News Post

NCAA Football 09 Official First Look: NCAA Strategies

10:42 PM - April 24, 2008 by coogrfan

NCAA Strategies have just posted their first look at NCAA Football 09.

Quote:


	"The offensive line play seems improved in pass protection, IMO. I am not sure I would quantify it as a pure �pocket� like some of you have asked, but I didn�t got stomped by the defensive line as much as I did in 08. In 08, online play was hampered by gamers taking advantage of the lead blocking feature with offensive linemen. If you attempted pancake blocks with them, they would blow the DL several yards deep opening up a huge hole. This year, that does not seem to be the case. I worked on this several times and only saw one pancake, but it did not result in the DL getting blasted five yards deep � only two or three. The rest of the time the players were simply engaged in a tie-up."

Game: NCAA Football 09Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 95 - View All

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Member Comments

# 41 BezO @ 04/25/08 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy


	...especially the number of INT returns for a TD...

And their suggestion to EA is going to be to put more stumbling animations in? They know EA well. 2 negatives = a positive.

# 42 Solidice @ 04/25/08 01:03 AM

was the INT problem and INT-TDs in '08(360) mainly when playing multiplayer? i rarely got any INT-TDs, most likely less than 10 total.

I have been looking at my user stats in '08 and I have played 338 games so far. In those games the CPU QB is averaging 1.64 INTs a game. might be a little high but i have used many different slider sets that could mess that up. The CPU does have more INTs than Passing TDs though, which isn't good. Pass comp % for me was 66%, 62% for CPU QB.

and in my dynasties, i save each year as a separate file, so i can look at past stats for my team. the most INT my team had in a season i believe was 24 through 14 games(it may be higher in my current season, as I'm seeing alot more INTs since getting a better D, 19 through 8 games).

Edit: now that i think about, most of the games i play, i was using a team that wasn't that good. all my Dynasties the team was either a 1* or 2* team at the start, so that could be the main reason the CPU QB INTs were lower compared to what I'm hearing everyone esle had. that and i dont user pick, i mainly use a DE or DL.

one thing that may contribute to high INT-TDs would be that Offensive players have horrible Defensive skill points. bad tackling, pursuit angles, ect....

some of the new stuff sound good, but would like to see better OL/DL interaction and less of the superman LB/DB.

I'll end up buying it anyway since its the only College football game there is and thats my favorite sport.

# 43 Scott @ 04/25/08 01:06 AM

Just researched, there were a total of 1504 games. So INT's come out to 1.1 INTs per game and .11 INTs returned for a TD per game.

# 44 bad_philanthropy @ 04/25/08 01:18 AM

I think I would like to see the game on the field be closer to the simulated games in dynasty mode (not Supersim those are a disaster). The sim engine in dynasty was surprisingly excellent turning out very accurate numbers. Of course I am not sure how possible that actually is with the current on-field game mechanics, but at least Tiburon should use their own results for simulated games as a reference point. I don't want the game to mirror the stats to the point that it takes any dynamic out of the game but at the same time if the gameplay was balanced according to the stats and averages of college football I think the experience would remain just as fun and dynamic and likely be superior to how the game plays now.

# 45 Soonerd2 @ 04/25/08 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solidice


	I'll end up buying it anyway since its the only College football game there is and thats my favorite sport.

yup

# 46 Spectre @ 04/25/08 01:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ty5oke


	I agree. I hate having to have a house rule that I can only attempt 1 INT for a return TD. AFter I attempted 1, I would have to go out of bounds if I picked another. What made it worse was the CPU didn't follow my house rules... It's just too easy to get a TD off a INT.

I knew that ASAP when I saw that first trailer when one of the RBs somehow pulled off a spin move and a juke simultaneously, defying all laws of physics.

# 47 AuburnAlumni @ 04/25/08 02:29 AM

1-2 INTs returned for TDs a GAME?!

If this is still happening, then why in the name of all that is holy are you spending time on freaking Cheerleader animations programmers??

Honestly, even a great Defensive squad gets maaaaaaaaaaybe 3-4 Defensive Touchdowns a SEASON...at most.

Come on EA...get this ironed out pronto! Otherwise, sounds good, but geez EA!!! What the hell are you doing? It's not like a giant blazing billboard for the past year hasn't explained what the MAJOR issues were with 08.

Sounds like EA just didn't bother to address many of the BIGGEST issues..or address them very "meagerly". Not a good thing.

# 48 DreadedSteeler @ 04/25/08 02:37 AM

Three years in and still one camera angle and no coach mode...Unbelievable. Was excited about custom soundtracks, but oh well. Hopefully these consoles have at least a 10 year life cycle...can't wait to go through this all over again on the next consoles.

# 49 ex carrabba fan @ 04/25/08 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuburnAlumni


	1-2 INTs returned for TDs a GAME?! If this is still happening, then why in the name of all that is holy are you spending time on freaking Cheerleader animations programmers?? Honestly, even a great Defensive squad gets maaaaaaaaaaybe 3-4 Defensive Touchdowns a SEASON...at most. Come on EA...get this ironed out pronto! Otherwise, sounds good, but geez EA!!! What the hell are you doing? It's not like a giant blazing billboard for the past year hasn't explained what the MAJOR issues were with 08. Sounds like EA just didn't bother to address many of the BIGGEST issues..or address them very "meagerly". Not a good thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadedSteeler


	Three years in and still one camera angle and no coach mode...Unbelievable. Was excited about custom soundtracks, but oh well. Hopefully these consoles have at least a 10 year life cycle...can't wait to go through this all over again on the next consoles.

I'm surprised you guys are surprised by EA

Well I don't jump to any conclusions until I see video.. so that's something worth holding out hope for.

# 50 umd @ 04/25/08 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuburnAlumni


	1-2 INTs returned for TDs a GAME?! If this is still happening, then why in the name of all that is holy are you spending time on freaking Cheerleader animations programmers?? Honestly, even a great Defensive squad gets maaaaaaaaaaybe 3-4 Defensive Touchdowns a SEASON...at most. Come on EA...get this ironed out pronto! Otherwise, sounds good, but geez EA!!! What the hell are you doing? It's not like a giant blazing billboard for the past year hasn't explained what the MAJOR issues were with 08. Sounds like EA just didn't bother to address many of the BIGGEST issues..or address them very "meagerly". Not a good thing.

Bingo. Turnovers should have been the first thing fixed. Not something that needs to be slipped in in the last phase.

Red flags based on 10+ years of NCAA football:

*high scoring 5 min. games? - going to cause problems with stats because there won't be enough snaps: tackles, etc or carries and catches.

*CPU QB AI

a) obviously the 1-2 INT TD's per game were a gamekiller last year. Inflates the scores of games and means even more annoying house rules.

b) couple that with high completion % = a lot of the 15-19 250 yds (higher if the CPU actually throws deep this year) 2 TD 3 or 4 INT games from the CPU QB...

I'm underwhelmed - they didn't even talk about the option game yet...

# 51 cdj @ 04/25/08 04:44 AM

Hey guys - hope you enjoyed the early impressions.

I will add that the lead prodcuer stated that within just the last week there have been tweaks to the game on both sides of the ball.

Please don't take these impressions as being the final gospel on the game. It will be the thoughts of the game at Community Day that you should put more stock into. If they make some of the tweaks we suggested, this game will be pretty good.

I'll add that Online Dynasties are going to be amazing. I'll have an audio interview up by this weekend (hopefully).

# 52 jpringle @ 04/25/08 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuburnAlumni


	1-2 INTs returned for TDs a GAME?! If this is still happening, then why in the name of all that is holy are you spending time on freaking Cheerleader animations programmers?? Honestly, even a great Defensive squad gets maaaaaaaaaaybe 3-4 Defensive Touchdowns a SEASON...at most. Come on EA...get this ironed out pronto! Otherwise, sounds good, but geez EA!!! What the hell are you doing? It's not like a giant blazing billboard for the past year hasn't explained what the MAJOR issues were with 08. Sounds like EA just didn't bother to address many of the BIGGEST issues..or address them very "meagerly". Not a good thing.

I agree with you & please for the love of GOD I hope Superman is not playing Middle LB this yr. I want to hear what online & offline dynasty is all about. Auburn who is that in your avatar?

# 53 rudyjuly2 @ 04/25/08 06:29 AM

Pasta Padre has some great insight as well: http://www.pastapadre.com/category/ncaa-football-gaming

The PS3 version looks great. I'm loving what I'm reading so far but I'm bummed that there are no extra camera angles and that the cpu QB AI is still suspect in terms of throwing it deep. Looking forward to more news from these guys.

# 54 J-Unit40 @ 04/25/08 07:07 AM

Here is some information from Pasta at pastapadre.com. Thanks for the link Rudy.

"When it comes to the offensive-defensive balance I�d say the leaning is clearly towards the offense. However in most of the games that were played the scores ended up realistic. It brought about more excitement due to the big plays. Scores will likely depend heavily on the styles of the people playing. With longer quarters (7+ minutes) on All-American the scores would probably be unrealistically high."

That doesn't sound too good. Maybe that's just for HUM v. HUM, but it looks like DAWR and other defensive sliders will have to be maxed (except for INT because that would just mean more points from returns

). My guess is NCAA '10 will be the year of the D!

# 55 edubbs @ 04/25/08 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grunt


	The game still sound broken to me. My bold prediction is the game they play now will be the game we will play in July. I don't think "tweaks" are enough to change these issues.

You are correct.

All of the hard code is already been put in place by this time in development. This game will not see 'major' changes before the retail version is done.

If the INT issue and the lack of a QB pocket is not in by now, we will not see either corrected by the final version.

# 56 cch99 @ 04/25/08 07:58 AM

As I've said before. One Camera Angle=No buy

Like someone else said, three years in and still one playable camera angle when PS2 had about 6.

I just don't get it.

Another thing about the whole casual gamer-sim gamer. I am sure I am wrong or they wouldn't do it this way, because the bottom line is making as much momye as possibel, but it would seem that making one of the games, either Madden or NCAA more sim would benefit them, probably NCAA because if players are more casual why would they be buying two games that are almost the same thing. Plus I would think Madden would be the first buy.

Massive run-on sentence there but you get the point.

When you make 2 diffeernt games every year why can't one lean more to the hardcore.

I am sure no one cares but back to 08 ps2 NCAA and probably Madden as well.

Thanks.

# 57 callmetaternuts @ 04/25/08 08:00 AM

Add me to the list of people who are hopeful it will be good, but is concerned with a few issues in that write up........Cmon EA, youve still got time

# 58 SteelerSpartan @ 04/25/08 08:10 AM

Well after reading NCAAstrategies and pastas impressions it appears that these games still have the casuals in mind in terms of gameplay.

Big Emphasis on Big hits, Ints, fumbles, Juke Moves, higher scores.....instead of the meat and potatoes of the game of Football.

Our only hope is that they have better functioning Sliders this year

# 59 Cardot @ 04/25/08 08:34 AM

EA's love affair with the big play has always been a bummer. I think a pick-6 is amongst the most exciting plays in football. But in '08 they are so common, they are ho-hum events. The same could be said of 80 yard passes or hailmary's in previous versions. For '09, it sounds like long runs could fall into this category.

# 60 LBzrule @ 04/25/08 08:34 AM

Defense will still be based on how well you can blitz. If you can blitz well you should be able to keep the scores down. But scoring will be inevitable since the game design is predicated upon big plays.

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