In preparation for tonight’s Midnight Launch at the Robson and Granville Future Shop, former Canuck Trevor Linden got his hands on NHL 10 alongside Producer David Littman and some of the local press.
September is one of my favourite months of the year, not only because I get a year older (or despite it, that is) but the presents I receive are usually in the form of one of my all-time favorite games, NHL 10. This year NHL 10 hits the streets next week on Tuesday the 15th and for the first time we will be hosting a couple of midnight releases at Future Shops in Toronto and Vancouver. With President Obama welcoming the Pens to the White House today and team prospects hitting the ice this week, it's officially time to think hockey.Growing up in Vancouver I've been a fan of the Canucks since I was allowed as a kid to stay up late in '82 to watch their magical first run into the Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Islanders. The series didn't go the way Canucks fans wanted it to, but it was a great run and a great year for the guys who wore the Flying V's. At seven years old I was hooked on the game and the team, and over the years as the jerseys and the team changed, I longed for them to return to the finals for another chance at their first Cup.
Back then while at UBC, my buddies and I relived the series looking for different outcomes on the SNES with NHL 95 and spent more hours playing the video game than I should have. We'd set up tournaments and battle throughout the school year and I even remembered playing games to simulate what we thought would happen in games to come. We didn't care that the game wasn't as authentic as it is today, we only cared that we could be play as our favorite team and feel the rush of scoring the game winner (most of the time with the dreaded one-timer goals). We always wondered, "Could it get any better than this???"
And so with Linden retired, there's time for him to take up gaming and what better game to do so than with NHL 10 where he can don the '94 uni's or, better yet, go old skool with the Flying V's in this year's game. Recreate those Stanley Cup Finals and hope for a different outcome in the new Battle for the Cup mode which has been implemented into the game very nicely. Or just jump into Season Mode and play with Luongo fresh off one of the most lucrative contracts ever for a Canuck (is Gillis a genius or what?). A whole other blog there in itself but something that I may look into with some of my own players with the new Be a GM mode.
Next week however, join Trevor Linden along with me and the game producers at Future Shop on Granville & Robson Monday night for the Midnight Release event. Be first to pick up a copy and see if you have the stick skills to bring home the Cup yourself. And for those of you in Toronto (boooo! Lol), you can join other NHL producers along with former captain Wendel Clark and current Leaf Ian White at the Toronto Life Square Future Shop. It's time to go FTW with one of the Best Titles of The Year!
Today the LA Kings had their opening day of LA Kings Fest and EA SPORTS was to not only be a part of the festivities with a large chunk of space carved out with systems set up to show off NHL 10, we were also invited to meet some of the Kings prior to their walking on to the stage to meet their fans at the Nokia Center.
Over the weekend the LA Kings kicked off their 2009-10 season with interactive events and face-to-face time among fans at the first ever Hockey Fest in LA.
Photo courtesy of Greenwood/Getty Images
A week after he wins the Buick Open after an up and down series of rounds, and three weeks after missing the cut at The British Open, Tiger went to work this week at the Bridgestone Invitational and hit an 8-iron on the par-5 16th hole, 182 yards, to put the ball within one foot of the cup. A gimmie.
Tiger started the round three strokes back of Padraig Harrington who also hit his first shot in the rough, though on the opposite side on the right of the 16th. Tiger had to punch his ball out to the fairway leaving him a long third. Padraig, however, looked to clear a bunker on the left leaving him a little closer for a third shot, though a risky play. He would barely clear the bunker and give himself a terrible uphill lie on the lip to go at the tight flag, no more than three paces to the drink.
With Tiger to shoot and down a shot just after giving up the lead following bogeys on 13 and 14, this was one of the biggest tests for him all weekend. You could see him holding himself back from exploding when he teed off into the rough and maintaining his attitude. He’s recently been called out following his missing the cut at The Open for being a little more emotional than others following a poor shot and you he knew the best way to turn things right back around was a perfect third shot and put the pressure right back on Harrington.
He took out his 8-iron. Someone better tell him that it’s 182-yards and not 138. Oh, wait, that’s my shot…he can hit that. Full swing, power at 110%, a little left to right wind. With those two bogeys behind him and a chance to swing himself right back into the lead assuming Harrington will leave himself a tough 4th, Tiger took back the club for the swing and in an instant hit the poor golf ball as hard as he could and looked to fly the ball over the water and next to pin. An improbable shot…unless you’re the number one player in the world.
The ball flew majestically high and landed to left of the hole a few yards past it. The ball spun back to the hole as close-to-perfect as one could be less than a foot from the pin. Check.
Harrington, the defending PGA Champion to be played next week, would put his shot over green and into the deep stuff. He would then follow with an attempt to full-swing a flier to within a few feet, a tough shot regardless, but knowing that Tiger’s ball is sitting a few inches from the cup for birdie made this his forth even more pressure filled.
His swing would get more of the ball than he wanted to as it bounced next to the hole and skipped into the pond. With that shot, he would have to pace back to the other side of water and back-up to get a full swing at the hole, close to a hundred yards from the hole. Check-mate.
By the end of the hole, Paddy would triple bogey and then watch Tiger tap in his birdie for a four-shot swing with two holes to play. Tiger would then finish another work week with a birdie putt on the 18th to win his 70th tournament on the tour and position himself, once again as the favorite going into a major with the PGA Championships next weekend.
Just when you thought that Tiger couldn’t impress, he takes out a pressure-filled eight-iron and makes the shot of the tournament. So sure, at times he may lose his cool on a bad shot. With shots he knows he can make, it’s these he counts on when the pressure is on. More often than not, we see him come up with something incredible that just makes people shake their heads. Less often, he’ll miss and that may come with a wince or even a curse.
My take, it happens less often than not and he’s entitled to be unimpressed after, time and time again, showing such perfection. It’s such a rare occurrence for him to miss that people break it apart because it’s the one thing that happens so rarely. He’s only human and he wears his emotions, win or lose, on his sleeve. It’s these emotions that push him to even attempt the shots he looks at making. He knew going into that third that he pulled the club out of his bag for one reason only…to impress. I don’t know about you, but I’m impressed. Damn…impressed.
Congratulations go out to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins as they overcame a 3-2 series deficit to go FTW in the final two games and earn the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup in Detroit, winning only their second game in Hockeytown in the last two years.
After being chased out of game 5, Marc-Andre Fleury came up with two career games and received a little help from the crossbar near the end of game seven letting in only two goals in game six and seven to backstop the Pens to the Cup. With Sid injuring his knee in the first period of game seven, the team rallied behind their captain as Maxime Talbot scored two of his biggest goals to give the Pens the scoring needed to win.
It was quite the moment for Sid the Kid as he shared the ice with owner Mario Lemiuex who hadn’t hoisted the cup since ’92 when he won his second in a row as a player. Sid was so much into the moment that he almost forgot about shaking the hands of last year’s champions leaving some of the Red Wings to patiently wait for him to shake his hand. Did he snub the team or was he just into the moment? I’ll say that patience is a virtue and even for the Wings, though it had to be bitter watching the Kid celebrate, those are the breaks when it comes to winning a championship.
Kobe can now remove the kryptonite from his shorts as he shook a monkey off his back (or a gorilla named “Shaq”) winning his fourth Larry O’Brien Trophy and confidently leading the LA Lakers to the NBA Championship over NBA LIVE 10 cover athlete Dwight “Superman” Howard and the Orlando Magic.
The Black Mamba was double-teamed throughout game five which left other Lakers shooters open. The team delivered hitting 50% of their shots from the arc and hitting 75% from the line to disappoint the home side looking to extend the series to a sixth game. It was a big 16-0 run following a confrontation between Trevor Ariza and Hedo Turkoglu that was the difference in the game.
The championship was also head coach Phil Jackson’s tenth and there was no shortage of celebration as he remains undefeated when his teams win the first game of a championship series.
Congratulations go out to the two regular season console champions: Shammers United who finished the season playing 3235 games and amassing 8234 points on the Xbox 360 while the No CryBabys played 1278 games and earned 7135 points to clinch first place on the PlayStation 3. These are the first teams that have received invites to the tournament and we will announce the other seven teams per console this Wednesday.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, you have to see the EA SPORTS ‘Joy’ commercial that aired at the NBA Finals last week. Coinciding with the commercial is our Welcome to the Win webpage from EA SPORTS Beta highlighting athletes’ wins in their respective sports. We will also be sharing our gamers’ wins as well so stay tuned to the site and look for new areas to unlock in the near future.
To close, congrats go to local swimmer Brent Hayden of Vancouver who went FTW and defeated Olympic Gold Champion Michel Phelps during the Santa Clara International Grand Prix swim meet over the weekend. Hayden swam a personal best of 48.44 seconds in the 100-metre freestyle to edge Phelps who clocked in at the finish at 48.87 seconds.
Ask these guys if every second counts, and you’ll appreciate what it takes to be a champion.
After weeks of preparing to show off their studio’s best, developers from around the world descent on Los Angeles for this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, where gaming press will be ready to share with the public the latest news at a moment’s notice. Teams at EA SPORTS have put together videos, gamed hours on demos, and are ready for the massive questions that are bound to come from the hungry appetites of those lucky enough to get an invite to the expo.
The EA SPORTS stable will be in full force at E3 this year but not every game there will be fully accessible to those in attendance. EA Canada’s NHL 09, the winner of no less than twelve Sports Game of the Year Awards, will be inviting an even luckier few press inside closed doors with Producer David Littman and the upcoming NHL 10 game. For the rest of us, we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for an upcoming blog on physical play from Producer Sean Ramjagsingh and new news about the upcoming EA SPORTS Hockey League Invitational Tournament to that will start later in June. Follow @NHL10 and myself, @sk88z, for when the latest news drops.
There will be many channels for our community to follow us at E3. I’ll be working with fellow EA SPORTS Community Managers @easports @raczilla, @dochowser, @dewiel, and @EARom relaying video, pics, and stories from our team of @The_Eric_Gray and @CLOSPHOTO on the ground at the LA Convention Center. I just hope the two Magic fans aren’t going to get themselves into any trouble running around downtown LA with their Orlando jerseys on. Also down there from our team will be @Active_Girl who will be busy getting people Active and started on the 30-Day Challenge that many are starting today.
I’m not going to let anything out of the bag before Peter Moore gets on stage Monday, though I will let you know that if you’re a Fight Night Round 4 fan, you’re going to want to tune in to http://ea.com/e3 at 2PM PST. Along with some news about one of the most anticipated games of the year, there will also be a few surprises and special guests.
We will also be posting video from press conferences and surrounding mayhem on http://insideblog.easports.com and don’t forget to tune in everyday at 12PM PST to EA SPORTS Live with the Thompson Brothers @PrimeTimeSA and @mamboking to get the latest sports gaming news from E3.
On the heels of this year’s biggest upset in the French Open as Rafael Nadal loses his first sets since 2007 and first match ever in Roland Garros, EA SPORTS will be hitting some hard baseline shots of its own with the launch of EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis later this week. Check out a recent blog and video from Producer Thomas Singleton talking about all four Grand Slam venues including the French Open’s Roland Garros and the historic Wimbledon, making its first ever appearance in a tennis video game.
Not to be outdone, EA Tiburon will be rolling out the red carpet putting the driver in the hands of the press in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10. Along with Grand Slam Tennis, the Wii version will be compatible with the new Wii Motion Plus and will be really taking the game to the next level. On the PC side, check out Peter Moore’s most recent blog on Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online that will allow gamers to pick up and play anytime they’ve got to get their swing on.
With football season right around the corner, mainstays Madden NFL 10 and NCAA Football 10 will be put through the paces in the hands of the press. Check out one of the latest NCAA Football 10 videos with Producer Ben Haumiller and Game Designer Russ Kiniry on the game’s Season Showdown feature. For you looking to see more on the senior title, watch and listen to Producer Phil Frazier and other devs talk about Online Co-Op, new to the game and something the community has been craving for years, in this installment of the Developer Series.
So you’ve noticed those videos on the new EA SPORTS Beta site? Just this past week, the online web teams from both studios have launched a new look for EA SPORTS fans which now incorporates a freshly skinned EA SPORTS World to match into the new EA SPORTS Beta site. Check out the EA SPORTS Beta FAQ here and feel free to leave your feedback on the site in our forums.
Over the past six months as an EA SPORTS Community Manager here at EA Canada, it’s been a pleasure to bring our fans behind the scenes action from producer blogs and Q&A’s to athlete interviews to the ultimate in community participation hosting game fans at our Community Events. We’ve made some huge strides not only listening to the EA SPORTS community but bringing you into the mix and having you all take part in the design and creation of our titles. Check out last week’s FIFA 10 Community Day hosted by Rom Broad and our other FIFA Community Managers from around the world.
I recall a time when I started at EA Canada over five years ago as QA Tester and I made a comment on the forums that was taken down because it came from someone within the company and wasn’t an ‘official comment’ on the game. I am glad to say, those days are no longer as we continue to thin the veil between our fans and the developers. Over the next months we’ll continue to try new things and continue to break down the barriers with hopes of involving our community, and of improving and making better titles year in and year out.
Here’s hoping EA SPORTS goes FTW at E3 this week!
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