An Ultimate Next-Gen Wishlist: "College Football '15" - BenGerman's Blog

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An Ultimate Next-Gen Wishlist: "College Football '15" Stuck

Posted on July 21, 2013 at 05:20 PM.

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As many of you already know, I think NCAA '14 is a heck of a lot of fun to play. Yet, as I prepare myself for the oncoming season of college football by watching some replays of past games, I can't help but be glad that this generation of football games is close to coming to an end. NCAA '14 did the best with what it was given: a terrible engine that had been sugar coated over the last seven years. Fortunately, the addition of the physics engine (which primarily impacts tackling) makes enough of a difference for NCAA '14 to separate itself from its predecessors.

Yet, it still doesn't really look like college football. Maybe more importantly, it doesn't feel like college football. From everything we've heard about the next-generation consoles, it's a chance for EA to right the ship. The hardware sets up in a way that pretty much everything should be possible for football games. So I've developed a no holds barred wishlist that doesn't leave anything behind, because ultimately, nothing should be left behind. So without any further rambling, here it is:

Gameplay

The core of any video game is its gameplay, and it's no different for sports titles. Without good gameplay, everything else has the potential to feel empty (for example, look at the MLB: 2K series). So here are a few things to look for in College Football '15...

1. Ball Physics At the center of nearly every single sport in existence is a ball. It seems like a simple thing to implement correctly into a sports title, but we've really only seen a few games do it properly. For the NCAA series, the ball has a tendency to act like a rock covered in a couple coats of rubber. Dropped balls bounce off the players awkwardly, kicks come in at odd angles and just kind float in the air, and when they do drop, they always bounce forward. Even passes have odd trajectories - despite being better now than they were at the beginning of the generation.

One of the first things the new consoles showed off was the that they included detailed physics engines, and would make it easy for developers to imitate real-life physics and weighted movements. For College Football '15, we should see more natural ball physics. Balls should have normal trajectories, and they should bounce off the ground and players more naturally.

2. Offensive/Defensive Line Interaction Perhaps the root of all evil for this generation, the lack of interaction between linemen creates a wealth of glitchy plays. Enhanced interaction should lend more weight towards the rating system, not to mention, size should play a much larger role. For the next-generation, line play needs to be based on position and overall skill. A large, skilled right tackle should easily be able to handle smaller defensive ends, and vise-versa.

3. Receiver/Defensive Back Interaction While offensive and defensive line interaction isn't all that prevalent, at least it is there. The interaction in the secondary is almost entirely non-existent, something that is likely due to the fact that foot planting and player physics don't work correctly. Next year, it would be nice to see actual physical contact between the defender and the receiver.

4. CPU AI This is one area that has taken a few big steps forward in NCAA '14. Unfortunately, there is still a clear difference between playing the CPU and a worthy human opponent. Play-calling, contextual awareness (something that has already been confirmed to be improved), and better in game management should all be expected.

5. Penalties Unfortunately, EA's football series have been the only sports titles not to properly handle penalties. Having enhanced physics should help, but otherwise, moving to next-gen isn't going to completely fix the issue on its own.

6. Special Teams I'm not really sure what went down to have special teams so messed up on the current consoles, but it happened. Punting, field goals, kick-offs, and onside kicks all do not work properly. There is virtually no threat to block kicks - something that plays a huge role in college football - and it's hard to tell one kick returner from another. Field goal kicking and punting is too easy in general. This should be at the top of the list for EA next year.

Atmosphere

In order to feel like a game of college football, EA needs to tackle all of the nuances of a college football game. Riled up crowd, exciting commentary, school pride, and legacy all play a huge role in college sports. None of which has been felt in the NCAA series for the last few years, and despite the improvements to gameplay, has caused the series to feel awfully stale at times.

1. Crowd Noise First and foremost, crowd noise needs to be fixed. FIFA is a great example of how a crowd can come to life in a video. Fortunately, with the new ignite engine, it seems like EA is making this a priority fix.

2. Commentary Again, next-gen consoles should create a lot of room for improvement in this area. I'm a little worried that developers won't take advantage of it, especially because it can be pricey to bring celebrity voices. Theoretically though, we could see the re-introduction of multiple commentary teams - given that disc space should no longer be much of an issue. Ultimately, I'd be fine with dynamic commentary and just a new level of excitement from the booth.

3. Sidelines and crowds I recently watched a video of the upcoming Dead Rising 3. How is that relevant to college football? Well, on the screen was over two hundred zombies with eerily realistic detail. Gone forever should be the lifeless sidelines and cardboard cutout fans. How great would it be to see reporters, camera men, and coaches roaming up and down the sideline?

Dynasty

1. Coaching The addition of coaching carousel was huge, but it needs to be taken a few steps further. As head coaches, we should be responsible for our assistants, and who we want to hire and fire. There should also be a ton more options to customize our coaches. From the way he looks, to his tendencies in specific situations. The skill tree was another great addition, but we should take it a step further by having it impact things outside of specific skills and recruiting situations.

2. College Gameday With David Pollack and Reece Davis already on board, there's really no reason that they couldn't render their faces and put them into the game. We could have a weekly talk show similar to CH 2K8's that covers recruiting news, games from the past week, and upcoming games. Maybe even throw Lee Corso for the selection parts.

3. Signing Day I'm generally okay with the way recruiting works as it stands. I think that signing day is something that's really missing from dynasty mode, as it's really college football's biggest media event outside of the games themselves. I can't imagine a small presentation package of players selecting from a series of hats as being that much of a problem to implement.

4. Progression Players often progress inside a season, and tend to make the biggest jumps from their freshman to sophomore years. Not to mention, players often gain muscle weight - something that is ignored in previous college football games. I wouldn't mind the return of progression being directly linked to coach skills, but I'd much rather have them add a potential rating to each recruit.

Award Presentation Most college football awards, the Heisman in particular, can be a huge help in getting new recruits to come to your school. An awards show would be a nice little addition, and would help immerse players in their dynasty.

So that's about it for me. What do you guys want to see in College Football '15, and more importantly, what do you expect to see?

Comments

# 1 DKHardee @ Jul 21

And FCS schools!

# 2 carvis#15 @ Jul 21

And new running forms. We see that they tried to target foot planting but for them to target the way that players move with and without the ball would be great. Fix the way guys run in a straight line to look like a real player running, fix the way DBs back pedal, fix how guys strafe, and add more running forms so that everyone doesn't look like they mirror each other when running.

# 3 BreaksoftheGame @ Jul 21

Create a playbook (Create formations, plays)
Accelerated Clock
Better ratings and player tendency
Real sliders
Penalties that work
Gameplanning for opponents
Player face technology (new faces please!)

# 4 ncaafootball14markus @ Jul 21

No mention of updated equipment?????? Come on!! Those old a** schutt helmets that nobody wears, no secondary colors, no mouth pieces? And what about the way sleeved players look? This needs to be a part of the
Presentation. Im tired of not having updatef equipment. Put that on the list please!

# 5 The_Gaming_Disciple @ Jul 21

I would like College Football 15 to implement player packages. In other words, have running backs that play according to their attributes. Have a speed and scatback that runs like Warrick Dunn or Tavon Austin. Then have your finesse backs such as Marcus Allen, etc. Then your power backs, such as Bo Jackson, and Adrian Peterson. Have elusive backs, such as Barry Sanders. The same way 2K implements packages for players EA should do the same. Have these type of styles and animations for players across the board. This would greatly help with regards to recruiting. It would make it feel real special to land that 5* Wide Receiver, who over his career is all world such as Peter Warrick.

Right now, all players feel the same, in other words, none of them have their own personal identity. For example look at how the Defensive Line comes to the line of scrimmage, they look the same, none of them have their own identity.

# 6 jjsmitty34 @ Jul 21

Fix the Depth Chart Logic.

# 7 The_Wise_One @ Jul 21

Good stuff as always Ben. Personally, I feel that crowd noise and atmosphere need the most work. Once that is addressed, everything else seems a little better.

# 8 BenGerman @ Jul 21

Thanks guys. Wise, I'm with you. Crowd noise has been so lackluster, and I'm wondering if it has something to do with current design of the consoles. I know developers have complained at length how difficult it is to develop, so I'm wondering if - when NCAA '07 came out - EA dug itself into a whole and couldn't quite come out of it.

I know a former OSer is actually part of the sound design team over at Tiburon, so I'm sure they are aware that it's an issue. They are really preaching atmosphere for next gen, so I'd be really surprised if things didn't change.

# 9 OUKOOL @ Jul 22

How about bring back spring games (have you seen the crowd that some school get with spring games)and med.redshirts.
make the half time show with ingame highlights from other games.
how about bring in cbs sec coverage (like in ncaa basketball '10 they had cbs and espn in the game)

also let us hire oc/dc.
also for teambuilder 1.coach creator, 2.stadium builder, 3.add slots so you can add a conference or two. 4.add more logo slots for endzones and uniforms.

# 10 tril @ Jul 22

Everything that you mentioned has nothing to do with the technology. It has to do with EA cutting corners, saving on development cost where ever possible.
Everything mentioned existed in PS2 sports games, except for the dynamic commentary, and the line interaction. However, even line interaction had nothing to do with the technology. there were other football games that had a better representation of line interaction.

# 11 floppychulo @ Jul 22

The service academies don't redshirt generally, so I'd like to see that implemented. Maybe the option to recruit players from their JV squads as well. Also Notre Dame doesn't redshirt either. I think you have to apply for a 5th year if you didn't play one season along the way.From a realism stand point that would be cool.

# 12 RandallB21 @ Jul 22

FCS, Div II, Div III schools. If FIFA can make a game with 600 teams and 16,000 players, why can't college football?

# 13 jclarke22 @ Jul 22

CELEBRATE WITH THE MASCOTS!!!!

# 14 BJNT @ Jul 24

Medical Redshirts
Full spring practice using the Nike Skills drills and finishing it off with a Spring Game.
FCS Teams
The ability to edit the playoffs beyond 4 teams.