NCAA Football 09: Community Impressions

[nousername]

Quote: Originally Posted by trobinson97

Bingo, that's my point (and was about to get to it before this thread was for some reason closed and now all of a sudden it's back open....). Look, I realize those MM dudes are pretty much company guys or what have you, but if you are going to post an article the least you could do is kind of pretend to be objective. I'm no journalism major, but it doesn't take one to see the slant. The fact of the matter is, even without the major bug (which this "article" almost practically glossed over) that causes the game to crash and teams to disappear, the impressions were shaky at best. There were a lot more negative impressions than positives and the majority of the positives came from people who are either easily pleased or seem to be clearly defending EA no matter what. I'll put it like this, the people that are defending EA are people I've come to do so all the time, call them what you will. The ones that are being objective about it are surprising me because I just knew they were in that same category. As for this Jwil guy's comments, you take that as you will. He claims that people playing the game and giving [negative]impressions with video and screenshots of their claims don't know what they are talking about. Now tell me, what videos have you seen posted by this guy to back up his claims? I am not calling him a liar but I'd check his gamertag if I could. AuburnAlumni is about as staunch a supporter of this game as anyone and he posted vids showing how dumbed down the AI is and talked about the other game play issues that may not even get patched. You're gonna tell me this guy is more credible than AA? Now you have people telling you, "Spend the money, try it yourself." Well, sure that's one idea, but the purpose of impressions is to give you the consumer a good idea of just what it is you are getting into. Of course, it's ultimately up to you to decide how to spend your money, but it'd probably be in your best interest to try to be informed. Once you've spent the money, your opinion on the game is pretty much null and void, believe whatever you want about their devs being on this board. Your dollars tell EA what is acceptable and what is not. If half a million people decideto spend 60 bucks on something that has up to now has been reported to have a plethora of issues with it just because they want to "try it for themselves", they just told EA that "We will give you our money no matter what crap you give us." Impressions are pretty much the same thing as reviews, you use them to help you make better purchasing decisions for yourself. The same people who say, "If this year EA messes up I won't buy again next year" will be the same people getting taken for chumps the next year. All EA has to do is just provide you with a little bit of hope for next year. You can see it already in this forum, just read a little. They will give you the shiny little features that make you say "Wow" on a marketing video, give vague little comments about how something will possibly be fixed next year and you eat it up. "This year is the year." Right? When is this year going to be the year that you finally get it? Honestly, this is not an "I hate EA" post. I do not "hate" EA. I have bought and enjoyed my share of EA games (and I wish one in particular was reviewed well enough to warrant my purchase of it on Tuesday). But they are a multi-billion dollar company who I have no reason to trust. I know you guys say "You should be happy they have their devs here to listen to us" but I say you guys should realize that for what it is; a public relations ploy to get you to believe they care what you are talking about. They didn't get to be a multi-billion company by listening to you complain on messageboards. They got their by your dollars going into their pockets every year. They don't have to change a thing with their business model, it works. Listening to you is not in the cards. The only thing that you could possibly do to get their attention is to stop giving them your money for sub par products.

I don't think I could've said it any better. Every year it's the same thing...people keep saying to themselves, "I hope EA gets it right this time."...and they keep buying it.

I have never bought an NCAA game, and Madden 08 was my first Madden in years. I give my opinions on what's wrong with these games, but I also back it up by not purchasing anything from EA. I usually hit the forums this time of year to see what's new with football gaming, and it's always EA and it's super marketing tactics...they put more effort into marketing than they do the games it seems like. So, this year, it's a new marketing tactic...send out representatives to interact with the gamers to make it seem like they "care".

I'm not as dense as alot of people though, and see right through that. EA's bag of gimmicks and tricks are running thin and they had to come up with another strategy to take their games over the top this year...but every year more and more people start waking up, Madden had a significant drop in sales last year.

I don't care how many reps EA sends to forums asking questions and putting certain features "on the list for next year"...notice how that's a very popular answer. Some people just want to pop in a football game and play...which is fine, but most people want a great game. I always get impressions from several people and play at somebody else's house before I buy anything from EA...why don't I do this with other developers?

Like you said, EA DOES NOT LISTEN TO YOUR GRIPES...the only thing they listen to is money...if that stops talking you will see MAJOR changes in these games. Features that they lie about and say can't be fixed or implemented until "next year" will show up all of a sudden...there won't be a "we didn't have time"...no post-game patches. There's no doubt in my mind that all of the features, no matter how big or small, could've been implemented in this year's game...they just string you along because they can. Every year for since next-gen gaming has been here, people have requested small things such as refs on the field, chain gangs, etc...these are so small, why haven't they been implemented on a game that's suppose to be "next-gen"? Man, this is just too easy, too obvious to me...but to each his own. EA will have to do more than what they are now in order for me to buy any football game from them.

[no504]

I bought the game and I cant play because of the freezing, im calling ea in the morning to see about getting my money back, it freezes in the offline dynasty in the online lobby and whatever else and I didnt edit my roster at all it froze up the first time in the system

[erivera7]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlyGilmore

I for one take things like "no pass rush" and "too many interceptions" with a grain of salt. for one I think a lot of folks don't know whats realistic and are going off of perceptions not necessarily based in reality. a big culprit is playing on Heisman. Heisman is not a realistic difficulty mode - the game and ratings are changed to make it more difficult for the user, not to provide realistic gameplay.

Grain of salt? Not trying to be mean or anything, but Ian himself admitted it was a problem. I don't see how that issue can be taken with a grain of salt.

As for too many interceptions, I don't have that problem so we're on the same page there at least. However, I feel the problem is completely reversed where I feel QB's are simply too good. Again, something that Ian himself admitted with QB completion %'s being too high (which plays into the absurd QB TD/INT ratios in dynasty).