http://www.pastapadre.com/
While the upcoming patch for Madden has been looming for a while, there wasn’t much expectation that NCAA Football 08 would receive one as well. Despite that one was released just recently (under the radar) for the PS3 and seems likely to be out for the 360 in the near future. I am hoping to get word on the status of the 360 patch soon.
Unfortunately some of the major issues such as the depth chart button lag were not dealt with, however the gameplay will be affected significantly due to the adjustments. Here is what the patch takes care of:
Gameplay: Fumble Chance has been tuned to more realistic values and logic. Fumbling has been tuned to occur during more realistic scenarios such as big hits and collisions.
Gameplay: Defense Secondary aggressive coverage has been addressed. Defensive players AI has been better tuned for only certain percentile of defensive backs have the ability to make aggressive moves that are effective.
Gameplay: Pass Lead Tuning on Lob passes has been improved.
The user has the ability to lead receivers with lob passes now.
NCAA Football 08 Patch
Moderators: Bill_Abner, ScoopBrady
There was a follow-up on Pasta's site that the game can't be patched for "technical reasons."
It will be interesting to see what Madden and NCAA look like next year. Based on the numbers, both of these games sold a lot of copies, but sales were down significantly this year. I think EA is finally seeing some chinks in the cash cow armor. What they do about it will be very telling.
Sadly, I still think that NCAA 2000 for the psx was the best game of the NCAA series. The game had D1 and D1AA teams, you could choose to end the season in a 16 team playoff if you choose. The sim engine was solid.
And as for Madden, I guess EA just doesn't really think game atmosphere matters. Even with improved AI, Madden just feels too dull for words. I never thought I would find myself missing Madden as announcer, but the radio guy actually makes me long for the old days with Madden and Summerall.
It will be interesting to see what Madden and NCAA look like next year. Based on the numbers, both of these games sold a lot of copies, but sales were down significantly this year. I think EA is finally seeing some chinks in the cash cow armor. What they do about it will be very telling.
Sadly, I still think that NCAA 2000 for the psx was the best game of the NCAA series. The game had D1 and D1AA teams, you could choose to end the season in a 16 team playoff if you choose. The sim engine was solid.
And as for Madden, I guess EA just doesn't really think game atmosphere matters. Even with improved AI, Madden just feels too dull for words. I never thought I would find myself missing Madden as announcer, but the radio guy actually makes me long for the old days with Madden and Summerall.
This is also posted on the DSP blog:
For those that don’t know, the patch for NCAA Football 2008 for the XBox 360 is out. After playing for most of an afternoon, here are the changes that I’ve observed:
One of the major issues in NCAA 2008 was the psychic secondary play and the number of interceptions (especially by the user, but also by the CPU) in the game. One of the clear ways they have dealt with this is by decreasing the catching ability of the CPU secondary. I’ve seen many clear instances of passes being thrown directly at the secondary where the defender simply dropped the ball. My first estimate is that the number of actual interception from “interceptable” passes has dropped 25-50%.
A second way they’ve dealt with this is altering defensive awareness. One thing that plagued NCAA 2008 was the “psychic interception”, where someone playing zone with their back to the ball magically turns around at the moment the ball is about to arrive and makes the interception. I haven’t seen any examples of this behavior in the game. However, if a defender guarding a receiver with their back to the ball, they will still unrealistically jump in the air, turn, and bat down the pass. My hope is that in NCAA 2009 they program an animation where the player, if face guarding, “follows the eyes” of the receiver, puts their hands up, and hopes to deflect the pass before making the tackle.
Finally, the patch has definitely changed quarterback control, in two clear ways. First, it is much easier to throw a lob pass and put touch on the ball. This makes for some pretty major changes in gameplay. Previously, the most effective defense was blitzing with tight man coverage. Even if a receiver had a defender beat on a fly route, the computer could defend the pass because of the difficulty in lobbing the ball over the defender (well, that and the psychic defense). Defenders will still make that jump for the ball, but being able to lob the ball makes it easier to beat this defense. Second, quarterback accuracy seems to have been decreased a little. It’s not a big difference, but I’ve seen a few more overthrows than I remember in the past. It’ll take more play to see if this is an actual change or not…but right now, there seems to be a difference.
One other difference, unrelated to gameplay, is that you have more time to select plays in the huddle.
However, with these changes, there are still some major problems in gameplay. There are no changes (that I’m aware of so far) that address defensive option AI. (These problems are laid out in detail here; but in short, defenders won’t change from their man/zone assignments until a runner crosses the line of scrimmage, leading to exaggerated gains in the option game.) So far, I haven't had a problem with excessive fumbles. However, there are still plenty of faux-fumbles, where the player hits the ground, fumbles, and then the play is reviewed and invariably overturned.
At first look, even though option AI has not been fixed, the passing game is improved and the game is worth revisiting.
For those that don’t know, the patch for NCAA Football 2008 for the XBox 360 is out. After playing for most of an afternoon, here are the changes that I’ve observed:
One of the major issues in NCAA 2008 was the psychic secondary play and the number of interceptions (especially by the user, but also by the CPU) in the game. One of the clear ways they have dealt with this is by decreasing the catching ability of the CPU secondary. I’ve seen many clear instances of passes being thrown directly at the secondary where the defender simply dropped the ball. My first estimate is that the number of actual interception from “interceptable” passes has dropped 25-50%.
A second way they’ve dealt with this is altering defensive awareness. One thing that plagued NCAA 2008 was the “psychic interception”, where someone playing zone with their back to the ball magically turns around at the moment the ball is about to arrive and makes the interception. I haven’t seen any examples of this behavior in the game. However, if a defender guarding a receiver with their back to the ball, they will still unrealistically jump in the air, turn, and bat down the pass. My hope is that in NCAA 2009 they program an animation where the player, if face guarding, “follows the eyes” of the receiver, puts their hands up, and hopes to deflect the pass before making the tackle.
Finally, the patch has definitely changed quarterback control, in two clear ways. First, it is much easier to throw a lob pass and put touch on the ball. This makes for some pretty major changes in gameplay. Previously, the most effective defense was blitzing with tight man coverage. Even if a receiver had a defender beat on a fly route, the computer could defend the pass because of the difficulty in lobbing the ball over the defender (well, that and the psychic defense). Defenders will still make that jump for the ball, but being able to lob the ball makes it easier to beat this defense. Second, quarterback accuracy seems to have been decreased a little. It’s not a big difference, but I’ve seen a few more overthrows than I remember in the past. It’ll take more play to see if this is an actual change or not…but right now, there seems to be a difference.
One other difference, unrelated to gameplay, is that you have more time to select plays in the huddle.
However, with these changes, there are still some major problems in gameplay. There are no changes (that I’m aware of so far) that address defensive option AI. (These problems are laid out in detail here; but in short, defenders won’t change from their man/zone assignments until a runner crosses the line of scrimmage, leading to exaggerated gains in the option game.) So far, I haven't had a problem with excessive fumbles. However, there are still plenty of faux-fumbles, where the player hits the ground, fumbles, and then the play is reviewed and invariably overturned.
At first look, even though option AI has not been fixed, the passing game is improved and the game is worth revisiting.
...I now inadvertently lob and give the D time to make a play. I need to get used to the new way as I had gotten used to the way it was an was able to lob a bit before.
One thing that does seem to be fixed about the option is that you can't wait and throw the ball from a ridiculous position as you are being tackled. If you wait too long, the option button will not work and you will get tackled. So from that point of view it is a little harder to overuse the option.
Yep, one hand I like it. On the other, I can't cheese with it any more.kevinpars wrote:One thing that does seem to be fixed about the option is that you can't wait and throw the ball from a ridiculous position as you are being tackled. If you wait too long, the option button will not work and you will get tackled. So from that point of view it is a little harder to overuse the option.
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I have to play more to see about that. There were a few plays where I had a player basically on the ground and they still made a perfect pitch. However, there were a few other times where I had a close pitch and my player failed to pitch the ball...so I can't tell if they've actually changed it or not.kevinpars wrote:One thing that does seem to be fixed about the option is that you can't wait and throw the ball from a ridiculous position as you are being tackled. If you wait too long, the option button will not work and you will get tackled. So from that point of view it is a little harder to overuse the option.
