NCAA '09 impressions

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:29 pm

Inuyasha wrote:I'm too enveloped in playing wii so I probably won't get back to NCAA until another month.

Wii will be enveloped in dust then?

Post by **Jared** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:22 am

Our NCAA 2009 review is up, written by yours truly.

NCAA Football 2009

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:07 am

Jared wrote:Our NCAA 2009 review is up, written by yours truly.

NCAA Football 2009

Personally, I would have given it a 74 score instead of 70.

Jackdog · Post by **Jackdog** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:54 am

Jared wrote:Our NCAA 2009 review is up, written by yours truly.

NCAA Football 2009

Good review Jared. Maybe next year.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:30 am

Great review. My thoughts after a few weeks with the game are almost entirely in line with yours. I agree with your point about the game taking the fun out of touchdowns. After a pretty large sample size of 30 games most of my games end up with a few more touchdowns than they should (even with only 7 min quarters). I may have a low scoring half, but usually the games end up in the 38-31 range. I also agree with your point about the time out logic because I've had multiple times where the CPU called a timeout with under a minute left in a close game with the lead before *they* were punting instead of running clock or making me use a TO.

Jared, you need one minor edit where you wrote,"The gameplay changes made did succeed in making for a game biased towards the office."

Post by **Jared** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:04 am

Thanks Leebo. When I post something late, there is always something I miss....

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 10:08 am

I have completed 3 different seasons with 3 teams on AA with 7 minute quarters...

Low scoring games are rare when you use a high powered team...With Oklahoma I was scoring 50-60 points a game... BUT... When I used Western Michigan and Michigan st about half the games were low scoring

I cant remember them all off of the top of my head but one example..
with Western Michigan I had a 13-3 game against Nebraska.

Speed is the #1 factor.
I just didnt have the speed with Western to be able to get those easy TDs...

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:35 pm

Jared, just read the review. Nice job...Wish Id read it before my last post though

...

You nailed it.(Though Id have given the game a higher score.)
The difference in gameplay between playing with a good team and a bad team is the story of this years game.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:54 pm

Playbooks also make a difference. When i was doing my Hawaii dynasty, the majority of their plays were shotgun. So I figured out how to pass and get td's more often down the field. Now I am using CAL and they have a balanced playbook.

Post by **Jared** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:24 pm

I was kind of debating about the score...as to me (using a scoring where 75 is an average), I really couldn't say it was average because of all the problems. I was going back between 70-74, but as I wrote, I felt like the score needed to be lower.

And the whole big/small school thing is so true. I am now totally bored playing with Florida, but using Temple has made for some really good games.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:32 pm

wtf! lazy ass EA.

I got to the Rose bowl and guess what, no team specific endzone paint! I tried other bowl games and same thing.

HOW f'n hard would have that been to program? Attention to detail my ass. I guess IT'S NOT IN THE GAME! F'n EA.

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:01 am

Inuyasha wrote:wtf! lazy ass EA.

I got to the Rose bowl and guess what, no team specific endzone paint! I tried other bowl games and same thing.

HOW f'n hard would have that been to program? Attention to detail my ass. I guess IT'S NOT IN THE GAME! F'n EA.

This has been a complaint of my friend ever since the jump to next gen. Not that you want to hear this, but the word is next year

jcalvert · Post by **jcalvert** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:56 am

Madden is out, so now no one cares too much about NCAA. I have the PS3 version, so patch #1 has not been released. I have read some posts here and there that imply that some minor gameplay issues have been improved. It was my understanding that all gameplay issues would be addressed in patch #2.

For those of you with a 360, does the roster patch (i.e. patch #1) make any noticeable gameplay differences/improvements? I have been waiting for patch #1 before starting my dynasty; at this point I may as well wait for patch #2.

I doubt I will keep NCAA and Madden, but I would like to wait for the NCAA patches before making a decision. It would also be nice to create a draft class or two before punting the game.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:55 am

I don't remember where Jared mentioned this A-11 offense before, but here's an interesting piece about it from the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02806.html

For me, I will say I have to keep both games. I love the NFL and Madden seems like it will be plenty of fun online, but NCAA provides so much great variety of teams and styles, and especially crazy offenses with the option offenses. I really like how with the middle to lower teams in NCAA, you have to use the best players, and pay attention to them on the other team, because they are so much better than the rest.

What I still don't get with EA football is that in my mind, every NFL team should have every play in college in their playbook. NFL playbooks are massive, exponentially bigger than any college playbook, and even though NFL teams won't run the option, it doesn't mean they don't have it in their playbook, somewhere.

Plus, on D, why is it every team in NCAA has a 5-2 formation, but no team in Madden does? That's just silly. Watch an NFL game sometime, Madden devs, and you will see plenty of 5-down linemen, or 2-down linemen, or whatever, from time to time. It's pretty basic that the nature of NFL defenses and offenses is far more complex than those in college, yet I always feel like I have more options and felxibility (especially on D) in the NCAA game than in Madden.

But whatever. They both seem to be pretty darn fun this year, and I look forward to playing them both online a lot as the fall wears on.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:21 am

Zeppo wrote: For me, I will say I have to keep both games. I love the NFL and Madden seems like it will be plenty of fun online, but NCAA provides so much great variety of teams and styles, and especially crazy offenses with the option offenses. I really like how with the middle to lower teams in NCAA, you have to use the best players, and pay attention to them on the other team, because they are so much better than the rest.

.

Yes!...Both are keepers for me too. Great variety. Great fun.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:27 am

Not me, I could care less about Madden. My two football games this year are NCAA and Head Coach.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:16 pm

I may get rid of NCAA because of the Bowl endzone thing. I know for most of you it's no big deal, but for me it is. It just represents lack of attention to the product. Didn't the first 2 ncaa next gen games have it (didn't play last year) but this year's does not.

It really pissed me off because once I strive so hard to get to a bowl game, I'd like to get rewarded with some kind of sense that , wow, I'm really at this big game, where it's more important than your regular season games. But going into a bowl game with empty endzone paint and cheap logo's, well it reminds me more of a Preseason game than an important Bowl game.

Still pisses me off since I spent so much time getting my team into a bowl game and I don't get rewarded with anything.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:13 pm

Inuyasha wrote:I may get rid of NCAA because of the Bowl endzone thing. I know for most of you it's no big deal, but for me it is. It just represents lack of attention to the product. Didn't the first 2 ncaa next gen games have it (didn't play last year) but this year's does not.

It really pissed me off because once I strive so hard to get to a bowl game, I'd like to get rewarded with some kind of sense that , wow, I'm really at this big game, where it's more important than your regular season games. But going into a bowl game with empty endzone paint and cheap logo's, well it reminds me more of a Preseason game than an important Bowl game.

Still pisses me off since I spent so much time getting my team into a bowl game and I don't get rewarded with anything.

Dude, seriously. Take it to OS.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:39 pm

Zeppo wrote:
Inuyasha wrote:I may get rid of NCAA because of the Bowl endzone thing. I know for most of you it's no big deal, but for me it is. It just represents lack of attention to the product. Didn't the first 2 ncaa next gen games have it (didn't play last year) but this year's does not.

It really pissed me off because once I strive so hard to get to a bowl game, I'd like to get rewarded with some kind of sense that , wow, I'm really at this big game, where it's more important than your regular season games. But going into a bowl game with empty endzone paint and cheap logo's, well it reminds me more of a Preseason game than an important Bowl game.

Still pisses me off since I spent so much time getting my team into a bowl game and I don't get rewarded with anything.
Dude, seriously. Take it to OS.

I'm sorry but I can't get over it. It's a pet-peeve of mine and always has been. I didnt care about it in earlier ps2 versions, but being next gen, this is a must. I don't know if the patch is going to cure this or not.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:39 pm

I seriously doubt they will fix that via patch.. but you never know.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:48 pm

Are the plays/formations the same on the 360/PS3 as they were for the PS2/Xbox? I picked up the "old" Xbox version yesterday. I also noticed that NCAA 08 seems to have a lot more formations in the playbooks on both sides of the ball than Madden has.

For example, Madden has 4-3, and maybe a 4-3 under and 4-3 over. NCAA has that, plus a 4-3 stack and I think a couple of others. There are also formations like the 5-2 that was mentiond that is nowhere to be found in Madden.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:58 pm

I may take Jackdog's advice and try the ps2 version. Mainly since it has create a school, that is what I am looking towards.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:41 pm

I love CAS. I think I had about 6 schools created for '06. I also like being able to create my own playbook.

Murph · Post by **Murph** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:05 pm

Inuyasha wrote:
Zeppo wrote:
Inuyasha wrote:I may get rid of NCAA because of the Bowl endzone thing. I know for most of you it's no big deal, but for me it is. It just represents lack of attention to the product. Didn't the first 2 ncaa next gen games have it (didn't play last year) but this year's does not.

It really pissed me off because once I strive so hard to get to a bowl game, I'd like to get rewarded with some kind of sense that , wow, I'm really at this big game, where it's more important than your regular season games. But going into a bowl game with empty endzone paint and cheap logo's, well it reminds me more of a Preseason game than an important Bowl game.

Still pisses me off since I spent so much time getting my team into a bowl game and I don't get rewarded with anything.
Dude, seriously. Take it to OS.
I'm sorry but I can't get over it. It's a pet-peeve of mine and always has been. I didnt care about it in earlier ps2 versions, but being next gen, this is a must. I don't know if the patch is going to cure this or not.

At the risk of angering you further, Madden's Superbowl field doesn't have team-specific logos either.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:26 pm

Murph wrote:
Inuyasha wrote:
Zeppo wrote: Dude, seriously. Take it to OS.
I'm sorry but I can't get over it. It's a pet-peeve of mine and always has been. I didnt care about it in earlier ps2 versions, but being next gen, this is a must. I don't know if the patch is going to cure this or not.
At the risk of angering you further, Madden's Superbowl field doesn't have team-specific logos either.

You're just F'n with me right?