Nope, they aren't up yet. Page has been down all day, probably due to bandwidth issues. If it isn't back up by tonight, word is that the rosters will be available on OS as well as other places.

Woot! Went to the Fry's in Austin, and the version for the 360 rang up with the sale price for the regular Xbox version, $39.99!

Awesome.

I know it's a 24 hour notice but tomorrow (Wed) is anyone in to pay after 5 pm est? I have a 5 hour block of nothing at all and would love to jump on XBL for some games.

I'll play you, but I don't have a headset, so I can't chat.

Dola

I have decided to start a dynasty with auto-named rosters. I'll download Fairdale Kings' when he gets them up, but I might not even bother using them. We shall see. Anyway, the new recruiting has a lot to it. I've spent half an hour just lining up a list of recruits to target this season. I've already had three prospects hang up on me for talking too much. Oooops. :)

It's better that way. Now the illusion of you whispering sweet nothings into my ear can be sustained.

Seriously, one of the recruits just said to me, "I'd say it's been a pleasure talking to you, Coach, but my mom taught me not to lie."

I'd slap the kid, but I want him to be my starting QB next year. Instead, I'm trying to find the "suck his dick" button. :(

Some thoughts .. INT's are definetly high but for good reason. If you make a shitty decision it's going to get picked, as it should. Some things to avoid are falling back with the QB and throwing off balance and of course making sure you tap the button to lob it and not hit it too hard to gun it (it is very sensitive)

Campus Legend is too easy when you play in HS, which isn't much of a downer I guess. Kind of monotonous (I bumped it to Heisman and still dominated) but it's fun. When you get to your college team it's much more daunting and humbling as you have to just block for FG's and XP until your chance to get in for some plays.

The game runs smooth and I played four games without that XP glitch. I won 3 and lost 1 but all were close. I like the AI so far on AA without any sliders but I am sure I'll adjust them eventually.

I'll keep thoughts coming but so far I'm having a blast.

Tonight is all 360 for me, but tomorrow is time with my wife. I'll be glad to play anyone this weekend.


I just had a great first game on AA with only a few slight changes: Interceptions down to 35, FG power down to 40, and kickoff power down to 45 for both sides. 8 minute quarters:


Booty was 7 of 13 for 110 yards 1 TD 2 INT's. One was a stupid throw by me into coverage while being blitzed. The other was a deep ball that I hung my receiver out on. The safety drilled him and it popped off my receiver's hands into a corner's hands.


Chauncey Washington had 21 carries for 59 yards for me. The running game was tough against ND, but it was a joy. One sweep the play worked to perfection, perfect blocking by the TE and the pulling guard. Another time, the TE couldn't maintain his block and it was busted up for a loss.


My backup HB had 7 carries for 24 yards. The best part: Only 2 pancakes. One for my TE on that perfect sweep and one for my RG.


ND's #12 threw 3 picks, but was otherwise very good. He's only rated 83 overall and only has 72 awareness and all 3 picks were when I blitzed him and had him under pressure. His line: 20 of 34 (58%) for 219 yards with a TD and 3 INT's.


They also ran it quite a lot: 26 carries for 72 yards for #26.


7 catches for 79 yards to #11. They did throw it deep twice, but we defended it once and it was overthrown once.


They also had 2 players with 1 pancake each.


They missed 2 FG's, but nailed a 51 yarder. I won 28-11 in a real defensive battle. I did return 2 of the INT's for TD's, but neither of them felt cheap.


I'm going to knock INT's down 1 (changed my mind - one more game with it at 35 which is where ODogg recommended and he has played a ton of games) more notch and try playing against a better QB in Hawaii. Should be interesting to see how much worse their defense is as well.

Went 11-18 for 310 yards, 4 TDs and an INT in the first round game of the state playoffs.

The coach pulled me midway through the 3rd quarter, since we were already up 35-0.

I was awarded 4* out of 5 for my performance (probably the interception and the somewhat low completion rate kept me from a 5, particularly as the interception was an end-zone one).

Scouts in attendance:

#24 Texas A&M
Central Michigan
University of Alabama-Birmingham
Kansas
Miami (OH)
Kent State

So four Midwest schools and two Southern schools. Nice to see it's mostly regional scouts there, though I wonder why the Aggies' scout was there. Maybe to look at Williams?

It'd be nice if the guys on your team end up going elsewhere too. I'll have to check on that.

Question on the saves: Is it 5 saves total or 5 saves a game for videos? (I'm assuming photos follows the same format).

One more note on Campus Legend ..

Every team offering is kind of lame but seeing their offers for PT is nice. I like the fact most top 10 teams were no higher then 3rd string, so I jumped to Alabama as a 2nd teamer. The only teams my guy (a ***** RB) could come in and start for were BYU, Utah State and a few others.

Quote of the month. LOL

Got it for PS2.

How is the penalties with default sliders on AA?

Decent. Mostly encroachment and PI, which is normal IRL I guess. I'll prolly keep tinkering with penalties. A bump can't hurt.

Let me know how you like it for PS2 please.

Uh oh. Problem. :(

Went to save a highlight in my second game and it says "An error has occurred. The game file was not saved."

:(

Is this because I still have my first game's highlights still sitting there?

Damn, I ran one play of my season opener, and I got an "unreadable disc" error. I'm almost positive that the problem is with the machine, though, not the disc. It seems to make some kind of grinding noise occasionally, and that's when I can pretty much tell that it's gonna freeze or give me an error. I'm considering setting the machine into a vertical position to see if that helps, but this obviously should not be happening at all.

I'll just stop for a while and play later. :(

Anybody seen the PAT problem from OS? I'm getting the impression that's one guy making a stink.

In four games I've yet to see one.

I haven't seen it yet. Also, I'm in my 6th quarter of football and I just saw my first fumble which was recovered by my QB and ran for a 1st.

I get this exact same problem with my 360 when playing NBA 2K7 in particular (which never leaves my 360, basically). First the machine gets noisy, then the commentary stops, and I know that I'm headed for an "unreadable disc" error in about a minute or two.

One fix I've found that works 95% of the time is that when I can tell it's coming up I pause the game and go in to replay mode, then view stats, and just generally flick through a few screens, before heading back in to the game. Switching between the disc and the data stored on the HD seems to enable it to get back in sync, but I don't know that NCAA 2K8 will give you any indication that it's about to happen.

it happened to me once on the ps3. was playing a high school game and was blocking

My brother is playing it right now. He's saying that the defenses are a lot quicker. I just took the controller from him and pretty much..he's right. Defenses are coming right at you.

Challenges are in the game. The graphics are pretty much the same, with a few modest changes. It's still early yet, but the most notable thing is that it's a little easier to run and that the defenses are probably a bit TOO good related to where they ought to be.

Other than that, seems like the same NCAA with all of the good and bad that goes with it.

We'll have more later.

I've played two 5 minute games, an 8 minute game, and five 4-5 minute campus legend games without seeing it yet.

Sounds good guys...I think I'll be picking it up tomorrow.

Just played more. Same piss poor stuff that happens with weird interceptions and phantom plays. Not that surprising, I guess. But...it's annoying.

It's great how much more realistic the 2 minute drills are. No longer can you huddle and get a play off in 5 seconds magically.



One negative: I had a QB sneak, where the QB got turned around and ran backwards like they used to in 07.


Again, I'll say it, the running game is a thing of beauty. Against, Hawaii, we were able to push their linemen around more and my backs were able to fight for yards better. It's much more fun to run the ball than in any previous version I can remember in a long time.


I just beat Hawaii 24-14. Maybe, I'll get much better, but this game seems much more defensively oriented than previous versions. I did nail one long TD pass where Turner burnt their secondary and they were blitzing, but most of the time their blitzes were well disguised and fast. I was sacked 5 times and I fumbled on one vicious hit.


Booty was 19 of 30 for 245 yards with a TD and an INT.


I think EA made a mistake with Hawaii. Their backup QB #6 is an impact player. As a result, they kept rotating the QB's. #6 was 15 of 25 for 220 yards with 2 TD's and an INT where he just threw it into double coverage.


Colt was 9 of 15 for 92 yards with an INT. He was hit as he threw it, and he threw this horrible wobbly duck that was an easy pick for my CB. We weren't able to return either pick far which was nice.


As could be expected, Hawaii only ran it 6 times. They got 20 yards on the ground.


Chauncey ran it 25 times for 124 yards and 2 TD's.


This time, my RT did have a lot of Pancakes as he was dominating Hawaii's DE. He had 5 pancakes. My RG had 2 and my C had 1.


Hawaii had 0 pancakes.


These 2 games have been much more enjoyable than last year. I can't wait to start playing in earnest this weekend.

I just finished my first simmed season where FIVE teams went undefeated (4 major conference teams and Boise State).

Messed with Campus Legend mode last night and it seemed pretty neat. Stupid fumble with 2 mins left cost my team the chance at the HS title :(

FK's site is crashing as is OS. The servers are probably maxed.

Question...is there a way to have the AI recruit for you? (Just wondering, haven't looked yet)

I haven't played a console football game in years, I bought this based on the hype here, set it on all american, and got absolutely destroyed by UGA as Georgia Tech. Trying to follow the WRs to find open ones I find myself just holding onto the ball and getting sacked a ton, or throwing and realizing right as I throw that the guy is covered beyond belief and I just made the dumbest throw ever.

I am getting old, I used to be good at these games, I felt slow and overwhelmed :) Back to the default level at least until I get a bunch of practice.

I'm getting sacked quite a bit too. Quick reads are essential, particularly when they blitz.


Arkansas's Wildcat formation with McFadden at QB is very enjoyable. However, I'm tiring him out with it.

Nice to see the game is completely realistic.

:D

It helps if you stay in the pocket.

It helps if you stay in the pocket.

This game has that "one more game feel" but I'm about to call it a night. Just had a nailbiter controlling Arkansas vs West Virginia. I felt like WVA did a nice job of playing to their strengths using Slaton, White, and #7 to move the ball on the ground. It was tied 21-21, but using the Wildcat formation, I managed to get a 22 yard gain on a WR jet where he then threw it back to McFadden who was the QB on the play. That formation is just a blast to run with the jet sweep, fake jet sweep, PA pass, QB screen, and WR screens.

McFadden was 2 of 2 for 17 yards on two wide open passes. #11 is a bad QB, but I didn't ask him to do much and he completed 8 of 15 for 126 yards with 2 TD's and 1 INT.



White was 15 of 21 for 145 yards with 1 TD 3 INT's. I'll probably knock INT's down just another notch to 30 when I next play.



McFadden had 16 carries for 72 yards.

My WR's had 5 carries for 28 yards.


Slaton had 20 carries for 102 yards and a TD. I love that the CPU can run it effectively on default AA.

#7 had 5 carries for 38 yards and a TD.


Despite being the fastest QB in the game, we contained White with the spy play and he had 7 carries for 18 yards. He also fumbled it twice on option plays where he made bad pitches.


They also used a WR jet sweep and had 6 carries for 22 yards.


McFadden was my leading receiver with 6 catches for 75 yards and a TD including a 32 yard screen play. I really like that any play can be effective. With 07, I felt a significant portion of plays were giveaway plays that never worked, but I'd call them for variety anyway. So far, I feel like every play I've called can work. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

This game the RG for Arkansas had 2 pancakes. The RT had 1. No other players had any.


Slaton had 1 for West Virgina (it was a nasty block), their FB had 1, and their RG had 1.


It's early impressions, but I'm thrilled with this game so far. I'm looking forward to playing more this weekend.


Edit: I mostly am forcing myself to stay in the pocket, but I find that sacks happen quickly. Just like real football, 3-5 seconds seems to be the max that you can hold onto the ball. Less if there is a blitz. If I run out of the pocket, I usually get sacked even quicker or I throw a bad pass on the run. The mobile QB is much less effective in this version than last year's.

So I played through all my games in high school mode. Lose in the state semi-finals to a seriously vicious Greenfield team. :mad:

Then #10 Arkansas offers me the starting job. Say what? Nice thing is that the next highest starting job was somewhere around #81, with UTEP. :D

So I accepted the Razorbacks offer and promptly get murdered my first game. In fact, my 3 interceptions and multiple sacks are the main reason why we get upset... 24-21.. by.. Troy State.

Seriously fun game. Can't wait to tackle the dynasty mode.

Just wish I could figure out what was up with the saves... or did I read somewhere that you can only save 1 game's highlights at a time on the hard drive?

There are assists you can use. I think the way I'm going to do it is to pick 10 guys I want at the start of the year. I'll take care of their phone calls and visits and let the CPU handle the rest. It seems like a good compromise.

Played my first game last night (my wife had a friend and her kids over, so no TV for awhile yesterday). Played Arizona State at Maryland, and the Terps won, 20-10. Had a great TD pass to my HB coming out of the backfield - he got hit and spun around yet somehow maintained his footing (I think I uploaded it under "craigsca" on their site, but I haven't tried it yet). As usual, I make bad passes because I lock onto one target, but I've been lucky because sometimes the throw is caught by another receiver in the area (this has happened twice). Running has been fun - I busted a 16 yard gain up the middle and was able to gain yardage on sweeps (!). Later, the defense will knuckle down and I can't get anything.

Used 7 minute quarters but I'm going to have to up it, because combined the teams only had about 100 plays, which is about 30 plays too low. I'm going to move up to 8 min quarters first (even thought 9 will probably give me the best results - I just can't play that long for a single game). Oh, and I'm on varsity, because I'm a lame 38 year old who can't keep up with you crazy kids.

Interceptions were a bit high, so I'm going to take it down a notch. I had 3 turnovers in the first quarter (one where I intercepted the ball and then promptly coughed it up on the runback - argh), but only 4 for the game, so I don't think it's that big of an issue. The injuries were nice - I lost my cornerback for the season, but the other 2 were of the "will return later" variety.

No penalties in the game, but I don't really care. The game was fun enough as it is, and ymmv, but penalties in a video football game are like watching foul balls in a baseball game.

The main goal in the next few days is to make sure my sliders are right. Playing as Maryland, I want to be able to beat the Arizona States at home (insert checkmark here), and get spanked at Michigan (we'll see). If that's the case, I'm pretty happy with the game out of the box (with the exception of lowering the interception rate).

So in the CL mode, do you play a whole High School season? How much control do you have over the high school stuff (location, colors, etc)?

Nope, it's just the playoffs, and you only have control when your "player" is on the field. You have pretty much full control over the high school creation. They have just about every town and city available to select, and you get to name the school. The uniform colors are pretty stock, but then again, high school uniforms always are.

Have the game, but had to work late, so tonight I'll name the Missouri players and start my dynasty on AA defaults, 8 mins.

Ooh, that campus legend mode sounds pretty cool.

You going to have to up the penalty sliders and lower INT sliders for sure.

Played a couple games on AA with 7 minute quarters. I repeatedly demonstrated that if you throw an ill-advised pass, you are going to be punished. I must have thrown 6 or 7 ints in 2 games. I never hit a very long pass, did have a couple long runs. First game, I lost to an inferior team, second game I came back late to beat an inferior team. Hopefully I get better, or the Michigans of the world will just cream me.

I used autoname, and noticed at least two sets of duplicate last names on my team.

Overall, I am really impressed with the game. I think the unis look a little too shiny in night games, but no biggie. I think I am going to get a lot of entertainment out of this game. :)

Arkansas's QB's are all poorly rated in the game, so it's not surprising they were willing to give you the starting job ;)

Campus Legend mode was very fun, and was the reason i went to bed late last nite. i made myself as a RB. became a 5 star prospect. i got crappy offer to start for teams like Hawaii or North Carolina, and offers to be 2nd and 3rd string (and as low as 5th string for USC) for the good teams. i accidentally picked Miami University, cuz i thought it was the actual Miami, i'm used to the other one being called "Miami (OH)". i'll start CL over.

very fun game. i also played a couple mini games. had to force myself to turn the game off.

As we grads like to say....Miami was a University before Florida was a state!

"grades"? That reflects well on the University :D

He said they like to say it, he didn't say they said it well.

I max penalties every year and I'm not touching the INT slider until I have some games under my belt.