NCAA Basketball 09 Impressions

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by JSKYWALKER1

Man CB I want to go over to WalMart right now and pick this up. Just scared I am going to be unhappy with it. Gonna wait probably for a few more impressions, I am not so much looking for fun as much as I am looking for a sim game of B-ball. I love my sports games to be more sim than more arcade. Am happy that a lot are enjoying. Peace!!!!

I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to sim and this game does a tremendous job of capturing the game of college basketball imo. CPU running plays, mixing up defenses, mixing up offenses, calling timeouts to stop runs, seemingly giving the ball to the guy with the hot hand, etc...

Is there something specific you're looking for?

[catfish9-5]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

the more I play this game, the more I enjoy and appreciate it. Damn its good.

I have not picked up game yet, still a little skeptical. There are only a few guys in these forums that I trust with "rating or reviewing a game", if you will, and cb is one. I'm starting to lean towards getting game tomorrow.

Anyway cb, I want Pitino back! I was at UK during his regime and it's just not the same.

[Flightwhite24]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to sim and this game does a tremendous job of capturing the game of college basketball imo. CPU running plays, mixing up defenses, mixing up offenses, calling timeouts to stop runs, seemingly giving the ball to the guy with the hot hand, etc... Is there something specific you're looking for?

Nothing in particular, I just didn't want to play a game where everyone plays the same, Centers bringing the ball up court w/sick crossover moves, or just straight run n gun. I wanted teams to play to their true to life counterparts. For the most part it seems to capture that from what I am hearing and B-ball is in my blood more so than Football. Been playing the game for over 30 years. I wanna play against Princeton and be backdoored to death and a serious halfcourt offense, then take on Memphis and get ran out the gym. These are the things I am looking for before I make my purchase. I know in CH2K8 you could get the players to pretty much look similar to themselves and is this possible in this game? Are the rosters gonna be all jacked up and no way to fix it? Peace!!!!

[crques]

Quote: Originally Posted by JSKYWALKER1

Man CB I want to go over to WalMart right now and pick this up. Just scared I am going to be unhappy with it. Gonna wait probably for a few more impressions, I am not so much looking for fun as much as I am looking for a sim game of B-ball. I love my sports games to be more sim than more arcade. Am happy that a lot are enjoying. Peace!!!!

I'm with you on this one. I've put off buying the game for a few days now and I keep telling myself that I'll get it this weekend but something's holding me back. I had planned on picking it up after work tomorrow but now I'm getting cold feet about it all of the sudden. With Christmas coming up, I really hate to go out and spend $60+ on something that I'm so unsure about.

Aside from March Madness the past 2 years, I've picked up every single college basketball and football game on it's release day for the past 8 years. This one feels different though and I don't know why. I'm seeing all these encouraging impressions, mixed in with a few bad ones here and there but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger yet. Can someone give me some information on dynasty and recruiting, such as how realistic is the recruiting as far as 5-star guys going where they should be going and so forth, sim statistics, in season tournaments, and the rankings and tournament seedings. The videos I saw of the rankings and RPI looked pretty bad. How does it actually play out after a season? Any input would be great. Thanks.

[catfish9-5]

Quote: Originally Posted by crques

I'm with you on this one. I've put off buying the game for a few days now and I keep telling myself that I'll get it this weekend but something's holding me back. I had planned on picking it up after work tomorrow but now I'm getting cold feet about it all of the sudden. With Christmas coming up, I really hate to go out and spend $60+ on something that I'm so unsure about. Aside from March Madness the past 2 years, I've picked up every single college basketball and football game on it's release day for the past 8 years. This one feels different though and I don't know why. I'm seeing all these encouraging impressions, mixed in with a few bad ones here and there but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger yet. Can someone give me some information on dynasty and recruiting, such as how realistic is the recruiting as far as 5-star guys going where they should be going and so forth, sim statistics, in season tournaments, and the rankings and tournament seedings. The videos I saw of the rankings and RPI looked pretty bad. How does it actually play out after a season? Any input would be great. Thanks.

I'm in the same boat crques. Something is holding me back. But like I said in an earlier post. The few guys that I trust in their views are having good things to say about this game. So I'm starting to break the grasp of the hold.

[wsu_gb23]

I just saw a vid for this game, and I'm not too impressed.....it still looks too much like Live....those ball physics are bad....

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by JSKYWALKER1

Nothing in particular, I just didn't want to play a game where everyone plays the same, Centers bringing the ball up court w/sick crossover moves, or just straight run n gun. I wanted teams to play to their true to life counterparts. For the most part it seems to capture that from what I am hearing and B-ball is in my blood more so than Football. Been playing the game for over 30 years. I wanna play against Princeton and be backdoored to death and a serious halfcourt offense, then take on Memphis and get ran out the gym. These are the things I am looking for before I make my purchase. I know in CH2K8 you could get the players to pretty much look similar to themselves and is this possible in this game? Are the rosters gonna be all jacked up and no way to fix it? Peace!!!!

they did an excellent job with the tempo meter. I'll be honest, I thought it was going to be a lame, overblown feature much like the momentum meter in the old NCAA football games. Much to my surprise, the tempo not only works well, but makes a huge difference in the course of the game when you have two teams that play oppoosite tempos.

I haven't had the joy of playing Princeton yet to see if they do the back door screen plays. But from having played teams that run a halfcourt offense, I can tell you that they are a pain to deal with because its hard to force them into an up tempo game, as it should be. They will not run unless they have a clear jailbreak fastbreak.

Big guys can bring the ball up the floor, although they are prone to being pick-pocketed by guards or quick hands players. Yes, they can still make the crossover moves and such without much penalty, but honestly, the quick strike and ball handling moves are really toned down, so you can really exploit having a big man bring the ball up the court. No its not really sim, but its not something you can cheese your way through a game with either, so I can deal with it.

Getting players to look like their real life counterparts is damn near impossible with the limited resources you are given with this game and that pisses me off to no end. I don't really care about all the players, but I want my Cards and a few select other players to look like themselves. Probably my biggest beef with this game is the player editor feature. Its so limited that its almost useless. As far as ratings and such, you can adjust the ratings of any player and set the value to anything you choose. Also, the rosters, outside the classc teams, are pretty much accurate. I've come across a few that were a little odd, but nothing too major.

My thing is this, if you are a true fan of college basketball, then you owe to yourself to at least try this game out. With that said, I'll say this, if you're going in expecting this game to be as deep and "complete" as 2k, then you're going to be disappointed. This game isn't barebones by any stretch of the imagination, but its not as robust as 2k either. Its a solid title that given the correct TLC over the next development cycle, could be something special.

[Hurricain]

Quote: Originally Posted by crques

I'm with you on this one. I've put off buying the game for a few days now and I keep telling myself that I'll get it this weekend but something's holding me back. I had planned on picking it up after work tomorrow but now I'm getting cold feet about it all of the sudden. With Christmas coming up, I really hate to go out and spend $60+ on something that I'm so unsure about. Aside from March Madness the past 2 years, I've picked up every single college basketball and football game on it's release day for the past 8 years. This one feels different though and I don't know why. I'm seeing all these encouraging impressions, mixed in with a few bad ones here and there but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger yet. Can someone give me some information on dynasty and recruiting, such as how realistic is the recruiting as far as 5-star guys going where they should be going and so forth, sim statistics, in season tournaments, and the rankings and tournament seedings. The videos I saw of the rankings and RPI looked pretty bad. How does it actually play out after a season? Any input would be great. Thanks.

I would like to know this as well. Also, how is player progression and the ratings of freshmen. How difficult is it to recruit?

Right now, I started up 2k8 with updated rosters and I still think it is a great game. If Ncaa 09 is better then it might be something to consider. The above is very important to me though.