NCAA 2006 - Fun Factor
 

Just left the NCAA 2006 preview thread, and ice brought up an interesting point about gameplay. Basically, it was a sarcastic post regarding the ability to have your quarterback in the act of getting sacked yet still able to complete a 40-yard bomb into quadruple coverage.

Ok - obviously EA is trying to appeal to the largest audience and the tastes of this audience run the full spectrum. We have some people who are asking why penalties aren't realistic. We have others asking why they can't play full 15 minute quarters and have a realistic number of plays. We have yet others who are pissed because some teams should have black shoelaces but do not.

So...what I'm asking - do we REALLY want the absolute, 100% realism in a video game? If that occurs, is the fun factor extinguished? For instance, does one REALLY want to have to play full 15 minute quarters? Does one really want to get bogged down in the number of penalties that occur in a real game? Does one not want to EVER be able to complete a 40-yard pass into quadruple coverage?

This is a philosophic question. I sometimes wonder if we had ABSOLUTE realism that they just wouldn't be fun anymore.

I don't want absolute realism.. but FPS Football had a realistic accelerated clock that worked perfectly for 15 min quarters. You never had to worry about changing the clock time, there was no way to because the realism was there. Why can't a football game TODAY do something so simple? I hate having to play 8-9-10 mins in order to find what is a realistic amount of plays.

I also don't think passes like the one that was made should be common place in a game with today's technology. It seems like EA tried to make too many "mini" games when all most of us want is a realistic simulation of football. Have the bells and whistles if you want, but for those that want minimal slider tweaking and a realistic game of football, it might be there.. but it takes up so much time tweaking the damn game that by then.. it's sits in the case and attracts dust.

Games today are really yearning to go back to simplicity instead of finding correct settings just to play a good game of football out of the box. I really think that's the reason text sims have really started to come into their own.

For me, it's been two years since college football has been played by me (graphically).. so I'm really hoping the game is good out of the box. I just want to play some college football. The game looked quite good on the video, but oh how I wish some simple things would get fixed.

I agree with the clocking, Todd - it seems every soccer game does exactly this - not sure why a football game can't. Maybe they're afraid the two minute warning will mean nothing when hyper-accelerated? Maybe having a separate 30 clock screws them up?

It sounds to me like there should be an easy solution - not sure why it's so hard.

As far as the accelerated clock goes, its handled pretty well in the Madden games, because the 40 second play clock should be enough time to call a play. In NCAA it's alot harder because the play clock is only 25 seconds plus the time it takes to spot the ball.

I don't want absolute realism, but I want it to approximate reality. I don't want receivers to be mugged with no pass interference call. I don't want QB's throwing nice 40 yard strikes if they are being hit as they are throwing. I want at least semi-realistic pass percentages and rushing averages. I don't want psychic cornerbacks and linebackers. Hopefully, this version delivers on most of that...

I'll start by saying I haven't seen the video of the 40 yard pass completion. But I don't think it's the fact that the pass is completed into quad coverage, it's the fact the qb is being sacked and still throws a 40 yard strike.

With regard to penalties I've always thought that the slider shoud be set to the far right as the default. This default would give you realistic penalties and then the player can adjust them down or turn them off as he sees fit. The trouble now is you have to test them just to see what the default is giving and then try to guess how far to adjust to try for realism. IMHO much easier to start at realistic and adjust down.

I'd like to have an accelerated clock but not sure how easy that is for football. By having a play clock and game clock things can get screwy. If you run the game and play clocks in real time it's easy to get a play called much quicker than in real life so you end up with more plays then you should. The longer you play the game the more you know the playbook and the faster you can call plays = even more plays per game. In other words the problem
with too many plays starts to compound because you become better at calling plays. Now if you accelerate the clocks then it makes it tough to audible at the line before you get a delay of game penalty. So it maybe a tricky thing to get just right. However after saying all that I would think a programmer with the skills to make this game should be able to come up with a solution. Easy for me to say though since I don't do code:)


For me it doesn't have to be total realism but I don't want to look at the game and think "there's no way possible that could happen in real life".

I believe you misunderstand here. The "accelerated clock" is actually AFTER a play is called...they take more time off the clock (usually 5-8 seconds) before they break huddle. This was a nice feature, because it simulated 15-minute quarters VERY well.

You don't have this in Madden, because you can call a play in four seconds and break the huddle with 36 left on the play clock (or 20-21 left in NCAA). This means more plays, which means inflated stats, which means you have to tweak how long your quarters are to adjust. Hence, the original poster on this topic wanted the FPS feature put into Madden, to allow for more realism.

Hope that clears it up.

-John

Never played fps but that sounds like something worth trying. And yes it does clear it up for me :cool:

Put it this way - the old NHL 93, 94 games on Geneis KILL the new ones.

The most recent EA football game I have is Madden 2004 and that version has this feature. Has it been removed in more recent versions?

It's never been in NCAA Football. As far as I know, it will be in Madden 06. It has been in the last 2 versions of Madden.

Reminds me of the scene in Swingers when they are playing nhl 96 (i believe). "I'm gonna make Gretzky's head bleed for superfan 99 over here." Console gaming at it's finest.

I play 5 minute quarters so I always have problems generating enough plays to get realistic stats. It's quite annoying, and I'm sick of being #1 in the country in defense and being #300something in offense all the time.

it will be nice if the sliders and minutes for the quarters you set will work on the games that are sim. this way the stats will be all in line.

I don't expect perfect, realistic gameplay from an action-based sports game. I'm not sure we will ever see that and I don't think its realistic to expect it. My big problem is that EA can make a million improvements to the graphics and peripheral aspects of the gameplay like Race For The Heisman, but not really improve much on some of the fundamental problems of the game. Like Mizzou said, I shouldn't have to spend five hours tweaking sliders to get a vaguely realistic passing percentage from my QB. I'm hoping that NCAA 06 will prove the doubters (including myself) wrong. Its got a ton of positive buzz, but then again, when hasn't it had a ton of positive buzz before release?

My god.. that in season recruiting.. and race for the heisman mode.. and not only that.. by the time we get the game all the real name roster files will be out ;)

i'm in heaven next week :)

It's generally accepted that 8-9 minute quarters will give you realistic stats and play count. Obviously it takes a little longer, but it's well worth it imho.

I agree. I've generally had very good games with 9 minute quarters that have yielded decently realistic stats in past versions.

Bah.. :) Yeah, it's as close as you can get.. in fact the general consensus go with 8, but like Izulde said, the team stats are still off. I really don't understand what's so hard about incorporating an accelerated clock for NCAA. Madden does have it, but you still need to use 13 min quarters for accurate stats.

This year they put a sliders code, so all you have to do is share the code to get sliders the same as the person putting up the code.. which means more and more game companies are wanting the user to tweak the game - something they should do before it's realeased..imo. I'm telling you when games like Madden 94, NHL 96, etc.. had no sliders, I had so much more fun with them.

I don't think it is possible to play with an accelerated clock in Madden. There is to much motion, audibles, and other stuff going on after calling the play.

Is it really in Madden? I hadn't read a single thing about it, so I guess I'm a bit ignorant to that fact. I had never noticed it, either.

Yes, it was in 2005 for sure.

yep in 2004 and 2005 for sure it had it.

its great to use.

its possible to in Madden. you have 14 seconds left when you lineup.

i know in Madden 2004 and 2005, 12 mins acceleration quarters gave you a realistic game for stats and total plays.

i just wish in Madden, the games that get sims, will use the same slider and mins per quarter you set.

This may be off topic but I want FOF and TCY to have an interface like OOTP and also have the mod community behind it (as long as Jim allows for easily programable utilities such as CatoBase). Then I would be in football heaven. Player cards with player pics..ect....ect....ect. Ahh man, I can only wish.