He's not a fan of the 360 either. :)

What will I find out about the 09 version that isn't already reported? It's pretty obvious that the problems are substantial.

As far as 08, I've played it as I received a free copy of the game. It was painful to say the least.

There's no difference between the two versions of the game, so I'm not sure why this is relevant.

Playing realistic games against you guys is making this with 100% worth the purchase, IMO. That really sucks if the online dynasty is broken, but I'm still having more fun than I did last year and it wasn't in the game then.

That was an incredible play, Kodos.

Total luck. I'm pretty sure it was the computer who caught the tip. And the pass really should have been lobbed more than it was. But it worked out okay. :)

Mizzou, there is already another thread for people who haven't actually played this game.

Regarding the Online Dynasty, it looks like we're going to have to hold off until some major server issues are corrected. Fine by me, as long as they eventually get corrected at some point.

Today is a day off for me so anyone who's up for a game let me know via XBL.

Maybe you'll find out whether or not the problems are actually substantial or if they affect the way you want to play the game?

I'm game.

omw

I'm in the fofc lobby.

They are substantial enough for me. I don't question that at all. The gameplay issues still are plentiful and the Online Dynasty option is outright broken. That's all I need to hear. The vast majority of people who have the game or have reviewed it agree with that sentiment.

I'll get the game in a week or two for free and be able to find out in person just how bad it is. I'll likely trade it in pretty quickly. You have every right to express your opinion about how happy you are with this year's version. Your opinion certainly differs quite a bit from the general perception. I'm actually surprised that someone involved in game development would even consider supporting a company who has given game development this bad of a name.

Mizzou...again there is another thread for people who have nothing to add.

k tnx

What the hell was that? It took me literally 3 minutes just to sub out 1 player because the lag was so bad.

I think many, many people are having fun with the game despite it's clear shortcomings.

And lots of people on here had fun with last season's version, and lots of people are on here having fun playing online with this season's version. Yes, there are some problems, and yet folks are having fun despite that. And it sounds like the Online Dynasty is a server-side issue that has a shot at getting fixed, but we'll see.

Last year INTs were plentiful, but folks found some sliders that worked around that. This year special teams TDs are out-of-whack, so folks are punting OOB and giving up a few yards. Yes, I'd love 2kSports to get back into it as they remain the pinnacle of football gameplay, and no I don't rate either version as a 10 or anything else, and no I don't buy these every year because there are issues, but I was able to get my money's worth out of last year's version without even trying. And the games certainly aren't "terrible" or "brutal". Nor are they anywhere close to "perfect". But at least I actually PLAYED '08 for more than an hour or two to form my opinion of it. And I'm on season #4 of my Madden '08 superstar game using one of those NCAA 08 Heisman QB seasons, and enjoying it despite having to deal with ring-builder and being told every season what my draft position is and reading dozens of stupid e-mails for every one important one and the like. Yup, issues, but I'm still having enough fun to pick it up.

As for '09, as I've said a couple of times I haven't heard enough yet that would make me want to get it after already having '08, which is one place I'll definitely agree with you on how they do development. But neither have I regretted the purchase of '08.


Oh no, you did NOT just go there. If anything, I may be more forgiving as a game developer, since I know the hard decisions that go into trying to make a game that has a shot of actually pleasing enough folks to make a profit. But I'm also a game player who plays lots of games, and if I can have fun with a game despite flaws, I'll play it. I still play FOF despite railing on its Vista compatibility and scouting issues, for example, because I can still have lots of fun with it. And I can still have fun with NCAA and Madden because I can take them for what they are: joystick jockey arcade football. If I want a true sim, I'll go someplace else.

I have no idea. Last night it was working perfectly for me (except with rainmaker). In the lobby it showed my ping as very good...so weird.

Exactly. As I stated previously, I'm certainly not aiming my venom at anyone who wants to buy the game and finds some level of entertainment. That's not the purpose of my comments.

That doesn't take away the fact that there were some major oversights by the developer and ESPECIALLY the testing team in the months before the release. The entire testing department at EA sports needs a severe overhaul after failing to catch the multiple issues that were found in a day or two by consumers. That team is not doing their job.

Oh I did, because I have no doubt that you're a better developer than the EA Sports development team that we're dicussing here.

I don't dislike the game because it's an 'arcade-like' game. There's nothing wrong with arcade football. I loved some of the Blitz games and I also am a huge Tecmo fan. Those are great arcade games. What we have with the EA football games is a game that tries to be both a sim and arcade game while succeeding at neither. Not only that, but it's a broken attempt to boot or one that offers little improvement over the previous year's version.

As I've also mentioned before, most of the problems at this point lie with the testing group and not the development group. There were some severe oversights in this year's version of NCAA that should have never made it through acceptance testing. The developer can't fix the problems if the testing team isn't thorough enough to find those problems.

Your looking for absolute perfection. It does not exist in any game. However, why post over and over when you have nothing really to add? It's just the same stuff. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

And stop clogging up these threads with your crappy propaganda.

Yeah, it's all propaganda. :lol:

It's an impressions thread where impressions are discussed. If you don't want to do so, fine. Just because you don't like the impressions doesn't mean they can't be discussed.

I think I can speak for everyone here with a good amount of confidence when I say...nobody wants your extreme-biased second hand impressions.

How does one give impressions for a game they have not played, exactly?

So you're dismissive of the overall impressions given in the forums and by the reviews at this point?

If bias in your definition is when a person calls out a corporation for major problems in their development and testing of a game, then I'm guilty as charged. Consumers should not have to put up with these kinds of errors this far into a franchise.

I own the game and have played it for several hours by now. I agree with some of the impressions, and dissagree with others. I take into consideration what everyone has to say...assuming it's relatively intelligent and they actually have played the game.

That's the funny part. All I've done is reiterate impressions from various sources off of the internet. I've not given one personal impression. There's plenty of places to find a wealth of impressions on the game. Thus far, they have been decidedly critical of the game.

Good, then we're on the same page. Every impression that I've posted was from someone who played the game.

Next time just post a link to "someone's" post so as to save the clutter. tnx

I have posted a link every single time save the last one. One would think you could have saved all of this 'clutter' for just asking for a link in the first place.

Since everything you've posted in this "impressions" thread is just someone elses impression...my thinking is that you could post only the link to that specific impression. That way we don't get someone who has never played the games interpretation of someone elses impression.

Someone should make you a moderator. We could get a rulebook going as goofy as the official rules of golf. That would really shake it up around here. Better yet, each thread could have rules specific to that thread while not overriding the overall rules of the board. It's like our nation in that regard.

It's just a suggestion kiddo.

As was mine.

So cherry-picking bad impressions second hand is a legitimate way to judge a game?

...but mine isn't rediculous.

You have the ability to post just as well as I do. If you feel I'm missing some write-ups that paint a much rosier picture, feel free to do so. I'd love to read them.

But it does show an extreme lack of spelling skills.

1100+ posts in this thread and now the grammar police show up?

Check the rest of this thread, where folks are posting videos of games and talking about what a great time they had playing with other folks here at FOFC.

Dude, you're an RSS feed? I thought you were real!

You're the one that brought up that intelligence was required to give an impression. I was just pointing out that you obviously just disqualified yourself from those ranks. I'd prefer to chat about the game and what needs to be improved.

Absolutely. The online game itself is without question the best part of this version. The single player game along with the single and multi-player dynasty features are where the warts really come out. If you're only interested in playing exhibition games online, it's probably a decent buy.

Whew...Mizzou you certainly know how to suck the fun out of a thread...at least temporarily. Broken logic, grammar police, all that's missing is a nazi reference and you've hit stupid bastard status.

Your wealth of contributions is appreciated.

I've certainly been derpriving myself of sleep staying up late because I hate this sucky game.

Okay, so one key, major part of the game so far is not "terrible" or "brutal" (and I'd wager that a large majority of Madden games played are pvp either at home in a party setup or online, hence the focus on it). We've had some folks chime in that they are having fun with Heisman as well.

So are we down to "dynasty mode" is broken?

That's really not necessary, but thank you.

Can we just ignore him for a while?

Speaking of the game, though, and not from a biased POV like MBBF, I am really, really bummed about the online dynasty issues. That was literally the only reason I bought the game.

If they don't clear it up fast, I will be pissed.

Agreed on all points.

Well, there still are some major AI issues that will pop up even during PVP games. Just a couple of examples.

-Return game is broken.
-Defensive AI makes major pursuit errors for no reason.

The PVP portion of the game does remove some of the AI errors. For example:

-Ghost jukes
-Passing to players way out of bounds.
-Pitching to players who are out of bounds.

And as you mention, the dynasty modes both have significant issues.

Edit: I'm also not even close to asking for a perfect game. That's never going to happen. But that doesn't preclude the developers from creating a game that fixes the bugs from previous years and improves the AI levels without a heavy reliance on sliders that makes the consumers fix the problems. I really don't think that's asking much at all. Most developers are able to do that.

Your the new jbmagic.

Hopefuly this Online Dynasty thing is a server issue, which would mean the process necessary to fix it could be a hell of a lot quicker than a patch which has to be certified several times.

Like I said, I'll get the game relatively soon and will have hands-on impressions. I just refuse to pay for it.

What do you mean you'll get the game for free and then trade it in?

The sliders actually don't work at the moment. They have merged the CPU and Human sliders into one. Basically adjusting the CPU sliders won't change anything.

Just an FYI for those trying to get some settings down.

I actually don't consider those broken. I really think these were intended. They pitched wide-open gameplay as a selling point. What they did was lower the ratings of players on the kick/punt return. For instance I had a 94 speed corner in on kickoffs and their returner 91 speed was gaining 2 yards for every 10 yards they ran.

It's broken to simulation style gamers but not EA's intended audience.

I get a copy from someone I know after they finish with it. Same with Madden.

I've been critical of EA games before and I do think some of the stuff is overblown. No one who buys these games expects the AI to be real good or anything. EA football games play like they normally do year after year. I knew the D-Line was broken and the coverage left some to be desired. But I know playing human opponents can alleviate some of that stuff.

And despite the fact that I like this game against other human opponents, it is unacceptable for EA to put out a game where the online dynasty is completely broken. It was a major selling point and one of the only reasons I bought the game. I just think it's a slap in the face of their fans that this doesn't work.

I hope that it's a minor problem and something they can get fixed in the next week or so.

I can't say I'm not surprised, given the debacle that was Madden last year. EA denied there were problems and finally the franchise patch came out during the freakin playoffs. It took them over 1/3 of the year to patch it.

Was that against FCS?

Has anyone checked the credits to see if Daivd is on the list?

I'm pretty sure that clip is against one of the FCS teams, which means their speed is somewhere in the 50-60 range. Everybody on the FCS teams takes a VERY conservative pursuit angle...you should be spanking them by 70 points.

Conservative angle at the 1 yard line? And why do they all do the same exact thing like a swarm of fish? I don't know man, shouldn't matter who the team is, they shouldn't be running toward the locker room in unision.

True. However, the whole pack of defenders running away from the ball carrier is rediculous. Just glaringly flawed AI.

That being said, the game is a blast online with legit players. I'll be on in just under an hour....hope to play somebody.

I agree that clip was strange...but I've played at least 20 games since I bought the game and I have yet to see anything like this. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist (obviously) but it's certainly a freak occurance.

Are you watching a lot of the replays? I've looked closely at a lot of them and the pursuit is just atrocious on some. Here are a few more:

Watch the pursuit angles these guys take. One guy could have easily gotten him but decides to run parrallel with him instead.

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/36817

Here is another, watch the guy make a bee line for the concession stand.

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/39350

Something is messed with pursuit. I don't know if this was done on purpose for higher scoring or if it's just something they tried to implement that backfired.

The first replay is FCS again...they take really bad angles probably because of a rediculously low AWR/SPD, the second replay I think I'm missing it. I haven't seen any angle problems in any of the games I've played...the only ones that were fishy were the ones against FCS and quite frankly against them...who cares?

In the first replay, the defender could have easily gotten to the sideline before the ball carrier did. I'd guess that the defender isn't aware of the sideline and didn't know the ball carrier couldn't go wider.

The second replay was pretty funny. One defender ran off the field, onto the track surrounding the field about about 5 lanes deep no the track. Again, no real idea where the sidelines are.

The last video, watch the Huskie player make a bee line for the concession stand while he's chasing the player down. It seems from all 3 videos that the computer player has no concept of the sideline or end zone. They don't realize that the runner will run out of room eventually along the sideline. No matter if it's FCS or not, he should have been able to hit him. And the other player who ran for the hills should have been directly chasing the player.

You probably don't notice it since you play other humans who take control of their players. But the pursuit AI is atrocious. Fire up a game against the CPU and just watch the replays on some of your big plays. Guys make some really odd decisions.

This isn't something I'm imagining, it's been a major issue on every board. Even the developers/designers of NCAA have come out and acknowledged there are some issues with the player pursuit.

Out of the 20+ games I've played so far, only 4 have been against humans. The only players I see taking odd angles are OL on interception returns, or kickoff/punt returns. No offense, but doing this is trying to find something you don't like about the game. Sometimes I see players step out when it's not necessary, and sometimes I see weird things happen. I see stranger things happen in college football in every game than this stuff...again outside of the FCS teams.

Anybody wanna play right now?

JLalley2

FWIW, obviously I haven't played the game yet (grr) but I can find at least 2 videos in this thread with obviously bad pursuit angles that would drive me insane. And that last video on the one yard line is inexcusable, whether it's an FCS team or the Stevie Wonder all-stars. If I get that in a close game I'm going to throw my controller through the freaking screen.

Dear Sun Tzu,

You're making some very valid points. You are spot on that players in real games do things much worse than what these videos portray. These post are obviously finding something that simply isn't there. We appreciate your rational observations.

Sincerely,
Peter Moore

Does anyone else think that the video option may be biting EA in the backside a bit this year? Certainly, it's a great idea, but it seems like their video service is a wikipedia of all the AI flaws in the game. In past years, it took a good amount of work to post plays like this. Now people just push a few buttons and it's readily accessable to the entire world.

For the record, I'd like to point out that I was not mocking the game with my recent comments, just discussing a possible reason for the sideline pursuit. I remember NFL2k5 had the same sideline stuff where you could get a defensive escort by racing up the sidelines. It isn't that hard to create a house rule (if necessary) to stay a yard or two from the sidelines.

I wasn't even trying to bash the game there. Just seeing if there was a way to fix it. I was wondering if it was strictly an issue with awareness and whether maxing it out would fix it. I think the issue has more to do with the sidelines and end zones and the AI not accounting for it like it should. That would be something that a patch needs to fix instead of sliders.

But I regress, it must be my imagination running wild.

From working with sliders, I think if you mess with defensive awareness it is a problem because it brings back the interception issue.

This game is not Maximum Football, no matter how much Mizzou B-ball Fan tries to make it sound.

Well, I just got smoked. I went up 10-0 early on and then conceded the game when it was 31-10. :(

So yeah. Pretty pissed about the online dynasty. Hopefully it's fixed in time for me to still be interested in playing it. It's like, if it's fixed in November when all the real games are coming out (that's right...I went there ;)) then how many people will still want to do it? I'm not withdrawing my name from the ring yet, but just typing some thoughts here.

Seriously...what's the over/under of this issue getting fixed? Argh.

Fell to Kodos 24-21 tonight. Had a late charge with my first kickoff return (93 yards) in the 4th quarter. How do you post videos here from EA Sports World?

w00t, my copy has shipped, will be here in 1-3 days!

Despite the flaws, i'm having a blast with Campus Legend. It's basicaly the same as past year, but with the 60fps in the PS3 and the more fluid movements i'm loving it. I'm playing two CL, one as RB in Boise State and another as SS in Mizzou and enjoying every second of it.

Now that i have found a good set of sliders for me ( njpapi's 3.5 ) and a real roster set without any kind of bug for the PS3, i want to start a dynasty with USF as I aways do, but i keep saying, just one more game in CL... and have been that way for 3 days already.

Also I have finally decided to use my ignore list...

1. MBBF
2. to be determined...

FWIW, I posted that pic a looooooong time ago and there are members on here that have mentally handicapped relatives. Back then some viewed it as offensive. I think it was duckman, IIRC.

and then you trade it in for money towards another game?

Yes.

What are friends for, right?

Co-workers actually. They don't pay for the game either.

Twenty bucks says this dude goes the way of abortion protesters and winds up bombing EA headquarters.

If you throw in that waffle maker you've got yourself a bet.

So you take a free game copy and rip off some store by trading it in?

Did I miss something?

The word I am thinking of suits him perfectly.

Are you saying that he has a vendetta against EA?:rolleyes:

where'd you get the bugless roster set for ps3?

It was Subby. I defended you, I think. :)