NCAA Football 09 Official First Look: NCAA Strategies

[a4reak]

I still want to just hold off before rushing to judgment. There is still 3 months before release, hopefully they can get this QB thing ironed out.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by thmst30

So 8.4% of all ints were returned for TDs, and this game still has 1-2 PER GAME. Ridiculous.

Yeah, it's clear that this gameplay design was intended to appeal to the casual crowd as an equivalent to the big play potential on offense. I guess we just have to accept that most people who play the game get satisfaction from an unrealistic number of big plays on the defensive side of the ball instead of strong line play, good gap control, and overall effective play by the defensive unit. I would love for the defensive emphasis in these football games to be on causing three and out's instead of causing a turnover.

All that said, it's still early and the game should be undergoing some tweaking yet and perhaps sliders will allow us to tailor the experience to our liking if it is overly flawed out of the box.

[SteelerSpartan]

"some have been absolute shootouts (around 100 combined points). Players will definitely want to use good defensive teams. Using Minnesota (very poor defensive rating – 60 something I believe), I was torched earlier today for 50 or so points. Using Nebraska last night in my first game (80 something defense), I was able to win and hold my foe around 20."

So they must have axed the letter ratings then??

Wonder if Bowl games have endzone art??...I probably shouldn't even ask

I just hope they can at least fix the int/turnovers...if they arn't going to add the extra details to presentation

[ty5oke]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

This definitely needs to be represented better in the game, especially the number of INT returns for a TD. It is just way too common an occurrence in the game for such a rare event. If the defense wasn't able to put up so many points in the game scores and averages would probably be able to work themselves out a lot better. If these ratios were better represented in the game not only would the design of the cpu's passing AI be able to be more aggressive, but also the competitiveness and flow of games would be far more realistic if a turnover didn't result in a TD so often. Think about how much different the game could be if one or two interceptions could lead to a defensive series instead of an automatic 7-14 points on the scoreboard. Obviously all that would have to come from improving the design of the way the different units on the field interacted with each other, so I guess it is unrealistic to expect. At the very least though I think WR and DB play is in need of a serious upgrade.

I agree. I hate having to have a house rule that I can only attempt 1 INT for a return TD. AFter I attempted 1, I would have to go out of bounds if I picked another. What made it worse was the CPU didn't follow my house rules... It's just too easy to get a TD off a INT.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

...especially the number of INT returns for a TD...

And their suggestion to EA is going to be to put more stumbling animations in? They know EA well. 2 negatives = a positive.

[Solidice]

was the INT problem and INT-TDs in '08(360) mainly when playing multiplayer? i rarely got any INT-TDs, most likely less than 10 total.

I have been looking at my user stats in '08 and I have played 338 games so far. In those games the CPU QB is averaging 1.64 INTs a game. might be a little high but i have used many different slider sets that could mess that up. The CPU does have more INTs than Passing TDs though, which isn't good. Pass comp % for me was 66%, 62% for CPU QB.

and in my dynasties, i save each year as a separate file, so i can look at past stats for my team. the most INT my team had in a season i believe was 24 through 14 games(it may be higher in my current season, as I'm seeing alot more INTs since getting a better D, 19 through 8 games).

Edit: now that i think about, most of the games i play, i was using a team that wasn't that good. all my Dynasties the team was either a 1* or 2* team at the start, so that could be the main reason the CPU QB INTs were lower compared to what I'm hearing everyone esle had. that and i dont user pick, i mainly use a DE or DL.

one thing that may contribute to high INT-TDs would be that Offensive players have horrible Defensive skill points. bad tackling, pursuit angles, ect....

some of the new stuff sound good, but would like to see better OL/DL interaction and less of the superman LB/DB.

I'll end up buying it anyway since its the only College football game there is and thats my favorite sport.

[Scott]

Just researched, there were a total of 1504 games. So INT's come out to 1.1 INTs per game and .11 INTs returned for a TD per game.

[bad_philanthropy]

I think I would like to see the game on the field be closer to the simulated games in dynasty mode (not Supersim those are a disaster). The sim engine in dynasty was surprisingly excellent turning out very accurate numbers. Of course I am not sure how possible that actually is with the current on-field game mechanics, but at least Tiburon should use their own results for simulated games as a reference point. I don't want the game to mirror the stats to the point that it takes any dynamic out of the game but at the same time if the gameplay was balanced according to the stats and averages of college football I think the experience would remain just as fun and dynamic and likely be superior to how the game plays now.