How do you define a true fan? Is it a person who wears some article of clothing of there favorite team everyday? Or is it finding a way to support your team in a video game? If you do either of these then you are somewhat of a dedicated fan. In NCAA 2010 there is a new feature, Season Showdown, which allows you to earn points towards yourself and your school. Season Showdown is a four-month long competition where fans and gamers battle against one another to prove whose school is the beststyle I have found that this new feature is very interesting because it shows how many people across the nation support which schools and everyone wants their school to be looked at as the dominant. Some people choose the team that they are currently using online, but the diehard fans choose THEIR team.

There are several different ways to earn credits for your school such as: playing the CPU, playing online, playing online vs. your weekly real life opponent, and trivia. Now, while in game the ways to earn points is by showing sportsmanship, using your season showdown team every game, winning as an underdog, and just having skills on the sticks. There are several ways to support your team and help them become the best Season Showdown. Also when you have an ESPN Classic game that helps your school as well. So not only do you have to have loyalty for your school you have to actually perform.

All in all, Season Showdown is a great way to get gamers and fans to play the game all year around. It is best to get as many points as possible before and after the real regular season because when football times start, that’s when the big points are made. Season Showdown was a great feature because it helps gamers become even more involved with their favorite teams by using them more often and following them and their schedule on a week-to-week basis. If you were not familiar with Season Showdown before this write-up I hope this encouraged you to check it out, and if you are familiar with it I hope you fully understand what’s going on and that you continue to take part in this great feature. Also EVERYONE please support your team, and do not support the best teams because that’s the team you use. Find a way to use YOUR team.

How NCAA can compete with Madden. Now everybody knows one of the biggest video games is coming out on the 14th of this month, there is no avoiding that but for this week I am going to chime in on how we can get this much hype leading into the NCAA release and the months after.

Now it has been over three weeks since the new game has been out and I am already seeing a dip in people playing the game and I wish that wasn’t the case this game is here and it is a great game but when Madden comes out people use this game as a coaster (a.k.a me last year) except for the diehards that will play all the years on their dynasties and get a whole team of road to glory players going pro.

I started to notice that there are no real tournaments besides the one that might come to universities. I was lucky enough that three years ago since they would come to Tennessee but that is really kicking a lot of people out of these things that a lot of younger kids that are not in college and older that have already been in college and I do not think that’s right.

Now I do have the luxury of being on a college campus and they do have tournaments in the college game but what needs to happen is some of these tourney directors might want to look at having NCAA during the madden season and that would bring a lot more people to play the game just as long as they Madden.

The game plays great and is really challenging and a person good at madden wouldn’t mean he is good at NCAA and vice verse. So this would be a welcome edition to the scene. NCAA is not as balance as madden but it would still work and people wouldn’t leave the game so quick since there will still be a reason to play the game on a competitive level. So directors out there give it a chance it won’t fail. It is just another chance out there for kids to play another football game, and enjoy the atmosphere of playing live.

Why Pistol Ace Twins?
- The great thing about this formation is the fact you can read if the defense is in man or zone coverage straight from the huddle in any 2 CB (4 DB) formation. From 4-3, 3-4, to 4-4, 4-2-5, etc…you can read the defense with ease (if both CBs line up over the WRs = man. If only 1 CB lines up on the WR’s side zone). Secondly, the balance of 2 WR, 2 TE, and a HB of Twin WRs keep a nice passing or running formation and the Pistol version gives a slight bit more time to read blitz than the Ace version. Lastly, to make any formation effective, it must simply have GOOD PLAYS and quick audibles.

Type of Team to Use With The Pistol Ace Twins?
- I think any team with 2 solid WRs and TEs, along with a quick pass catching RB is great for this formation. If you have a mobile QB, even better but pocket passers can work just as fine.

The play I come out of the huddle in 90% of the time is Pistol Ace Twins – Power Option. However if you have a pocket QB, you might want to break the huddle with HB Slip Screen, Curl Flat Corner, PA FL Stretch, or some other play.

Power Option
The first thing to do is to read if the defense is in man or zone coverage. Now, if there are 3 or more CBs on the field, try motioning the slot WR and reading if the Nickel back follows him to the or just slides with him, the later being zone or a blitz from the NB. If it is man coverage with 2 CBs, I will run the option to the right and look to break a huge gain. Any other defensive formation, time to audible.

Slants = Quick Audible + UP
This play can work against man or zone coverage
- Man
1. Hot route left TE to a streak
2. Hot route RB to a streak
3. Motion RB to the right and snap once he reaches the outside yard marker

First roll out to the right and look to hit the right TE in the flats. Next watch the slot and outside WRs on the slants over the middle. Then glance deep to see if either the left TE or RB has their man beat deep. If none of the slants are open once they get to the other side of the field, tuck it down and scramble.

- Zone
1. Hot route RB to a slant right
2. Hot route right TE to a fade
3. Hot route far left WR to a slant left
4. Hot route slot WR to a streak

Here you have your streak/corner combo with the WRs. After the snap first look is the left TE to the flats and then the RB to the right side flats. Next move towards the WRs and see which WR the deep zone defender has chosen to cover. Lastly, look towards your right TE or dumb it off to the TE on the left sideline.

Smash – Quick Audible + Right
This play only requires one setup that works against man or zone coverage.

1. Smart route the right TE

First read is your RB in the flats. Next look up towards your right TE on the mini corner route. Then move to the left and watch the streak/corner combo with the left TE and slot WR. If nothing else is open look to scramble or throw the hitch curl on the outside.

HB Dive – Quick Audible + Down
After you have made your opponent respect the Power Option from this formation, you can generally expect them to start using move 3-4+ CB formations such as Nickel 3-3-5, Dime, or Quarters thus leaving less LBs and DL to clog the middle. If you notice this, make them play with the quick audible down and follow the blockers.

PA Deep In – Quick Audible + Left
After hitting the defense with a couple HB Dives, expect this Play Action to burn them for a deep gain.

1. Hot route left TE to a drag
2. Hot route left outside WR to a slant right

If the defense is in any type of man coverage, first look for the left TE on the drag to beat his man or watch the RB and outside left WR cross over the middle. If nothing short is open, the slot WR should draw any deep safety away from the right TE on the post.

If the defense is in zone, again look short for one of the underneath routes. The nice thing about this play is against a Cover 2, the deep left safety will follow the slot WR streaking every time leaving your right TE wide open once he gets past the hook/yellow zones.

HB Counter – Audible #3
This is where our first audible comes into play. Let’s say the defense is running a lot of zone coverage no matter what running plays you use and it is stopping the HB Dive and Option…it’s time for the HB Counter. Especially against a 2 CB formation, you’ll have a pulling Guard leading the RBs path along with the slot WR free to pick up a roaming LB or FS.

Final Thoughts on Pistol Ace Twins
These are the 6 basic plays I stick to with this formation and use according to the read I get from the defense. Keep in mind that if there are more than 2 CBs on the field, make sure to motion a WR and get the best read you can. What’s great though is that most of these plays can beat any type of coverage once the reads are learned.

Some other plays to check out from Pistol Ace Twins:
- PA FL Stretch
- Curl Flat Corner
- HB Slip Screen
- Slot Under
- Stick
- Comeback
- Posts

Playbook:
- Nevada

Formations:
- Pistol Jumbo Wing
- Pistol Ace Twins
- Pistol H Twins
- Pistol Trips
- Pistol 4WR Trips
- Shotgun Ace Twins Wk

Audibles:
- Pistol H Twins: Triple Option
- Pistol Jumbo Wing: Power Option
- Pistol Ace Twins: HB Counter
- Pistol Trips: TE Corner
- Shotgun Ace Twins Wk: Slot Under

Is there a sim element in NCAA 10? The answer to that question is no. While sports games in general are striving to give a gamers as a close representation of the real life counterpart, I’m going to speak on a few key tidbits on how NCAA fail to represent in that aspect.

One of the first things I notice that takes away from the simulation is that a mobile quarterback that in real life situation is average at best, in the video game they strive at passing and completion percentage. Yes, mobile quarterbacks are a huge aspect of the college game but it shouldn’t impact a person to avoiding a team that does not have a quarterback that is mobile.

Second is the fact that there should be missed assignments, when I say this there should be busted plays and wide-outs run wrong routes. I know they are making it where wide-outs can’t hear hot routes but sometime they don’t know even now when he can be a run or pass, or the running back looks for the hand-off on the wrong side.

Finally why there will never be a real sim element to the game is giving user why to many options. They can choose restrict things and people of options that are not in the spirit of the game like going for it on fourth downs, using the same play over and over aging and running the score up in game that are clearly wrapped up. Now they have implemented a season showdown that will take away points or what not for some of these actions but that is not good enough. Please just give us the people of a fair play option and a lot of this will not exist.

Now these are some issues I see in this game that is keeping this game from being an exact simulation of what you see on Saturday and I hope in due time we see that this problems will be dismissed.

The flexbone is one of the oldest offenses in college football, and variations of it can be seen in just about every offense in today’s game. With that said that past iterations of this offense have been very disappointing without much changing from year to year. This has turned off many of the fans of the offense. Well this year EA decided it was time to revamp the offense, and it has taken center stage as one of the most used offenses in online gaming.

The designers of the game were able to get actual game film from the Navy football program to use in their remaking of the offense. This helped the team look and see how the plays they already had worked in closer detail, as well as give them new plays to put into this offense to expand the playbook.

Some of the new plays for the offense are the WB tosses to the strong side, this is very effected when blocked well and a speedy back. Another play is the Midline QB Iso, a play where the quarterback can either hand it off to a split back, or else follow him into the whole and run it himself.

These new additions to the playbook as well as all the advancements in the blocking schemes, making it a more successful offense, make this the offense of choice for thousands of online players across the nation. We’ll have to wait to NCAA 2011 to see any other advancements in the offense, but its safe to say that the work EA has put it in this year was very successful when it comes to the scheme.

Comparing Madden 09 to NCAA 10

When compare the two games you can see the striking similarities and the noticeable differences, others may not feel the way I feel but this is my opinion.

Similarities to Madden 09 and NCAA football 10 goes as follows, I feel like a lot of the same things work on both games like the fullback dive a thing that alone was a very annoying 5 yard gain and this still plagues this game. Also the routes that you can rocket catch are all the same, which in a way I don’t mind as much. Another thing that was an issue is that most of the same madden 09 nanos works on NCAA 2010. Left trigger passing is still in the game they take that out the remove a lot of the rocket catching.

Differences in NCAA 10 are that defense reacts 20x better then in madden 09. Defenders actually go for the ball and get in front of wide outs on curls. You can hit a quarter back in his throwing motion and that really makes a huge affect on the pass. You don’t have to bust a run to the outside to see a big gain .in the running game. Its fun to play defense in the game finally, Fl screen play is not as effective in this game. On QB sneaks the quarterback actually falls down when center up, which is way more realistic then a quarterback being able to run right behind the center.

Well these are the things I notice right off the back in playing the twenty-four hours. If I feel the need I might expand on it and come with a part two.

NCAA Strategy officially opened up its NCAA Football 2010 ladder. This ladder will be going season by season so there will be 4; Fall,Winter,Spring, and Summer. Of course a ladder isn’t fun without some prizes, so at the end of each season the top 16 or 32 members will be placed into a tournament. The first place prize will be either a game, and one of our eBook products, or money itself. Prizes will be handed out to the final 4 players. The ladder will not be run on forums like some other websites do, it will be run via a custom built ladder script which gives you more points for the team use you use.

Ex: You use Michigan and win you get 3 points bonus, but if you use Wyoming and win you will get a 10 point bonus, and this updates after every game depending on how many times the teams have been used.

All you need to play in this ladder is a forum account. To sign up on our forums head on over here.

To view the ladder please head on over here.

Make sure to ask any questions that you have, and be sure to read the rules.

Pros:

• Tackle animations. The new animations excellent but got very repetitive, much like 09. Mix in some from last year and we have a winner!
• Cut-scenes. The new cut scenes are simply amazing. It’s almost as if you are watching the game at home on ESPN.
• Erin Andrews. Umm enough said.
• Injury choice. Having the choice to play a player while he is hurt adds a new and realistic feature to the game. Your decision can either benefit your team or hurt it if your superstar QB goes down for the season.
• Uniform customization. This year you have complete control of what uniform your team wears. Anything and everything from socks to the helmets can be customized before the game.
• Spider senses. I like the new feature where you controller vibrates when the QB is under pressure. If you are the quarterback and you’re about to get sacked, even from the blind side, your controller starts vibrating to warn you.

Cons:

• Player lock. While I’m sure a lot of people will enjoy this, I didn’t. It’s like superstar mode, and it’s just plain silly. If you lock onto a defensive lineman, what happens when the ball is thrown down field? You can’t exactly switch to the safety and make a play on the ball. And we all know HUMANS > CPU.
• Hurry up encroachment. When the offense ran the hurry up offense against my defense, encroachment was called against a defensive player I was not controlling. Somehow an offensive player bumped into him and the poor programming caused him to stop moving.
• Let me go back. If you accidentally jump offside with a LB, for example, you cannot move him back across the LOS for some reason. I had to press B and switch players to have him move back, but by then it was too late (“Offsides, defense…”)
• INT camera. For some reason, you can move your player, in mid air, with time frozen, when you get an INT. How does that even make sense?
• Coach cam. This is arguably the most hated feature of NCAA Football 2010. What exactly was the point in changing the coach cam in this game?
• Catch the ball. Whatever you all do, do not throw a low pass to your WRs. They don’t even make an attempt to get it! They look at the low pass and continue running their route as if the ball isn’t even there.