Player Lock and Defensive Assist

Is it Thursday already? It has been a very busy last couple months here at Tiburon; all of us on the NCAA Football 10 team have been working extremely hard put the finishing touches on this year's game. Every day brings us closer to putting NCAA Football 10 into everyone's hands and we couldn't be more excited.

Last week we released two game play improvements for NCAA Football 10. The first one showed off the Pass Blocking Pocket; and the second was about the new Player Pursuit Angles.  Today we are going to reveal another two features brand new to the game: Player Lock and Defensive Assist.

While playing defense in Dynasty or Play Now are you the type of person who likes to just take the DE and try and make a play? What about only choosing the FS? Or have you wanted to be the WR on a big third down because you think you can run his route better?

How would you like to be able to do this?  CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

With Player Lock you can select a player on the field and choose to stay him the entire play, this gives you a new perspective depending on the position you choose. In the above example you can see the transition from going from our normal game-play camera to a view behind the middle line backer we locked on too.

You can take any player on defense and any skill position on offense (sorry offensive linemen) to Player Lock onto. I've found it the most fun to use on defense, it brings a new way to look at the field and play the game. It is really fun and rewarding to know you were locked on to one player for the whole play and got the pick or the sack.

Here is a random screen shot we got last night of an attempt to block a field goal:

Makes for a nice break for our next feature...

In an effort to help players on defense we'd also like to introduce Defensive Assist. By pressing the A button on Xbox 360 (or the X button on PlayStation 3) your player will move to his correct position at any given time. For example say you are not exactly sure where the corner you are controlling should be playing his zone; all you have to do is press the A button and the player under you control will move to his assignment on the field.

Not only does this apply to zone coverage it applies to all movement on the defensive side of the ball; pursuit angles, man coverage, and ball landing spots. It can also help you swat down a pass, but it will not try and go for an interception or attempt a hit stick tackle (it is an assist after all).

Personally I've used the Defensive Assist to be able to focus on reading what play the offense is doing and not have to worry about if I moved that linebacker I was controlling too far out of his zone. It's also nice to get a player moving in the right direction as soon as the ball is thrown, then I like to take over and go for the tackle or pick myself.

And there we have it, another week done in the countdown to July14th and the release of NCAA Football 10. It's going to be a fun time as we get to release more and more information about the game between now and when you have it in your hands.

One last cool looking screen shot for the road.  To read this original blog post and make comments, visit the Inside EA SPORTS Blog.

-Russell Kiniry

Designer NCAA Football 10