NCAA Basketball 09 Impressions

[VTPack919]

Quote: Originally Posted by USF_Guy

I'm still on the fence with this game. One of my biggest gripes, after reading some reviews, was the atmosphere. How's the atmopshere in this game. One thing that pissed me off in the demo was the home crowd doing to OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH chant while their hometeam was on offense. You dont do that chant when your team has the ball! EA got it right with NCAA football 09 but not in NCAA Basketball? WTF? Aside from that, are there a lot of team specific chants, fight songs?

Fight songs and chants for NC State are correct. Correct student section placement, albeit a generic arena. The crowd can get pretty loud at times and the ooooooh chant happend a few times I was on offense but seemed to be random.

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by DirtyJerz32

That's great to hear. Have you had a chance to play any online games? If so, how does it play? Any lag, glitching, etc... Also, how is the rivalry feature for online as far as finding someone to play with? Thanks again for posting.

sorry guys, I don't play online.

Now as far as the rivalry feature, its nice. If its turned on, you'll get an icon whenever someone is online that plays as your rival school. Nice addition.

[Marino]

Quote: Originally Posted by VTPack919

Fight songs and chants for NC State are correct. Correct student section placement, albeit a generic arena. The crowd can get pretty loud at times and the ooooooh chant happend a few times I was on offense but seemed to be random.

So still no RBC Center?

[DirtyJerz32]

Anyway play at Penn State? Wondering if they say We Are! Penn State!

Not a game killer, just wanted to know.

[Scoop 24]

one nice touch is the coaches will come out and tell you "you need to get some fresh legs on the court"

[Scoop 24]

Quote: Originally Posted by DirtyJerz32

Anyway play at Penn State? Wondering if they say We Are! Penn State! Not a game killer, just wanted to know.

ima play then right now and check

[DirtyJerz32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Scoop 24

ima play then right now and check

Thanks. Much appreciated.

I know they're bad but, that's why I love using them. Making PSU a bball power house is always entertaining.

[ehh]

Picked up my copy at lunch, I was the only person who preordered at my local Gamestop. I played one half, 10 minutes on default AA at home against ND. For the most part the gameplay is the same as the demo which is a good thing. It felt a little smoother but by and large it's the same in terms of game play.

Some early areas that will need to be fixed via sliders:
- FG% is too high for both teams
- Too many shots go in after heavy contact

Besides that there aren't a ton of issues which is great. The speed and athleticsm feels right. Defenders don't make miraculous recoveries or do super-human things like in 2K. Fast breaks are very cool, probably my favorite part of the game play so far.

The analog stick passing is horrible, even when running a play where a guy has the X above his head. I do really like the gameplay though, it feels organic as someone else said. There don't seem to be preset limitations on what you can do like in 2K, which altered based on the difficultly level you played on.

I love that they got the alternate undershirts right this year. Finally, if you're using an alternate jersey you will have the correct matching undershirt. Small detail, but cool. Bad detail = no black socks. Really, is this that hard to put in?

I spent 15 minutes or so looking through the rosters. They are SO bad I want to bang my head against the wall. It's time to rant! First off, why in the ever living hell can you not edit classic rosters? Let alone edit, you can't even name them! EA butchered even some of the famous guys on classic teams. Why is Marcus Camby #12 on '96 UMass? The classic teams will be 100% useless for me in this game. 2K8 will stay in my steady rotation for my classic fix.

As for the current rosters, the names/numbers/class, etc are little better than MM08. The appearances are awful, the ratings are so-so with some glaring bad ones. How is Deshawn Sims an 84 and Manny Harris a 79? Harris may end up being the best player in the Big Ten this year and was clearly the best player on Michigan last year. As CB and others have said, the editor leaves alot to be desired. Appearances are tough to edit and the character limit blows. After getting used to the unlimited freedom in 2K8, plus the huge name database, this is annoying as hell.

Once I get over my anger regarding the rosters I should be able to enjoy this game. There is no doubt that it's fun and semi-realistic, but it has a very long way to go to come close to CH2K8 as a complete package.