March Madness 07 Impressions (360)

[jake44np]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tomba321

Camera: The pitch and zoom hardly does anything. Pitching up and down only slightly adjust the heights of the broadcast and sideline cameras. Zooming in and out only marginally brings you up closer while zooming out just puts you in the stands even more. The new "tracking correction" has two modes. Smooth and fast. fast works best with certain angles and smooth works better with others. it's really a preference more than an actual fix to any angle you play in. Theres a few issues I see in every sports game and that's camera angles. Nowadays you'd think they'd want to give us what we see on TV. Not always the case, they always give us "their" impression of what is a broadcast. Such again is the case of the broadcast cam in MM07. If we remember the demo. the demo had this same camera angle yet without any zoom or pitch. zooimng in only goes in a little bit and pitching it doesn't at all pit you more head on either. the sideline cam is no different. It has a very odd way of staying head on to the action but with no tilt. almost as if the camera is on a rail just going back n forth across the stadium. Any side cam is crucial in a game esp baskeball and soccer and even hockey. It's the way the sports have always been seen on tv. So why not try and attempt an authentic view of it? (For those playing their sports game from a more third person perspective or tackling their gameplay based off the view that best shows their strategies then you need not worry as framerates and animations look better when viewed from a top down or vertcial view) There isn't really just one bad thing that sticks out of playing in these camera angles as the arenas and sound of the game are very good and the experience had from it is actually something missing in many games. Some stadiums are quiet as if it's somekind of non-important home/away game for a smaller college. while the bigger arenas showcase everything that comes with home game pride. However,there are inconsitencies throughout and they can be fixed via sliders and options. The main thing isn't only the camera angle though. It's the motion of the game(which any camera angle will react different to due to how the camera sees the movement) One of the worst things in any game to have now is a bad ball physics. Because you PLAY with a ball most of the focus is on the ball. If you have the physics down for that and the animations along with it to interact then you have no worries. It's only when things ain't right that you start to have issues. Glaring issues. NCAA March Madness 07's main issue is this. It's what the cameras follow. It's the major factor in how players move. Everything can be linked to the ball. If a ball is too fast then everything is fast if a ball is too slow everything becomes slow. NCAA MM07 is struggling between it's ball and camera interaction and it just pours all of it's problem onto the players animations making for a sometimes very frustrating result per play. Again there are WAYS around this,but they require experimenting. Ontop of all this everyone's impression of what looks good after tweaks is entirely left up to everyone's own vision. There are things that need to be tweaked automatically that the developers themselves have not been able to catch. (probably due to the fact to their closeness to the project, where they themselves just got used to it) This though has to be left up to time with the product as it's definately a workable thing. In many cases the gameplay is the thing you have to do to progress and NCAA MM07 career modes are really where this product gets it most lasting power from. So editing it becomes a part of that. What I'm trying to say is "OUT OF THE BOX" this game is bad and anyone renting it will see that and NOT buy it. Animations DO flow more naturally but it's not the animations fault it's the ball physics fault if the animations look bad. Dribbling looks good. Running with and walking with the ball is done much better than in that other EA NBA. game. Shooting is chill. Lay-ups and dunks look good, so it's not at all a player animation thing. What can I do or we do to kind of eleviate the bad ball physics? Not much, AGAIN we have to work AROUND them by bringin up/down sliders and placing the players in strategies. This takes work and I wonder if now anyone will even do this being it so late in the season. Playermakers? Tomba? Don't know yet. Enough. That's my impression and critique.

I have read this post 3 times and still dont know what you are talking about!!!! lol

[sparker]

Simmed UF's season and they went something like 25-4, regular season SEC champs. They then won the SEC Tourney and got NCAA auto bid.

The Selection Sunday show is not animated. You have various frames of information with Vitale and Nessler describing things. EA didn't add any code that would allow the two of them to mention the teams by name. It's not as good as the CH 2K7 show without the animation/highlights, though the 2K show can get lengthy after watching it over the "years" in dynasty. The final frame, The Tip Sheet, is neat -- it shows the teams that Vitale thinks were hosed, the ones that were fortunate, who his sleepers are and some of the teams that are NIT bound.

The NCAA Tourney, up until the final 4, is played on generic courts. I wish the courts were real, but the awesome look of the graphics this year makes up for this some. The generic arenas are bigger ones this year, which helps out too.

The Final 4 in my sim: UF vs. Washington and Arizona vs. Ohio State. UF beat Wash and OSU won.

The Georgia Dome is absolutely freaking awesome looking in the game. I am AI vs. AI in the final game now. I will report on the postgame celebration. (I am not playing much right now b/c I have some outside work to do in a minute, but I will play more games later tonight).

Question for readers: Does the pre-Season NIT have a losers bracket? It does in MM07. After losing in the first round, the camera showed Fazekas laying on the floor face down.

[fantasysportsguy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Barto

Good gracious. Do you work for Visual Concepts or something?

Thats a great way to start off here man, good one! Quit trolling and add something to the discussion, or back out.

[Tomba]

Quote: Originally Posted by jake44np

I have read this post 3 times and still dont know what you are talking about!!!! lol

baring any grammical errors my thought process is genius

[JoJoRunyan]

Im likin this game so far. Ive only played one game and it was a lot of fun...

10 Minutes
All-Conference
Cal Poly - 42 @ Boise State(me) - 44

The hardest part at first is adjusting the camera to how you like it but then once you figure it out it looks good. The graphics look good and the crowd is impressive. I love the Impact Moment and the composure. Once your impact is full you control your player to run anywhere on the floor and press A to interact with whatever your by. I did check the NCAA Tourny and the tournament is still generic courts, at least for the first round.

While Choops 2K7 was a good simulation game, I just didnt have fun playing it. It was the longest 14 minute halves of my life. March Madness keeps me interested in the game because you make one stupid pass and boom turnover, press the wrong button and its a foul. There was actually 7 fouls in a half by each team which i never experienced with 2k. The free throw system is pretty tricky right now. I tihnk with time it will become easy. I think I only shot 1/10 from the free throw line for the game. Also, The BSU roster was very accurate with Numbers, Height, Weight, Skin Color, and they even had the new BSU court which 2k didnt have either. So im assuming if BSU got that much work on it then most other schools will have accurate rosters also.

Im really enjoying the game... I got class right now but I plan on bumping up the half-time length once I get back and playin another game. Peace!

[Barto]

Quote: Originally Posted by fantasysportsguy

Thats a great way to start off here man, good one! Quit trolling and add something to the discussion, or back out.

First of all, i'm not trolling. I was hoping to read some actual feedback and impressions of the game. Second, i just found out about this website today while looking for impressions of the game on Teamxbox.com. Third, his impressions were only that the ball physics weren't up to par and the camera angles were lacking.

Then Tomba went on to say this before i could even have the thought about my Visual Concepts comment:


Framerate issues: yes, but there are other things that make it not so cool.
Multi player franchise: I don't know.
Simmed games. I don't know (these are like un gameplay question though that you have to go and specifically tryout)



It makes me wonder if the guy even has the game or is just bashing the game for the sake of bashing it b/c it's either an EA game or just not College Hoops.

If you don't like my posts, then don't read them. I'll offer my impressions when i get my copy this evening.

[BigTigLSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by Barto

Good gracious. Do you work for Visual Concepts or something?

Cause he gave his opinion about the game.... and it was all that good. I thought he was fair and gave the game a chance

[sparker]

UF beat OSU in close championhip game. The crowd chants are really, really good, as is the PA announcer that they previewed. During second half of game a stat box popped up that said UF is 30-1 this season when leading at half.

The champ celebration looks mostly like last year's, with One Shining Moment being sung in background again.

Some new commentary about players (how much eligibility they have left, etc.) that is good.

Will give more later.