I love playing NCAA2004 but...

[dawgfan]

...I can't stand just how blatantly the AI cheats in order to try and provide a challenge to the user. I'm playing a dynasty at the All-American level, and while I win 99% of my games, it's not without a number of EA's patented "No Fucking Way" moments. Some of my 'favorite' ways the AI cheats:

- The AI consistently recovers more fumbles than I do;
- No matter how open my receivers are, what my QB's accuracy rating is, what my receivers' hands ratings are etc., there will be a large number of passes that simply bounce off their hands incomplete; I'm lucky if I ever have a season where my QB completes 50% of his passes;
- The AI, no matter how much my defense may be dominating in the game up to that point, will mount long drives in crucial situations where every prayer thrown up is completed no matter how covered the receiver is, even if it means my DB's either don't react at all to the ball despite having the play in front of them the entire way, or they tip the ball (never intercept) and the AI receiver miraculously catches it on the fly;
- Did I just break off a big gain - must mean my line was holding;
- Did I stop the AI on 3rd down - I must have committed a facemasking penalty;
- The AI linebackers have remarkable leaping ability and will intercept any pass thrown over the middle no matter how much touch I try and put on the pass to get it over their heads;

I'm sure you all can think of a few more I've overlooked.

[MJ4H]

This is why I have vowed to never buy another EA Sports title. I just got sick of it. It's in every EA sports game I've ever played.

[Ragone]

I just don't have the problems you do.. its all about being creative with the sliders..(not turbo)

[finkenst]

its all about being creative with the sliders..(not turbo)
hmm.


tyurbosliders.. fun.

[Leonidas]

This has been in the game since it was Bill Walsh College Football. I remember with that game having like 49-7 leads going into the 4th and barely hanging on 56-49 because I would fumble or throw INTs on every play. You just know this going into it. Play it if you like, forget it otherwise. I choose to forget it and boot up TCY.

[ice4277]

Funnily enough, the reason I play NCAA all the time and won't touch Madden again with a ten-foot pole is because of this. I never really have these problems in NCAA anymore, whereas I am always on the verge of chucking my controller through the window while playing Madden.

[Kodos]

Yeah, I really think this stuff is not as blatant in NCAA as in Madden. Maybe it's because of my sliders? Do you play on All-American default sliders? I toned down the interceptions and defensive awareness, and have little trouble completing a decent percentage of passes. My main issue is that certain things are just too easy. Like the I-Form off-tackle with 2 fullbacks blocking for you run is way too effective. Once I got my teams talent level to around B+ across the board, I won 17 games in a row with Indiana, including crushing Ohio State 3 times when they were probably the best-rated team in the game.

Oddly, I had closer calls against nobody schools like TCU. (Sorry Horned!) ;)

[sabotai]

The "Suddenly my receiver drops EVERYTHING" made me stop playing it. 3 times, the receiver wide open in the end zone and I was down by 4. 3 TIMES! Each time, he dropped it. And this guy was my star receiver. No way he would ever drop it 3 times in a row.

[Chubby]

option plays are wayyyyyyyy to easy. there has always been catchup code in there even tho they deny it. I haven't run into it in NHL 2004 so far at least.

[Ragone]

yea i had to turn pass catching way up on all american..

and accuracy.. and i turned holding and facemask down a touch

[dawgfan]

I haven't been using the sliders. I'm in a shared dynasty with some guys at work and we play at All-American level with default sliders, so as a means of practicing I'm playing a concurrent dynasty at the same level. One of the guys in our group regularly beats up on the AI by ridiculous scores of 80-0 and is the only one among us whose offense isn't one of the bottom in the country - he actually gets 370 yards of offense per game on 5 minute quarters - I don't know how he does it.

As for chucking the controller, there are usually at least 3 times a game I want to do that. I find something less breakable to throw instead... :)

[Kodos]

I think I play 7 or 8 minute quarters.

Another problem is my run d is always the top in the country. The CPU just doesn't run enough, or effectively enough when it does.

And as numerous guys who I've played online can attest - I'm not that good at these games! ;)

[Sun Tzu]

I actualy never have problems with NCAA 2004 and I play almost everyday.

My completion percentage is always around 60-70% every game. I generally throw 30 TD passes for every 7 or 8 Interceptions thrown. If I am a running team (I usualy am not) then I have little problem running for 150+ yards. I can't remember a season where I didn't have the top ranked defense in the nation. I play on Heisman level with sliders slightly in my favor. If anything I've been hoping for 2005 to be more difficult. Sorry but I just don't have the same things happen to me.

[Chubby]

I haven't been using the sliders. I'm in a shared dynasty with some guys at work and we play at All-American level with default sliders, so as a means of practicing I'm playing a concurrent dynasty at the same level. One of the guys in our group regularly beats up on the AI by ridiculous scores of 80-0 and is the only one among us whose offense isn't one of the bottom in the country - he actually gets 370 yards of offense per game on 5 minute quarters - I don't know how he does it.

As for chucking the controller, there are usually at least 3 times a game I want to do that. I find something less breakable to throw instead... :)

option plays, all day. option plays. or get a tall receiver and just lob bombs all day, those are the 2 easiest way to rack up yards.

[EagleFan]

I'm no expert player at this game by any means, but it's the first football game that I haven't suspected of having that catchup logic in it. I haven't seen miraculous comebacks like I did in earlier versions of the game. The closest to that has been a coulpe garbage touchdowns scored late in a blowout and they are usually caused by my stupid play calling like playing all prevent defense, or throwing a ball that I only threw out of over-confidence because of my lead (into double coverage), which ends up getting picked.

[thesloppy]

I play All-American on the default sliders, and I had to set my game length back to 7 minutes after beating the AI like 132-3. I haven't observed any baltant catch-up logic at all, but I'm in such a crappy conference that I'm usually just trying to keep myself awake whilst plowing through the creampuffs. I DO drop the ball an awful lot, considering I have a pair of 99 rated receivers, and I used to get intercepted over the middle all the time until I realized that the bullet to the WR 5yds directly in front of me is actaully WAY riskier than the lob to the guy 50yds down the sideline.

Is there any chance that the catch-up AI is platform specific? It would be downright idiotic if that was the case, but certainly not unheard of in the world of 'great video game design decisions'. It certainly seems that some people swear it's there, while others haven't seen any evidence. Similarly, do you ever wonder if a game maker slips an updated version of a game onto retail shelves without making an announcement....like maybe some of us are playing NCAA2004.12 while others are stuck with NCAA2004.11a . Maybe I've just read too many of the conspiracy threads here recently.

Slightly OT: Regarding the controller chucking syndrome, this is exactly the reason I prefer NCAA to Madden. When playing Madden I would get steamed all the time at what I thought we're blatantly unrealistic plays, but the NCAA license tweaks my expectations just enough that I can live with it, and actually enjoy those moments that would've frustrated me in Madden. It's crazy college football! That stuffs supposed to happen! 6 fumbles and two blocked punts is the kind of stuff that nobody wwants to see from their NFL game, but in college that's just known as 'Saturday'. Likewise, I would get pissed at how easy I could steamroll through an almost perfect season in Madden with ease, but in college football you're almost expected to go undefeated if you've got a top squad. I've been burnt out on Maddden for years now, but EA did a great job with the NCAA universe, and I thank everybody here who recommended it, as a simple change of environment has made all the difference to me in terms of enjoying video-game football again.

[Tigercat]

If they improve the ability for the player to be accurate in the passing game, improve computer AI on DBs, decrease computer AI on LBs(in pass D), make it a little tougher to run the ball, and make it a little easier for the computer to run the ball, 2005 will be damn close to realistic.

[kingnebwsu]

E-A-Sucks...if it's in the game, it sucks a lot! (rated T for Terrible)

[Kodos]

E-A-Sucks...if it's in the game, it sucks a lot! (rated T for Terrible)

Here's a compelling opinion.... :rolleyes:

[ice4277]

I think I play 7 or 8 minute quarters.

Another problem is my run d is always the top in the country. The CPU just doesn't run enough, or effectively enough when it does.

This is what I find to happen too. I rarely give up many yards rushing. The only way I ever get beat is through the air.

If I had one complaint, though, it would be that a lot of mediocre QB's tend to have pretty good passing games against my D. Not all, but more than would seem to be normal. However, one thing I love about the game is that, much like in real college ball, a weaker opponent could be having a decent time moving the ball against me, but then they will make a silly turnover or two and the game falls apart for them.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I played about 5-6 seasons of both the latest Madden and NCAA. Loved both, but I found Madden to be much more infuriating. There were a few times I just turned off the game. I couldn't take it. Never really had that problem with NCAA. Neither are perfect, but they are fun in their own right. A litte self-discipline (see: House Rules) goes a long way.

[QuikSand]

Boy, I wish I played console football games. This sounds great.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Oddly, I had closer calls against nobody schools like TCU. (Sorry Horned!)

Hater!

I really don't have many of the problems mentioned but I primarily run the ball with nobody schools like TCU. :D

My favorite irritating moment is when the CPU kicker has missed 2 or 3 FGs and then drills a 50+yarder to tie or win it.

I refuse to play Heisman but I play All-American with the CPU given a heavy advantage.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Boy, I wish I played console football games. This sounds great.

Fucking elitist.

[QuikSand]

Fucking elitist.

Ding ding ding!

[Kodos]

Yet more text-sim snobbery! I thought Quik was above such things! :(

[Kodos]

I think, to be fair to console games, we've seen how hard it is to make a good text sim. Imagine how much harder it is to make a realistic game that heavily relies on a players reflexes. At least a text sim designer doesn't have to worry about crap like that when he makes a game.

I just think some of the criticism games like Madden or ESPN get is unfair. There are some many factors in getting a video game right. Fixing one aspect screws up another. Sure, they are far from perfect, but they've come a long way from Electronic Quarterback.

[Noop]

Ncaa2004 is way to easy man because all i need is one fast lb and a qb I will beat cpu by atleast 2 touchdowns.

[dawgfan]

Winning isn't really the issue - I win about 98% of the games I play against the AI. And I would win by even larger margins if I wasn't somewhat limiting my playing in order to gain practice for playing human opponents. In the shared dynasty I'm playing with my co-workers, we've outlawed controlling blitzing OLB's or CB's and moving them up to the LOS outside the OT's, since a few of us were racking up 30+ sacks with CB's doing this. Doesn't change much for me though as I've got a stud DE in both dynasties I'm running and can get 30+ sacks with him just shifting the line or spreading out the line so that he's outside the OT.

My issue is with how I win. I win consistently because I can dominate the AI on defense - my per game yards allowed averages have been around 100 ypg or less, and frequently with negative totals on rushing yardage. I can usually stuff the AI on running plays by using a 4-4 when they're in a non-obvious passing formation, and then using dime defenses whenever they're in 2nd or 3rd and long or in an obvious passing formation.

I'd rather I won because I was rewarded more often for doing the right thing on offense, i.e. throwing to the open man while my QB is set and not having the fucker drop it more often than not. I could handle getting burned by the AI while on defense more often if I felt I was getting the same benefit of the doubt when I was on offense. I don't know that there's much (if any) 'rubber-band' effect in this game - I suspect if there is, it doesn't happen every game and is somewhat random - but I do think that the difficulty levels are based too much on penalizing your players and not enough on improving play recognition by the AI.

For those of you that slaughter the AI on All-America and Heisman levels, have you guys been playing EA football games every day for the last 4 years or what?

[Chubby]

For those of you that slaughter the AI on All-America and Heisman levels, have you guys been playing EA football games every day for the last 4 years or what?
Nope. For me, I try and get a speed back and a good secondary. Everything else can be plugged in the way I play. Then option, option, option.

[GrantDawg]

Us old,slow guys can't beat the computer at all unless we turn up the sliders in our favor. I wish they would just make it possible to coach the games and have it come out balanced.

[Noop]

For those of you that slaughter the AI on All-America and Heisman levels, have you guys been playing EA football games every day for the last 4 years or what?
Because if you want to be good in that game I think you need to know at a little football, whatever team u using know how they actually play, and have a system for dynasty mode.

[Tigercat]

Beating the computer by 50+++ points on a consistent basis on allamerican and heisman is all about finding plays that work well and string them together, especially via autobiles(sp?! I cant believe I can't spell that).

My favorite way to play, and all it requires special to work is a WR that is tall enough and jumps decent enough to get jump balls, is the following:

Consistently call an I Formation run to the right, be it option or off tackle, whatever suits your team. If the SS consistently blitzes on his own(he usually will creep up before the play if so), find the best run that lets your LB isolate on him. If the computer is shifted to your right, just auto. to other running plays to the right until they shift more favorably. Oftentimes, if you have a decent RT, your WR engages the CB well enough, and that FB blocks the SS, you will get big runs to the right side.

The key to getting big pass plays, however, is to keep your eye on the FS. If the FS creeps up, and you have that jump ball type WR, Auto. to the I formation PA Fade. Throw the deep lob jump ball to said WR. If that WR is a good jump ball type WR, he will catch the ball 50%+ of the time, always for more than 30 yards. This play can be difficult against ELITE CBs, but anyone but elite CBs are exploitable if the FS blitzes.

I also have a shotgun offense that I use, good shotgun plays include having plays where your inside WRs cross under your starting outside WRs. If those slot WRs have decent to high speed, and are covered by LBs or safeties(either because you see CBs blitz or because the computer calls 4-3 Ds for shotgun offenses) the fast slot WR will run parrell to the line of scrimmage getting seperation, and then rocket downfield, outrunning the slower LBs and safeties. You can either get a quick completion if the LB covering the slot WR blitzes, giving you a small window close to the line of scrimmage, or you can wait for the downfield opporitunity if the LB or S locks up.

As far as stopping the computer from scoring, all you have to really worry about is stopping the pass, since the AI does a good job of stopping the run to begin with. To stop the pass just find a fast LB(or Safety if you want to be more risky) and blitz from the outside, the sacks and pressure will be good enough to hold almost every team under 3 TDs.

[kingnebwsu]

Audibles :)

In NCAA 2003, I got my user-made team to rock using the option. I'd be first the nation (in rushing) by a large margin. I was only using 5 minute quarters also.

Hopefully this year's crop of football games will be good enough to get me back into them.

[Tigercat]

Audibles :)


Thank you. There are times that I think I may honestly be the worst speller on the face of the Earth.

[Kodos]

Thank you. There are times that I think I may honestly be the worst speller on the face of the Earth.

GrantDawg would challenge that assertion, my friend. ;)

[Tigercat]

GrantDawg would challenge that assertion, my friend. ;)

I have proof! I have old elementry school standardized tests where I would score high(90 percentiles) in everything (being good at anything dealing with multiple choice) but one category. My spelling scores would be in the 40th percentiles. I am to spelling what HM is to picking up women.

[dawgfan]

Beating the computer by 50+++ points on a consistent basis on allamerican and heisman is all about finding plays that work well and string them together, especially via autobiles(sp?! I cant believe I can't spell that).

My favorite way to play, and all it requires special to work is a WR that is tall enough and jumps decent enough to get jump balls, is the following:

Consistently call an I Formation run to the right, be it option or off tackle, whatever suits your team. If the SS consistently blitzes on his own(he usually will creep up before the play if so), find the best run that lets your LB isolate on him. If the computer is shifted to your right, just auto. to other running plays to the right until they shift more favorably. Oftentimes, if you have a decent RT, your WR engages the CB well enough, and that FB blocks the SS, you will get big runs to the right side.

The key to getting big pass plays, however, is to keep your eye on the FS. If the FS creeps up, and you have that jump ball type WR, Auto. to the I formation PA Fade. Throw the deep lob jump ball to said WR. If that WR is a good jump ball type WR, he will catch the ball 50%+ of the time, always for more than 30 yards. This play can be difficult against ELITE CBs, but anyone but elite CBs are exploitable if the FS blitzes.

I also have a shotgun offense that I use, good shotgun plays include having plays where your inside WRs cross under your starting outside WRs. If those slot WRs have decent to high speed, and are covered by LBs or safeties(either because you see CBs blitz or because the computer calls 4-3 Ds for shotgun offenses) the fast slot WR will run parrell to the line of scrimmage getting seperation, and then rocket downfield, outrunning the slower LBs and safeties. You can either get a quick completion if the LB covering the slot WR blitzes, giving you a small window close to the line of scrimmage, or you can wait for the downfield opporitunity if the LB or S locks up.

See, I'm getting better at reading defenses and I generally key on the safeties and what they're doing at the snap. I run that PA fade out of the I-formation a lot, and if one or both of the safties bite on the play-action I'll throw to the receiver on their side, but they don't seem to catch the ball that often for me, or my QB will throw off-target.

I usually run a lot of crossing routes - if the AI is playing zone, which they seem to do more often than not, I look for seams in the zone to throw. This is where I get bit a lot on the LB over the middle making a pick - even when I spot a LB or 2 in the short middle zones, I underestimate their ability to jump or slide over for the pick. If I have fast guys they'll generally get separation from the CB or LB and I'll throw it to them, but again I can't tell you how many times open guys get a pass thrown right at them but the ball just bounces off their hands. As often as not when I do complete a crossing route, the QB will throw behind the receiver and he'll have to twist to make the catch and then it's almost impossible for me to get him to avoid the tacklers.

I didn't play QB in school so I'm still learning on the go how to read defenses and make quick decisions. I need to get better on when to throw to a guy - too often I'll look back at replays and realize I waited too long to spot an open guy, that if I'd started throwing as he made his cut and gained separation instead of waiting 2-3 strides later to spot it, I'll have a better shot at threading the pass in there before a safety or LB is able to slide over and defense the play.

Having a fast RB is definitely key - if you have a guy in the 90's in speed, you can break a lot of long gains outside. I like the I-twins off-tackle run play, especially against a 4-3 with the LB's inside the DE's. I can turn that into a 20 yard run 80% of the time by going outside the tackle. I've found I can do that off of up-the-middle runs too against that defensive alignment if my RB is fast enough. I have pretty good success with the option as well, although I hate the remapping of the pitch button to the black button on the X-box instead of one of the triggers - I often accidentally hit the spin button along the way.

Having a fast QB is awfully nice too, both for the option and for scrambling out of trouble. My favorite pass plays are to get my QB out of the pocket, and if he gets pressure running for a few yards to gain separation and then re-entering the pass mode and finding a wide-open freelancing WR downfield.

Still, you guys posting 80+ points on the AI - you must be scoring like every 3rd play or so in 5 minute quarters...

As far as stopping the computer from scoring, all you have to really worry about is stopping the pass, since the AI does a good job of stopping the run to begin with. To stop the pass just find a fast LB(or Safety if you want to be more risky) and blitz from the outside, the sacks and pressure will be good enough to hold almost every team under 3 TDs.

Preventing the AI from scoring much isn't much of a problem for me. Those outside blitzes are too much of a money play in EA football games, and like I said in my shared dynasty we've agreed to not do that, but even so if you have a dominant DE you can still get tremendous pressure on the AI QB and get a ton of sacks.

[Buccaneer]

Boy, I wish I played console football games. This sounds great.
The operative word is console. Only so much AI can go into the engine when nearly all of it is taken up with graphics (and mediocre game-run graphics at that). But you can't beat the price and easy setup, I guess.

[ice4277]

The operative word is console. Only so much AI can go into the engine when nearly all of it is taken up with graphics (and mediocre game-run graphics at that). But you can't beat the price and easy setup, I guess.
Well, I can easily find a lot of things to nitpick in TCY, FOF and the .400 football game as well. For one, the fact that you are forced to play with an imaginary conference in TCY makes it a complete non-starter for me.

Basically, different strokes for different folks.

[dawgfan]

The operative word is console. Only so much AI can go into the engine when nearly all of it is taken up with graphics (and mediocre game-run graphics at that). But you can't beat the price and easy setup, I guess.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, but I don't think this is nearly as true as you seem to think.

In EA's football games, the AI drives the animation - if the AI needs a player to move in a particular direction, they don't worry about sliding him sideways, forwards or backwards if the animations they have don't quite do exactly what the AI path-making needs him to do. The animations don't limit the AI really, as what governs movement are ratings and a certain amount of momentum physics.

There's certainly no memory restrictions on the AI - code is tiny as far as memory footprint goes relative to art and especially audio content. I would argue that there's more AI in a console sports game than a text-sim. While a text-sim can simply rely on situational tables and probability calculations, a graphics-oriented game has to worry about the graphical representation of an AI-driven play looking believable, i.e. was that CB really in a position to make that interception look plausible? How realistic was that block engagement between the OT and the DE - did it look realistic or did it seem like the DE was 'sucked' into the OT?

I'm also not sure what you mean by 'mediocre graphics' either - the better console football games look fantastic from a graphics standpoint.

[Chubby]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, but I don't think this is nearly as true as you seem to think.

In EA's football games, the AI drives the animation - if the AI needs a player to move in a particular direction, they don't worry about sliding him sideways, forwards or backwards if the animations they have don't quite do exactly what the AI path-making needs him to do. The animations don't limit the AI really, as what governs movement are ratings and a certain amount of momentum physics.

There's certainly no memory restrictions on the AI - code is tiny as far as memory footprint goes relative to art and especially audio content. I would argue that there's more AI in a console sports game than a text-sim. While a text-sim can simply rely on situational tables and probability calculations, a graphics-oriented game has to worry about the graphical representation of an AI-driven play looking believable, i.e. was that CB really in a position to make that interception look plausible? How realistic was that block engagement between the OT and the DE - did it look realistic or did it seem like the DE was 'sucked' into the OT?

I'm also not sure what you mean by 'mediocre graphics' either - the better console football games look fantastic from a graphics standpoint.


And as sports games make their way to dvd it will be even less of an issue. The biggest example of what you were talking about is I constantly see catches being made that when you watch in slow-mo weren't or ESPECIALLY plays "in bounds" when the guy was clearly out on the replay.

[sabotai]

There's certainly no memory restrictions on the AI - code is tiny as far as memory footprint goes

The limitation comes in processor power, not memory. The PS2 has a 300Mhz (no, I didn't forget a 0) processor (128-bit RISC), while the XBox has a Celeron 733 Mhz (32-bit CISC) chip. These chips simply are not powerful enough to process complex AI. At least, AI that's enough to give us a wonderful, smart opponent. AI can be processor hog.

As you point out, the processor is busy processing other things as well, like making sure the right animations are called up. So that's even less processing power that's avaiable for the AI (but we don't have to worry about graphics processing since that gets its own chip).

[Buccaneer]

The limitation comes in processor power, not memory. The PS2 has a 300Mhz (no, I didn't forget a 0) processor (128-bit RISC), while the XBox has a Celeron 733 Mhz (32-bit CISC) chip. These chips simply are not powerful enough to process complex AI. At least, AI that's enough to give us a wonderful, smart opponent. AI can be processor hog.

As you point out, the processor is busy processing other things as well, like making sure the right animations are called up. So that's even less processing power that's avaiable for the AI (but we don't have to worry about graphics processing since that gets its own chip).
That's what I was getting at - as well as comparing the graphics (resolution) using a 256mb nVidia card. I still look at it as a tradeoff. With consoles, you get good but very fast graphics but limited in the number of CPU cycles; as well as getting easy and cheap configuration but with simplicity (limited to a gamepad/joystick?) and limited AI. Imo.

[dawgfan]

And as sports games make their way to dvd it will be even less of an issue. The biggest example of what you were talking about is I constantly see catches being made that when you watch in slow-mo weren't or ESPECIALLY plays "in bounds" when the guy was clearly out on the replay.

Well, I think the difference won't really be using DVD's (both PS2 and Xbox use DVD's currently) since the issue isn't really memory. Animation data is content that gets stored in RAM during the game (you can't stream off the disk fast enough, so the DVD is essentially not part of this issue), so you have a physical limit in how much data can be loaded during any play. If you operate off a scheme where the animation drives the AI, in other words the AI relies on having an animation to get a player to a particular spot and have particular reaction animations (catches, swats, tackles, blocks, etc), then a limit in how many animations can be loaded puts a real crimp on AI. More RAM would allow more content to cover more situations, but this is really the wrong way to go about handling animation. EA's scheme makes this moot, since they just override the base animation to make the player go where they want and they don't mind warping the ball to end up where they want.

What will improve the issue you see with players out of bounds and feet sliding and all the other things EA does to get the results they want is beefier processors. This will allow the graphics engine in the game code to do more complex blending and IK that will result in more realistic animation results. Unless you have awful motion-capture and/or incompetant animators, the problems with animations in games aren't be the animations themselves but rather how they blend into each other to provide a seamless and realistic result.

[dawgfan]

The limitation comes in processor power, not memory. The PS2 has a 300Mhz (no, I didn't forget a 0) processor (128-bit RISC), while the XBox has a Celeron 733 Mhz (32-bit CISC) chip. These chips simply are not powerful enough to process complex AI. At least, AI that's enough to give us a wonderful, smart opponent. AI can be processor hog.

As you point out, the processor is busy processing other things as well, like making sure the right animations are called up. So that's even less processing power that's avaiable for the AI (but we don't have to worry about graphics processing since that gets its own chip).

My experience is that this hasn't been a bottleneck issue, at least for us as an Xbox-only studio. Our issues have had more to do with allocating enough time for testing and fine-tuning the gameplay experience.

That's what I was getting at - as well as comparing the graphics (resolution) using a 256mb nVidia card. I still look at it as a tradeoff. With consoles, you get good but very fast graphics but limited in the number of CPU cycles; as well as getting easy and cheap configuration but with simplicity (limited to a gamepad/joystick?) and limited AI. Imo.

If you're talking 3D sports games on a PC vs. a console, there's not really a controller difference - in both situations you're likely to use some kind of gamepad. As far as graphics, EA doesn't always spend much (if any) time taking advantage of faster processors and graphics chips when porting their games to the PC. Plus you get the advantage of not having to worry about configuration issues with the consoles.