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Rookie
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I apologize for how long this is, but I think it is well worth reading and hopefully someone at EA will read this and try some of these suggestions for improving NCAA. If anyone else agrees with what I have written, please forward it to EA, or repost it, etc. All we can do is voice our suggestions and complaints so the more people that do it, the more likely they will listen. That being said…
Things I like... not a whole lot. At least there is football being played; I guess that is a start. The ESPN banner and score updates are good. Catching seems to be better, glad they FINALLY allowed players to catch on the run out of the backfield and on some sideline catches. But that’s pretty much it.
Things I don't like.... well I could write an entire book on problems and cool ideas for this game. Hoping that someone from EA actually reads this post, I guess I will make a slight effort to make a semblance of an outline. But before I get there, I want to make sure that if someone from EA is reading this, you guys really need to change how things get done. For a game that prides itself on authenticity, you completely messed up and left out several schools’ uniforms that were changed a year or two ago. Just read an article about how some of the fight songs were taken out, one of them being Baylor’s, and the school had no idea. Wouldn’t you think the school of the cover athlete would be represented properly? As much effort as EA puts in to fixing things like pass trajectories and catching (which are definite upgrades), they completely mess up the little things that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Like, completely forgetting about South Alabama being D-1? How is it possible for that to happen? That’s pure laziness on your part, and you can do all your patches and DLC and so on, but the fact remains you were too ignorant to have it ready BEFORE customers found out and complained. It seems like you try to cover these mistakes up and it shows me that you guys really aren’t too concerned with the authenticity of the game, despite all your marketing and garbage that says you are. It is no use to tell us the game is authentic if you cannot back it up. That is a terrible way to run a business. When these boneheaded mistakes happen year after year, I think it is about time someone new takes charge of the series. Anyway, on to things that need more work….
-HEISMAN CHALLENGE: Two words: marketing gimmick. No real NCAA fans care for this. I can just create a player who is all 99s and do a RTG with him. Honestly, what is the appeal of playing with Eddie George at Michigan? This whole mode was a total waste of time that could have been better spent elsewhere.
GRAPHICS
I play with Virginia Tech a lot, as they are my favorite team, but the midfield logo and endzone text look so pixilated on the edges it’s awful. Here we have motion blur (which, along with 3D grass, is pointless because you only ever see them in replays which nobody watches anyway – these could be better implemented in the actual game play) but we can’t have midfield and conference logos and end zone texts that are crisp and clear cut (and don’t look like Michael J. Fox is on the grounds crew). That should definitely be taken care of.
GAME PLAY
-OL RUN BLOCKING: My OL can’t push through the defense, as I was have been constantly running into the OL’s backs, causing my RB to not be able to move resulting in a no gain or 1 yard run. I saw this my first online game, and it was the same thing with the other guy I was playing, he could not run up the middle effectively without hitting his OL, so I didn’t even have to blitz. Also, I would like to see zone blocking rather than man blocking all the time. I cannot count the number of times I have had OL or TE’s out in front of my RB (primarily when I am running outside) and they will literally STOP, turn around, and run back towards the line of scrimmage to block their “assigned man” who has no chance to make a play on my RB. There should be some kind of priority system where the linemen will move on from their man assignment once the defending player is taken care of, because the amount of times safeties and corners have tackled my RB 1 v 1 when my lineman out in front of me decides that he should stop leading the RB and instead block some guy already behind him, is ridiculous
- USER CONTROLS: In the very few games I have played, I can already see a HUGE problem here. I always try to user catch on offense and defense, but this year it seems like hitting Y (on 360) doesn’t mean my player will jump. At least last year, if you mistimed your jump the guy would still jump or put his hands up, but not with any intent of getting the ball. This year, they just don’t do anything, as if the game never recognizes you pressed Y. If it has to do with the player “watching” the ball, then I suspect that needs to get tuned a bit. Or at least treat user commands as an override. When I press Y, I want my guy to jump. Even if his back is to the ball, just do SOMETHING. Also, the juke moves seem so terrible this year. I have not yet gotten one where the RB or WR doesn’t lose all his momentum and juke 90 degrees at a very slow pace. There used to be ones where it was more of a 45 degree juke that conserved player speed. Even going back to previous console versions, I know Madden 04 had juke moves where the RB or WR would not lose all his speed and actually accelerated after the move was made to create a gap between him and the defender.
GAME MODES:
-DYNASTY: I think it has gotten better over the years, but the key to me is CUSTOMIZATION. I know I am not alone when I say that I want to be able to create myself as a coach, edit his appearance (and I mean REALLY edit his appearance, having more than 5 faces and 3 shirts to chose from) and start out as a Coordinator at a small school. I want to feel a connection with my coach, not just some generic guy that I can rename. Maybe allow us to use a game face like in FIFA virtual pro. That is what will keep people playing over and over. I feel like if you incorporated aspects of the old “Race for the Heisman” mode from NCAA 06 & 07, where you had a dorm room, classes, etc. everyone would be ecstatic. For dynasty, this could mean having a coach’s office instead. In the office, there would be different objects to choose depending what you wanted to do. Like a TV for game film (which could allow the user to scout upcoming opponents and learn a few keys plays they run, for instance). Maybe there could be a locker which would allow you to quickly change your coach’s appearance; a calendar with the team schedule near his desk; a computer at the desk to look up stats and news stories, a magazine (a la NCAA 04) that could have season previews or featured articles about new coaches or even championship winning ones; a window or door to go out to the practice field; a phone to call recruits and find out about players on your team that may not be eligible to play for academic or legal reasons, and so on. There could be certain benchmarks your coach needs to hit before receiving offers for better jobs, just like the coaching contracts currently used. The offices could get nicer as your coach gets better and better jobs. There could be trophy cases in the offices to display what you have won, and ultimately when you retire your coach, he could potentially be a college hall of fame inductee. That could serve as a final goal and give a user some reason or purpose while playing their dynasty.
-ROAD TO GLORY: Make it just like my suggestions for dynasty mode. That way it is like NCAA 07’s version of this. In doing so, the similarity between dynasty and RTG interfaces could probably help you guys have some sort of Connected Careers like Madden just came out with. Of course, I would like to see lots of player equipment (and brand emblems on bands and sleeves), ALWAYS a huge part of consumer requests. Having your player pick a major and then keeping up with his academics (like in 07 when there were actual exams you had to take) would make things real fun and could actually be a cool educational aspect to the game. I remember in 07 making my guy some kind of athletic trainer or physical therapist or something along those lines, and I actually got to learn some helpful information about different injuries, names of bones & muscles, etc. that all related to football. The immersive things like these are what make the users feel connected, and I promise you, EA, nobody would say “I would rather have Heisman Challenge taking up disc space then having an immersive coaching experience.” And the funny part is…you guys HAD most this stuff before!
-GENERAL IDEAS FOR BOTH: One thing I would LOVE to see across both game modes would be, in the practice field, the ability to work with certain positional groups. Bring back those AWESOME minicamp drills from Madden 04 and 05 (or even add some new ones). The ones from madden 07 could work too, such as the bench press and 40 yd dash. Give us the ability to work with our LB’s to improve their tackling; let us take our freshman QB and try to improve his accuracy throughout the season so he will be ready to start next year. Maybe once a week you can do the drills, and you get one chance at each positional group with one guy (per week). In RTG, you could obviously do your player’s positional drill, and then after the positional drills (both modes) you can bring the teams together to scrimmage (like it is now). Another idea of mine would be the ability to practice certain situations. For instance, practice your two minute offense or converting 3rd and long. Successfully doing these in the practice scrimmage could boost your teams’ or certain players’ awareness or stamina (or something else) in-game when that situation arises. Scrimmaging also reminds me, why aren’t there spring games? I think this would make the offseason a lot more fun than it is now and could further help you develop your own players rather than solely rely on the game’s progression system.
-TEAMBUILDER: My potential favorite feature, but it hasn’t been touched this since it was made in NCAA 10. There are so many bugs, like the weird spacing in endzone text so it is never centered, among plenty of other things. I think that the user should have the ability to make a few more uniform sets, or at least make the 4th one (now the alternate away) another alternate home or something. Also, not sure how the licensing works, but if you could make the generic jerseys we have to choose from branded (Nike, Adidas, Under Armour) so the team looks like it has real uniforms. Or, a simpler solution, give us more than 2 logo slots to use (I would say 4) so that we can make one a Nike emblem and one a different color Nike emblem (for use on the jersey and pants), and still have a primary and secondary logo for the field and rest of the uniforms. The ability to create your own stadium would be fantastic. The Pro Generic and Bowl Generic are old, and it’s stupid to use a one from a bowl game because then half the crowd is the away teams color and if you use a real stadium you have the real teams logo, name, etc. all around the stadium even if the field has your created team on it. If we could totally customize our own school like this, and then use them in the immersive dynasty mode, I think you could have the BEST NCAA by far, and with the impact engine it will be back again to being better than Madden.
Please, anyone, help spread these ideas around and try to let EA know what we want. Yes, we know EA is not great about delivering what the consumer wants and tries to make their own (often terrible) improvements, but I think some of these ideas, with tweaks and other suggestions, could make NCAA one of the best sports games ever. I don’t know about you guys, but if dynasty mode and RTG were THAT immersive and I could create an awesome teambuilder school to use, I would easily pay $70-$80 for the game.
Here’s to hoping EA reads this
Signed,
Loyal NCAA Fan, who hates to standby watching EA throw it under the bus
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07-18-2012, 05:01 PM
