Alright Boyz, Here We Go!!! NCAA Football 2009 impressions thread
 

Formerly the NCAA 2009 Hype Machine Kicks In thread... The demo comes out tomorrow. Figured we might as well keep everything in one thread for NCAA 2009. :)

Let the broken promises and hype begin.

hxxp://www.gametap.com/home/read/article/4584

NCAA Football 09 Interview

First gameplay details revealed on EA's college blockbuster.

By: Jon Robinson | JRobandSteal
Mar 7, 2008

"Kendall Boyd, Product Manager, NCAA Football 09 "This is our year." Those are the words of NCAA Football's product manager Kendall Boyd as he sits down to talk about the 09 version of his game. We're rolling through the streets of Hollywood as members of Darren McFadden's entourage while Boyd talks about how Madden stepped up in 08 and it's NCAA's turn to finally rise back to prominence when it hits stores July 15.

Boyd explains how the team is much farther along in development than they were last year at this time, and when I ask him about the PS3 version's inferior frame rate, he has the words that Sony gamers have been dying to hear. "The PS3 version will run at 60 frames per second."

"You sure about that?" I ask.

"I guarantee it."

Here's what else Boyd had to say about the new gameplay enhancements in store for 09, what to expect from the Wii, and how this year's game is the one that will finally bring the series back to its PS2 glory days.

GameTap: What's been your reaction to the negative response the NCAA Football series has gotten the last couple of years on the new systems? How do you plan on bringing the series up to the level fans of the series expect on the PS3 and 360?

Kendall Boyd: I think one of the things for us is really focusing on making the transition over to the PS3 and 360. We're in our third year now, and we're finally at a point where we understand the software, the developers know the ins and outs of it, and for this year we're really putting an emphasis on what makes college football unique compared to the pro game. To do that, it comes down to one thing: the gameplay. Gameplay is the basis of any great game, so for us, that's how we're going to bring the charge back.

GameTap: Do you listen to what the NCAA community has to say in terms of making those gameplay improvements?

Kendall Boyd: We do. We actually did a ton of focus group testing and we had two different community days, one in Tiburon and one down in Los Angeles. We're listening to their feedback, and we try to do that with our gaming press as well. The fans are the most important thing, and listening to them and trying to understand what they want in the game is what we're trying to do in terms of delivering that authenticity we've always stood for at EA Sports. Over the years, our research has showed that while we do have crossover between Madden and NCAA gamers, our hardcore guys are always going to come back just to see what we're doing in dynasty [mode]. Two-thirds of our audience plays dynasty; they have grown up with that feature of the game and want us to incorporate more of that authenticity into it. That goes back to what's new at your school, what have they fixed from your stadium, what has changed about the uniform. That's what separates the college fan from the Madden fan.

GameTap: What's the hook for NCAA Football 09? How has the gameplay changed?

Kendall Boyd: The big focus this year is about wide-open gameplay and the college atmosphere. If you went to the National Championship last season, it was all about electricity. We want you to be able to feel the electricity as best you can when you go in and play the game. You do that by making it a more wide-open experience in terms of giving guys more ankle-breaking jukes. At the same time, when you hit the hole immediately at the line of scrimmage, you'll find your opening. But if you're playing against a lesser team, that hole will open, and after running five or 10 yards, it might come down to a footrace. Blocking is one of the big keys to that and [it's] the area the dev team is really concentrating on right now.

This is my game!

From an atmosphere side, if you look at what we brought last year, we had beautiful stadiums. Our stadiums have always been beautiful, but how do you make the experience more vibrant, how do you make it stand out? We want to show the contrast between the home and away teams. The sidelines are now populated and you'll see cheerleaders doing stunts. When you looked at it on PS2, the cheerleaders were part of a cutscene. Now, you'll be driving down the field and you'll see them on the sideline doing stunts and cheers in unison, and it's really cool. That's the kind of stuff we want the fans to appreciate. The subtle things.

GameTap: I hear there's a new physics engine in the game for breaking tackles. How is that going to work?

Kendall Boyd: One of the things we're focusing on this year is our breakaway animation engine. What that means is that for the first time, you really have control of all of the moves that you're doing. The moves are on both sticks, and you still have the ability to do moves off the button controls. But now, much like when you play Fight Night, you can rotate the analog stick to go into a spin move, and instead of just letting that animation play out, you can now go from animation to animation and juke to juke by your control. It's all about the fluidity. I can now run at a guy at a three-o'clock angle, where in the past I was always running at twelve-o'clock, and I can now run toward him, hit my juke, hit it again if he reacted to it, and cut back out. In the past, you were always forced to look ahead, but now you can do these moves at different angles.

Defense is also going to be influenced as it's all about the trajectory [at which] you hit someone. In the past, again, you just went into the tackle animation, but now it's about where you are as you head into the play. If your guy isn't good enough and you take a bad angle, you're going to completely miss and maybe swat at him with your arm. Shoestring tackles, arm tackles, those are all things you'll find in the college game, and that's something our game is focusing on.

GameTap: What can we expect from the playbooks in 09?

Kendall Boyd: We've got two guys who are basically--if there are such things as playbook aficionados, these are the guys. We have a guy who played quarterback for Florida on the National Championship team under Spurrier, and all he does for us is break down film. We have another guy who just sits there and reads gameplay tape. You see Urban Meyer's offense, we translate it into the game. The influence you're going to see this year is more about the strategic side of the playbook. Our depth is always going to be there. I don't think any team in sports gaming does a better job of research than the Tiburon guys, and this year it's about the strategic element. How you bluff your guy. How you do checks at the line. Basically, how you run a spread option offense and go in and no-huddle your way through. Those are just some of the things you can expect to see this year.

GameTap: This is the first year we're going to see NCAA on the Wii. What's going to differentiate the Wii version?

Kendall Boyd: The Wii's been really exciting. Not to go too much into marketing, but we're doing a mascot promotion that's basically been the most successful Web promotion we've ever done at EA Sports. We've had about a half-million unique visitors to the site and we wanted to give the fan the opportunity to vote for which mascot they would like to see on the cover. It's totally fan driven. If you go to Facebook, Michigan State put up a dedicated Wii mascot page for this and they have like 3,000 members. Every day they're hitting it and voting. You go to message boards for Nebraska and you see people asking for fans to vote. That's always been the key to us, to go in and celebrate what's great about college football. To engage the consumers and the fans--and that's what this promotion is all about.

In terms of the actual game, we want to address the Wii audience. It's going to be a much more accessible experience. Family play will be in there--the first time NCAA has had family play. If you're a hardcore player, you're still going to be able to play a great game of NCAA Football, but if you're playing against your son or your parents and you want to be able to have a good experience, you can go in and set the different difficulty levels. The other thing is, we want it to be a quicker and more accessible experience. We've eliminated a lot of the slowdown of getting in and out of the instant replays and such. It's very quick and very fun and has that Nintendo feel to it but still true to the sport.

GameTap: Getting back to the 360 and PS3, I know you guys did a lot of motion-capture work for the 09 game. What kinds of new animations can we expect to see?

Kendall Boyd: A lot of the multiple tackle hits that you'll see are all the results of our new mo-cap. Also, when we were talking about the wide-open controls, now on the left stick, a place where we've never had any moves, now you can go left-to-right on the left stick and you will do a Barry Sanders-esque shimmy. It's really sweet and that's something that came from the motion-capture. Foot-pinning is another big focus, so you can actually see the cuts. When a runner hits and plants, you'll actually be able to see the leverage of the weight. We've also added all-new player models. When you look at an NFL player, they're much more chiseled. Look at a college lineman: They still have muscle tone, but they also have some girth about them. We just want to get those differences between the two to help make the game, not only feel more authentic, but look it.

He doesn't even know how to download a jar of peanut butter!

yawn.

So I'm thinking that this might be a "wait and see" for the Wii.

Amusing blog from Bill Abner about the EA hype machine................

http://nutweasel.blogspot.com/2008/0...i-heart-u.html

I'm an idiot and I'll buy it when it comes out. I'm not that much of an idiot to buy Madden this year...

I think (hope) this will be the year that I can hold off on the whole day of release buy for NCAA.

Ditto. And the same for Madden. Until I hear glowing praise from members of this board, I will try to avoid caving and buying it.

i want a dime for everytime you've posted this.


i'll expect a check for $52 shortly. thank you.

I have been every single year for the last 5-10 years as well.


I also believe this will finally be the year were I won't cave. I'm refusing to believe the hype. I saw this article about a week ago. I'm not posting any hype, and I won't buy it until I see glowing reviews on here and/or OS. I might go for the rental route this year even if I see glowing reviews on OS, which I haven't done in a long time with a sports game.

double yawn...

I will NOT purchase NCAA 09 nor Madden 09 on release day this year! If some of my trusted folks here like it, then I'll get it.

I'm hoping APF 2k9 comes out with some sort of "career" mode or something.

I'd owe you at least 60 cents. I've caved the last few years, but I'm determined to remain strong this year. I think it will be relatively easy with so many other good games to keep me busy.

I will say this though about EA, they are #1 when it comes to hyping Madden and NCAA.

Actually, I did skip Madden 2007 entirely. Why don't you go mate with a sandwich, or go attempt to get into IHOF again?

You'd better concentrate just on having it come out at all.

Fuck EA Sports. Not a chance in hell I buy these games.

nah, i'll skip IHOF. too many sensitive pussies like you who are still hurt by some things i posted many years ago. :)

but trust me - you've said you were skipping NCAA/Madden oodles of times. oodles.

Since I have a PS2, I'll probably just stick with '07. I have a Wii, but I didn't enjoy Madden much at all and certainly would not give a 1st gen game a chance unless it was universally praised by people other than reviewers.

i want a game to play online with my friends. i don't care about franchise problems. i don't want 8 INTs and 10 fumbles per game. that's all. bells are whistles are nice. i have FOF for career play.

From what I understand about your skills as a player, you likely aren't going to find a game that you can enjoy.

daaaaamn

i've busted up Pumpy in NBA2k8, sho' nuff.

i got NCAA 2k8, astoria23. you want it - come and get it. it's right here.

360 version? I have some technical difficulties -- first, I let my Live membership expire. And second, I don't have the wireless hookup for the 360. I'd have to find a long enough cord to hook it up...

KodosForPrez (or possibly Kodos4Prez)

c'mon ssssson, you know it.

Yeah, I don't like to talk about that, thanks.

I haven't brought Madden in years. Every copy I have had was either someone letting me borrow it or buying it for me. I refuse to spend money on EA and the only game I will buy no matter what is NCAA Football. The rest of that junk they put out I will continue to happily ignore.

Pumpy knows how i roll in NCAA 2008

that was a good game, even though Pumpy won.

I figured out why the gameplay sucks:


Yeah, you nailed it.

I thought the live cheerleaders working as you play was very important to the gameplay experience...

I must be the only person that enjoyed NCAA 08. I have bough NCAA at release for years now but this was my first year on the 360 and I enjoyed it. It has certainly not caught up with the old-gen versions yet but I had a good time playing it and will probably go back to playing it sometime in the next month or two.

Madden on the other hand I have skipped for 2 years running and I was tired of the madden experience even on the old-gen systems for the past 4 years.

I will probably get NCAA on release day this year as I always do. If the game doesn't get any worse then I will enjoy running a dynasty with my NC State Wolfpack as I always do. NCAA Football every year is a part of my lead up to college football season so part of my enjoyment is simply related to my anticipation of college football every year.

I will never buy Madden on release day again though. NCAA is pretty much the only game I buy on release day now anyway. I have lost faith in all that is gaming on release day (especially with sports) but NCAA is just different for me so far...

No, but it is one of those things bound to happen, make for a fluid experience... I wonder if one day we will see a packed stadium with atleast 1,000ish different looking fans.

It's funny, in MLB 08 you can watch the crowd as all the guys in black hats and red shirts stand up and clap in unison

New Feature list. Now lets see if they actually work!

http://www.easports.com/ncaa09/news.jsp


04.01.08

Here's a taste of what you can expect to see in NCAA Football 09.

In the coming weeks we'll take a deeper dive into each of the features below, so check back for more detailed information.
Wide Open and Authentic College Style Gameplay

It's Wide Open

• Bigger holes, cutback lanes, and open receivers, making the game feel more wide open than ever before
• Directional pump fake on the R stick
• New college specific tackling engine

Home of the 12th Man and Home Field Advantage with new mini-game components

• Pre-play confusion and difficulty making adjustments when on the road against tough teams
• All new toughest places to play with dynamic rankings

All-new Mascot Mode with User Controlled Celebrations

• Mascot Games
• Interactive TD celebrations

College Atmosphere

College Atmosphere & Pageantry

• All-new Dynamic Crowd System
• College sidelines are packed with additional players, mascots, cheerleaders, and more
• All-new authentic fields with new textures, lighting, and field degradation
• New college player models, including more than 50 alternate uniforms
• User Customizable Stadium Sounds & Music
• Breakaway crowd reactions

Depth & Innovation

• Online Dynasty is here!!!
• Roster file sharing online
• Improved recruiting system in Dynasty mode highlighting ease and accessibility
• New post game presentation and play by play commentary
• 1-4 player offline co-op
• Return missed field goals
• Bluff your play art to confuse opponents
• Formation audibles
• Smart routes
• Bobble catches
• Better passing control
• Post play continuation
• All-New Mini Games
• Random play selection in practice mode
• Quick replay
• CPU vs. CPU (watch mode)
• Smooth 60 FPS on PS3
• Even teams option in play now

VERY happy to see CPU vs CPU is back - even if I object to a feature that has existed since the beginning of time until only very recently re-announced as a "feature".

well interactive TD celebrations certainly turns this into a must buy for me. :P

Despite my intentions to ignore the hype, I'm now excited. Online dynasties so I can play with my best friend in NJ will be awesome if they work well and if they fix the gameplay issues with interceptions/turnovers.

Online dynasty?

Online Dynasties is certainly appealing... Especially with CPU vs. CPU mode or maybe coach mode...

I'm wondering if they will put I-AA back in, I'm guessing no :(.

With the Applachian State win over Michigan, there has been a lot of talk on the various sites that they will add at least some select I-AA teams.

If College Hoops 2k8 had online dynasties, it would be paradise.

You ever play recent Madden's 'Superstar' mode (or whatever they call it), and get annoyed at how much pre-play crap you have to go through? Let's take a look at an imaginary NCAA08 play I just generated based on the above feature list.

• My team gets the ball at the 20, in my opponents house, let's get this game STARTED!
• Before I pick a play it's time for the 12th man mini-game! YAY!
• I lose, because my 12th man is still at home.
• Time to pick a play...I'll 'bluff my play art' a couple times, so he doesn't know what I'm picking.
• Cut to a shot of the new dynamic crowd and the field which has started to collect a little snow!
• Because I lost the 12th-man mini game my guy stumble around confused before the play for a bit allowing my competition to adjust a bit before I can get set.
• In response to defensive shifts I call a couple audibles and motion my receivers out wide, hoping to stretch out the defense and widen the field a little bit.
• Meanwhile, my opponent pumps up the crowd via some button mashing, while I wait, and we get another shot of three guys in the crowd with painted faces.
• As the playcock dwindles down my QB hikes the ball and fades back a couple of steps before I fake a pump to the left of the field.
• 15 yards out, over the middle of the field, a receiver breaks free from coverage and I fire a rocket right at his extended arms, but the MLB makes an athletic play, leaps up and grabs the ball for an interception which he returns for the TD, unchallenged.
• My opponent switches to mascot mode, progresses through a few mini-games and does the worm for the next 2-3 minutes as we flash to a slightly familiar shot of those 3 guys in the stands with the painted faces.
• 6 hours later I fumble my third kickoff return, attempting to adjust to this year's subtle changes, and a freak slip on a McDonald's wrapper causes me to reset the game.

That's a list right there...sad but true. If you had slipped on a Chipotle wrapper, it would be totally acceptable :)

Well, it has never been *all* of I-AA anyways. It was about 6 conferences and to use the teams/conferences in Dynasty mode you had to replace existing teams. Then the last couple of PS2 versions they didn't bother making updates and just left the old rosters. Then in PS3 and XBOX360 they took them out altogether.

But luckily W&M is in the top I-AA conference ;).

I will be curious to see what "online dynasty" entails...

I can see this being a great addition if it means multiple people can compete in the same dynasty world online. However I fear it may just mean that there is further implementation of the EASPORTSWORLD vids and pictures that shows your "dynasty" online??? Hopefully I am wrong about that though...

The features list doesn't excite me and I imagine I'll be hurting for cash when it comes out, so yeah... pass on both Madden and NCAA for me this year.

I didn't even think about getting Madden last year or the year before. I think '06 was the last Madden I bought, maybe even '05.

I cant think of much worse than some rock paper scissors mini game to determine how full your momentum meter goes after a first down run....

That 'feature' list looks like ass.

College sidelines are packed with additional players, mascots, cheerleaders, and more

More?

Beer tents?

Nothing there to make me buy the game this year.

The only features I want that were missing last year are:

1) CPU-vs-CPU play - check
2) Stat overlays - TBD
3) Realistic turnovers - TBD

They were the game killers for me. Outside of that I was fairly happy with last year's version. Especially compared with that awful Madden thing I toyed with for a while.

Trailer:

hxxp://www.gametrailers.com/player/32876.html

So... the new features are the mascot game, cheerleader animations and some tweaks to the play diagram in game? EA aren't even trying anymore...

The lighting sure does look pretty, though.

Looks ok, but I love how the Notre Dame player and the Boston College mascot were celebrating with each other after the ND player scored.

That's attention to detail right there.

I think that was supposed to be a rebuttal to the Notre Dame players Heisman pose. The BC mascot was implying, no baby I'm the Heisman hype by posing back at him.

It really does. However, what I really like in the trailer is the Online Dynasty. It's hard to say for sure, but it looks like it will be a fully featured online dynasty with at least 4 people. That is the main thing that is building my interest for 09 if I see gameplay videos showing they fixed the defensive AI issues with so many interceptions.

LOL. In all seriousness, how many years have gamers been saying that now? I can remember that problem back through the PS2 years at a minimum.

Online dynasty could be a lot of fun, but the times I've tried to play online the last few years were just horrible experiences with lag, 5 seconds to call plays and no time to make adjustments, and just overall bad experiences.

Honestly, last year was the first year THAT was a problem. The problem in previous years was not too many interceptions, but the fact that the deep ball was too easy to complete.


Phototropic, I agree that lag could be the killer for the online dynasty. I just want to be able to play/compete with my friend in NJ, but if it is a lag fest, that will kill it. Fortunately, last year, online on the 360 was a good experience with NCAA most of the time. It was the CPU games that were horrible for me due to the aforementioned interception issues.

From the looks fo that trailer I was way off on my assumption that the online dynasty would be an extension of EASPORTSWORLD. Looks like it will really be a pretty full function dynasty online with up to 3 other players based on what I saw in the trailer.

That is very exciting... I hope I can find a couple of guys on here that are reliable to play with... Or at least my buddy from college... Probably would be more fun if we were all in the same conference though...

I am still looking forward to this game despite all of the previous critics. It remains the one purchase I make every year on release day any more...

The other thing is at the very least you could always use teams from different conferences and not face off online. You still get the benefit of recruiting from the same pool and living in the same world.

I hope the Wii version isn't lame. But the outlook isn't great when they ask what's different and they talk about facebook and mascot voting. Seriously, do they talk to their customers at all? Or did they talk to a pack of 15 year old girls?

Don't you know that most people who play the Wii are 15-year old girls? Or at least, that's what M$ and Sony would want you to believe.

Of course not--A lot of geriatrics play the Wii too.

Hopefully the dynasty mode will let you play head to head in all the games involving your teams. My roommates and I the past two years had some intense dynasties where we'd always play with our teams head to head against one of the other two guys. Well, I'm here in law school, a friend is in med school in another city, and the other one is working out of state...so this would be pretty cool.

That is my hope as well. My and my best friend from H.S. used to play out Madden careers where I'd control the Eagles and he'd control the 49ers and we'd control each other's opponents for every game. That is what I'm hoping to do over the internet with NCAA with me controlling USC and him with Penn State.

A few of the community leaders were invited to EA's headquarters to have a day or two with an "early build" of NCAA and offer feedback on any fine tuning that should be done. One of the guys is from Ncaastrategies which has always been a fairly critical audience of the series and I'm interested in reading his takes. The others have had a much less critical eye. They are all free of any NDA's reportedly. Also, they all have access to a "nearly complete game" reportedly. One of those people have already reported their early findings and it appears interceptions are still a problem:

Here is a small piece of his post from Madden Mania (things that interested me in the post):

- Still too many completions - whether it be to your own receiver or other team. Not seeing over or under throws. Definitely needs addressed before release.

- No FCS or CAS, however Western Kentucky is in the game.

(This on 360 version)
- Depth Chart Bug fixed.

- HFA = More composed your QB is, the more icons he sees on the road. Seems a lot easier to call audibles/hot routes on road as compared to last-gen.

- After INTs, there is an optional "Quiz the QB" mini-game. You have three choices in which to guess the play the defense was in. Get it right to regain some composure, answer wrong and lose composure.

I like how he says 'definitely needs addressed before release' like he's going to somehow influence anyone at EA to make the necessary adjustments before release of the game.

Uhhhhh, no.`

Spot on.

You know what really sucks? Mizzou is going to have a great team on this year's game, but I'm likely not going to buy it because it appears little has been done to fix the problems. That really pisses me off.

I'm with you. I'm not buying any EA football game without reading impressions from here and a few other sites I frequent. I don't give two shits about Madden, but NCAA I really wantto like.

The Quiz the QB thing was a little joke you added, right?





Right?

I wish. Also, I didn't even cut and paste about the ice-the-kicker mini-game they are adding (which is also optional.)

Is that Clemson's stadium covered in snow?

Good Lord. I was so miffed to hear that the passing game hadn't been fixed that I didn't even notice the blurb about the mini-game. TERRIBLE!

I'm also wondering if this is just a joke..

Like I said before, the guys at NCAAStrategies are usually very critical. These impressions of their time with the early build had me excited until I read the bit about interceptions.

http://www.ncaastrategies.com/utopia...ad.php?t=57095


It's long. Here are a few of the highlights for me (paraphrased since they asked for no copy and paste)

- Great presentation including great weather effects.

- Gameplay seems like a good combo of next gen and last gen with more fluidity.

- The option is harder to pull off when falling down and is a bit more realistic.


The big negative and the main reason I'm not excited about their long review:

1-2 interceptions returned for TD's per game. Too many interceptions. Too many on target passes that are either caught or intercepted.

Anyone who is interested in reading some good non-biased views on this "early build" of NCAA 09 should check out the link.

Dola -

This writeup also mentions the QB mini-game after INT's and explains them a bit better. It's definitely not a joke.

This is a big problem. That likely means that the screens and short passing game are defended very tightly, because that's where you get most of your 'Pick 6' plays. Given that Mizzou is a team that likes to throw a lot of short routes and screens, this would be a big issue if I were to get the game.

If it is the same issue as last year, which I'm willing to bet it is, it isn't the screens that most of the pick 6's are coming from. Simply, the cornerbacks are the fastest players on the field and they seem to be able to make unbelievable moves on interception returns. Last year, most of the pick 6's came for a deep interception in the middle of the field, the cornerback faking out a player or two and then burning everyone down a sideline. I bet it is the same this year.

As the guy from NCAA Strategies said, part of the problem is that DB's and linebackers in NCAA Football never stumble or fall after intercepting it in the game like they do in real life. They just catch it, make a perfect pivot, and then start running at full speed. If they added stumbling and such into the game, it would help the pick 6 issue greatly.

Gamespot has their preview of the game up as they were at the press event this week as well. They focused at looking at online dynasty:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/spor...=1&sid=6189867


Highlights:

- Up to 12 people can participate in an online dynasty.

- Everyone has to finish a week before it can advance to the next week, but the commish can force an advance.

- You can pick be in the same conference or different conferences.

- All 12 players can be simultaneously recruiting, playing games, or doing whatever the week's actions call for. They can all be voice chatting with each other while doing it.

- No mention of CPU games being able to be controlled by Humans :( Of course, you play out games vs your friends online when your 2 teams meet.

If the receivers were as aggressive in going after the balls as the defenders are, that would help too.

That would appear to take out Quick Slants/In over the middle then. Just as tough to deal with. Limits the offense quite a bit.

Reading the impressions worries the heck out of me. 1-2 interceptions run back for a TD per game. Yeah, right. Scores are realistic with 5 min quarters. Ok, what does that say for realistic statistics then (not going to happen)? Oh, and I just LOVE to hear that the only way to stop an offense is via a turnover.

Sounds like EA is trying for an arcade version of college football. Disappointing.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2549/ncaa-...ds-on-part-one

Impressions from Pastapadre.. some good things in there.

Keep in mind that he is a major EA fanboy.

Oh I know that.. I did like him mentioning that penalties just MIGHT FINALLY work now. :p

It's kinda funny. A few years ago, I was the resident EA fan here at FOF. How the times have changed...

I actually think that the "Quiz the QB" mini-game looks like fun.

Heh. The NCAAstrategies link I posted may no longer work. Apparently from reading on OS, EA has embargoed these hands-on previews until after May 2nd.. I'm guessing they didn't like what they were reading.

Doesn't sound too bad.

It's loading very slowly for me, but here is supposed to be video of NCAA 09 being played by Gamespot employees:

http://www.gamespot.com/video/944961...otball-09-demo


Edit: It just loaded and it is EA employees playing the game. I'm watching it now, wonder if they will show any interceptions.

No they supersimmed the defense.

I noticed a couple of things while watching the video. I played as Florida last year (OK, every year), and the playbook looks the same. It is easier to set the formations as it appears you dont have to switch screens for each formation.

The supersim feature looks unchanged as well(meaning broke). They showed the sceen for one series the defense took the field at 4:12 and after 1 incomplete pass, 2 running plays and a punt there was still 3:47 left so each play took about 6 seconds. (watch that be abused in online dynasties, super sim on defense if behind to to try and save time and timeouts!)

I want to see more information about the online dynasty before making a decision, scratch that I will buy this at midnight if not before, but I am a sucker for NCAA football.

Actually, they did show 1 interception. The guy controlling tried to throw a bomb into double coverage and it was picked off. That was on the easiest setting of freshman. After he threw the interception, it showed the QB mini-game.


It's going to be hard for me because I'm a sucker for NCAA Football, but I'm going to hold off buying and try to find it at a Blockbuster and rent it first.

This dude with the camera is pissing me off. Focus on the game numbnuts...

Here is what he said about the pre-play event. I'm just adding it as information.

"Feedback given at this event will be used to help improve the game before the release in July."

While that's encouraging, it's amazing to me that they didn't see these issues to begin with, especially with the outrage from last year's "oh look, my cornerback leads my team in scoring" debacle.

Really?! You didn't know this stuff was happening?!

I agree, every year the pick 6 is a problem. They need to make more defensive players fall down after intercepting and after recovering fumbles.

In other scenarios, make the interceptor pause as he lands and adjusts to start the runback. Too many yards after interception.

And make receivers be more aggressive in getting the ball.

A new preview is up in which the development team says the turnover issue is fixed. Too bad, I don't believe them. I can't remember who asked about the number of seasons that can be played, but that is addressed in the preview as well - 60 seasons in the 12 player MP online league. I believe it is the same for single player.

http://www.gametap.com/articles/game...x_360-04292008