March Madness 2009

[ps3owner]

Anyone who plays March Madness here?

[The X]

No, College Hoops 2k8 ftw....one of the great sporting titles for a very long time....

[JaoSming]

I found MM08 on the 360 to be very fun. MM03 on the PS2 imo is the best effort by EA on the current gen consoles.

Full 3d crowd, good physics, diving, changing your shot in mid air, fun, break the backboard, create a school (*boner* off to find my ps2)

[ps3owner]

I plan to buy march madness 2009. I've been playing this since March madness 98

[Andrew]

I would if I could, but unfortunately the 360 isn't region free so I can't import it from the States.

[The X]

I will probably give MM '09 a miss this year as College Hoops 2k8 is enough fix for me. If they ever add back importing draft classes, it would make me 50% more likely to buy it and live for my ps3

[Andrew]

That seems unlikely. I'm told it isn't done anymore because of the release dates/order of NBA Live and March Madness (or NCAA Basketball as it's now going to be called).

[The X]

I think the release dates are only a couple of months apart. How could adding the option take away from the Live experience? At least you are giving gamers a chance. In the end, it seems like they are not geared towards hardcore dynasty & simulation freaks & to the more casual gamer. I guess they only expect people to play online or multiplayer. Or if they are going to stay a dynasty, they'll start it from day one. I would argue that usually people hold off their main dynasties about 2-3 months from release date so they can get up-to-date rosters, maybe get some of the Dynamic DNA going, & also to get a feel for the game.

I just think it's an injustice to the March Madness/Live fans. Granted I'm not one of them at present, but I still feel for the Live gamers. A lot of dynasty people like having 'real' draft prospects moving through the ranks the first 3-4 years of the draft class. This can be evidenced by the amount of people that dbf edited generic draft classes into more true to life draft classes when playing their PC dynasties (I have to admit, I was one of them ).

I do hope they reconsider this stance in future and Andrew, can you please add it to the 2010 Wishlist (as well as adding NZ to FIBA listings )?

[Andrew]

Definitely, it doesn't hurt to ask.

As I understand it, EA's stance on the matter is based on March Madness coming out after NBA Live and specifically the idea that anyone playing with March Madness 09 (for example) would want to import those players into NBA Live 2010 rather than going back and using them in NBA Live 09, which may be the case though I'm sure a lot of people would want to play both games at once and import from 09 to 09.

It's also a feature they can't really market outside North America. The PS3 is region free of course and players can import from the States but not everyone is a PS3 player so "Import draft classes from March Madness/NCAA Basketball" isn't something they could boast worldwide.