NCAA Football 10 Video: Central Gameplay

[TheTodd84]

You are probably right J-Unit, it is just a damn shame that it won't. Bc I know, I, for one would gladly pay $60 in incremental downloads per year for updated rosters and equipment. Maybe I am alone on that, bc how I see it is that I would be paying $60 anyway for a game that is essentially a roster update with a few tweaks.

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheTodd84

And also, All-Pro 2K8 had over two years to develop, OF COURSE it would have better animations and engine than the EA games that year bc EA already had an engine in place and were trying to work with that on a yearly cycle. And there won't be another All-Pro until NEXT YEAR, which means they will have had THREE YEARS to work on the next one. Big advantage in making a great game.

Actually, All Pro Football 2K8 only had six months of development time.

The engine was put "on ice" after they lost the NFL rights and didn't get "thawed out" again until January 2007.

The game then shipped in mid-July of that same year.

[TheTodd84]

So it's not that EA doesn't care, it's that on a lot of these issues, they have to set their priorities if a game is developed yearly. It takes more than a year to implement a brand new Physics engine, so for those sideline catches, that is how it will have to be, sorry. I mean, I know that those don't bother me because I want my game to PLAY realistically, not every single animation has to be completely true to life because then it would take the fun out of it for most of us. I know that my roommates and I STILL play NCAA 09 bc it's fun, not because the animations are great.

While, yes, the pass rush sucked last year, but they did their best to try and fix it. To be honest, I'd rather have a pocket to play with than get sacked every single time. So I applaud their efforts to try and create that. And the animations have to be calculated at random, so it's hard to set a realistic limit on things such as QB evasion if it is based entirely on ratings.

While I know it's unrealistic, I enjoy playing as Idaho or New Mexico State and have a fighters chance to at least score or be reasonably productive vs. USC or Alabama, when in real life, I wouldn't have a fighters chance against those schools. That is what makes video games fun, and if it wasn't like that, NO ONE would even play as those teams ever bc no one likes getting their tail handed to them EVERY TIME.

Again, just my two cents. I think NCAA '10 will just be ok. I think it will, gameplay wise be an improvement over NCAA 09, but it will not be great. And to be honest, that's ok.

What is not ok? The roster blunder. That is just inexcusable. But... that's for another thread and forum.

[TheTodd84]

wEEman, you might be right, but you said they put the engine "on-ice" when they heard about the exclusivity thing. Well that would mean that they had already developed the engine when the exclusivity thing hit which was in 2005 and the game didn't release until 2007.

So those "six months" of development time were just used to upgrade the NFL 2K5 engine, which is fine. But, for All-Pro 2K11, they will have had over two years to develop it. IF they only used 6 months of that, fine. But fans of APF 2k8 have a right to expect an incredible game next year.

I just think people are spoiled by the last-gen games and I understand their gripes with the new technology and the lack of physics. But, it takes time to develop and as it is now, only minute things will be added each year, just like on last-gen. So, all we can hope for is increased physics and momentum in NCAA 11.

And remember, it's not that we didn't have these same gripes on the last-gen, we just couldn't voice them because we didn't have these websites. I can guarantee there were the same gripes on last-gen for awhile, we just couldn't hear them.

[Hassan Darkside]

I won't lie, the vid is nice. It has a lot of nice animations in it. BUT, I think that these videos are completely unnecessary. I always feel that this type of stuff is better left for the user to see in the game. Take NBA 2k9/APF 2k8 for instance. They had the videos, the trailers, etc. But those never showed everything the game had to offer. That was why we were still able to have threads like "The little things..." where we could discuss the subtletees that make the game authentic. It's these types of things that keep us coming back.

But on top of it all, sometimes piling more and more animations in a game doesn't make it better. Case and point, NBA 2k9. Practically the same game as NBA 2k8 or NBA 2k7. Same engine as last gen. It has some significant issues but it's loaded up with (beautiful) animations to try to cover them up. Animations are like make-up. They're often used to hide the real b*tch underneath.

I just hope the game plays well. I can live with a roster issue. I can live with my player having the incorrect skin color. All that can be fixed. I can't live with every interception being a pick six, I can't live with the inability to be tackled or make tackles and I can't live with cheating AI. If all that's fixed and it's a carbon copy of 09 with good AI and adequate animations, then that's fine and dandy. They just better bring they're A game next year. That is all.

[hawkeyekid]

Good things: The bad throws when you get pressure on the QB, some of the WR/DB interactions, right stick DL moves

Bad things: Sideline catches (can't there be a happy middle ground), WRs slipping, yet getting up in .1 seconds and making a catch

Adam, you know I'm going to ask this too.

How did Iowa's face masks get through as white? After last year's yellow numbers fiasco, I thought the community did a pretty good job of giving you some pics of Iowa's jerseys.

[Rivals]

This may sound odd, but the best new animations I saw were the non catches and throws out of sacks. Not glamorous, but realistic. Sideline catches... those plays would have most likely taken the receiver out of bounds. The running animations should really be slowed down to detail the weight shift of players better. To make those cuts, a player would have to extend the outside leg and make a huge plant. Even then, the first two scenes had receivers moving too fast to the sideline to actually make a cut up field.

[Hey_Rebby]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheTodd84

Someone brought this up awhile ago, but it needs to happen. Stop developing sports games on an annual basis. We no longer need it in 2009 or going forward. We have brand new technology that is getting more and more complicated to develop for, so if you have to build a sports game from the ground up, as EA did in 2006 or 7, it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a game without serious flaws in just one year. It is time where sports developers take two years to develop a game. DLC is available at the drop of a hat. Instead of rushing to develop NCAA '11, why doesn't EA devote 95% of their time to NCAA '12 and addressing most of the concerns and then give us animation tweaks, roster and uniform updates via DLC. And for those out there who do not have a fast internet connection or play online at all, then maybe EA could just make a disc with just the new content on, send it out to game stores and the kids could pick it up there for the same price. I think the age of developing sports games on a yearly cycle is more of a headache than it needs to be. Because of the increasing technology, games take a lot longer to develop. I don't think that the idea of releasing uniform/animation/roster updates every down year is an unrealistic proposition. It could be done and it would work. I guarantee there are hundreds upon thousands, if not millions of people out there who will pay upwards of $10 a pop for accurate updated rosters, $7-10 for uniform and equipment updates of EVERY player, $7-12 for animation or gameplay updates on the off-year. Of course, this is purely speculation, but game companies could do market research and find out for themselves. I think that until this is the precedent for sports games, there will be these headaches and false promises EVERY SINGLE YEAR. It is just a shame that licensing contracts with the leagues may be preventing this and may be requiring a game to come out every year. I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. But until this happens, we will continue to hear the same garbage every year. And also, All-Pro 2K8 had over two years to develop, OF COURSE it would have better animations and engine than the EA games that year bc EA already had an engine in place and were trying to work with that on a yearly cycle. And there won't be another All-Pro until NEXT YEAR, which means they will have had THREE YEARS to work on the next one. Big advantage in making a great game. Just my two cents. Carry on.

People need to stop buying the game every year if this was ever going to happen. Companies don't just turn their back on $$$ to make a better product.