ESPN College Hoops Impressions....

TheTruth · Post by **TheTruth** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:51 pm

pk500 wrote:I'm almost certain that NCAA regulations prohibit Sega or any gaming company from releasing a roster update with real player names.

Take care,
PK

Yes..I know they can't release one with names..but they can release an updated one later on in the year. I read an article in a gaming magazine that said they updated the rosters last year atleast once. May have been twice.

TheGamer · Post by **TheGamer** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:02 am

BDoughty, I would be more than happy to transfer the completed rosters over if you could get me simple instructions on how to do so.

bdoughty · Post by **bdoughty** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:06 am

Apprecaite it. You can e-mail me at bdoughty1@cox.net with the roster when they get it completed.

Thanks

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:08 am

Man, I really like this game online. Are you guys enjoying it too?

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:16 am

Leebo33 wrote:Man, I really like this game online. Are you guys enjoying it too?

Its ggood fun
I got my ass handed to me twice tonite and I enjoyed both whoopings.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:02 am

Popped it in and played a quick 10 minute half game. Where exactly are the fouls you guys are talking about? What difficulty levels are you guys playing at? In my game I was only called for 2 fouls, 1 for reaching in and 1 shooting foul. The cpu was called for 13 fouls. 3 shooting fouls and 10 intentional fouls. There's a lot to like but the lack of fouls kills it. That's just not basketball. Right out of the box NBA Live felt perfect to me with fouls. A great variety of reach ins and shooting fouls.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:28 am

ScoopBrady wrote:Popped it in and played a quick 10 minute half game. Where exactly are the fouls you guys are talking about? What difficulty levels are you guys playing at? In my game I was only called for 2 fouls, 1 for reaching in and 1 shooting foul. The cpu was called for 13 fouls. 3 shooting fouls and 10 intentional fouls. There's a lot to like but the lack of fouls kills it. That's just not basketball. Right out of the box NBA Live felt perfect to me with fouls. A great variety of reach ins and shooting fouls.

I've been mainly been playing online. I'm usually getting between 10-25 FTA a game online. Offline, I am playing on All-Conference, 16 minute halves, and I bump all but the charging foul sliders up 10 notches. It seems pretty reasonable to me.

I really like Live, but this might be my favorite basketball game ever and I haven't even touched the dynasty mode yet.

Granatofan · Post by **Granatofan** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:32 am

Good game tonight Leebo!

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:37 am

Granatofan wrote:Good game tonight Leebo!

Yeah, we will have to play some more.

So far I've played Gamer, Sudz, Granatofan, Badgun, and Marino from here. Every game has been straight-up basketball fun.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:25 am

Can you guys explain to me what Iso motion is. I understand its to do quick moves but all it seems to do is put me in a mo-cap that I can't get out of. I thought it was a little like NBA Live where you had some control of it. Am I using Iso-motion wrong?

It doesn't seem as smooth as NBA Live or even Inside Drive. I often find myself is a mo-cap.

I must admit I probably don't know how to play video game basktlball. BTW, how do you call plays. I use the quick menu thingie and it just gives you the basics. On one hand I like it because to be honest I never run complicated plays. I don't have the patience.

What quarters are you finding gives you good stats? 15 seems about right?

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 4:36 am

I guess I was under the impression that fouls were called out of the box. I bumped up the foul sliders offline and saw much better results. I was scared there for a moment. Can't wait to try this one online.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:18 am

JRod wrote:Can you guys explain to me what Iso motion is. I understand its to do quick moves but all it seems to do is put me in a mo-cap that I can't get out of. I thought it was a little like NBA Live where you had some control of it. Am I using Iso-motion wrong?

It doesn't seem as smooth as NBA Live or even Inside Drive. I often find myself is a mo-cap.

I must admit I probably don't know how to play video game basktlball. BTW, how do you call plays. I use the quick menu thingie and it just gives you the basics. On one hand I like it because to be honest I never run complicated plays. I don't have the patience.

What quarters are you finding gives you good stats? 15 seems about right?

Jrod:

I've pretty much abandonded Iso-motion. It's a poorly implemented answer to freestyle. I just use the button instead to do some cross-overs and spin moves.

I think College Hoops does a pretty good job of "auto" plays, so I only use the basics from the menu as well. You can map different plays to replace those in the coaching menu. I'm not sure if this is true in ranked games, but in an unranked game I could see what my opponent was mapping when he changed the plays during a timeout. I thought that was kind of dumb.

15 minute halves seems about right.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:27 pm

I don't know if this feature was included in past Sega College Hoops games, but I love the HUGE database of pre-entered names in the player edit database.

I simply punch in the first few letters of players' real first and last names, and it's almost certain they'll be in the database, where I can just toggle over, hit one button and see the player's real name entered.

The database is comprehensive as hell. It even had the first and last name of the Syracuse walk-ons!

Great feature, which will save a lot of time when I enter the names of all of Syracuse's opponents.

Hell, this game could cause me to get an Xbox Action Replay so I can get the names of all players in the game.

Take care,
PK

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:34 pm

I just wish you could use those names in an online game.

Bill_Abner · Post by **Bill_Abner** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:35 pm

pk500 wrote: Hell, this game could cause me to get an Xbox Action Replay so I can get the names of all players in the game.

A superb investment, believe me.

hey PK, why not get into the tourney with us?

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:39 pm

Bill_Abner wrote:
pk500 wrote: Hell, this game could cause me to get an Xbox Action Replay so I can get the names of all players in the game.
A superb investment, believe me.

hey PK, why not get into the tourney with us?

Yes it is a superb investment. I already downloaded the partial roster and it is great. I also wish you could get the names online.

I can't stop playing this damn game. I was up until 2AM and now I am playing while the kids take a nap.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:44 pm

Bill_Abner wrote:
pk500 wrote: Hell, this game could cause me to get an Xbox Action Replay so I can get the names of all players in the game.
A superb investment, believe me.

hey PK, why not get into the tourney with us?

Bill:

I know better than to commit to a tournament or a season. Other than our TOCA 2 racing leagues and one-night Links 2004 tournaments, I haven't finished a stick-and-ball team sports season that I've entered in here.

So I'm not going to commit and then regret it or back out. I've cried fire in the crowded theater too many times.

Plus I suck.

Thanks for the offer, though! Have fun with the tourney.

Out,
PK

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:12 pm

You guys are making me want his dman game.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:14 pm

I sure wish you could make substitutions at halftime. That's something that should have been added. Further, maybe I'm missing it but on manual substitutions, where is the option to put your starters back in, or put a big lineup in, a three point shooting lineup in, etc. This was in their game last year. Has it been omitted? It makes substitutions a longer drawn out process. If you leave it up to the CPU to sub for you, they do a lousy job!

One other quirk I'm seeing is my reserves are not on the bench during a "quick game". Is this the case in the other game modes?

Other than that, I have no complaints! It's bad when I can't wait for the kiddos to go down for a nap so I can get in a game and a half.

By the way, I'm having my difficulties on All-Conference. And I'm playing with the Jayhawks of all teams. I haven't messed with any of the coaching strategies yet though. What's cool is I played a game last night against Vermont and they methodically brought the ball up and conserved the clock. They didn't shoot a lot of threes and I started to get concerned something is up with the AI. Next game I played against Kentucky. Holy hot damn! They ran the court like I've never seen. Fastbreak after fastbreak. Shooting treys from all over the court. Amazing!

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 5:30 pm

Now that I've bumped up fouls all I can say is Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow. This game is MUCH better than it's NBA sibling. Shooting fouls, off the ball fouls, reach ins, charges. This just feels like basketball now. And the game is much smoother than ESPN NBA.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:49 pm

I guess I'm in the minority here...

The game herky jerkiness is really bothersome. Not as bad as Live in terms of force fields but players arms can stop a quick driving guard too easily.

And its a bit too random. There are times where it feels as if I just press a button and its up to the CPU to detemine if it goes in or not. The isomotion thing is a joke. You press a button, wait a second then he somehow does a 10 foot cross over to penetrate to the hoop. I'm going to try using the simble B button a little more to see if that helps.

Maybe Ive been away from hoops too long to know how to play it correctly but so far I'm not blown away with the game. Its good but still feels too restricted.

I know I'm probably doing something wrong but I'm not feeling it.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 8:54 pm

I guess the exact question I should have asked is how do you drive towards the hoop. I just get stuck and then a charge.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:05 pm

JRod wrote:I guess the exact question I should have asked is how do you drive towards the hoop. I just get stuck and then a charge.

You've got to break some ankles. The isomotion can be effective at times, like when you lower your shoulder and streak past the defenders on the side, but using the good old-fashioned b button is more effective.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 10:00 pm

Yeah, Scoop is right. The B button, combined with a quick shot of right-trigger Turbo, will get some good drives to the hoop.

Isomotion is about six shades of useless. A gimmick. Or maybe I just don't know how to use it. But it seems pretty worthless to me now. About the only gameplay blemish so far on a really well-done, fun game.

Take care,
PK

bdoughty · Post by **bdoughty** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 11:27 pm

pk500 wrote:Yeah, Scoop is right. The B button, combined with a quick shot of right-trigger Turbo, will get some good drives to the hoop.

Isomotion is about six shades of useless. A gimmick. Or maybe I just don't know how to use it. But it seems pretty worthless to me now. About the only gameplay blemish so far on a really well-done, fun game.

Take care,
PK

Well I have only said it 3 or 4 times so what is one more. This is college basketball, I beg of the developers to get rid of ISOMOTION and FREESTYLE control. You can find a better way to make use of the right thumbstick. If you developers think I am wrong then bring your ass down to Lubbock and sit down 30 minutes with Bobby Knight showing him "your ideal of what college hoops is about".

PS Wear running shoes and pack an extra pair of undies...

Jrod all I can say is pretend the right thumbstick and b button do not exist. The only time I use it is on a fast break and I need to do a move to get to the basket or it hit it by accident.

Just run your plays, pass the ball and use the icon pass (control setup C) to find open men. You need to get to the basket with a gaurd? Pushing down the L Trigger is your friend (sets a screen). Or use the give an go when the defense is in a zone.

College hoops is less about individuals taking to the hole then what has been mentioned above. People always wonder why ESPN College Hoops has so many missed layups. It is because people want to drive to the hole for the easy bucket and it is the only way to keep the FG% realistic. Honestly do you find yourself taking enough 10 foot jumpshots?

For me it is the little things about the game I love. Teams playing their actual style of play (as mentioned early by another user). The CPU running a press and on occasion stealing the ball. The one that put a smile on my face was th CPU running a mid-court trap and getting me tied up forcing a posession change. I can't recall the last time I saw that happen.