NCAA Football 11 News Post

Dynasty Musings: NCAA 11 Dynasty Review

02:31 PM - July 26, 2010 by RaychelSnr

Overall, Dynasty mode has definitely improved, but I still feel like EA Sports is only scratching the surface of the mode's potential. The presentation is much better, recruiting is improved, but there’s still some things that leave me scratching my head. If you are the type of player that will play out every game in your dynasty, you will have a great time playing your dynasty. If you are more of a simulation buff, you will find yourself pulling out your hair and putting a new game into your system. Full review after the jump.

Read More - Dynasty Musings: NCAA 11 Dynasty Review

Game: NCAA Football 11Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: iPhone / PS2 / PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 83 - View All

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Member Comments

# 1 jethrotull @ 07/26/10 02:41 PM

I like the offseason and difficulty in recruiting, but when 4 star recruits come in with 39 AWR and a 63 OVR, it ruins the game. After 4 years of simulation there are hardly any star players around. Run it 5 or 6 years down the line. You will see that the kickers are terrible, the receivers and backs could not juke out someones grandma, and the quarterbacks are sub par. I really hope they address this with a patch, because they put in some nice work on it, but if they don't, this game just does not work or play well in dynasty mode.

I love the game overall, and I really only play Dynasty mode, so a patch or workaround would go a long way to make a good product great.

# 2 DJ @ 07/26/10 02:46 PM

I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going.

I do like that there is adjustable difficulty for recruiting. It was much-needed. I'm on All-American and feel that's a good level for me, as I don't like to spend hours pouring over recruits, but do enjoy the recruiting process. You don't get all the players you want like you used to in the past, and with the 10-hour limit, you really have to pick your spots in terms of what players you will target.

# 3 Fluffhead @ 07/26/10 02:46 PM

Hmmm, supplemental review to the original...cya tactics?

# 4 Smooth Pancakes @ 07/26/10 04:04 PM

One issue with your review. You CAN steal soft commits. I have been playing two random dynasties over the past week or two, and so far in week 13 of season 1, and between the two combined, I have stolen 3 soft commits, going from them being soft commits to another program, to soft committing to me, to hard committing to me in a three week swing.

So it is possible, and pretty easy, to steal soft commits. However if you're trailing the team the guy has soft committed to by a couple hundred points, obviously you don't have a chance in hell. But if you're like 1 point behind or 50 points behind or something, you have a great chance of stealing the guy and have him switch soft commits to you.

And we'll agree to disagree on the recruit ratings comment. Personally I think it is a stupid idea. If I'm recruiting a player for my dynasty, I want that "will he end up being a great player or am I spending my time going after a black sheep?" If I am able to sit there looking at every rating after a "couple weeks of scouting", then what's the point. I'd rather sit there for half an hour comparing rating grades and deciding if I want DE A or DE B to be the potential future star of my defense and wondering if I have gone after the right one or gone after one who will end up a bust and have a sub-par career.

If you really want actual numbers instead of grades when it comes to recruits ratings, tell EA to make it a "Time-Saver". Otherwise, keep it the heck out of my dynasties!

# 5 dalecooper @ 07/26/10 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djwlfpack


	I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going.

I've flipped players that were soft-committed to other schools. I haven't had the CPU do it to me and I don't know if it's possible, but the soft commit does seem to mean something different than the hard one.

# 6 Dave Pearson @ 07/26/10 05:00 PM

Smooth Pancakes - You're right in the context of the game. I should have been more specific. I'm talking about a guy that "hard" commits very early and then will not speak to another coach for the duration that he remains a recruit and not on that team's roster. I understand that a "soft" commit in the game doesn't really mean anything except for the fact that he is extremely close to becoming a "hard" commit.

# 7 Dave Pearson @ 07/26/10 05:17 PM

Also, Smooth Pancakes. How about a potential rating for recruits, or at least they tell you if the recruit has great upside or not? That's sort of in the middle for what you and I are talking about. So, your assistant coaches (Entire article planned on how NCAA needs to implement assistants more, btw) tell you how good the kid currently is at a rating, or close to it (maybe a range), and then there is some sort of potential rating for the kid. One thing that has always bothered me is the lack of physical growth with the recruits.. how many of you have gotten a 5-star at 6'2 166 lbs and never seen him gain a pound? Potential could have something to do with this, as well.

# 8 Dbene66 @ 07/26/10 05:37 PM

so is there any official word from developers on why the dynasty progression is so bad? why do all the teams just begin to suck?

# 9 thbends @ 07/26/10 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djwlfpack


	I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going. I do like that there is adjustable difficulty for recruiting. It was much-needed. I'm on All-American and feel that's a good level for me, as I don't like to spend hours pouring over recruits, but do enjoy the recruiting process. You don't get all the players you want like you used to in the past, and with the 10-hour limit, you really have to pick your spots in terms of what players you will target.

Not true I got a guy to change to me before. I got an achievement for it too.

# 10 Smooth Pancakes @ 07/26/10 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Pearson


	Smooth Pancakes - You're right in the context of the game. I should have been more specific. I'm talking about a guy that "hard" commits very early and then will not speak to another coach for the duration that he remains a recruit and not on that team's roster. I understand that a "soft" commit in the game doesn't really mean anything except for the fact that he is extremely close to becoming a "hard" commit.

Dave - That makes more sense now. I could see something like that being changed to occur in the future, as long as EA implemented it correctly to not be abused. I don't want the CPU suddenly going all gung ho and all out on my hard commits to try and make them leave me after I've claimed them. If it could be implemented smartly, it would definitely add an interesting new levels to recruiting.

As for the ratings, I could agree on a middle ground like that. I absolutely loved NCAA Basketball. It was a must buy every year along with NCAA Football, but I always hated having the ratings revealed to you with scouting. It takes away the guessing game and unknown factor. Now maybe, if like you mention, there was a range in terms of potential, that could work. Granted I personally would want large ranges. Seeing a range as 80-89, you may as well stick with the grades. Now if the range was 65-85 or something, where there is a large range that the kid could fall anywhere in there, it'd give you the ability to see what you might be looking at in terms of skill, as well as keeping the unknown factor and the guessing game in there in terms of choosing between DE A or DE B.

And I look forward to that article on the assistants! Two things that I have wanted to see for years now in this game, assistant coaches and coaching carousel. So I can't wait to read that article about assistants!

And I agree completely with the physical growth. Granted at that age and that point, you really wouldn't see much, if anything, in terms of growth in height, but it would be nice to see the player's weight fluctuate, and potentially seeing ratings change because of that. if you had a halfback come in at 200 pounds and a high speed rating, if he ends up bulking up to say 245 (in an extreme case), then you should see his speed rating drop a good bit, as he has gone from being a speed halfback, to being a power halfback. To have certain, specific ratings change in relations to a changing weight, would be great to see.

# 11 Brandwin @ 07/26/10 06:31 PM

Pretty spot on, but you can change a soft commits mind.

There was a soft commit I was going after and I was #3 behind Florida and Texas... I jumped to #2 and next thing I know I am number one, a few weeks later he signed with Florida.

# 12 cb35 @ 07/26/10 06:57 PM

first let me say this game is so fun its out of control my friends and I are in our 30s and online dynasty is fantastic. if I were to nit pick put in the custom schedule control for the commissioner not sure why they took that out. as the reviewer said fix the CPU recruiting balance glitch. we play every game and didn't get past season 4 but that is good to know. how about in game updates if another online user is playing at the same time or their highlights at halftime. more stats in game. vary announcing crews like hoops had. just a few suggestions and make sure your servers are stable

# 13 khaliib @ 07/26/10 07:21 PM

They need to move mascot games and the other fluff, and make it DLC and use the disk space to really go all out. Video Games will always have flaws, so those waiting for the perfect game, is just nieve.

The ratings issue is up for debate, because I have no problem with the so called low ratings because these are fictional values that depend on individual interpretation of what is "Real" or right. I've always said they should include a Ratings Threshold Slider per position, this would eleminate the ratings issue.

For presentation:
When I see the animated crowds/sidelines in other sports games (hockey, baseball, basketball) I can't understand why football can't have that. The argument that trying to implement into a football game is too hard, is a lame excuse.

Dynamic crowds that fluctuate would go a long way in this department.

What happend to the "Blimp" that use to be in some the older FB games? Add camera shots during play breaks etc...., adds immersion to the game.
Not going to say anything about the camera. This one blows my mind why it's not part of the presentation.

**Don't be affraid to steal ideas from other game makers. Stop tying to create a "NEW" wheel!!! Use and improve what's already out.

Like basketball/baseball, have different throwing/running animations that make it seem like your getting a different/unique player.

Coaching Carousel, with playbooks tied to the fictional coaches, instead of schools.

If you want Dynasty get really deep and crazy, allow the gamer the ability to go and what game generated highlight tape of selected recruits.

Find a way to include fictional TV stations covering local games with fictional TV broadcasters calling the game.

Show players running off/on field holding up package/formation changes.

Talk about possible recruits at games (major schools) during telecast broadcast.

Get rid of the OVR and just have regular measurables and positional attributes.

Allow gamers the ability to practice (throws, catching, running,kicking/punting), during Pre-Game routines like in College Hoops 2k8.

I could go on, but just utilize gamer suggestions to make Dynasty deeper.

# 14 Antwuan @ 07/26/10 07:35 PM

Wow, those are some really low scores for what I think is a pretty good dynasty. I know that there are ways to improve, but what they have set out to do this year in this game is pretty good...

I like the write-up, but the ratings might be a bit harsh. That's just my opnion though.

# 15 patsfan188 @ 07/26/10 08:13 PM

Why can't they bring back player training? Like when you did the 40 yard dash, QB pocket drills, etc, to make your players better. Or just because it's not next gen that they can't do that? and players should progress during the season like older versions. It's lame in these games because players don't get good!

# 16 da ThRONe @ 07/26/10 08:23 PM

I would like to see stats from the recruits as the year plays out. This game needs a LOI day and all targets should be available until they sign.

# 17 bnoe1023 @ 07/27/10 12:08 PM

I just started my dynasty last night, and while the initial gameplay, presentation, etc. are great, a few things worry me moving forward:

- QB AWR: any QB w/ a rating less than 81 has terrible SIM stats. I saw this in Week 1 of simulation last night, as Florida lost at home to Miami Ohio with John Brantley's completion % around 40-50%. That's just stupid.

- CPU recruiting: this really worries me, as I like to try to go as far as I can in my Dynasty mode to, you know, build a dynasty. But what's the fun in that when the competition gets easier and easier each year because the CPU teams don't recruit for need? This needs fixing ASAP EA!

- Player progression: this may be my biggest worry, as I don't want there to be a bunch of sub-par players 5-6 years down the road. One of the most enjoyable aspects of video games and dynasties to me is playing with and against dominant players. What's the fun in playing with a bunch of average joe's? Also, this would seem to affect uploading Draft Classes to Madden Franchise mode as well, which I like to do.

# 18 Uncle Stumpy @ 07/27/10 04:04 PM

I used to love NCAA football, now i hate it. Same thing every year, nothing new. Yes, i'm fully aware sports is repetitive in nature, but come on. You should only have the same commentary at the absolute most 3 years in a row, and you should be adding a ton of lines in year 2 and 3 seeing as you have the base. This is boring! I've gone from purchasing the game on the first day and pretty much throwing it in the garbage after ten minutes, to only being bored after a couple games. Presentation is improved, but not by much. Gameplay is awesome, agreed, but there's still a ton of work to be done, and this is coming from someone who hates to bash games....maybe i'm just getting too old for this, because there are very few sports games that have kept me entertained on next gen.

I want to see player's being disciplined again. I want at have, at half time, the option or 3 0r 4 things that i can say to my team to get them ready, and I want to see if my speech flops, or inspires them a la knute Rockne.

I want assistant coaches to be implemented, but I could care less about playbooks. I want to see how they will improve their specific position.

I want to have sort of an "Owner's mode" to set a budget, and if i'm a small school, be able to build a new gym for the team.

I'd love to see 1AA involved, and make it so that you can build from being a great 1AA team to a great 1A team.

I want to see fans screaming for their coach to be fired if they struggle. I want them screaming to him in as school president if he's good.

I want interviews with players, so we can have their words "posted on the blackboard" if they slight next week's opposition.

Dynasty modes can be so much more than what they are right now, it's sad.

yeah, gameplay's great now, let's move Dynasty's to next gen, or I'll just stop buying your games altogether.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm again dissapointed in the game.

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