EA reminds me of a politician a whole lot of talking and promises but never delivers. And me I am a mindless numb nut whose love for college football outweighs the flaws that will envitably be in the game.

They are looking to implement stat tracking online for the multiplayer dynasties, which would be pretty cool.

Sadly, I am slowly being sucked in to being interested in this game. Online dynasty could be a blast with the right group of guys...

One question I have, since I have not been following this, is have they done anything to improve the RFTH mode? After trying a dynasty, I gave up on it but I still put many hours into the RFTH mode (the same mode in Madden was total crap so I'm not even looking to Madden this year).

It has gotten very little press/hype, so my guess is that it has undergone very little change unless they are saving it for the final media blitz.

I did like the RFTH mode playing as a running back...and watching my highly-rated QB throw 3 to 6 INT's per game. It was amazing...

This will be the first year I'm actually able to play NCAA, so I'm probably more excited about it than I should be.

whats the # of teams allowed in an online MP league? that might be a lot of fun.

shotgun Miami Canes.

12.

Dola -

If we do get a FOF league going and we use power teams, I want USC ;)

Yes, let's use power teams. I'll take Rutgers :).

I would think playing within one conference would be much more fun, instead of random teams across the nation...just my 2 cents

I was thinking using 80-rated or below teams would be fun. More of a challenge to get a championship too.

Personally, I think that would be the most fun as well. Either that, or randomly selecting teams within one of the lesser conferences so we all play each either.

Someone said before we should do the MAC. 13 schools, all low level prestige. I say we do it.

Dola, if we do the Mac, I am shotgunning Central Michigan. I need my Dan "I gotta" LeFevour and the only cure are more touchdowns.

One thing to consider is that it is harder to get your human opponents to play than it is to play against the computer. So having teams spread across conferences might be good in that sense, because there would be less schedule coordination involved. But then the whole point of going online is to play against others... :) I guess at least recruiting would be cool in this scenario.


This post was worth about .012 cents. :cool:

My impression from the article, which i may be quite mistaken in, is that we cant just randomly log in and do our weekly activities. I got the impression we were all doing our weekly activities at the same time, so getting people on at the same times to play games would already be taken care of by the requirements of league. Am i totally off-base here?

Dola, that was worth at least .013 cents, as it was far more insightful then your last post ;)

The recruiting would be awesome in your scenario, Kodos. Plus, we could meet in Bowl games which would be theoretically less cumbersome to schedule.

I've read 3 or 4 different articles about online recruiting, and I believe that the dynasty is housed on a server and can be accessed at anytime and doesn't have to be when everyone is on at the same time. I could be wrong about that, but I don't think so. If I (and Kodos) are right, scheduling would be the major benefit to being in different conferences..

i would like to play lower-tier colleges, i was just claiming the Canes in the event that this was gonna be a free for all.

i have no prob playing in the same conference, but are there any conferences that have 12 teams? or would maybe 2 conferences, 6 teams each be better? full stat tracking is awesome.

this may not get off the ground, i'm just putting 2 cents in. sounds like it'd be fun.

I failed calculus, but I'm pretty sure the Big 12 has 12 teams. But I can see where that could be misleading, since the Big 10 doesn't have 10 teams. :)

It would be pretty sweet if they let you completely change the conference structure for online dynasties.

Yes, the Big 10 only has Michigan and Ohio State :)

Who the hell let Ohio State into the Big Ten?

i'm down with that. make sure we leave a slot open for Pumpy.

I'm so up for this.

I hear you. I'm in agreement. If we even get so far as organizing this and it looks like it will take off, this game goes from a rent-and-see to a day 1 buy.. as it is, I like what I've seen from the latest gameplay videos. It looks like in the latest build, they've slowed down the hyper speed that was being shown in the earlier builds and I'm seeing linebackers and DB's misplay balls and bat down balls that would have almost certainly been interceptions last year.

...and Wisconsin. :)

I'd certainly be up for joining. Especially if we went with mid-tier teams.

... and INDIANA.

Like I said, I'm all for mid-tier or low prestige teams. I do think that it should be a random assignment of teams or better yet a draft system rather than who calls teams first, but that is just my opinion ;)

A draft system sounds good. At least that way, people could try to grab teams that they actually have some sort of attachment to.

The MAC sounds like a really fun conference to play with. I am definitely interested in getting in a league with some FOFCers.

Is there any word on whether it will have FCS/I-AA?

Why would it? Nobody cares about those teams! :D

It won't. It will have all 120 Division I teams or whatever they are being called (which is escaping me at the moment.)

I could've sworn I read somewhere that some AA teams will be included (I remember seeing something about App State).

About 2 weeks ago I started a thread trying to get a league started for this, so I'll claim it as my idea. Which also means I get first dibs on a team.

Akron Zips = mine

Anyways, count me in for sure. To answer Blades question about recruiting, you can recruit anytime you like, there doesn't have to be "set" times for recruiting for the league. If you just so happen to be recruiting at the same time as say, Hell Atlantic, you can actually hear him speaking in strange tongues. There is 1 commissioner, who sets the ground rules and enforces them online. Say for example you have a game against the CPU and you keep quiting and restarting it until you win. The Commish will see that you started a game several times, and can change the outcome of the game as he so pleases. There's a decent amount of other stuff too...I'll try to find a link and dola it up.

when i play online i always try to get the other guy to play as a mid-tier school. in a perfect world everyone i played against would be interested in playing really crappy teams - that's where this game really shines. when you're both crappy teams, what little standout players you have really dominate. if you're USC or like Michigan, every player it seems is ridiculous and it doesn't force you to be a good player since you can fall back on the talent of your team. glad to see pretty much everyone here is on the same page about mid-tier/bottom feeder schools.

I think if we do star a league, it should def. be random. Or a draft, with randomized draft order. Something to keep fair and even...

Even though I enjoyed running my dynasty last year I just can't seem to get interested in NCAA yet. I will likely buy it and enjoy it but I know there will be at least 1 fundamental aspect of the game that will leave me saying, "If only they ______ then this would be an amazing game."

STOOPID Q: Do you think NCAA seems to retain a better reputation than Madden (at least in my eyes) to some degree because it's presenting college football, rather than pro? Since the college game is more prone to turnovers, mismatches, sloppy play, and since there are more players and teams than one person could accurately track, does that result in gamers being a little more forgiving towards the NCAA franchise, because of it's license?

I don't think that is stupid at all. I think that is true. People tend to be more forgiving of NCAA because statistical accuracy is more difficult to pin down in college football. That being said, I think most of us on this board were fed up with the turnover issue last year and I won't be buying this on day 1, unless a FOFC league looks like it is going to happen or my best friend buys it.

I figure at worst, if he buys it and the turnover issue is still present, we can use it to try a sim only online league which could be fun as well.

Anybody interested in an SEC league?

Mid tier sounds pretty decent too. If you can build your own conference, it would definately make for a great setup. Make it so you can only choose D rated teams, or something like that.

I'm in.

Will you be able to move up online (from building that crap team in the MAC into a conference championship contender to a crappy team in the ACC or Pac 10)?

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/1..._051508_1.html

A full drive

The turnover issue is a big deal for me as well. That was really the only big problem I had with last year's game.

With regards to Madden, the interesting thing is that NCAA's stat engine has actually been much more accurate than Madden's over the last couple of years.

That video...I don't know. That diving TD was just awful. There is no way you can defend a catch like that...and that's someone playing as Boston College.

No INT's is a good thing. Only 1 possible INT was thrown and the LB dropped it. We'll see how the game plays when it comes out. One drive doesn't show me that the turnover problem is fixed. We'll see I guess.

The last version of this game I bought was 2004 for the PS2. It is sitting about 5 feet from me on the shelf in fact. If my PS2 still worked I could pop that in and here the same exact comments from the commentators. It's kind of annoying. I would be happy if they just did a play by play and left out the two clowns doing color.

I thought the video looked good, but I haven't played any prior versions so maybe I'm not the best judge.

Really not a fan of that lateral pass though.

That lateral pass was horrid and is a sign that the option game will still be overpowered. Otherwise, I saw several positive signs:

On the TD pass, the QB threw to a spot instead of the receiver, that is new to the series and a much needed change.

Several passes that were thrown would have been interceptions last year, but were either knocked down or were completions in this video.

Could be my imagination, but it looks like the blocking is better and a pocket is actually starting to form.

Operation Sports has a beta copy and have been posting a ton of screenshots including final polls and award winners at the end of a season. The stats look reasonable which is no surprise as I think the simmed stats were generally good last year. Later this week, they will be discussing the beta copy gameplay more.

Here is a link to the newer screenshots:

http://www.operationsports.com/mediaview.php?id=417

Here's a question that I'm hoping somebody can answer.

I'm going to pre-order NCAA, but I need advice on the platform - 360 or PS3. Generally, I like the controller on the 360 better, but I just like the PS3 "machine" more - there's no concern about overheating, it's quieter, etc. I know both versions are supposed to be the same, but when's the last time that was really true when it comes to EA produced games? If they truly ARE equal, I'll probably get the PS3 version...but I'm concerned PS3 owners are going to get hosed again. If that's the case, I'd be happy to just go with the 360.

Any advice?

Go with the 360 version and join our online league ;)



As far as which version is better, those at the media events have said it runs the same on both consoles. I guess EA could mess something up between then and release, but I doubt the PS3 version will have the issues that last year's did.

Dola -

IGN has 2 insider videos of an entire half between OSU (presumably CPU - maybe online opponent?) and LSU (player) from the 360 version and from the commentary on OS, the CPU(?) is picking apart the human player and had 0 interceptions in the first half. No idea what difficulty level. There is a Youtube link to a lower quality version of the video, but I can't get it to work right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQZfMos6Zok

Thanks for the link.

Glad to know the coin toss is brought to me by Coke Zero ;)

Did they change how passing speed is determined? I like the old way of holding it down for a bullet & tapping it for a lob. The new way of using pressure sensitive buttons makes it a lot harder to control.

On the play-calling screen, did you notice that there's no indicator of what yard line you're on? That's not cool at all. Actually, there's never an indicator of what yard line you're on. Wow.

I've decided that many video game reviewers lack gaming skill. Did you see that attempted "tackle" on the OSU TD? Just the general "defense" of the user is not-so-impressive.

We'll see I guess. Last year's game was close...but there obviously can't be any game-breaking issues.

I still can't see it. Apparently, my work blocks Youtube, but doesn't tell me they do so. Instead, it just times out anywhere on their site ;)

The rest of the game is also posted on youtube, now. I should be able to post links later tonight. Apparently, this "previewer" is either very new to the series or just has very poor skills with no excuse, but the CPU demolished him in this game which most people think was probably on All-American. No INT's for the CPU and the CPU passes long twice in the 2nd half which is an improvement from last year even if it is just one game.

I haven't seen the videos either, but it sounds like the guy was sending too many blitzers / not using proper pass defense formations, and consequently, he got eaten alive. Also, he's apparently one of those drop back 15 yards then chuck it across the field types of players.

You're right on there Kodos. I was bummed when he dropped back 15 yards and heaved a pass 40-50 yards down the left sideline & completed it to a guy in single coverage. Not totally unrealistic, but when looking for faults it's not a good sign.

Glad to see the AI pick a crappy pass by the user.

The AI is just destroying this guy...he's awful. You think for a bigtime website (like IGN) they would put someone on the game who is at least competent or, at the very least, not god-awful.

I think many video game reviewers lack skills. This is just one example of questionable play I've seen by game reviewers. And these are the people we trust to judge our games?...

Can we count this game as the actual result for the national championship game? Ohio State up 28-7 at the half...

Being delusional is essential :)

Steve, a main guy over at OS who is a straight shooter, has posted his initial impressions of the NCAA Beta:

http://www.operationsports.com/preview.php?id=36


Just a few points from his post which is long:

Under the good points:
- Interceptions and Pick 6's definitely seem toned down to him. He's had limited time with the game so far, but he has only seen 1 pick 6.
- QB's will have some errant throws for no reason - it just gets away from them sometimes.
- CPU QB seems smarter, but doesn't throw deep much at all.
- AI in general is smarter and more challenging.
- WR's are fighting for the ball much more, perhaps a bit too much.


Under the bad points:

- Heisman Trophy selection seems to heavily favor the QB's.
- Issues with the change to a 40 second play clock.
- CPU snaps the ball too quickly to allow any defensive adjustments most of the time.
- Still only 1 camera view and NCAA doesn't pan out to show wide receivers like Madden will this year.
- Offensive linemen will just stand there at times if there is no one to block, rather than looking for someone to block.


He has much more info than that which can be found at the above link. I just picked out a few of my favorite points from reading his post.

Both of the versions will be exactly the same. Last year was a PR nightmare for EA and they've gone out of their way to state numerous times that both versions will be the same and perform at 60 FPS.

Links to instructions on how to create and play an online dynasty. #11 is nice as it confirms that online dynasties will be able to use modded rosters with real names if we choose :)

http://easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/onlinedynasty/CreatingAnOnlineDynasty1.pdf

http://easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/onlinedynasty/CreatingAnOnlineDynasty2.pdf

http://easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/onlinedynasty/Dynasty_Headquarters.pdf

http://easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/onlinedynasty/RunningTheOnlineDynastyAsCommiss.pdf

http://easports.com/downloads/easports/ncaa09/onlinedynasty/PlayingTheDynastyAsANonComis.pdf

Dola -

#13 is nice if the commish ever wants to quit the job, it allows for a fairly easy transfer of commish abilities :)

Dammit...this is starting to get my attention.

Good find EaglesFan.

Did you see the ratings screen? Good teams are in the 90's, but teams like Alabama (73) Syracuse (51) Nebraska (68) Wake Forest (60). Are they actually using the entire scale this year? That would be a miracle.

More good news: the commissioner can change the sliders/settings for the dynasty. I remember on another sports game years ago, you couldn't adjust any of the settings. This way people can tweak the game to their liking and use the best sliders possible. Very cool.

So much potential here...but I don't know why I am getting excited. Every year the NCAA game has some game-breaking glitch (last year: INT's, 2 years ago: blocked kicks). IF IF IF IF IF there are none of those, then I see this as a game that many members of the forum will be playing for a long time.

It's gonna kill me when there's some awful glitch in the game...because this could really be amazing. We'll see I guess.

Steve from OS has posted answers to another batch of questions:

http://www.operationsports.com/preview.php?id=37


Here is an excerpt of the question I asked and the answer (he hasn't adjusted sliders at all, yet.):

eaglesfan27: Steve,

Yesterday, you mentioned that you had only seen 1 pick 6 (unless I misunderstood your answer). On average, how many CPU thrown interceptions are you seeing per game?

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Steve: AI has thrown, on average, 2 INT's per game. I've seen as many as 4 in 7 min. qtrs and I've actually seen a game where the AI didn't throw a single pick. So far in my time of playing, I've seen 2 pick 6's now. TONS better than last year, as the AI throwing picks in general was extremely annoying.




Also, he posted screenshots of stats from a full simulated season:

http://www.operationsports.com/mediaview.php?id=417



From looking at the screenshots:

QB Ratings seem a bit high for the leaders, maybe due to high completion percentages, but in the further screenshots their are QB's throwing a good number of INT's (20 in one screenshot for a QB who threw it a lot and was one of the leaders in yardage.) Yardage totals look good. Another screenshot shows that the highest Interception totals were: 27 (with 20 TD's), 20, several guys with 17, 16, and 15. About a half dozen to a dozen guys with over 70% completion rates with the highest at 73%.

Leading rusher had 1865 yards on the year with 19 TD's. Lots more screenshots up on OS, but the stats generally look good.

Dola -

One person asked him if he has seen any gamekilling glitches yet, and the worst glitch he has noticed so far is that if you call a punt block, you can get unrealistically good returns.

Edit: Other major issue was the CPU snapping the ball too quickly to allow for defensive adjustments.

One person? I'm that one person :) I posted that question because that's what I fear right now. I think the online dynasty will be awesome for us FOFC'ers (and other folks) but if there's something awful in the game (too many INT's, too many blocked kicks, etc.) then it will ruin the game for me.

The quick snap/no defensive adjustments thing is kind of a bummer.

The punt block giving you 20+ yards on a return is a definite bummer. Hopefully this gets fixed.

Other than that things sound pretty good. I hate to get my hopes up (again) for an NCAA game...but this one sounds like it might be sweet.

So hard for me to give EA the benefit of the doubt on anything, as I usually end up disappointed.

Heh, I didn't realize that :)

Looking over the stats more, it seems like QB INT's are low particularly for the elite QB's, rushing yardage for QB's is low, and season tackle totals are low, but as usual the stat engine looks much better than Madden. At least NCAA is in the ballpark of realistic which I can accept and still enjoy the game. :)

This screen is not good news.. hxxp://www.operationsports.com/mediaview.php?id=417

Strongly suggests to me that they either haven't fixed the deep passing game at all or that part of the sim engine is deeply flawed.

I agree with EF27 - elite QB's look to have too many TD's and nowhere near enough INT's. That might be fixable with sliders though, and if not at least the game will be playable. Much better IMO to have way too few INT's than way too many in terms of gameplay.

Also, apologies if I missed it but I see Temple & UNT in those screenshots... are they putting FCS/1A teams in the game this year or did those schools get moved up to D1?

Both schools have been in Division I-A for years. Temple is currently in the MAC (used to be in the Big East) and UNT is in the Sun Belt.

Every year the train gains speed in the month before release. I'm always amused when the train derails and everyone acts shocked. :)

I'd like to see this one live up to the hype, it's been three or four years since I bought one of the NCAA games.

I really have to hand it to EA again for coming up with EA SportsWorld. I was just watching some videos from the dynasty I did last year. It was cool to be able to relive some of this stuff almost a year later.

Gameplay videos that I saw on OS. A poster there found it on Vimeo. It's a whole game of 5 minute quarters on AA defaults.

http://www.vimeo.com/1060908?pg=embed&sec=1060908


http://www.vimeo.com/1060964?pg=embed&sec=1060964


http://www.vimeo.com/1061308?pg=embed&sec=1061308


http://www.vimeo.com/1061436?pg=embed&sec=1061436

Cool video, but I could do without the Mountaineer Mascot freak dance.

Looks like it is taking about 20 seconds from snap to snap.

Agreed about the mascot. The CPU offense seems smarter, especially the QB. Also, the CPU running game seems like it will be more potent than last year.

Sounds like it is better, but then you get some mixed signals. I'll wait and see. What is the release date for the game?

July 15th.

That was an exciting game very engrossing. I found myself in awe of how good #7 for West Virgina was...

Very impressed with that video. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but you can see the CPU avoid tackles without simply breaking out of wraps. They are putting themselves in better positions.

The only negative I saw beside the prolonged mascot shots is the high completion percentage by the CPU, but the player was sitting back in zone from what I saw.

According to PastaPadre's site, interceptions and scoring have been toned down in the month since they last touched the game. Woohoo!

Every year at this time I think I'm not going to get sucked in and then I routinely begin my visits to the OS forums and begin to watch and get jealous of the guys who get the game 2-3 days early. I thought this year would be different, but not after hearing the latest update.

I'm in the same boat.

The FOFC league has me fired up for this game.

Will you have the ability to create your own play book, and set up formation subs?

I believe the answer to both is no. However, there will be quick formation subs this year.

4 fumbles in the first half of the game on vetzballin.com of OSU/UGA. That's not good...

The lack of formation subs kind of sucked. It's a pain in the butt to go to your depth chart (which I hope is easier to use this year) every time you wanted to make a change. Playing online in a dynasty, it would be annoying. What exactly are "quick formation subs"?

The previewers say the depth chart is much smoother and the bug is fixed.

Quick formation subs are where you hit "x" or whatever button to sub in your HB into the slot, or your backup HB into the HB position, etc.

There are a bunch of new previews up after a community day yesterday, and they all report a few positives:

- The option is much more realistic. No longer can QB's make great pitches while going down in the grasp of a defender.

- The game is more defensively oriented than a month ago. 14-3 and 21-3 scores aren't uncommon.

- A large expansion to most team's playbooks. Some teams run over 20 formations.

- No transfer kit needed for rosters. If you know the gamertag of someone who has rosters on the web, you can enter it and download directly to the console.

- Running game is improved from last year.

- Interceptions seem a bit more toned down.

Some negatives:

- CPU still quicksnaps.

- Short passing game is too effective, particularly passes to the RB's in the flat. (I think QB accuracy being turned down for both sides will be one of the necessary tweaks.)

- Too many big kick and punt returns are happening.

- Pass rush is weak unless you blitz.


My favorite thread for reading impressions:

http://www.ncaastrategies.com/utopia...53#post1634053

This is freaking awesome news. Thank God EA has finally joined the 21st century. Casual gamers everywhere rejoice :D

I really wish they'd get rid of the quick play calls on the CPU-side. It really screws up the timing of the game.

my potential sucess in the FOFC MP dynasty just took a hit, now that the QB can't run the option very well as he's being taken down by defenders. 50% of my long td runs were from those types of plays.


aaaaargh.

I hated the option last year. You have two guys wrapped up on the quarterback, sideways and covered, and yet some way he still manage to make the amazing pitch.

i have like 4 or 5 highlights of such a play. though unrealistic, it's really exciting to pitch the pall at the absolute last second.

The community day is done and there are a bunch more impressions of this, Madden, and Head Coach. Most of the positives have already been mentioned, but the big negative that everyone is mentioning is that the pass rush is vastly underpowered. Even with sliders, it is almost impossible to get a pass rush from the front 4 and even with the blitz, it can be difficult.

http://www.ncaastrategies.com/utopia...ad.php?t=57848

A game killer?