Madden = Sim, NCAA = Arcade - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

Madden = Sim, NCAA = Arcade

Posted on April 16, 2009 at 09:47 AM.

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NCAA Football has been called Madden�s redheaded stepchild. The Madden team is huge and has more resources but the truth is the Madden team has more resources than ANY sports video game out there. Many have criticized the NCAA game in the past while others have liked it more. However, I have had a lot more fun with NCAA when I switched to it for NCAA �06 compared to the stale effort of Madden �05. I�m not sure I�ve had more fun with a football game over the last 10 years although NFL 2K4 (ESPN Football) comes close.

I�ve been critical of the direction of the NCAA team this year with the exclusion of things like the new QB ratings system Madden is implementing. It seems like the Madden team is making a tremendous effort at producing a true football sim that may be the best NFL game ever created. Who knows how the final product will turn out but it�s very clear from Ian Cummings� blogs that he is very serious and making tremendous strides in this direction. But is a pure sim really that much fun?

When NCAA �06 came out, many criticized the game for overly productive impact players, excessive juke moves, an overly fast game speed, a deep ball that was too easy to complete and other non-sim elements. All of that may be true but it was so much fun. The presentation was great as well. I started to wonder if I really wanted a true sim. I do think you need to exaggerate things at time to make a game more fun. I love the big juke move to get by a defender. I don�t want a 300-pound guy pulling off the same move but college football is exciting and I want to feel that while playing. I like hitting the deep pass and would rather see the game be easier than harder in this area (although NCAA �06 was too easy). The neutered deep ball in next gen, particularly by the cpu, has hurt the fun factor the last couple years.

There will always be the debate as to how much strategy versus stick skills should matter in a video game. I maintain that stick skills are very important to keep the user interested rather than a game feeling scripted. Some may prefer more strategy and are thus dubbed the �sim� players. Others who like a heavy reliance on stick skills may be labeled �arcade� even though their football knowledge may be every bit as good as the sim guy. All I know is that I want a game to resemble the real thing but most importantly I want it to be fun. A nice mix of both worlds is best for me.

If Madden is truly the better sim and NCAA more arcade like, that won�t deter me from buying the game and is not necessarily a knock on NCAA. In fact, I may prefer it this way. I actually want the game to play faster and see the deep ball brought back. The game that is the most fun to play is what I�m interested in. I�m not ready to give up on it this year. Hopefully both games will be great and different at the same time.

Comments

# 1 stlstudios189 @ Apr 16

I like a good sim anyday but, you make some valid points. I love those great fun arcade like moments too. There is so much joy that comes from a 65 yard TD pass!! or you can have a drive of 15 plays and score a TD as well they both result in 6 points. A good mix of fun and sim would make a pretty sweet game.

# 2 thudias @ Apr 16

Hopefully they are 2 separate games

# 3 marcoyk @ Apr 16

definitely agree that ncaa 09 was more of an arcade game than madden 09 was. nearly impossible to return kicks back to the house on all-madden in madden. much easier on heisman in ncaa.