March Madness

The time is finally upon us. March Madness is officially in full swing! This year, over 11 million people have submitted a bracket on ESPN. Billionaire Warren Buffet is offering 1 billion dollars to the person that makes the perfect bracket. As you can see, there is a lot of anticipation for this year's tournament!

This year's Selection Sunday came with a few surprises. Louisville is actually rated a 4th seed  after having a 29-5 season! They are put into a region along with the likes of Duke, Michigan, and undefeated Wichita State. Fair much? In the East region, most people have 4th seed Michigan State making it past Virginia to the Final Four. That surprises me, because while Michigan State does have experience, Virginia is not a team to take for granted. In the South bracket, most have Florida at least going to the Final Four if not the championship game(I have them winning it all in one bracket).With that being said, one team NOT to forget about is VCU. They are the type of team to wait until tournament to really play hard. They have a great defense, and they posses the ability to score. While Arizona has the "easiest" road to the Final Four, they can still be beaten. One thing that allows this to happen is the fact that a team only has to  beat them once, unlike the NBA which each team plays each other multiple times. Even if one team is not necessarily better than another, one bad day can have the weaker team advancing in the tournament. Look out for San Diego State in the West bracket, as they have the talent to go deep in the tournament.

As we embark on a new year of craziness, make sure that you fill out your brackets, sit back, and enjoy the madness. To make your March Madness even better, make sure you download my app called "March Madness Questionnaire" in Google Play. Let's see how much you really know about March Madness!

Return of Live

   It's been a few years, but it's FINALLY coming back. NBA Live will return after three long years since it's 'NBA Elite 11' collapse. For as long as I can remember , when it comes to professional basketball video games, the "NBA 2K series" and the "NBA Live" have competed back and forth for the title of the #1 selling basketball game. The NBA Live series lasted until 2010. For 2011, EA Sports changed the name of the series to "NBA Elite". The game NBA Elite 11 was set to release in October of 2011, but due to many glitches and such, EA decided not release the game. In the demo, one prevalent glitch displayed former Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum being stuck at half court.

   Since then, the basketball gaming world has been dominated by the NBA 2K series. NBA 2K 12 sold for over  five million copies, while NBA 2K 13 has the franchise record for most sales during a debut week in the history of the franchise. While these two games have been great, part of their success is because of the lack of competition. 

     Determined to return, EA Sports hired a whole new team to bring back the once very popular NBA Live game. With new features such as bouncetek, the user will have the ability to control how the players dribble like never before. The EA Sports team is aware  that they have a lot of ground to cover, but  seem to believe that they can reestablish their spot as a top notch game within the gaming industry. Since March, EA Sports has been advertising their advancement with a new video machine called the Ignite E3 engine. This engine is something that will be used to take games to another level, especially for the XBOX one and the Play Station 4 counsels. During an EA Sports NBA Live 14 Q & A via Twitter, I was able to ask how this engine will help the game. EA responded to my question stating: "Animation quality, physics, and fluidity to name of few."  As an excited NBA Live fan, I can only hope that this engine would serve as a positive step in the right direction. NBA Live 14 drops in the fall.

 NBA Live 14 Trailer