NCAA Football 09 (360) Review

[scamden311]

How could a game where the cpu never throws the ball over 20 yards get a decent review?

Its like playing a basketball game where the cpu doesnt take 3 point shots, and saying its not that big of a deal.

Its insane to me that people can ovelook such a massive problem with gameplay, especially on a site like this where most people consider themselves to be "sim-gamers".

Its absolutely astounding to me what passes as acceptable in these reviews.

I complained about the high review score given to NCAA last year when compared to All Pro Football.

People immediately called me an EA basher, and a 2k fanboy etc. Which is hilarious considering I have probably spent a small fortune on EA products over the years, but I digress.

Well it turned out that I was right last year. After about a month 50% of the people on this board had either traded in NCAA or just shelved it due to all the GAMEPLAY problems.

To me, a game is 80% gameplay, and 20% everything else. No matter how many features or polish you add, it cannot make up for HUGE problems in gameplay over time.

Once the luster wears off, the gameplay is what counts, and i fear that this years gameplay issues( Qbs never throwing long, Return game, DL interaction, etc) are too big to simply work around.

[callmetaternuts]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheFuture15

Thought I'd clarify...I never "confirmed" that these are bugs. The thread just says we have people looking into them right now. The last thing we wanted was utter silence when people get the game...we wanted to investigate any complaints and see if we need to fix any of them. What that means is we need to do a lot of testing first - we don't want to make quick drastic fixes based on a very small sample set...we could easily go in the wrong direction and throw off the whole fun of the game.

Dont mind some of these posters, they justlike to throw out random accussations and hope they stick. I think low to mid 8's is fair and IF we get a patch, it could be in the high 8's low 9's range, but right now its a fun game, with some issues (but arent most games?)

[scamden311]

To anyone on the fence about buying this game who is going to use this, or any other early review to influence their decision on whether or not to buy, I implore you to go back and read the "NCAA 2008 review thread".

Its almost indentical in the way some defended the game and attacked anyone who questioned the OS review or brought up any concerns about the gameplay in relation to the score it was given.

Just remember that much of what people like me said about the game was eventually proven right, and i have a sneaking suspicion that this years game could be in the same boat when all is said and done.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...iew-360-a.html

[scamden311]

I think this thread should be stickied because im sure lots of people will be looking for it in the coming days.

[distauma]

Even if there are these issues with the game, the real ones really being the QB not throwing deep, robo qb, and the D-line having trouble penetrating, from what I gather (since I haven't tried it yet outside of the demo) the game play is fun.

Isn't that worth any value? If you are having fun playing the game and enjoying yourself, then why shouldn't the game earn a decent score. An 8.5 to me says that the game is good but lost some value due to some issues that do not hinder the enjoyment of the game but can be annoying.

[metallicatz]

Quote: Originally Posted by vic5451

I have a 360, but these are the sports games I play: Madden '06, NCAA 2005, ESPN NFL 2k5, ESPN NHL 2k5, MVP Baseball 2005. All for last-gen Xbox. These games still haven't been topped by the new stuff, and I probably paid a grand total of like 13 bucks for all those games. Like a previous poster mentioned, the only next-gen game that has been impressive has been NHL '08, but even that pales in comparison to ESPN NHL 2k5.

Please, there's no comparison. NHL 08 is hands down the best hockey game ever made. Nothing in the last gen video game hockey compares to the AI or gameplay in NHL 08.

[metallicatz]

And gee what a surprise, all the usual suspects are present and accounted for in lamenting a positive review score for NCAA (or any EA game for that matter) and over-blowing some minor bugs in a weak attempt to portray them as "game breakers". LOL. Such hatred for a software company. It's really sad.

There's never been a video game released in the history of gaming that didn't have its share of bugs.......even the games like GTA4 that were in development for years on end. Relax and gain some perspective. It's a video game, nothing more.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by dickdalewood

The game easily deserves the 8.5 it was given. As for this thread and it's "contributers"... wow has the OS community gone downhill...

The funniest parts are the guys who don't even have the game yet who are complaining about the score, and the guys who year after year try to push the exact same agenda. Again, who obviously haven't played the game either, but obviously tried to pull some impressions from others.

Same thing every year.