NCAA '09 impressions

Murph · Post by **Murph** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:54 pm

Inuyasha wrote: You're just F'n with me right?

Wish I were. I just played the Superbowl. In the end zones, they have the AFC and NFC logos and the Superbowl logo, but no team logos.

Sorry dude.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:56 pm

wow, just wow. I think I'll let it pass for NFL, since it's just one game. But for NCAA, with numerous bowl games, it's unacceptable. Even unacceptable for NFL, but experience with EA and Madden last 15 years (Tiburon years), I guess I'm not surprised.

hellbent · Post by **hellbent** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:57 pm

Zeppo wrote: 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.

Good point, Zep. Not sure where I originally saw the link, but here is a link to some playbooks used by college and NFL teams IRL:

http://fastandfuriousfootball.com/index2.html

Good stuff for playbook geeks like myself - pretty cool to review some of the old Bill Walsh books and the Hoodie's 34 packages. Can't wait for the chance to take HC for a test drive in a few more weeks....

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:26 am

The smaller playbooks is because fans complained about unique playbooks so they broke it up into smaller sets to provide the unique playbooks.

If you look at a lot of the plays, they're just variations of the same play. So instead of really unique schemes, it's just distributing the same core across different subsets.

Wilk5280 · Post by **Wilk5280** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:34 am

Madden is out, so now no one cares too much about NCAA

Well, for the record. I do.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:30 am

I actually think Madden for all it's improvements feels on rails. I don't really feel like I'm controlling any of the action. Plus this year's Madden makes you feel like you need to go Madden-nation on the R-stick every play.

NCAA needs a patch plain a simple. It's broken as it stands now. Once it gets a patch then maybe I'll return to it.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:37 am

I hate the word 'broken'. Implies a helluva lot more than what is actually going on. Implies 'unplayable', and dammit, that just isn't the truth.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:25 am

You can play it much like you can drive on 3 wheels.

Jackdog · Post by **Jackdog** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:52 am

PRBoom wrote:
Madden is out, so now no one cares too much about NCAA
Well, for the record. I do.

Count me in as well. The PS2 version.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:53 am

Teal wrote:I hate the word 'broken'. Implies a helluva lot more than what is actually going on. Implies 'unplayable', and dammit, that just isn't the truth.

Agreed!

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:32 pm

Teal wrote:I hate the word 'broken'. Implies a helluva lot more than what is actually going on. Implies 'unplayable', and dammit, that just isn't the truth.

I've only ever purchased one broken video game and that was the MLB 2K baseball game with the freeze issue. The NCAA football PSP game with the ball spotting bug was about as close to broken as you can get although you could literally play the game.

This year's NCAA has features and elements that are clearly broken (hence the reason for multiple patches), but the game itself is not unplayable for me. I can see where gamers who would like to see a CPU rushing attack, care about logical pursuit angles, do not desire to supersim punt returns, not average about 1 return for a TD a game, etc would not wish to play the game. Luckily for me, I was able to overlook the flaws in NCAA long enough to get value for my entertainment dollar. However, although I don't find the game 'unplayable', it *will* go unplayed unless patch 2 significantly addresses gameplay shortcomings.

In summary, I have plenty of room in my gaming library for 3 football games. I love breaking out NCAA football each season around late fall when the conference battles start to heat up and again during bowl season. But NCAA is going to gather dust until patch 2 because I find Madden a significantly better arcade football game at this point in time...we'll see.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:52 pm

Leebo33 wrote:
Teal wrote:I hate the word 'broken'. Implies a helluva lot more than what is actually going on. Implies 'unplayable', and dammit, that just isn't the truth.
I've only ever purchased one broken video game and that was the MLB 2K baseball game with the freeze issue. The NCAA football PSP game with the ball spotting bug was about as close to broken as you can get although you could literally play the game.

This year's NCAA has features and elements that are clearly broken (hence the reason for multiple patches), but the game itself is not unplayable for me. I can see where gamers who would like to see a CPU rushing attack, care about logical pursuit angles, do not desire to supersim punt returns, not average about 1 return for a TD a game, etc would not wish to play the game. Luckily for me, I was able to overlook the flaws in NCAA long enough to get value for my entertainment dollar. However, although I don't find the game 'unplayable', it *will* go unplayed unless patch 2 significantly addresses gameplay shortcomings.

In summary, I have plenty of room in my gaming library for 3 football games. I love breaking out NCAA football each season around late fall when the conference battles start to heat up and again during bowl season. But NCAA is going to gather dust until patch 2 because I find Madden a significantly better arcade football game at this point in time...we'll see.

Wow, you prefer madden. That settles it then, I'll get it tonight instead of waiting around for the weekend. As for the endzone issue in NCAA, I hope it gets fixed in the next patch. If not, I was having tons of fun playing exhibition games in NCAA with all the variety in uniforms, stadiums, playbooks, etc.... so I may just do that. Also never touched superstar mode in ncaa and maybe I'll take a look at that.

Murph · Post by **Murph** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:54 pm

I posted this in the Madden thread too.

I've decided I'm more of an NCAA guy (this year). I like recruiting, buiding up a program up, etc. more than signing free agents and the like.

So with that said, I'm interested in doing a straight swap with someone. I'd like to go back to NCAA 09 and I'll give you Madden 09.

If interested, send me a PM.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:58 pm

I'm having a ball playing NCAA. But hell, I had a ball with it last year when it was 'broken', and the year before when it was 'broken', and...well, you get the idea.

To each his own, to be sure, but the 'broken' moniker has gotten to be more of a mantra, rather than an honest assessment.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:15 am

anyone want to do online Friday night with NCAA?

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:27 am

Inuyasha wrote:anyone want to do online Friday night with NCAA?

depending on the time, I might be up for it...

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:43 am

Played some random teams offline and 2 online games and it made me remember how fun this game is. They finally did a good job this year with making the teams different from each other.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:48 am

Inuyasha wrote:Played some random teams offline and 2 online games and it made me remember how fun this game is. They finally did a good job this year with making the teams different from each other.

Agreed, I'm loving NCAA right now.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:23 pm

PATCH OUT TOMORROW MORNING!!!!!

Taken from OS:

Here are the patch features

Online
- Ability to view your Online Dynasty HQ through EA Sports World
- Improved online performance

Dynasty
- Fixed a couple recruiting exploits
- Faster simming between weeks
>>
Custom Stadium Sounds
- The "All" option will now only work when the user is the home team
>>
Gameplay
- Improved coverage on kicks
- Hook Zones depth keeps defenders in their zones
- Fixed an issue with the Strafe Catch
- Allow fumbles to occur when diving
- WR screen routes improved
>>
Bug Fixes
- AI sliders for will now work correctly
- An issue with missing stats after simming has been fixed
- Ball carrier will no longer run out of bounds when changing hands and heading towards the sidelines
- Fixed an exploit that allowed the slot receiver to burn the safeties in a prevent defense
- Fixed a bug where the the ball would hit the cross bar, drop through, and not be counted
- Fixed a bug that would prevent Hot Routes from working

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:25 pm

patch is out

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:28 pm

The patch seems to fix what it promised. In my last game the Illinois RB gained 4.7 yards per carry against me with plenty of good runs. It's nice to have my RB ability at 30 and CPU at 100. A patch is not going to fix the poor AI QB running (Juice had 13 carries for zero with a long of 4 yards) or make them throw long, but the game is still solid overall. I didn't use any house rules on returns and I won 21-14 in a great game. One of the best games of video football I've ever played against a CPU and I'm looking forward to finishing the last part of my 2nd dynasty season this weekend.

Jackdog · Post by **Jackdog** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:14 pm

Leebo33 wrote:The patch seems to fix what it promised. In my last game the Illinois RB gained 4.7 yards per carry against me with plenty of good runs. It's nice to have my RB ability at 30 and CPU at 100. A patch is not going to fix the poor AI QB running (Juice had 13 carries for zero with a long of 4 yards) or make them throw long, but the game is still solid overall. I didn't use any house rules on returns and I won 21-14 in a great game. One of the best games of video football I've ever played against a CPU and I'm looking forward to finishing the last part of my 2nd dynasty season this weekend.

This is good news. I might have to give this puppy more than a rental this time.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:56 pm

I agree Leebo.. NCAA is becoming one of my favorite console football games I've ever played. It's definitely my favorite next gen football game to date.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:51 am

I think I like this game even more now. If I had to pick madden or this, I would pick this just because of the difference of how the teams play. And I just seem to have a little more fun with it right now. I am in Week 12 with my Vikings Franchise in madden and it's sort of getting tiring. I will take a break with madden and go back to ncaa.

I haven't even touched NASCAR since the football games came out so maybe go back to play that for a while.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:16 pm

I'm still having a post-patch blast. I was 9-1 in season 2 and #6 before tripping up at Michigan State and then at Rutgers with a true freshman backup QB. I ended up dropping to #25 and will play in the Outback bowl. Even though the jiggling of the play diagrams is a gimmick I do love the tangible difference between playing on the road and home. If you up the CPU run blocking it helps the CPU spread/option plays. The Rutgers QB actually ran for about 50 yards on me not counting the sacks. I've been seeing a lot of picks (even though I NEVER use the pick button just swat), but only 1 has been taken to the house and that took a well-timed juke move by me so it was rewarding. I am playing "house rule" free.

I really didn't see this coming. Except for a bit of Rock Band with friends, I have not played anything but football games since NCAA dropped. I'm sure that will change if NHL rocks and TW Wii is good