NCAA 09 Patch #2 Available --- Impressions Here

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by jaa1980

Anyone else seeing flashbacks to last years NCAA problem, INT's, i put human and cpu INT sliders to 0, and still many picks a game. Any suggestions? Other than that a huge improvement!!!

Drop the defensive awareness slider. That will help but also make the passing game more dangerous and lead to higher completion percentages.

[LAKE4742]

Glad to see the game is marginally better, post patch. I....am tradin' in madden for NCAA today! I just like the total package better. And the gameplay is better, IMO. Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!! IMO, people who say madden is better are blind!!!!!!! The players don't even jump!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my biggest gripes-can you tell? Is it just me, or isn't jumpin' a very important part of football?!

[justblaze09]

This is all Sony has to do

To: CDowns
From: Sony
Subject: NCAA Patch

You can put it up now


But nope, Sony are lazy hags and cant type in 5 words

[Pared]

Quote: Originally Posted by slim_pickens

No still feels to easy. Unfortunately football isn't king anymore feeling a lot more excited about the hockey, basketball and soccer games coming out. Head Coach is good though.

Completely agree. It's been this way for a few years.

[crques]

Quote: Originally Posted by sportyguyfl31

With the improvements, this is still my greatest frustration. I'm trying to get teams who actually should be running the spread option to run it properly. It's a major major wart for me. My last game out, Matt Grothe of USF had 20 yds on 20 carries. I'm not sure if it is just the programming logice that is making those difficult, but I'm still trying. The game is playing better, and I really hope that with the sliders working I can put in some time over the weekend, and actually have to worry about Tim Tebow and Pat White, running the offense well. If I cant, this is going to be strictly a online dynasty game for me.

I plan to play Florida tonight and see how their offense looks, post-patch. The last time I played them Tebow had less than 10 carries for about 15 yards. He had about 15 carries against me on the PS2 version with close to 70 yards if I remember correctly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I see some differences in the run against running teams and QB's but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

[Keyser Soze]

Well let me say this about the patch/game and series having owned and played every game since Wuerffel was on the cover.

1- this is the best overall game they have made thus far period.

2- game needs a lot of house rules to tone down glaring AI issues to make game playable/enjoyable if you want any sort of sim experience. if you like winning 122 - 7 then this is not needed for dynasty play

3- although its the best game yet, it was the most bugged game that I have played in my whole life out of the box, let alone in the series. i am shocked that EA even claims to play/test this game

4- there are a few gameplay issues that really need addressed in a big way or we can fully expect next year to have new massive issues with new features. Suction blocking, lack of AI responding to vision, lack of intelligence in CPU play calling, zero learning curve of any kind (can call same play every time for entire season and CPU doesn't care), pursuit angles, attributes meaning something other then speed

5- presentation could use a HUGE boost. Come on EA, you own the licenses, do more with them. bring back pre-game excitement. have michigan come out and slap the banner, etc....

6- i would never recommend this game to a friend who is a gamer but not a huge college football fan as it simply has too many problems and i don't believe would be fun at all

7- this game is only as good as you make it to be. its not an awesome game on its own but does have the potential to be

8- i do NOT like the direction the series is heading as it doesn't seem to have a direction. every year they seem to add a new feature/gimmick, take one away and bring back one form the last generation. because of the game play issues in #4, every new feature seems to cause new problems

9- i would strongly suggest that if EA does indeed employ people who claim to be play testing this game, I would check in on them every now and then to see if they either (a) don't show up for work at all (b) are actually playing other games entirely as they don't like this game (c) are stoned out of their minds and unable to see major problems that all of us found within 1 hour of turning on our game

10- i know this ties directly into game play but i would really like to see the focus of next year be game BALANCE. i would like to see everything simply balanced so that ratings matter, and schemes matter. balance the darn game to be more sim like with default (50) sliders so that sliders could be used to OPEN THE GAME UP not balance it. it sure seems that everything is backwards in this regards. balance pass vs. run. balance PA versus drop back passing. balance SG vs under center. sure, all of them have their strengths and weaknesses but there needs to be more balance so that the same set of sliders don't lead everyone to do the same thing to optomize performance because the game isn't balanced.

so to conclude, this game is faaaaaaaar superior to 2004 (the title that most everyone seems to love and reminiss about) as it should be since its 2009, but its no where NEAR where I would have thought the series would be at had you asked me back when I was playing 2004 to immagine what NCAA 2009 is like. I would have envisioned a much, much, much better game and better AI package by now when you compare it to other games these days. I know NCAA is never going to feel like you are playing a HUMAN when playing a CPU but I would have at least thought that we would have moved beyond randomization with zero AI or calling a D directly based on my play call or audible by now.... but we haven't and that is sad IMO. Heck, simple chess games have existed for years and years that are based on strategy.

[ab2c4]

One thing I noticed last night and I know others have mentioned it, but whenever the cpu tries to run the option it ends up either being a no gain or a tackle for loss. That really stinks because whenever I play an option oriented team I know I am going to shut them down.

[ab2c4]

Two things I noticed last night and I don't know if they are a problem with the patch, or the game in general.

1. I threw a pass on third down and it was clearly incomplete, the ball went behind my WR and hit the dirt 5 yards past him and bounced around on the ground. I get ready to call a punt and all of a sudden the play is under review to see if he made the catch. WTF?

2. I intercepted the ball in the back of the end zone and let myself get tackled there so I could get the ball starting at the 20 (I was tackled in the back of the end zone, no where close to the 1 yard line). The screen went blank for about 2-3 seconds and when play resumed it was my ball, 1st and 10 on the 1 yard line. That was my first "WTF?". I ran my first play, a run up the middle for 6 yards. On 2nd and 4 from the 7 I threw and 8 yard pass. When I get ready to run my next play instead of it being 1st and 10 from 15 yard line the game tells me it is 3rd and 20 from the 15 yard line. I completed a short pass on 3rd down, punted on 4th down, and the problem never showed up again after that.