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NCAA Football 09 Official First Look: NCAA Strategies

10:42 PM - April 24, 2008 by coogrfan

NCAA Strategies have just posted their first look at NCAA Football 09.

Quote:


	"The offensive line play seems improved in pass protection, IMO. I am not sure I would quantify it as a pure �pocket� like some of you have asked, but I didn�t got stomped by the defensive line as much as I did in 08. In 08, online play was hampered by gamers taking advantage of the lead blocking feature with offensive linemen. If you attempted pancake blocks with them, they would blow the DL several yards deep opening up a huge hole. This year, that does not seem to be the case. I worked on this several times and only saw one pancake, but it did not result in the DL getting blasted five yards deep � only two or three. The rest of the time the players were simply engaged in a tie-up."

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Member Comments

# 21 Moshood @ 04/24/08 11:59 PM

1-2 combined INT's per game isn't bad but, returning 1-2 INT's for TD's per game is.

# 22 Scott @ 04/25/08 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy


	That's true, compared to default last year that is an improvement, but the ratio still needs to be improved. I don't know what the average TD/INT ratio was in college football last year but I'm certain it was above 1:1 or 1:2.

I've tried looking for the ratio but can't find it anywhere...

# 23 BezO @ 04/25/08 12:14 AM

Wow! This sounds just like last year. Better than the prior year... still needs work... we'll talk to them about these issues...

They didn't address a single aspect of the game I was hoping for. Yall are asking for little things and I'm still asking for basic football essentials: QB pocket, blocking, tackling, rushing the QB... nevermind. I'm tired of writing that list.

It sounds like the player models look like football players.

# 24 poster @ 04/25/08 12:14 AM

So INT's could still be an issue, and their idea of presentation is showing too many cut scenes of cheerleaders?

While I hope I am very wrong, it seems that all they did was bring old features back. While that is good, I expect much, much more. I highly doubt they can tweak the game for the better at this point. Maybe the sliders will actually work this year to help out the tweaking.

# 25 JBucc @ 04/25/08 12:20 AM

Doesn't seem very encouraging to me. Why do they spend all their time on things like QB and Kicker minigames that no one wanted or asked for when the basic fundamentals of the sport are still broken? And they still only have one friggin camera? That's nothing but pure laziness. Moving the camera is one of the most basic things you can do in programming a game.

# 26 thmst30 @ 04/25/08 12:21 AM

Wow, I'm not surprisingly underwhelmed. Its an early build but seriously we all know practically none of this will get fixed by the final build. The fact that they didn't address the INT TD issue is mind-blowing. One of the HUGE problems that killed the game last year and its still an issue. So far it just sounds like the same old EA crap, however I don't think anyone should be surprised by that. I will hold my absolute final judgement until the game releases, but it doesn't look good so far.

# 27 Cardot @ 04/25/08 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poster


	So INT's could still be an issue, and their idea of presentation is showing too many cut scenes of cheerleaders? While I hope I am very wrong, it seems that all they did was bring old features back. While that is good, I expect much, much more. I highly doubt they can tweak the game for the better at this point. Maybe the sliders will actually work this year to help out the tweaking.

Alot of good news in there, but the INT issue is a concern. I really don't want to relive the struggles I had with 08.

I am also a bit concerned that combined scores over 100 were common. While I didn't like all the INTs last year, I did like the defensive focus. Historically, EA football games have been too offensive, especially in the 4th quarter when man, beast & cpu could throw deep into triple coverage with confidence.....I hope we don't head back in that direction.

# 28 bad_philanthropy @ 04/25/08 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott


	I've tried looking for the ratio but can't find it anywhere...

The ratio for the Pac-10 was 211(TD):144(INT)

and by comparison even the Sun Belt had a superior TD/INT ratio at 156:125

From the looks of it, all conferences have a positive TD to INT ratio, they aren't equal or greater in the INT column.

# 29 poster @ 04/25/08 12:26 AM

Still having the one camera angle is an absolute embarrassment. Please tell me that is a joke.

# 30 Scott @ 04/25/08 12:30 AM

Just did the numbers for the whole NCAA FBS.....2503 TD:1685 INT (160 of those returned for TD)..Which means that 9.4% of INT are returned for TDs.

# 31 SteelerSpartan @ 04/25/08 12:32 AM

Yeah I have concerns much in line with everybody else

*CPU QB/DB AI still being tardish

*1 FREAKING CAMERA ANGLE 3 YEARS IN!!!
*NO CAS
*Their improved Presention=Cutscenes of Cheerleaders

No Player Entrances(What a shame considering Custom tunes)

I haven't written the game off yet but Im not in a good mood, Im still a football junkie though and hopefully some gameplay vids change my mind down the road.

# 32 GJEM @ 04/25/08 12:39 AM

To be honest the main thing I need and must see is the AI QB not throw so many damn picks. It's sad when you try to recruit secondary players that have low awareness and horrible catching which seems impossible to find and you implement house rules where you basically just watch you defense play because your worried that you might accidentally put your guy in the correct spot to stop or break up a play and he'll get an INT and the AI QB still throws 4 picks on average a game. If that's fixed then it's worth the money because to be honest I don't mind 08 and I'm a pretty easy guy to please as long as I can find a set of sliders that fit my skill level while producing pretty accurate stats and it's fun to play then I don't really try and nit pick because I just try to keep in mind that it's a game made by people and they will never be able to satisfy every die hard sports gamer out their because everybody has things that they want to see different and it's just impossible to even expect them to.

# 33 beau21 @ 04/25/08 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelerSpartan


	Yeah I have concerns much in line with everybody else CPU QB/DB AI still being tardish 1 FREAKING CAMERA ANGLE 3 YEARS IN!!! NO CAS Their improved Presention=Cutscenes of Cheerleaders No Player Entrances(What a shame considering Custom tunes) I haven't written the game off yet but Im not in a good mood, Im still a football junkie though and hopefully some gameplay vids change my mind down the road.

i agree completely with everything in this post

# 34 thmst30 @ 04/25/08 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott


	Just did the numbers for the whole NCAA FBS.....2503 TD:1612 INT (136 of those returned for TD)

So 8.4% of all ints were returned for TDs, and this game still has 1-2 PER GAME. Ridiculous.

# 35 bad_philanthropy @ 04/25/08 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott


	Just did the numbers for the whole NCAA FBS.....2503 TD:1612 INT (136 of those returned for TD)

This definitely needs to be represented better in the game, especially the number of INT returns for a TD. It is just way too common an occurrence in the game for such a rare event. If the defense wasn't able to put up so many points in the game scores and averages would probably be able to work themselves out a lot better. If these ratios were better represented in the game not only would the design of the cpu's passing AI be able to be more aggressive, but also the competitiveness and flow of games would be far more realistic if a turnover didn't result in a TD so often. Think about how much different the game could be if one or two interceptions could lead to a defensive series instead of an automatic 7-14 points on the scoreboard.

Obviously all that would have to come from improving the design of the way the different units on the field interacted with each other, so I guess it is unrealistic to expect. At the very least though I think WR and DB play is in need of a serious upgrade.

# 36 SageInfinite @ 04/25/08 12:45 AM

After reading the posts in this thread I'm not feeling so good about the game

# 37 JBucc @ 04/25/08 12:50 AM

I don't know exactly how many games were played last year, but lets just say if 119 teams played 12 games each, that's 1428 total games. So with 136 ints returned for TD's that's one every 10.5 games. Obviously that would change if you put it how many games were really played but still it shouldn't change too much and shows how ridiculous 2 int TD's per game is.

# 38 bad_philanthropy @ 04/25/08 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thmst30


	So 8.4% of all ints were returned for TDs, and this game still has 1-2 PER GAME. Ridiculous.

Yeah, it's clear that this gameplay design was intended to appeal to the casual crowd as an equivalent to the big play potential on offense. I guess we just have to accept that most people who play the game get satisfaction from an unrealistic number of big plays on the defensive side of the ball instead of strong line play, good gap control, and overall effective play by the defensive unit. I would love for the defensive emphasis in these football games to be on causing three and out's instead of causing a turnover.

All that said, it's still early and the game should be undergoing some tweaking yet and perhaps sliders will allow us to tailor the experience to our liking if it is overly flawed out of the box.

# 39 SteelerSpartan @ 04/25/08 12:57 AM

"some have been absolute shootouts (around 100 combined points). Players will definitely want to use good defensive teams. Using Minnesota (very poor defensive rating – 60 something I believe), I was torched earlier today for 50 or so points. Using Nebraska last night in my first game (80 something defense), I was able to win and hold my foe around 20."

So they must have axed the letter ratings then??

Wonder if Bowl games have endzone art??...I probably shouldn't even ask

I just hope they can at least fix the int/turnovers...if they arn't going to add the extra details to presentation

# 40 ty5oke @ 04/25/08 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy


	This definitely needs to be represented better in the game, especially the number of INT returns for a TD. It is just way too common an occurrence in the game for such a rare event. If the defense wasn't able to put up so many points in the game scores and averages would probably be able to work themselves out a lot better. If these ratios were better represented in the game not only would the design of the cpu's passing AI be able to be more aggressive, but also the competitiveness and flow of games would be far more realistic if a turnover didn't result in a TD so often. Think about how much different the game could be if one or two interceptions could lead to a defensive series instead of an automatic 7-14 points on the scoreboard. Obviously all that would have to come from improving the design of the way the different units on the field interacted with each other, so I guess it is unrealistic to expect. At the very least though I think WR and DB play is in need of a serious upgrade.

I agree. I hate having to have a house rule that I can only attempt 1 INT for a return TD. AFter I attempted 1, I would have to go out of bounds if I picked another. What made it worse was the CPU didn't follow my house rules... It's just too easy to get a TD off a INT.

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