NCAA '09 impressions

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:40 pm

The game is definately unpredictable.

Playing one dynasty with Mich St. on AA I was feeling all big and bad after upsetting Ohio State at home in OT...Next game at Michigan I got roughed up pretty bad needing two late scores to lose by 13.

It can be frustrating at times but it is definately a keeper for Me...and why not?...Afterall I picked the much hated NCAA08 as my sports game of the year last year.

HipE · Post by **HipE** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:42 pm

I have two online dynasties going with a friend of mine from high school. In one we each chose our favorite teams (Iowa and Pitt), and the other we each chose equal teams in different divisions within the same conference (Auburn and South Carolina). They have seriously been the most fun I have ever had with any sports game. We are about 3/4 of the way through season one in both dynasties, we actually both took a vacation day yesterday just so we could play all day. Nothing beats being able to just sit and bs while playing our games against the CPU and recruiting against each other, it works out even better than if we both lived near each other still. As long as we can avoid any freezes, I can see playing this for many, many seasons.

As to the gameplay, I absolutely love it. Sure it has problems, but I don't think I have ever enjoyed an NCAA game more. The variety in the games you play is outstanding, and they really nailed the difference between playing weaker teams and stronger teams. I have blown out weak teams with Auburn (I beat an FCS team 70-7) and also been handled by stronger teams (lost 35-24 to LSU and 31-17 to Tennessee). Every game though I have felt that I could compete and win if I played to the best of my ability, I have never felt that the CPU was unbeatable.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:30 pm

I rented it.. will post some impressions tonight.

snaz16 · Post by **snaz16** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:03 pm

MizzouRah wrote:I rented it.. will post some impressions tonight.

Your half way to the Dark Side

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:12 pm

Leebo33 wrote:Sorry, didn't mean to make you feel stupid.

I know you didn't.

I can't wait to try this Online Dynasty thing. Now that we've advanced to the actual season I can't wait to see how it plays out.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:28 pm

I rented it and I'd have to say I'm having alot of fun so far. Even with it's flaws (which honestly, so far I haven't really noticed many), I think it plays a fun game of college football.

So much so, I think I'll pick up a retail copy on Friday when I start my vacation.

Very first game, Mizzou vs NC.. was down 21-0 at halftime (yikes I'm rusty) - came back to tie the game at 21 late in the game when Goldsmith takes a cross route pass from Chase Daniel (as he was just about to get creamed) jumps over the defender and goes 54 yards for the score!! It was one of those OMG gaming moments... very cool....

I lost 28-21, but it was one of the most fun console football games I've had in awhile.

Forgot to save the highlight though! DOH!!

It's very early in my game playing, but so far I'm liking the overall package.

1. Running game is improved - favorite part so far
2. Animations - many, many more and they look great
3. Beautiful on my 46" HDTV
4. Controls really seem responsive this year
5. I love the way the CPU kicks away from Macklin on kickoffs and tries to work the ball to their big time players on offense

Who's a rookie around here I can play?

dougb · Post by **dougb** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:33 pm

Played a game against Purdue where I was down 13 with about 6 minutes left. The Purdue QB proceeded to throw 4 interceptions in the next 6 minutes, 3 of which I returned for touchdowns. In all Purdue threw 10 interceptions and I (Michigan) threw 5 picks.

That's the first game where I thought the gameplay was wildly unrealistic.

Best wishes,

Doug

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:56 pm

The game does have some ring of truth.

I lost out on the Rose Bowl with MSU as the Illini get the bid as Big 10 champs.

I never played the assholes....

The Big 10 champ is and always will be a fraud until they either all play each other or have a conf champ game.

We are doomed to watch Ohio St get slaughtered year after year in the BCS champ game.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:08 pm

From OS

We have been looking into the issues that some people are experiencing with games not being updated and people having their dynasty "hijacked" the last two days. The engineers have found the problem, but aren't yet sure how it is happening. We are probably going to take a preventative approach if we cannot find the bug.

In a nutshell, files aren't always getting uploaded to the correct locker but instead to someone else. Our server guys have estimated this effects 2% the lockers.

We have found that we can repair broken dynasties by removing the bad files from affected lockers. We used Pasta Padre as a test case because we have contact info for him and it seems to have worked. We have been also using the following gamertag's lockers for investigating the problem and will attempt to fix them next:

mhaze123
Stunna
scarfoe1
dmk2789
surestchamp

If the owners over the above gamertags read this post, please PM me with an email address and phone number in case we have some questions to help narrow this down.

Once we have figured out how to fix all the issues, we are going to run an automated script against all lockers to clear the issue, then prevent it from happening again. Right now it looks like all the fixes will be server side and not require a patch.

On the subject of a second patch, we are planning on getting it out a couple weeks earlier than originally planned. So I should have an update for what is going to be fixed in it pretty soon

dougb · Post by **dougb** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:33 pm

Interesting post by Bill Harris identifying player speed as a big problem in the game.

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/

Best wishes,

Doug

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:48 pm

He says "don't buy it because it's s***".

I'm having plenty of fun with it online with my buds and personally think he gets too much credit for being a videogame football guru.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:51 pm

I like Bill Harris, his blog has some great links.. but I'm getting to the point in my gaming life where I just want to have fun playing a game.

I don't care about 40 times, how tall players are relative to the stadiums, etc.. I just want a fun, semi-realistic game... with a few WOW moments thrown in.

When did anyone super analyze games like FPS Football, Super Tecmo Bowl, or Madden 93?

Seriously.. if you don't like X game, fine.. but do we REALLY need to spend countless hours testing every little thing in a sports game?

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:02 am

dubiousq can kiss my ass

My Hawaii dynasty so fun

I lost my qb 4wks and my rb 2wks after winning 3 row

Ply boise st. And lost in final sec. Just. Grt8 game.

Plyed random online and was very fun

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:25 am

Hey guys lets go easy on Bill, frankly I don't agree with his opinions on this game either but he has a right to them.

Just an FYI I beta tested the original FPSBB games back in the mid 90's with Bill and he analyzed games back then the same way he does now. In fact I used to be that type of guy in the 90's and those games were better because of Bill I gurantee you that.

He does have an extra spur in is saddle when it comes to EA games but I could name 100 people like that. Hell I can't even go to the sports gamer blog since Abner left those guys are so bad.

Enjoy the game, ignore the over analyzing of stats and what not. I will still say this is one buggy game though, I don't consider CPU completion percentages a bug. Broken rosters, broken slider, broken online dynasty those are bugs.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:20 am

this game is the spritual descendant of nfl2k (apf2k8 doest count).

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:49 am

For the record I never said I didn't like him.

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:46 pm

Funny, but the best game I have had so far was a mascot game. I basically just went into it to get the gamer points but ended up playing it out. At one point in the game i was losing 15-6 with all the points being scored by FGs. Probably because they max out all the player attributes for mascots it is very even, but it made it into a chess match.

I played one game as WVU and against a lesser team you can call a HB Dive and ignore the blockers and take it outside and turn the corner for 6 just about every time. So I think that there is a problem emulating fast players but keeping it realistic. My solution at this point is to not play as a team like WVU - which will probably be a much better team in EA's game than in the real world.

Post by **Jared** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:47 pm

Kevin,

I played the mascot game to see what you were talking about, and wow, it really made a big difference. Since the players are all 99 rated, their all equal, and it really improved the defense. Defenders could keep up with receivers in man, and blitzes worked. I was up 5-3 at the half in my game, and it was a chess match. I couldn't play the mode forever (as it's too quick for my tastes), but I really thought that the gameplay was a little improved in that mode.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:12 am

You guys do know that you can play with even teams as well?

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:57 pm

Sometimes this game can be so good, I really hope they patch it. I played 2 of the best games I've had last night.

In my off line IU Dynasty I was 6-1 and then took a thumping by Northwestern and then lost to Central Michigan because my QB was ineffective in the second half and I've lost 4 starters to injury over the course of the season. All star HB, OLB, Senior SS and a starting Tackle.

Playing IU, who I picked randomly, is a challenge because they run Ace and Shotgun formations and that's it. They have a ton of sets in shotgun, I would venture everyone in the game. It's hard for me to run the QB options in those shotgun sets.

Anyway after losing 2 in a row I was heading to Wisconsin to face the #10 Badgers. I got the ball first and put an impressive drive together mixing it up and managed to score. I play a lot of cover 1 man to stop the inside dunks on D and Wisconsin tore me up. Whenever I dropped into Nickel they ran the ball at will. They attempted 10 passes os 20+ yards in the first half. Luckily I only found myself down 21-10 at half time and I knew I needed to make adjustments.

I went to 4-3 exclusively and mixed a lot of cover 2, cover 3 and 2 deep man. I also switched to controlling a DE and managed to create more pressure on their QB. This really worked as the Badgers only managed 3 second half points. On offense I went to Ace formation and started pounding the ball and running a more traditional Power option and was chewing up yards and more importantly clock, the Badgers only had the ball for 5 minutes in the second half to my 9 (7 minutes quarters).

I drew to to 21-16 on a 35 yards play action to my tight end, a nice pass that he actually caught in stride, well almost. They kicked a field goal and it was 24-16. I managed to score again and it was 24-23. We traded possession a few times and i then mounted a time killing 4th quarter drive that last 3 minutes and I kicked a 35 yard FG to go up 26-24 with 1:01 on the clock.

I sim kickoffs and I managed a touch back so they started on the 20, they were out of time outs and they started moving down the filed, however I never let them get out of bounds. They were on their 45 with 23 seconds left and ran a deep out which my safety read and hammered the WR while attempting the catch, the ball bounced into the air and another WR snagged it and got about 5 more yards before he got clocked by my other safety. That play ended and I thought the game was over but to my surprise the cpu downed the ball with a second left.

No chance for a field goal, so I go to quarters prevent just in case by some miracle they actually throw the hail mary. Well to my shock they do, ball is up in the end zone, body smah into each other and it drop harmlessly out of bounds.

Was absolutely the best game I have had, cpu did what I expected and no ghost jukes etc. Of course my next game against #8 PSU was better but I'll save that for another post.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:59 am

I was in slider hell and about ready to shelve the game when something happened.

I remember how EA Sports approached it's FIFA games. FIFA and Euro basically demanded you do everything because of you braindead teammates.

I would always take a LB and do my usual of playing that position whether it's blitzing or zone. I would mostly let the CPU play the line. Very few times would I need to play as the DL.

So last night, in year two of my BC dynasty, on plays where I need to stop the CPU in passing plays, I took control of my 90 rated DT. He has speed of 45 for the record.

In week 2, we took on FSU at home. I lost 35-3 and they dominated every facet of the game. And you would expect the CPU to be almost perfect on Heisman. They broke a 50 yard screen on me but that was about it. There were something like 15-25 for 150 yards.

I don't think we'll see true college football numbers where a QB goes under 50% for huge yardage. But I don't think the game is as bad as Bill Harris and some at OS say.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:32 am

Danimal,

What sliders are you using out of curiousity?

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:36 am

where's the best place to get roster files from ?

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:51 am

davet010 wrote:where's the best place to get roster files from ?

Does the EA Lockerroom work over there? That's the place to get it. Find someone that uploaded their rosters.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:57 am

JRod wrote:
davet010 wrote:where's the best place to get roster files from ?
Does the EA Lockerroom work over there? That's the place to get it. Find someone that uploaded their rosters.

You can also download the roster file of anyone on your friends list regardless of whether they uploaded it or not.