying to progress a bit more evenly. As a pitcher, you can spend skill points on your current pitches to improve their speed or accuracy. Or you can spend a big chunk of points and add an additional pitch or two to your arsenal (you start with three pitches in the beginning). Producers told me that an evenhanded approach to progress is probably best because if you dump too many skill points into a few areas in order to get an early call-up, your resulting deficiencies in other areas of your game might mean a quick trip back to the minors.

New position drills will let you focus on specific skills away from actual game situations. There are six drills in all:

- Control and velocity (pitching)

- Composure and stamina (pitching)

- Contact and power (hitting)

- Plate battle (hitting)

- Lead off and jump (running)

- Advancing and sliding (running)

I saw control and velocity, as well as contact and power, in action. With the former, you have to hit certain areas of the strike zone with a certain type of pitch. You have only so many attempts of a certain pitch type to hit that target, and the more areas you hit, the more skill points you'll earn at the end of the drill. With contact and power, your goal is to hit the ball either left, right, or center a certain number of times. To earn a bronze medal, for example, you'll need to pull one ball, hit two to center, and hit one to the opposite side. More prestigious medals will require more accuracy, and as with the pitching drills, higher performance will earn you more points to spend on your player.

You'll always know exactly how close you are to getting called up to the big leagues in MLB 2K10's My Player mode.

Both the pitching and batting drills illustrate the new mechanics that have been built into the pitcher/batter duels in MLB 2K10. When batting, a lower camera angle offers a slightly better look at the kind of pitch that's coming your way. There's also the new batter's eye rating; while not available for every player, those with a high enough "batter's eye" rating will get an occasional glimpse at where a ball is heading--left, right, up, or down. The system doesn't tell you whether the pitch will be a ball or a strike, but it does effectively train your eye on where to look.

In terms of controls, batting works similarly to last year--you push forward for a contact swing and pull back then push forward for a power swing. Defensive swings have been added this year; by flicking the right stick left or right you can perform a defensive swing designed to keep you in the batter's box during a lengthy duel with a pitcher. You can actually get on base with a defensive swing, but you'll more often simply hit the ball foul down the line. Between defensive swings and the batter's eye function, it seems that the rarest of baseball video game occurrences--taking a walk--might be probable… perhaps even frequent.

In MLB 2K9, pitching was mostly guesswork. You had a series of sometimes confusing pitch-specific motions you needed to perform on the right stick. The game, then, essentially guessed at what pitch you were attempting and graded your success accordingly. The result was often frustratingly inaccurate and simply not a lot of fun. While the pitch-specific moves are still in MLB 2K10, the system has been improved with a simple fix: Before you deliver from the mound, you choose the pitch you want to throw by pressing a corresponding face button. Then, once you deliver your pitch, you're judged on how well you performed the motion of the pitch you chose--no guesswork here. Different pitches have different break points, and you'll be able to see how much movement pitches have via a small arrow onscreen.

Elsewhere in MLB 2K10, the Franchise mode has gotten some attention, with features like an improved player filter, trade finder (where you can put a player on the block to see what other players will offer for him), an MLB.com front end that will highlight all the news around your franchise, a super sim feature that will let you quickly sim through games (on a batter-by-batter, half-inning, or full-inning basis), spring training, 40-man rosters, September call-ups, and a mid-season draft.

No skill points for that pitch.

More than all of the new additions in the game, the developers behind MLB 2K10 seem intent on proving that this year's baseball game will be a better experience than last year's disappointing effort. A full 11-month development cycle (compared to the eight-month schedule for last year's game, necessitated by the game's move to being developed in-house by 2K Sports) has made an impact. Between fixing all of the problems of MLB 2K9 and adding the new features to this year's game, it has certainly been a busy year for the guys at 2K Sports. We'll see how well those efforts paid off when MLB 2K10 is released on March 2. Look for the demo of MLB 2K10 to be available on February 23 on Xbox Live and on the PlayStation Network on March 4.

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Today was footie day at GameSpot HQ, as developers from EA Canada came by to show off two of the company's big soccer releases for this year: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the latest edition of the Ultimate Team feature for last year's FIFA 10. I've got some thoughts and observations on both games, but if you want a more complete look at World Cup, check out GameSpot UK's hands-on preview of the game.

2010 World Cup South Africa

- It might not be a back-of-the-box feature, but this year's World Cup game has something that no previous FIFA game has seen: women. If you look closely during game introduction, you'll see ladies in the mix who are supporting their favorite teams among the guys wearing jester hats or brightly colored Mohawks. For whatever reason, people go nuts when they see girls at World Cup games, so it's nice to see EA is including the fairer sex this time around.

- While I didn't spend a lot of time playing last year's FIFA 10, I like what I've seen of 2010 World Cup's evolution of the FIFA engine. Consider a situation I experienced during my hands-on time with the game: Playing as Japan (against Cameroon, who was being controlled by EA Canada producer Luke Didd), I gave up a goal I'd never seen in a soccer game before. After my goalkeeper made a wonderful diving block to stop an otherwise certain goal, the ball bounced off his hands and just in front of him. My center half--who was nearby--collapsed down near the ball and over the keeper as he lay on the ground. Desperate to kick the ball free, I tried to move my defenseman close enough to the ball, but his legs were tangled up in the crumpled form of my keeper, which gave the Cameroon striker just enough time to get to the ball and knock in the go-ahead goal. Sure, I was angry at giving up the goal, but the game's attention to the physics of how bodies interact on the pitch was surely impressive.

- The good news: 2010 World Cup will let you play a full World Cup tournament online, matching you with players of similar skill levels from the group stage matches, through the knockout rounds, and all the way to the World Cup finals. Matchmaking is random, so you can play a round in your WC tournament at any time and be matched up with a similar player. The not-so-good news: Matchmaking is completely random, so if you and 31 of your friends want to get together to organize a private World Cup tournament online, you're out of luck.

- The "Battle of Nations" feature stands intact from previous international tournament games, which were first seen in UEFA Euro 2008. It is a metagame that assesses which nation--among the 199 national teams that were eligible to qualify for the 2010 World Cup--has the most serious FIFA skills. Playing the game will earn you points for your favored nation, but you won't need to play as your country of choice in order to earn points. So with that said, fellow Americans, let's plan on loading up Brazil online and never looking back!

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team

The popular card-collecting series, which began with UEFA Champions League 2006/2007 and has now migrated over to the Madden series, continues in late February. That is when FIFA 10 Ultimate Team is released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will run you 400 Microsoft points or $4.99, respectively. The FIFA team has made several crucial changes to the mode. Here's a look at some of the most notable tweaks:

- Unlike in previous years, Ultimate Team in FIFA 10 no longer includes the concept of doing away with excess cards in your collection. The card-collecting album is gone, and though you can still discard cards for coins or put them up for auction, keeping a ton of cards on hand will be to your benefit. Instead of simply focusing on creating a single ultimate team, you'll be able to create multiple teams from your various cards (and even save your various teams in any of 15 available slots).

- Why would you want to create different teams? Why, for tournaments, of course. Ultimate Team will have numerous different tournament types, with new tournaments introduced on a regular basis after the game is released. While you'll want to have your most powerful team available for some tourneys, others will challenge you to build teams with very specific requirements (such as a team with a maximum skill level of three stars or fielding a team where no more than two players come from the same club). These various restrictions are another good reason to keep as many cards as possible on hand.

- The developers behind FIFA 10 Ultimate Team are clearly putting a premium on playing in tournaments--thanks to tournament modifiers. These modifiers will change depending on the difficulty of the tournament and will affect the amount of coins you earn at the end of the tourney. In addition, one team in a tournament will earn bonus coins by being declared the best team in the tournament. Winning a tournament doesn't necessarily guarantee you this bonus; you still have a chance at it by playing skillfully throughout the tournament, even if you don't pick up the trophy.

- Contracts will still play a role in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team, but there is one big change this year. Even if a card's contract is reduced to zero, it won't be automatically removed from your deck. Instead, you'll need to renew the card's contract with...you guessed it...a contract card.

- Speaking of cards, there are a few changes to note here, as well. First, FIFA 09 Ultimate Team's gameplay cards--cards that you could play in midgame to affect either your team or your opponent's team--have been removed this year. New to the Ultimate Team deck are rare cards--which are essentially pumped up versions of their regular counterparts. Rare cards can happen for players of any skill level--for instance, you might have a rare card of a player who would normally be found in a silver or bronze pack but a boosted heading ability will elevate him to "rare" status.

- Chemistry--or how Ultimate Team players play together on the pitch--is one of the most interesting aspects of Ultimate Team's gameplay, and there are plenty of theories on how to improve your team's chemistry. This year, the parameters for how team chemistry works have opened up a bit. For example, unlike last year, players who play in the same league or the same club in real life will enjoy a boosted chemistry bonus. The developers have also changed how a player's preferred position or formation affects his chemistry rating. For example, a player who normally enjoys playing right wing won't take as a big a chemistry hit if he's playing right midfield on your team. Similarly, a defender who prefers a 4-4-2 formation won't be put off if you change the formation to the very similar 4-4-1-1 formation.
- Your club is your own in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team. If you created a team in last year's game, you'll be able to transfer your team name to this year's version. The game will even note the year when your team was established. The bad news? All the coins you earned in FIFA 09 will not transfer over into FIFA 10...because that would just be cheap.

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team will be released on February 25. Look for more 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa in the coming weeks ahead of its release in late April.

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As a nation, we love college basketball. Once the new year rolls around and the nation's eyes move away from college football and the NFL playoffs, college hoops heats up, leading to perhaps the greatest of all American sporting events: the NCAA men's basketball tournament. March Madness is undeniably huge: The 2008 championship game between Kansas and Memphis drew a 12.1 rating (about 19.5 million viewers). Last year's game between North Carolina and Michigan State drew a 10.8, down from previous years but still an entirely respectable number.

Still, despite the sport's popularity with the television viewing audience, there's a very real chance we won't see a college basketball game released in 2010. In its latest fiscal 2010 financial report, EA did not list a new entry in the NCAA Basketball series for its fiscal year 2011, which begins this April. The series has struggled in sales in the past few years; last year's game sold just over 155,000 copies on all platforms. These are paltry numbers, especially considering that the game has no direct competition since 2K canceled its NCAA College Hoops series in early 2008.

GameSpot has contacted EA Sports regarding the NCAA Basketball series but as of this writing has not received a response. Regardless of that game's ultimate fate, it's clear that college basketball games just aren't what they used to be. So why can't a tremendously popular sport support a successful video game franchise? I've got a few theories:

Scheduling Problems

Traditionally, college basketball games have been released in the fall. NCAA Basketball 10 was released on November 19, 2009, and the last 2K college hoops game, NCAA College Hoops 2K8, was released on November 19, 2007. That's smack-dab in the middle of the busiest time of the year for video game releases. In addition to getting lost in the Triple-A title shuffle, college basketball games also feel the pressure of their NBA rivals, which have traditionally been released in the October time frame. If most NCAA fans are also NBA fans, and you have games like NBA 2K10 and last year's revitalized NBA Live 10 sitting on store shelves a month prior, the "either/or" buying decision becomes an easier choice to make.

Interestingly, publisher experiments with college hoops delays have met with mixed results. In March of 2006, 2K Sports released the Xbox 360 version of NCAA College Hoops 2K6, nearly four months after the release of the game on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which were both released in November 2005. The move was a mild success, with the 360 version selling nearly 100,000 copies and accounting for more than a third of the total number of games sold on all systems, despite coming out after the regular season had ended. Last year, EA tried a similar experiment--looking to capitalize on the men's basketball tournament by releasing the download-only NCAA Basketball 09: March Madness Edition for the Xbox 360, a slimmed-down version of MM 09, with a focus solely on the tourney. Sales numbers weren't released for the online-only title.

In the end, the release schedule has become a conundrum that publishers have yet to crack. Do you release the game in the fall before most fans are even thinking about college hoops and game fans have plenty of other choices? Or do you release at the end of the season when the season nears March Madness and most fans will be thinking about the sport for only a month and a half at the most?

The Name Game

College hoops' greatest bounty--its astounding variety of teams and players--can also be its greatest hindrance. The Cinderella story that everyone loves to talk about in March (think 11-seed George Mason making it all the way to the Final Four in 2006, the first 11-seed to do so since 1986) has a problematic flip side--namely, a level of player anonymity that can border on the maddening for the casual fan.

It seems that only a handful of players in college basketball become the kinds of sporting household names that college football creates in droves on an annual basis. That those upper-echelon players sometimes spend only one or two years at their school before declaring for the draft gives college hoops fans even less time to identify them with their favorite team. Florida fans couldn't wait to get their hands on Tim Tebow in last year's NCAA Football 10 to see how the star quarterback would play after several successful seasons with the Gators. By contrast, fans of NCAA Basketball 10 cover star Blake Griffin saw their college hero leave school early to become a mediocre NBA benchwarmer on a sub-.500 team before ending his inaugural real NBA season with knee problems.

Quality Isn't Job One

The NCAA Football series might play second fiddle to Madden in terms of sales, but few would say the series is creatively bankrupt. NCAA Football 10 has several important additions like Teambuilder and game planning that made a significant impact on the game. On the other hand, there has been the lingering impression that college basketball games are secondhand imitations of their NBA cousins. Even with 2K's College Hoops series--one of my favorite sports franchises of all time--I rarely felt the on-court play was any better than that found in the NBA 2K series. Instead, I enjoyed the features surrounding gameplay--like legacy mode and, in particular, player recruiting.

While it isn't fair to say that EA Sports has ignored the NCAA Basketball series, it's obvious the publisher's focus has been on the NBA Live series for the past several years. Last year's NCAA Basketball 10 is perhaps most emblematic of that. Whereas the NBA Live team was actively engaged in showing the gameplay improvements that looked to turn around last year's NBA Live 10, one of the most talked-about features with NCAA 10 was the integration of CBS graphics packages to the games. Naturally this presentation tweak wasn't the whole story with NCAA 10--the motion offenses that were introduced in that game were a great addition, one that could be built on in future iterations--but it spoke to NCAA's emphasis on veneer over substance.

There's more to the story of college basketball's slow decline over the years--the weakened economy has certainly played its part, as has the NCAA's ongoing ban on the use of player names and likenesses in sports games. But while college football continues to thrive in the real and virtual worlds, college basketball hasn't been able to overcome its shortcomings. Perhaps it will take a new platform or a new technology (like Microsoft's Natal or Sony's Arc) to revitalize the sport in virtual form. Perhaps a couple years' break will give developers time to focus on innovating again and give fans of the sport enough of a break to start missing it in video game form.

Perhaps.

It's hard to believe that this could be the last we've seen of college basketball games. Should the sport survive this year in video game form--or rise from the dead a few seasons from now--here's hoping it returns in a form that will be as inspirational and exciting as the real thing is for four weeks every March.

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Earlier tonight, THQ officially unveiled UFC 2010 Undisputed here at Mandalay Bay, just one day before UFC 109. Most of the details that were released were covered yesterday in our exclusive Q&A with THQ's Omar Kendall. However, there were still some interesting odds and ends on display during the presentation by THQ producer Nevin Dravinski. Here's a rundown of the things I noticed during tonight's unveiling:

UFC boss Dana White introduces the game.

-- The gameplay demo featured fighters Mike Swick and Paulo Thiago and covered a lot of ground specifically designed to show off a bunch of the game's new features, including fighting against the cage, a revamped submission system, and a tweaked control scheme. In terms of the cage, the main point discussed revolved around how the cage will affect striking power. In the demo, Thiago was shoved against the cage by Swick and tried some leg kicks while pinned against the cage; the angle of his body against the cage, however, didn't allow him to get full extension, and as a result, his kicks were much weaker than normal. On the other hand, using the additional leverage available to him, Swick was able to land much harder punches on Thiago. You'll also be able to do takedowns off the cage--during the demo, Dravinski performed a single-leg takedown on Thiago, ending up on the ground on top of Thiago in half guard.

-- For UFC 2010, the developers have essentially doubled the number of available submissions in the game--including more esoteric finishers like BJ Penn's arm trap to rear naked choke. When attempting a submission, the camera has been revamped--if you're winning a submission, the camera will pull in to give a closer view of the action. If you begin to lose it, the camera will pull back, adding a new level of immediacy to this crucial moment of the fight. Another addition is the introduction of submission transitions, which will let you move from one submission hold to the next by holding the left bumper and then pressing the right trigger (on the Xbox 360 controller). Depending on your position, you might move to a more advantageous position, or you might end up in a worse position than before.

-- There are multiple control tweaks to go along with all the other changes. For instance, the quarter- and half-circle transitions that were such a big part of the ground game are now used in the clinch. In fact, the clinch has been completely reanimated, which should make it a bit more exciting than in the first game. There's a new sway system in play as well that can help you avoid punches and kicks. Sway can also be effective offensively; if timed correctly, you can add additional power to a blow by leaning into it.

-- Posture will play a big role in fights. Each position on the ground will have several sub-positions. It wasn't entirely clear how this will work in the game, but from the sound of it, these sub-positions will determine your proximity to your opponent on the ground, making it easier to deliver hard shots from certain positions. The result, it seems, will be more opportunities to knock out an opponent from various positions. In fact, as Dravinski put it, in UFC 2009, you could knock out an opponent from only a couple of positions, but in 2010, you'll be able to do it from any position.

-- Another small change to the ground game involves the mount position. In UFC 2009, when in full mount, you could throw only one or two punches before having to try to block a transition attempt from an opponent. This time around, the game has more of a sense of an "inherent" transition block, one you won't have to manually control. As Dravinski told me, the idea here is to let people punch each other in the face more. Sounds good to me.

-- Lots of little UFC details abounded. During the post-fight decision announcement, the fighters were wearing T-shirts and caps, and you'll be able to unlock all of this gear and more as you go through the game. Bruce Buffer's patented "Buffer 180"--where the veteran ring announcer dramatically points to each fighter--is in the game. There are even new refs on the roster, including UFC vet Yves Lavigne.

-- Arianny Celeste is still in the game. This makes me smile.

-- While THQ wasn't talking career mode tonight, one detail caught my eye as it flashed by on the main menu screen as a hint of what to expect from career mode. It seems that disrespecting a fighter before a fight "will gain you more popularity and will also negatively affect relationships." Just what this means and how this will work in the game is unclear, but it seems that career mode will be significantly more robust than in 2009.

UFC 2010 Undisputed is due for release on May 25 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and later in the year on PSP.

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All this week we're taking a look at Sony's upcoming baseball game, MLB 10: The Show. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Today, we're finishing up the series with a look at some odds and ends I noticed after playing the game and speaking with the game's developers.

- I'm a Generic Pitch 38 kind of guy. I spent most of my time with last year's MLB 09 using my created Road to the Show pitcher, so I've learned the tricks to keep things moving. After all, even when you're playing as a starting pitcher and getting on the mound once every four or five days, the baseball season is a long slog. You take your shortcuts where you can get them, and in the case of a pitcher, that means shortening your windup as much as possible. Forget the seemingly eternal delivery of a guy like Chan Ho Park--when time is at a premium, I'm looking for the fastest delivery possible.

Bobby Abreu would never let a ball bounce off the top of his dome.

Having spent some hands-on time with MLB 10 earlier this week, one of my first goals was to find a pitch delivery that fit my schedule. That's not necessarily a simple task--MLB 10 has a full 310 deliveries to choose from, including pitching motions modeled after real-life pitchers and a bunch of generic models as well. It took me a while, but after some experimentation, I came to love the quick and to-the-point release of Generic Pitch 38. Now, here's hoping they don't mix the numbers up in the final version of the game, or else it's back to the drawing board…

- At the top of my list of questions for MLB 10 producers was when RTTS fans would be able to carry over their created ball players from one version of the game to the next year's game. As an ardent fan of career modes in sports games, I think that continuing your career from one game to the next seems like the next big step forward for the genre, one that would add a huge amount of stickiness and value from one game to the next. After all, continuing the career of your created star while still taking advantage of all the cool stuff that's added in each new version of a sports game seems like the best of both worlds. The developers agree, but there continue to be enough technical hurdles to cross that the feature was not included in this year's game. That said, it is on their radar for MLB 11, so I'm hoping it gets done next year. If you're reading this, guys: pretty, pretty please?

- One aspect of online play that I didn't mention in Wednesday's preview is the Scout Now feature--an extension of the game's online scout service that lets you filter through a bunch of different criteria like player skill and game speed when looking for a game to play online. With Scout Now you save those filter settings and then can instantly find a game with your preferences (assuming one is out there, of course). I tend to avoid MLB online as I swing at everything that's even remotely near the strike zone. With Scout Now, maybe I can find someone online who is as swing-happy as I am and actually have a shot at winning a game.

- Accurate ball deflections seems to me like perhaps the most underrated addition to MLB 10's gameplay. With the ball bouncing off of batters, umpires, fielders, and even pitchers (and, yes, injuries can happen on comebackers), it seems that a player's reaction time and fielding ability will count more than ever. In fact, now that the ball is acting more realistically, the burden on fielding animation was that much heavier. One of my favorite examples came while watching as a shortstop fielded a shallow fly ball that bounced on the ground just in front of him. As the ball leaped in the air, the shortstop had to make a similar quick hop to snag it and make the play at first. It was a tidy little animation that probably wasn't needed last year but made an impression this time around.

- Speaking of realistic ball physics, here's a feature that Jose Canseco won't appreciate. With the addition of new home-run-robbing wall catches, there are more defensive options for snagging a ball before it leaves the yard, including forehand, backhand, and straight-at-the-wall catches. That's good news for skilled outfielders. For the rest of us, couple delicate timing, necessary fielding ratings, and the improved ball physics, and it's entirely possible to re-create Canseco's famous "ball off the noggin'" outfield gaffe from 1993, when Jose was playing outfield for the Texas Rangers and a ball hit by the Indians' Carlos Martinez bounded off Canseco's head and into the stands for a home run. If it happens to you, I expect to see the video.

That wraps up our look at MLB 10: The Show, but we'll be bringing you more coverage in the coming weeks ahead of its release on March 2.

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In a single year, THQ's UFC Undisputed series has gone from relative unknown to a lynchpin in the publisher's annual lineup. Powered partly by the growth in popularity of the real UFC, the debut entry in the series met with tremendous success in 2009 and has sold 3.5 million copies since its release in May. That's the kind of success that demands a sequel in the form of UFC 2010 Undisputed, which THQ and developer Yuke's will be delivering on May 25. It will be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as later in the year on the PSP.

While it's not surprising to learn of a UFC sequel, finding out who the face of UFC 2010 will be may come a surprise: current UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar will be the cover athlete for the game. Lesnar, who won the heavyweight championship from Randy Couture at UFC 91, has been the subject of much speculation of late. After pulling out of a scheduled fight at UFC 106, rumors surrounding Lesnar's health problems left many insiders wondering when or if the big man (who previously wrestled in the WWE and, in 2003, served as the cover star for THQ's WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain for the PlayStation 2) would return to the UFC octagon. Recently, however, Lesnar appeared on ESPN with UFC boss Dana White to announce that he would be returning to the UFC in 2010, which was good news both for fans of the sport and the video game.

Return to the octagon this spring in UFC 2010 Undisputed.

As for UFC 2010, the folks at THQ and Yuke's have been hard at work improving on what was a very strong debut in last year's game. To get a handle on all of the changes and additions, we had a chance to speak exclusively with Omar Kendall, one of the game's designers. Our conversation touched on all of the major features in this year's game, as well as on some of the smaller improvements that will make their way into UFC 2010.

GameSpot: Let's start by looking back at UFC Undisputed 2009. What do you think were the greatest strengths and weaknesses of that game? What was the most surprising feedback you received from fans?

Omar Kendall: First, I'd like to thank GameSpot for showing UFC 2009 Undisputed so much love. The site had some of our biggest supporters early on, and it did not go unnoticed!

One of UFC 2009 Undisputed's biggest strengths is that the game really captures the true essence of the UFC. This is something the team tried really hard to make sure happened. And based on the overwhelming response from UFC fans and the gaming community, we think we achieved our goal. As for a greatest weakness, we can be pretty harsh with the self-criticism, so we're constantly trying to improve the whole game--even stuff the fans or reviewers may not have touched upon. And, ultimately, we feel that this drives us to work even harder.

The most surprising feedback we received from the fans was the overwhelmingly positive response to our demo. When we set out to make a genre-defining game like UFC 2009 Undisputed, there's always that doubt that what we create won't quite mesh with what the public was thinking how a next-generation UFC game should play. It was really exciting to meet and, in many cases, exceed the lofty expectations of the community.

GS: What were the top priorities with this year's game?

OK: The top priority with UFC Undisputed 2010 is a continued march toward being perceived as, "As Real as It Gets." We're constantly tinkering with game systems, graphics, and modes to ensure we deliver the experience our fans deserve.

One example of this is the revision of our fighting technique system and the introduction of the fight camp concept to our Career mode. In UFC 2009 Undisputed, players chose a striking technique and a grappling technique at the beginning of their careers and then worked exclusively on leveling those two techniques. This year, players will be able to visit fight camps and work on individual moves that they want to improve on or add to their arsenal. For example, if players want to strengthen their guillotine choke or learn something more esoteric like a Peruvian Neck Tie, they'd go to a fight camp and work on it. Afterward, they'd be free to go learn something else from another fight camp, like a judo throw or a special takedown.

GS: UFC 2009 successfully married deep combat and easy-to-learn controls. What's changed with combat in this year's game?

OK: We're glad to hear GameSpot feels we were successful in this regard. The fight system in UFC 2009 Undisputed is something we pride ourselves on with the game. We're constantly looking for ways to improve on our systems, and one big way is in the further improvements to our ultimate fight control. In UFC 2009 Undisputed, clinch grappling and ground grappling were handled with multiple control schemes, which could be cumbersome to juggle depending on the fighter's orientation. This year, we undertook a new design philosophy that allowed us to better align our clinch grappling and ground grappling. In essence, players will now perform clinch pummels and throws using the ultimate fighting control the same way they performed transitions in UFC 2009 Undisputed.

GS: There was some criticism of the submission system in UFC 2009--the button mashing/stick rolling wasn't a particular favorite and there seemed to be a lack of flash submits. How has the submit system changed this time around? Is submission success still tied to your opponent's stamina level?

OK: While we've done quite a bit of tinkering with the submission system, the stick rolling method of submission execution and escape (known semiofficially as The Shine) will return. It's something that's steadily become a signature element of the game, and we're pretty fond of it. What we did want to change was the button mashing/brute force escape we utilized last year. This enabled fighters with high strength to be just as good at getting out of submissions as fighters with high submission defense.

Now all fighters will utilize The Shine, but the parameters that govern the success of getting out of a submission have changed. For UFC Undisputed 2010, the submission calculations will use either a fighter's submission defense or his current energy level expressed as a percentage--whichever is higher. For example, let's say a fighter has a submission defense skill of 50. If the fighter has 100 stamina and full (100 percent) energy, the game will look at this energy level, and the fighter will have a great chance of getting out of a submission. If the fighter has 100 stamina and has used the majority of his energy reserves, the game will look at the fighter's submission defense skill; in this case, shine hard! We feel this system is fairer to players and more representative of how an actual submission struggle would go down.

As for flash submissions, all we can say is stay tuned! We've overhauled much more of the submission system, and we can't wait to show it off.

GS: Will the cage have any effect on gameplay this time around? If so, how will it be used?

OK: We've implemented full cage support in UFC Undisputed 2010, and its effect on gameplay is huge. Since this year also sees us introduce new fighting techniques, including Greco-Roman wrestling, we feel that this, combined with all the other gameplay elements, like using the cage to prevent a takedown, is sure to have a dramatic impact on the way the game is played.

Our design approach to implementing cage gameplay allowed us to utilize our universal grapple system concept. On the ground, we have a rising hierarchy of positional advantage based on how much threat potential one fighter has in relation to another. In the case of two equally skilled fighters in open guard, for instance, the fighter on top is in a slightly better situation than the fighter on the bottom. We express this by saying the top fighter has a 55/45 advantage over the bottom fighter, expressed in the damage output of his strikes, the lethality of his submissions, etc. Put the same two fighters in the mount position, for instance, and that advantage changes to something much more dramatic, like say a 90/10 in favor of the top fighter.

We've utilized similar thinking with regard to the cage. Let's say we have the same two equally skilled fighters in the single collar tie position in the middle of the octagon. We consider this position to be one in which both fighters have equal advantage--a true 50/50 position. If one fighter manages to push his opponent up against the cage, he'll restrict his movement, limit the force he's able to generate on his strikes, and make it harder for him to regain energy; thus, shifting the balance in the favor of the free-standing fighter. It's an elegant system that we feel accurately represents the strategies employed in a real UFC fight.

The cage is your friend and your foe in UFC 2010.

GS: What's new in terms of fighter customization?

OK: This year, we wanted to give players more control over the customization of their fighters, but we also wanted to make the process smoother and more player friendly. For UFC Undisputed 2010, we've substantially increased the number of available parts for creation, but we've also added a ton of new features and improvements. One of the biggest changes from the previous game is the way we allow players to allocate individual moves for their fighters. Last year, we had base styles, each of which came with a set of predefined moves. This meant that all Brazilian jujitsu (BJJ) fighters had the same moves and techniques as other BJJ fighters. We wanted to change that this year, so we opened it up and now allow players to assign individual moves to their fighters on a move-by-move basis. There are well over 200 moves that can be assigned, mixed, and matched to create truly unique fighters.

Also new this year is the ability to fight orthodox, southpaw, or switch and assign a dominate power hand. Players can also choose their navigation style from a number of different postures to give their fighters more of a distinct look. There are several other customizable features that we'll also be sharing over the next few months.

GS: Adding sponsor logos to clothing in UFC 2009 required a ton of menu navigation. Is it easier this time around? Have any other aspects of sponsorship changed?

OK: We knew we had to make some improvements to this area of the game, so we completely revamped this system. The new system, which we've also applied to the placement of tattoos, uses more of a drag-and-drop style interface. Gone are the predefined spots where logos can only be placed and the series of menus that were required to place a logo. This year, it's as simple as picking shorts, picking a logo, and choosing its location on the shorts. Speaking of clothing, many top brands in MMA are back, along with some new ones, so players will have access to an extensive assortment of new designs and logos. In addition, we are also allowing players to pick or create their own post-fight clothing, which is worn during winner announcement scenes and certain areas in Career mode.

GS: The career mode in UFC 2009 was a good first step, but it was also heavy on menu navigation. How have things changed with UFC 2010? Will your career still be limited to a certain number of years?

OK: We'll be talking a lot more about our Career mode experience later this year, but what we can say is that we've put a lot of time and effort into making this mode an even more enriching and authentic experience for players. For example, an element we felt was missing from last year's Career mode was the sense of investment in a fighter and each of his fights. We've included several new features to help build up each fight and give them more meaning. An example of this is a new system we've added called "Game Is Watching You." The GIWY system tracks everything players are doing during the fighter's career and reflects it through commentary during fights. Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg will reference the fighter's previous fights, his training partners, titles held, and other things he does during his career. Opponents will also take notice of performances and adjust their fight styles and strategies to counter strengths and take advantage of weaknesses. We're excited at the progress we've made to this year's Career mode over last year's [mode] and will release more information down the line.

GS: What's new with fighter training?

OK: The core methods of fighter progression from last year were really well received and are still in place. However, we've made some improvements and new additions that we look forward to sharing with everyone later this year.

GS: Tell us about the new fighting styles in the game. Will fighters still be limited to two fighting disciplines?

OK: In addition to our six returning fighting techniques (boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, judo, and Brazilian jujitsu), we've added three more: karate, Greco-Roman wrestling, and sambo. We've also moved away from the concept of one striking fighting technique and one grappling fighting technique in favor of a system that allows fighters to learn individual moves as they see fit. We feel this more accurately represents the type of cross-discipline training that the modern UFC fighter needs in order to compete at the highest levels.

GS: Online fighting was a crucial component of last year's game. How has online improved this year?

OK: We're really excited about what we're offering online players in UFC Undisputed 2010. We have a pretty dedicated online following to this day, and in order to bring even more people together, we're introducing online fight camps. Fight camps unite many different fighters under a single banner to compete against fighters from other fight camps to unlock new milestones and rewards.

Fight camps, which feature their own matchmaking and leaderboards, aren't just about competition. After all, how do players get better at the game if they don't practice? Players can use the virtual space of their fight camp to spar and teach each other the ins and outs of the game. Players can even bring in their Career mode fighters for an online training session to train with other players and get an extra career "cred" boost. Those boosts make better fighters and those better fighters make better camps. We're sure that fight camps are going to have a great impact on UFC Undisputed 2010's online landscape, and we look forward to showing everyone how it all will work later this year.

New fighting styles, new online modes, new ways to pummel your buddy into submission. What's not to like?

GS: Will it still be possible to "max out" created fighters for use online or will there be some restrictions in place to keep things more realistic?

OK: We know this was a problem for some players last year, so we've taken steps to prevent maxed-out CAF characters from being created and have instead applied more of a realistic approach to attribute and skill advancement. We'll be releasing specifics later this year.

GS: Finally, any other modes or aspects of the game we need to know about?

OK: We've added several new modes this year, including a Title and Title Defense mode, as well as a Tournament mode. In addition, our Classic Fights mode will return with some substantial changes. We'll be releasing more info about all of these modes later this year.

GS: Thanks for your time, Omar.

Look for more on UFC Undisputed 2010 this weekend as we get our first look at the game in Las Vegas.

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All this week we're taking a look at Sony's upcoming baseball game, MLB 10: The Show. Check out Part 1 and Part 2. Today we're taking a look at the game's Franchise mode and its general presentation.

MLB 09: The Show had 40-man rosters, but they didn't always work correctly--a fact the game's producers are quick to own up to. For example, if one of your players went on the injured reserve list, the game still counted that player as a member of your roster--meaning you couldn't replace him with a free agent or a minor league call-up. That has been resolved in MLB 10 at the behest of the vocal minority of diehards who live and breathe baseball as well as baseball video games. This time around, players you put on the IR will not count as a roster spot and can be replaced as in the real game.

The Mets' best shot at a World Series in 2010 might be the Franchise mode in MLB 10: The Show.

That's a good example of the kinds of small but crucial adjustments Sony is making to its game this year. But in addition to the small details, the developers at Sony San Diego haven't forgotten the big things--such as how the game presents information to the player, which, in a stat-heavy game like baseball, plays a big role in how players understand and enjoy the game. For MLB 10, that means giving the player flexibility on what information he wants to see and what he wants to ignore. As the manager of a team, you'll be inundated with information on your team's finances, player transactions, and so much else. This year, the game will let you subscribe to the kinds of information you want to be notified of so that you can effectively ignore the rest. All of your team messages will be available in the message hub, but you have to "subscribe" for subjects to receive notifications of new messages.

MLB 10 will have 30-player Franchise mode, which will allow an unprecedented amount of control for players in their franchise. The system required an overhaul of sorts for how profiles are handled in MLB 10, and the result looks to be a very flexible system. For example, in addition to controlling your favorite team in all its minute detail, you'll be able to set things up so you can deal with lineups and injuries for every other team in the big leagues. That way, if Derek Jeter breaks his finger midway through the Yankees campaign, you'll be able to go to the Yanks' lineup and modify its lineup to reflect this--even if the Yankees aren't your franchise team. Franchise mode will also include a fully functional waiver system in MLB 10, including additions like waiver periods, trade waivers, and more. Producers estimate they had about 90 percent of the waiver system in last year's game, but baseball fans who love to dive neck-deep into the complexities of waivers should have a field day with this stuff.

The presentation in the MLB: The Show series has always been sterling, with a sharp broadcast look and the three-member announcing team of Matt Vasgersian, Dave Campbell, and Rex Hudler that continues to offer some of the best commentary in all of sports gaming. Those elements will be in full effect for MLB 10--including lots of new calls from Vasgersian and company--but it won't be the only way to watch the game in action. New for MLB 10 is the so-called real-time presentation, which dials back the metric ton of television broadcast overlays for a more natural look at the game, and there are lots of cutaways to different players on the field in between innings or between plays. For example, during a routine out at first base, I watched as the base runner made his way back to the dugout, being careful to walk around the pitching mound in the process.

You have two real-time presentation options: one with replays and the other without. What's interesting is that the camera cutaways are often sensitive to the context of the action on the field. For example, if your shortstop makes a boneheaded drop on a routine grounder, the presentation might cut to a replay and then to a cutaway shot of the shortstop on the field. In all, real-time presentation might not be a back-of-the-box feature designed to sell a few million extra copies of the game, but with the hundreds of animations that were captured to give the game its lifelike feel in between the action, it represents the lengths to which the developers at Sony San Diego have gone in order to provide a more complete baseball experience.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final installment of our weeklong look at MLB 10: The Show.

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In the past few years, the decision on who would end up on the cover of Madden has become an increasing spectacle. For Madden 08, Tennessee's quarterback Vince Young made the cover, only after rumors that San Diego Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson had turned down an offer to appear. For Madden NFL 09, it was former Packers great Brett Favre on the cover in his Green Bay uniform; never mind that Brett actually played the season in New York Jets green and white. For Madden 10, two players were featured on the cover for the first time, Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu and Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald, an announcement that was unveiled in New York City's Times Square.

This year, things are changing once again, with fans getting the chance to vote for the cover of Madden NFL 11 in an EA Sports marketing tie-in with Doritos. Of course, fans can't go willy-nilly and just start a write-in campaign for Luke McCown; instead, EA has whittled down the list to three finalists (all of whom EA has likely come to tentative licensing agreements with beforehand): New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne, and Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen.

Do the right thing.

You do realize there's exactly one correct answer here, right? Jared Allen is the only logical choice for four essential reasons:

1. He'd be the first defensive end on the cover of an English-language version of Madden.

2. 51 tackles, 14.5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 1 interception. Not a bad year.

3. He wears the number 69. On purpose.

4. His flowing mullet and flavor-saver beard absolutely demand to be immortalized for all eternity on the cover of a video game. Why not let that game be Madden 11?

So, you know, vote for whomever you want. Just know that a vote for Jared Allen is a vote for manhood.

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All this week we're taking a look at Sony's upcoming baseball game, MLB 10: The Show. Check out Part 1. Today we're taking a look at the game's online features.

Despite the sport's relatively sluggish pace, timing is more important in baseball than arguably any other sport. That goes double for video game baseball, where network lag or frame rate issues can severely spoil the pitcher/batter duel that is so integral to the sport. The team is looking to address these lag issues with tech that would better respond to bad network connections and a variable frame rate system that would keep the speed of the game consistent where lag would normally rear its ugly head. I didn't get to play the game online and can't comment on how successful those solutions will be at improving the online performance. One goal that the team has clearly met, however, is in improving the presentation of MLB 10's online suite of features.

The player rating of the past is gone for online play in MLB 10; it's been replaced by an automatically generated sportsmanship rating that will reflect how you play online.

The game's online menus have been expanded to be more in depth, which is more like the offline game, in fact. That means there are lots of options for league commissioners, including the ability to drop and replace league participants, as well as detailed statistics on not just all participants in the league, but also real stats for all of the MLB players that are in that league. The team is bringing back the full online draft, so you'll be able to hold a live draft with your buddies, set up your queue ahead of time, and draft the team of your dreams. An interesting wrinkle for this year's game is the addition of player energy. As a manager, you'll need to be aware of the stamina of all the players on your team; there are also injuries this year, along with a 40-team roster that should give you more options of depth should your team be hit by the injury bug.

One significant change to the online community in MLB 10 is the sportsmanship rating, which replaces the star-rating system of player rating used in previous versions of the game. In those games, players would have the option to rate an opponent on a five-star scale after a game. Producers told me they weren't big fans of this system because they don't feel it accurately reflected a player's experience with the game; in many cases, players were being rated poorly because they blew out their opponent (or lost badly), and there were a good chunk of players that simply clicked through the rating automatically leaving three-star feedback (which was the default). As a result, the team has removed the ability for players to rate one another and, instead, focused on the sportsmanship rating. This is a number that is defined less on your skill as an online player and more about your behavior in the game. Playing full games to completion will improve your sportsmanship rating, for example, while headhunting batters or quitting out of games early will negatively affect your sportsmanship rating.

When you couple these additions with multiple trade types (1-for-3 trades, 1-for-1, and the like, all of which need to be approved by other league members to prevent fire sales when someone decides to leave the league) and the ability to set custom sliders for your league (or download and use slider settings from others), it's clear that Sony has spent a lot of dev cycles on MLB 10's online suite. Here's hoping all of these additions are equaled by lag-free play on the diamond once the game is released in March.

Our MLB 10: The Show series continues tomorrow with a look at the Franchise mode and the game's presentation.

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There's a reason Sony's MLB: The Show baseball series is one of the most critically acclaimed sports series year in and year out. In addition to genre-stretching innovative features, such as Road to the Show, the development team at Sony's San Diego studio is consistently focused on the infinitesimal details that make baseball (and, by extension, sports games) so beloved. The result is a conundrum from a game design standpoint, however. While the actual sport of baseball doesn't change in a fundamental sense, there are 1,001 changes that happen from season to season--players retire or change teams, acquire a new batting stance, or change the colors of the laces on their gloves. And it's these little details that fans of the sport (and the games) are paying attention to just as intently as the back-of-the-box features.

Playing as a catcher in Road to the Show mode will finally be worth your while in MLB 10.

I had a chance to travel to San Diego yesterday to get a hands-on look at the next game in the series, MLB 10: The Show. Due for release in early March, MLB 10 continues the tradition of adding big features while paying equal attention to the small details that make it one of the most critically successful sports franchises of the past decade. All this week, I'll be taking you through everything I saw at Sony San Diego, and what better place to start than with three of the biggest features the game will have to offer? Today, we'll be exploring: Road to the Show, new training drills, and new pickoff moves.

Call The Game

Road to the Show continues to be one of the best reasons to play the MLB series. Perhaps the most telling sign of its success has been the number of similar modes in other sports games that RTTS helped inspire--from the Be a Pro mode in EA Sports' NHL series to the My Player feature in last year's NBA 2K10 (and this year's upcoming MLB 2K10).

Arguably, the most important addition to MLB 10's version of RTTS is the ability to play as a catcher with a dedicated camera view and mechanics. When behind the plate, you'll be able to call every pitch in the game and even force the issue by insisting on a pitch if your pitcher shakes you off the first time around. Here's how it works: Before the pitch is thrown, you'll be able to choose the kind of pitch you want by pressing the corresponding face button; this is exactly as if you were playing as the pitcher. Once you've got a pitch, you can choose the location by moving the left stick to instruct the pitcher to throw inside or outside the strike zone.

With your pitch and your location set, the camera backs out a bit to reveal a third-person view of your catcher, who might automatically move to either side of the plate depending on the location you called. If the batter makes contact, you'll have control over your catcher, which should be especially exciting when you're looking to prevent a runner at second or third from scoring. How you perform as a catcher in RTTS mode will be similar to how you are judged at the other positions. In other words, you won't be penalized for calling a bad game or rewarded for an especially good game behind the plate (though, according to producers, that might be a feature in a future entry in the MLB series).

Drill to Completion

Player progression is one of RTTS mode's greatest strengths, and as the mode has evolved over the years, there's been more ways to earn points you can use for your player's attributes. Last year's game saw the addition of batting and base-running drills designed to give you the occasional opportunities to improve specific aspects of your player's game, which was separate from the points you earned during regular games. Of course, batting and base running are only half of baseball's skill sets. With MLB 10, the game will complete the set, with the addition of pitching and fielding drills.

There are two separate pitching drills--the first is the simulated game. Despite the name, you're not actually pitching a full 27 outs here; instead, the drill comprises a three-inning game where the goal is to allow as few runs, hits, and walks as possible. Any time a run is scored, the inning ends, so if you have an off day, your drill could be quite short. That said, successful actions in this drill--such as grounding out or throwing a strikeout--will affect those specific aspects of your pitcher's attributes (namely H/9 and K/9). The other pitching drill--knockout--presents you with the standard strike zone and is separated into a nine-cell grid. You have a total of 15 pitches in this drill and your goal is to knock out each of the eight individual cells by throwing the pitch of your choice through each cell (the center cell is not counted because you rarely, if ever, want to give a batter that gift in a real situation). If you knock out the upper-left cell with a 2-seam fastball, for example, you'll get a small attribute bonus to that pitch. Accuracy is paramount here, but you can also earn power bonuses by throwing heat.

Batters and base-runners aren't the only beneficiaries of training drills this time. MLB 10 will include pitching and fielding drills as well.

In terms of fielding drills, the development team wanted to break down what makes a fielder successful in a game and tried to translate that into gameplay terms. So while the basic nuts and bolts of fielding drills are simply stopping the ball and throwing to the right base, the drill also tests your judgment by throwing you in random situations during the drill. You have 15 balls to play in a fielding drill, and each time, the situation is slightly different. One situation might be two outs with a man on third, whereas the next situation might be one out and a man on first base. As a result, the drill will be testing your reflexes as well as your judgment; how quickly you react to the ball, as well as whether or not you throw to the correct base.

Been Caught Stealing

Beyond getting Ks, one of the most satisfying experiences as a pitcher has to be picking off a base runner. With MLB 10, you'll have a few new weapons in your pickoff arsenal. By holding down the L2 button and tapping on the corresponding base button, you can attempt a standard pickoff play. Holding the L2 button and double tapping the corresponding button will attempt a quick pickoff play. And holding down the face button with the L2 button will attempt a deceptive pickoff. This is where the pitcher attempts to disguise his pickoff throw for as long as possible and only chooses to throw to a base at the last possible moment. To accompany the ruse, the pitching meter will move as normal during a deceptive pickoff attempt, which means there's a chance your buddy will fall for it when playing a multiplayer game.

Tune in tomorrow for a look at the online options in MLB 10: The Show.

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The comings and goings of sports game developers doesn't usually receive much fanfare--in fact, it's a fair bet to say that most sports game fans don't know a lot about who is behind their favorite games. Just a few years ago, I was caught by surprise when I ran into Mike Wang at an EA Sports event in Vancouver. Previously with 2K Sports' NBA 2K series, Mike was one of the instrumental figures in establishing the 2K series' basketball success. That he had jumped ship to go work on the NBA Live turned out to be a good thing for EA's basketball series, but I vividly remember being completely surprised to see him in an entirely new setting.

My, how things change. In a press release today, 2K Sports has announced that Wang has returned to the fold and will be contributing to this fall's NBA 2K11. It's not exactly Lane Kiffin bolting Tennessee for USC, but--at least on my beat--it's big news. And even though Wang might not be a household name to all the NBA 2K series fans, it's good to know that his stamp will be all over NBA 2K11. Recently, I got a chance to ask the NBA 2K11 team some questions to get a feel for where this year's hoops game is heading and, specifically, to Mike to learn about more about his decision to come back to 2K Sports.

GameSpot: Mike, the most obvious question first: Why did you decide to return to the NBA 2K franchise?

Mike Wang: I…m grateful for the opportunity that I had to work on the Live series. I met a lot of great people (both inside and outside of work) and learned a lot from the experience. But my heart is, and always has been, with the 2K franchise. I guess leaving in the first place was what it took for me to realize just how much. For me, it all boils down to the fact that I just love making basketball games, and, obviously, I want to work on the best title out there and work with people who have that same vision. And that place is here at Visual Concepts.

GS: What did you learn from your time at EA Sports that you hope to bring back to 2K?

MW: What EA gave me was exposure to new ways of thinking about basketball games. I can…t say that I agree with how everything is done over there or with some of the ideas that people wanted to try, but you can always learn something from being in a different environment with different people. It also gave me some time to experiment with ideas that I hadn…t yet tried in 2K basketball. The 2K dev team is already incredibly talented and everyone here loves the game of basketball. I…m just doing my best to contribute to an already strong product to make it that much more enjoyable for basketball fans. And my experience with EA will just serve to make the 2K franchise stronger in the long run.

GS: Last year, you were an outsider looking in at NBA 2K10. What were your thoughts on the game as a competing developer?

MW: It was exciting actually. Even though I…m a developer, I…m really just a big basketball gamer first and foremost. And while I was a competing developer when NBA 2K10 was released, I was secretly rooting for 2K basketball because I wanted something new to play this season. 2K…s product was incredibly strong this year, and I think that was reflected in the sales numbers. I…m a harsh critic, though, so as much as I loved NBA 2K10, I still created my wish list for NBA 2K11. I…m just glad that I…m back here now so that I can act on those items and help the team create the ultimate hoops sim that I know millions of consumers are craving. I don…t want to give anything away yet, but even in early stages of development, we look to be heading in that direction.

GS: Erick, what's got you excited about NBA 2K11 so far?

[2K Sports lead feature designer] Erick Boenisch: While we…re not here today to talk about the specifics of NBA 2K11, I can say that morale on the team is at an all-time high. You can tell something special is happening when you see guys walking around the office with a lot more swagger than what you…re accustomed to seeing. The entire team has really bought into what we…re trying to deliver our fans with NBA 2K11. One goal, one focus--and that…s the best playing basketball the video game market has ever seen.

GS: The My Player feature was generally well received and has now spread to MLB 2K10. What can you tell us about My Player for NBA 2K11?

EB: Ours fans have really latched on to the My Player concept. The ability to play a singular role out on the court (as opposed to controlling every player with the ball) has really resonated with our fans for a number of reasons that we had previously anticipated. We intend to take those reasons and continue to expand on the mode in the direction that our fans want us to go with it. We rely so much on the feedback from our fans. This mode is really all about their careers and what they want to do within their careers. My Player 2K11 will grant users a little more depth in freedom in just how they define their careers.

GS: What were the major issues with NBA 2K10 that will be addressed this year?

EB: NBA 2K10 was very, very successful for us. With over 2 million units sold worldwide, we continued to lead the basketball market in both sales and ratings--a tough feat to accomplish. If anything, the online issues we saw with NBA 2K10 arose from our trying to do too much--trying to deliver too much to our fans. Visual Concepts pioneered online gameplay back in the Dreamcast days, and technology has changed so much since that time. Our infrastructure was in need of updating, and it took the success of NBA 2K10 before that became clear. With some of our top talent eager to make the necessary changes, we placed a major focus on laying the groundwork for a completely lag-free online experience. It doesn…t stop with online play either. Online was just a small piece in the efforts we are taking to ensure that NBA 2K11 is the best playing and most complete basketball product on the market.

GS: Last year saw the 10th anniversary of the NBA 2K series. Prediction time: How do you think the NBA 2K series will change in 10 years?

EB: That is such a tough question to even approach. Looking back at NBA 2K, you had a very fundamental game where every player ran the same, shot the same, and played the same. In hindsight, it all just seems very primitive. Flash forward 10 years to NBA 2K10, and you have every player modeled down to the last minutiae of their tattoos, mannerisms, various shot types, facial expressions. It…s really quite mind boggling when you take a step back and assess how accurately we have re-created the basketball culture. Where will we be in 10 years? We have so many things that we want to do with this game…things to take the 2K experience to the next level. The real question becomes: Can technology keep up with everything we want to do?

GS: Thanks for your time, guys.

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2K Sports has released the latest developer insight blog for Major League Baseball 2K10, and this one covers the game's Franchise mode. MLB 2K10 assistant producer Mike Del Santo is the author here, and he covers a good deal of the new content that's made it into franchise, including 40 Man Rosters, September call-ups, compensation picks, spring training, and more. Good news for fans who missed the ability to edit players in MLB 2K9:

"I want to get a quick concern I know many of you had last year out of the way immediately: We have brought back full ability to edit players and their stances/windups, including the ability to give any player any signature stance/windup that we have (this will be available both in Franchise mode and in the front end)."

Del Santo writes that he believes compensation picks will have the most impact on how users play through Franchise mode:

"In a lot of Franchise modes (especially in baseball games with the wide payroll ranges between the big-market and small-market teams), it is very difficult to ever take a team like the Royals, Pirates, or any other low-payroll team and turn them into a legitimate contender. Compensation picks can be thought of as something that can help these lower payroll teams to level the playing field against the big-market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox.

Other highlights include the ability to play both AA and AAA games in Franchise and Exhibition modes (Birmingham Barons, here I come!). There's also a super sim mode that will let you quickly get through season games without relinquishing total control of your team and improved filtering when looking for players or looking for specific trades.

Check out the full blog and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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With the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just a few months from now, an official World Cup game from EA Sports was a virtual certainty. After all, the publisher behind the tremendously popular FIFA series has produced the last three licensed World Cup games, beginning with World Cup 98 on the original PlayStation, the first WC game produced by the company after obtaining the license in 1997. For the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010, EA is throwing a good deal of its development muscle behind the online features; the game will feature an online World Cup that will let you play as any of the 199 nations that participate in the FIFA, taking on other players around the world to claim sports' most prestigious prize.

We recently had a chance to speak with FIFA World Cup 2010's line producer Simon Humber to learn more about the game's features ahead of its April 27 release, as well as the process of putting together a World Cup game while at the same time continuing to work on the next entry in the long-standing FIFA series.

Ah, the World Cup. The pageantry! The history! The silly head gear!

GameSpot: In World Cup years, you have two soccer games released in the same year from EA Sports. How do you decide which features will be in the World Cup games and which will be reserved for FIFA?

Simon Humber: Well, some features are uniquely suitable for World Cup, and others would be common to any of our football titles. Essentially my team looks at the preceding FIFA, works out what needs to be enhanced, and then looks at the World Cup and what that means to people and creates a set of features that give a World Cup experience to people who can't get to South Africa. "Everyone can play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup" is the mantra we work to.

It's not as if [FIFA lead producer David] Rutter and myself end up wrestling on the floor of his office to decide what features go into each game! We have long-term plans we revise each year and work through the prioritized feature ideas getting as many as we can into each game we release.
The World Cup is a spectacular event, and we wanted to capture the excitement and the atmosphere, so the first thing you'll notice about the game is how good it looks. It looks really good. In a way, we're lucky in that we get to tell a story and we know it's all building to the climactic ending in Soccer City on July 11. Since we know the ending and there is just one ending, we can put together a bunch of great visual features to support the run to the final. Take a look at the images, and you'll see things such as:

• A gorgeous new pitch: Our pitch simply wasn't good enough, so we've made it look superb.


• Lighting of the players and environment: Clever changes to the lighting makes everything look more realistic.


• Camera flashes: You'll see all the fans in the crowd using their cameras.


• Seat cards: Fans hold up cards to form national flags and emblems in a show of patriotism.


• Fans: Close-up shots on supporters cheering on their team or despairing in anguish.


• Confetti rains down from the sky in the team colors and stays on the pitch all game.


• Streamers create a carnival atmosphere as they glide to the ground.


• Populated benches: Characters sit on the benches rather than being empty.


• Broadcast graphics: The same captions you've seen in FIFA tournament broadcasts.


• Close-up celebration camera: To really feel the goal-scoring moment, the camera zooms in close to the player as he responds to your celebration commands.


• New players and managers: More content for star heads and many of the team managers.[England national team manager Fabio] Capello looks brilliant, and [notoriously tall English footballer] Peter Crouch no longer looks like a naughty elf.

GS: What's the main aim for FIFA World Cup 2010 in terms of gameplay and AI improvements? Are there any control changes we need to know about?

SH: The game is not just about visuals, though. The gameplay has over 100 enhancements--some major, others subtle--so players will notice a difference in how World Cup plays compared to FIFA. So here are just a few of the improvements you'll get in World Cup. We'll talk about other aspects of gameplay closer to release.

Responsiveness:

• New chest traps that allow you to chest the ball in the direction you want to go rather than having to take midair touches after a chest to change direction.


• The ability to let a ball drop over your shoulder and move off in the direction of ball travel. Great for preserving momentum with lofted through balls.


• Improved the problem of trapping the ball too far and being "stunned," then taking too long to go and dribble the ball.


• Defensively players will now clear an aerial ball rather than do a chest trap first when you are asking for a clearance.

Goalkeeper:

• Improved the "narrowing down the angle" logic so the keeper doesn't come out so soon and so far, making him vulnerable to the chip shot.


• Ability to change his save direction if there is a deflection.


• Added variety to punching, which results in punches sometimes not clearing the ball out of danger.

CPU Teams:

• Added more skill moves for the CPU to use depending on a player's flair attribute or trait.


• Better understanding of game context and situation, resulting in more intelligent changes of tactics/mentality.


• Manager now looks at who he has as subs and will attempt to give star players on the bench some playing time (i.e. Fabregas for Spain; Pato for Brazil). Previously he would rely solely on match rating and fatigue, leading to unrealistic substitutions or the same one over and over again.

Positioning:

• Teammates will now take more factors into account when looking into space inside the box when they are making a run for a cross to be delivered. I can verify how exciting this is having seen the way that Emile Heskey bulldozed his way onto the end of a cross in Andorra the other day.


• Improved marking for when the CB pushes up to the ball possessor when he shouldn't, leaving the team vulnerable to an easy through ball and 1-on-1 with the GK.

Shooting:

• Improved the realism of where players strike the ball to give more off-center strikes leading to more swerve and variety in ball trajectory.


• Changed the chip shot to make it more challenging and also to improve the feel of it--more backspin, better trajectory.

Passing:

• Added personality to crosses to allow better players to put in more driven crosses into the box.


• Added chest and shoulder passes.


• Lowered the amount of power you can get on backwards crosses and backwards lofted through balls, forcing you to roughly have to face the way you want to pass it to for these types of kicks to succeed.

Set Pieces:

• Ability to trigger a teammate run on a quick free kick.


• Lowered the likelihood of the CPU scoring from FKs--they were too good.

There are also brand-new features for gameplay. I am allowed to mention that each team will play differently at home or away if under CPU control. For example, Northern Ireland are great at Windsor Park, so they are way harder to beat there than they are on their travels. That makes qualifying for the World Cup Finals feel much more realistic, as you can beat the smaller nations at home quite easily, but away from home you may have an unexpected battle on your hands, and they are the games that define who qualifies.

Playing at higher altitudes will cause your players to fatigue quicker.

GS: How much of World Cup's on-the-pitch gameplay serves as a "proof of concept" for gameplay ideas in future FIFA installments? Is there anything new in World Cup 2010 that fans will see refined or improved in FIFA 11?

SH: The fundamentals of gameplay are ever improving and evolving, so every improvement in that area for World Cup will be refined and honed even more for FIFA. The game will get better and better with each iteration, and World Cup marks the finest football game EA have ever produced.
There's the occasional feature where we would consider taking a real chance outside of FIFA. If you look back at UEFA Euro 2008, I really wanted to try out user-controlled celebrations. There were some skeptics, but we pushed ahead, and now it's a core feature of gameplay which you can use or ignore.

There are new things for World Cup which should end up in FIFA. But right now they are unannounced, so you'll have to be patient on that info.

GS: How is the development team organized for the World Cup games? Is it a completely separate team, or do certain folks work on both games?

SH: The gameplay team make all of our gameplay, regardless of whether it's FIFA 10, 2010 FIFA World Cup, or future football games. So as soon as FIFA 10 was over we sat down and worked out how we could improve what we had. It was very amusing to read so many reviews wondering how we could improve on FIFA 10, as the hardcore players know there is always room to improve and we are totally dedicated to making our games better and better and better. While there is one gameplay team who continually refine and improve the experience on the pitch be that for FIFA 10 or World Cup, everything else is a separate and devoted team on World Cup. We're all located in the same space as the FIFA team, and so there's much sharing of ideas and knowledge.

The World Cup is such a massive and important event, and this is the biggest World Cup game we have ever produced. It features every team in the world who took part. It is by far the best-looking and sounding game we have ever made and features many new innovate modes particularly in the online space. To be able to bring all that takes a massive effort and a completely separate team of about the same size as FIFA's but with a different creative outlook since you all want a new game, not a FIFA 10 clone.

GS: In previous years, the FIFA team has made no bones about wanting to bring the World Cup online. How does this game's online tournament mode fulfill that ambition?

SH: I am happy to say we have achieved that completely. For the first time ever, we have managed to get the entire finals tournament online so that when you play online you will always be matched up against another human player regardless of the time of day or night. You'll choose your team and then play the three group matches, attempting to finish in the top two before heading into the knockout phase where you're four wins away from lifting the FIFA World Cup Trophy amidst a cacophony of confetti cannons and fireworks on a cool Johannesburg night. Without a doubt it's the most exciting online mode we've put together and the perfect way to build up to a match on TV or carry on the experience after a broadcast.

I expect this experience to really speak to our core gamers, and I get sweaty palms every time I test the mode and feel the pressure of tournament football for myself.

GS: From a player's point of view, how will players compete in the World Cup online? How will tournaments be organized? Will player skill be taken into consideration when deciding seeding?

SH: We have made it as simple as possible. Essentially the online tournament will feel exactly like the offline tournament with the obvious difference that you are pitting your skills against real-world players rather than the CPU. The player will simply pick their team, according to the size of the challenge they want, and enter into the competition. They are then matched up against players in the same round of the competition and progress as they would normally through the group stage and knockout rounds. Wherever possible, we adhere to the rules of the competition, so in the group stage you wouldn't be matched up against players who have the same team as you, and in the knockout stages you wouldn't meet any opponent from the group stage until the appropriate round. These are the rules of the real competition, and they have been factored into the mode. The only caveat to that is if the only other player available online has one of those teams. We are all avid online gamers, and the most frustrating thing about playing online can be waiting to find an opponent, so as a last resort you could get matched with the same team, but in reality this is very unlikely.

Player skill is not factored into matchmaking; instead, we use the Battle of the Nations to encourage better gamers to choose weaker teams so they earn more points for their nation on the leaderboard. So what you will see is a much more varied use of teams than normal ranked gameplay. Playing as a smaller team will earn you more points, so don't be surprised to see the likes of Tahiti or Andorra featured. This creates a much more interesting online experience than the usual battle of five-star teams and worked out well on EURO.

GS: Beyond competing for the World Cup, what other online features will be in the game? Will you be able to play on the same team with other players online, for example?

SH: I'll have to take the fifth on this question at the moment. There will be other online announcements at a later date though, and they are exciting.

GS: An odd question, but with regard to the Battle of the Nations feature, how do you balance the feature to make up for large population variances (and thus the installed base of players) between different countries? Do relatively small countries like Honduras or Switzerland have even a hope of victory here?

SH: Not an odd question at all. It's one at the front of our minds since in the past there have been some poorly implemented attempts to have rankings for groups.

We have online usage data that gives us a pretty good idea of how many players will be from each country. We'll use that as the starting point to create a level playing field. Then after the game has been out a week we intend to look at the actual usage figures and make any adjustments needed.
The intention is that it comes down to gamer skill rather than big or small populations being favored.

Play online and capture the World Cup for your nation.

GS: We understand that this year's game will include altitude effects in certain stadiums. How will this affect gameplay?

SH: Altitude will affect gameplay realistically but subtly. We saw the effect altitude can have during the qualifiers when Argentina got thrashed away against Bolivia 6 to 1. Undoubtedly Argentina are the stronger side, but on the night they just couldn't handle the altitude. If you have ever been at high altitude you know that it can really sap your stamina, and you'll see that effect in game.

Likewise, the ball physics will be subtly different; the ball will fly a bit faster and straighter since there is less air resistance. You're not going to be able to hit 50-yard screamers into the top corner, but shots will be harder but also a bit more difficult to keep low.

It's not going to create unrealistic gameplay and might not be picked up on by some people. But the gameplay engine is quite mature now, and we can start to play with this type of thing to go a bit deeper on the experience.

GS: OK, wrapping up, let's have a World Cup prediction or two. Who is your dark horse to make a deep World Cup run, and who do you think wins it all?

SH: I'm going to steer away from England so I don't jinx them, and regardless, we don't have a good enough keeper. Assuming we don't win, I'd like Spain to win since they have been playing amazing football for the last two years. My dark horse would be one of the African teams. I suspect that on their continent one of them will make a run to the semifinal.

GS: Thanks for your time, Simon.

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Fire up your browsers, golf fans, because EA Sports has announced that the open beta of its upcoming online-only golf game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, has entered its open beta phase as of today. Earlier today I attended a media presentation on the game hosted by the game's producers. Much of the information they went over we had previously covered, but there were a few tidbits and features that will be part of the game that are worth going over here.

For those who aren't up to speed: Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online is a streaming version of the popular Tiger Woods franchise and is playable on either a Mac or a PC. Because everything is streamed from the EA Sports servers, there's no huge client download (in fact, the only thing you need to download is something called the Unity Web Player, a 3MB file) and the game runs in your browser.

During the presentation on the game, executive producer Mike Taramykin discussed several edicts around which Tiger Online was designed, namely an authentic gameplay experience, a robust online community, and giving the player "lots of things to do every day." You can read my brief impressions of Tiger Online's gameplay below, but it's clear from the outset that the focus of the game is on your golfer. You can play as Tiger Woods--and producers said they might add more real-life PGA pros as the game evolves--but why would you want to when you can focus on your virtual duffer?

As in the console versions of Tiger, you can improve your golfer's skills using money you've earned on the course. And though the Pro Shop is not yet open in the beta, the plan is to sell equipment and clothing (some of it based on real-world gear) through the Pro Shop, with items available via in-game currency or with real-world-cash microtranscations.

If you've played the console version of Tiger online, you know that there's fun to be had with a good multiplayer session, sharing stories, making fun of your buddy's bad shots, and loading up on the trash-talking. With Tiger Online, EA is placing those kinds of social connections front and center. Not only can you chat with anyone on the course, but you can also see ball flight paths of people who are playing the same course and hole as you (both chat and the ball arc paths can be turned off in the options).

But the connection options don't end there. You can earn cash and XP bonuses by inviting friends via Facebook to be part of your Tiger Online "gallery"; the more "fans" you have, the more cash you'll earn when you play. You can also play in groups--think of them as the country club equivalent of clans--and can play rounds with your group and even challenge other groups to matches.

Whether you play solo, with strangers, or as part of a group, there's plenty to do. In addition to daily tournaments, there are features like the daily cutline--a score based on the results of the previous day's rounds played. The cutline score isn't centered around a particular course; instead, it…s a single score for the day--shooting a score below the cutline will earn you bonus cash and beating the cutline multiple days in a row will give you a streak bonus. You can even sponsor friends--betting that they'll beat the cut on a particular day. If they do, you'll win a cash bonus. If they fail to beat the cut (or don't play at all), you won't win anything.

EA went through eight months of closed beta, with 70,000 players playing in the final closed beta. Producers told us that beta participants have racked up somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 rounds played. The open beta is expected to last a couple of months at least, according to Taramykin, as the team continues to refine the gameplay and experience based on feedback from open beta players.

Asked if he felt Tiger Online on the PC would be undercutting the console-based Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, which is due this June, Taramykin said he felt like there was room for both. "We look at this as a way of expanding this product. If you look at the demographic, it is a very different audience than is playing our Wii title or our Xbox 360 title. For us, it's actually an opportunity to reach beyond what we have on [consoles]."

The demographic Taramykin mentioned appears to be considerably older than your typical gamer--nearly three-quarters of beta participants were 34 years old or older. An older player base means a different approach to game design, and at least one feature--the ability to stop rounds at any time and pick them up during your next session--seems designed to appeal to busy working people. There's a reason, after all, that Taramykin refers to this feature as a "boss button," a nod to working guys who might want to sneak a round or two in while at work.

Gameplay Impressions

As I mentioned earlier, I've played one full round of Tiger Online so far. My biggest challenge? Reacclimating myself to the three-click swing system again. It has been more than a few years since I've played a PC golf game, and I've lost a lot of my timing apparently. Tackling Pebble Beach, with its demanding drives and sometimes cruel layout, put a hurting on my score early. Putting, in particular, was challenging, if for no other reason than it's using the pre-Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 putting system, forgoing the single putt meter for a tiered approach depending on your distance to the hole. Couple that with the aforementioned three-click trickiness, and I had several greens that I didn't manage to hole out until three or more putts.

Your created player starts with $10,000 to spend, and because the Pro Shop isn't currently open, I put all of that cash into my swing. Tiger Online handles swing improvements in a more granular way than the console game--for every swing type (full, punch, chip, putt, and so on) you can spend money on swing aspects such as tempo, swing plane, swing speed, and more. These aspects affect your power, accuracy, and workability--the beauty of this system is that you can spend your money on the kinds of shots you want to focus on. For example, I don't use punch shots very often, so it doesn't make much sense to sink too much cash in them. That said, it doesn't seem like it will take that much money to max out your different swings, especially considering the copious ways you have to earn money.

I played the game on my work PC and it ran at a fine pace; however, the game struggled on my Acer netbook, with a terrible frame rate, which essentially screwed up the timing of my swing and put everything in the rough. Even with graphics settings turned down to the bare minimum, I found it tough to play the game on my netbook, which has me a little concerned that I won't be playing Tiger Online on the road as much as I'd hoped. With additional tuning in the beta, however, perhaps things will improve by the time the game launches.

Seven courses are playable in the open beta--Torrey Pines, Sheshan, Wentworth, Pebble Beach, Wolf Creek, TPC Sawgrass, and St. Andrews--and Taramykin said the goal is to add at least one course per month in the final product (including introducing courses that will follow the actual 2010 PGA Tour schedule). Of course, all of that content is going to cost you, and while EA has admitted that the game will have a tiered subscription model and will include microtransactions, the actual out-of-pocket expense for golf fans remains a mystery. It's a key factor to the game's success, and with open beta not expected to last for too long, it's just a matter of time before this final piece of the puzzle is unveiled.

If you're playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, let me know in the comments below. I'd love to show you in person just how badly the return of the three-click swing system has screwed up my game.

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