OT: I've Got It (NCAA 2005)
 

Playing right now ... anyone else get it today?

:D :D :D

my friend and I went and got it, i can't get it till it comes in blockbuster on friday tho, i sold some games there to buy it and their shipment comes in then. :( We played one game, Ohio State vs. Florida State and he won with Florida State at home 14-10. I was up 10-0 at half, but he sacked my QB a few times and after that it was over. He was missing all my WR's, etc.

Quick impressions (after 2 games with Rutgers - the first a 17-0 win against UConn and the second a 21-14 win over Kansas State...see note on this below)...

Let me first state that I only played a few games of last year's version (I'd say under 10), as my roommates and I were completely into Madden, so it's not like I'm playing the 2005 version after dominating on 2004. Quite the contrary, actually...:)

I started out on Varsity level, which really was too easy, as evidenced by my easy victory over UConn where Orlovsky couldn't hit the side of a barn and Terry Caulley was basically a non-factor, along with my domination over #14-ranked Kansas State (and Sproles) until I bumped it up to All-American in the 2nd half. Once I did that, it was much harder...they outscored me over that period, but I did hold on for the victory.

The running game is really good. Your blockers actually seek out people to hit...they don't just stand around or chip off the nearest guy. On sweeps and such they will lead the way and dish out some punishment. Again, playing with Rutgers and having a fast RB in Justise Hairston and an equally quick and powerful FB in Brian Leonard, allowed me to really succeed running the ball (and to any RU fans out there--Leonard is a BEAST).

I had some trouble passing the ball, as it is very tough to throw accurately when going backwards or on the run...but at the same time, this feels right, and thats a good thing. Once I got my feet set more often, I was throwing strikes.

Defense has been tough, as I started giving up the big pass play once I bumped up the difficulty. This is to be expected though, as my CBs are both new starters and will take some seasoning. Safeties seem to break well on the ball when floating back in zone coverage. I did stop the run well, as my front 7 is a strong suit, but again, we'll see once I play more on the higher difficulty.

Kicking game is not complex at all...there shouldn't be a learning curve here. My very first kickoff I got max distance and very good accuracy. Something to note...maybe it was just where I played both my games (Rutgers Stadium), but I found it pretty hard to actually see the uprights on field goal attempts. Not a big deal, as once you get coordinated you'll be fine kicking it, but it freaked me out on my first try and I thought someone had already ripped down the goalpost before the game was over :).

Minor thing that pissed me off...they have Brian Leonard as a junior when he's actually a redshirt sophomore :). Okay, not a big deal until I start my dynasty, but you can't edit a player's class, so it looks like I'll copy down his ratings, create a new player and then delete the old Leonard.

One thing that I am missing that was present in last year's Madden (I doubt it was in last year's NCAA) is the ability to sub players on the fly. I believe this was accomplished by pressing the circle button when selecting a formation, and it allowed you to cycle through potential changes to the personnel in your formation, such as RB Swap, WR flip, Slot switch, TE switch, etc. This is something I would use frequently to put my FB Leonard in the HB slot if I wanted him to run more than a dive or blast, as that is how the great majority of FB plays are designed.

A minor inconvienence, but I guess I can just make him the RB in a specific formation.

Will post more impressions as I play more...

I got it but it keeps locking up, I think it is my refurbished XBOX though.

I just read about last year's version locking up on the X-Box, please tell me at least one of you guys who has it, is playing smoothly on an X-Box? :)

I had last year's version, and it never locked up.

Glad to hear it. My X-Box is almost brand new, so that shouldn't be a problem.

My XBox is basically brand new as well. This year I plan on getting for the XBox and I hope it doesn't have any problems.

I had it last year for XBOX and had zero problems, but my XBOX died about a month ago....today I finally bought a refurbished one because it was almost the same price as fixing my old one. This kind of pisses me off. Its going back tomorrow.

I just got it. Will be playing soon.

Bastards. I saw the thread, grabbed NBA Ballers off the shelf, and went down to EB to trade it in. I got the last stinkin' Xbox copy they had. I'll be on Live if anybody wants to play. :D

Funny, I traded in NBA Ballers when I reserved my NCAA 2005. Will be picking up NCAA tomorrow evening when I get off work. I'll be on Live tomorrow if anyone wants to play. :)

That's frightening, Pumpy. GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

Well i got to my gamestop.. just before they closed.. they said they was staying open till midnight or so.. so we could wait, well come 10:58 they showed up.. 62 ps2 copies and.. wait for it... 4 xbox copies

i was #4 in line for xbox.. but thats pretty damn shitty

If I don't get to play you tomorrow night, I'll be sure to challenge you soon after :)

How is the dynasty mode? I played a couple of games but my friend went home and took his game with him. So far I'm 0-2, lol. USC is unstoppable.

Rag, I didn't ask, but I suspect that either:

a) My EBGames was the same way, or

b) the Xbox version has been flying off the shelves locally due to Xbox Live support.

I saw a ton of PS2 versions, but they only had the one Xbox version left when I got there.

I have to think that your store was an isolated thing, because as huge as this is for MS, there's no reason not to flood the market with copies so everybody can buy it (and a Live kit for those who don't already have it), y'know?

Sack.. i was there when they opened the boxes.. they literally only got 4 xbox copies.. and the guy said they only had 4 per store.. that sounds kinda shifty to me.. considering they had 15 people waiting for it.. and probably 20+ more angry people to come tomorrow

Rag - that definitely sounds shifty. I just don't see any way that any company would order only 4 copies per store of any EA game, let alone their biggest football title. The only thing I can figure is perhaps it's a ploy to boost future preorders?

I'm going to be very annoyed if my X-Box version of this game isn't there tomorrow to fill my pre-order because my EB games only got 4 copies ;)

:( Outta town, but guess it will be waiting for me when I get home :)

Is it just me, or this game simming much slower than old versions?

I got mine today, and am currently simming through the first 4 years of dynasty mode to get players with names.

Played IU vs. Cornell and won something like 27-7 on default settings. Me likes!

It's pretty damn slow. I just started it simming season 4, so the boring part is just about over. :)

Some early thoughts.

1) Passes down the sideline have a disturbing tendency to be a good six inches out of bounds.

2) Do receivers ever catch bullet passes? Doesn't seem like it.

3) What's with the whole "four guys standing around the spot where the ball is headed" when it's barely been released from the QB's hand?

I'm getting serious framerate issues with the xbox version.. it seems the graphic stat overlays cause some hearky jerky action.. honestly considering returning the xbox version..

Im getting it too...usually when i pass the ball. :(

Other than that, I like the slower gameplay...

ick :(

PS2 version for me: so far, so good.

take that XBox.

And PS.. the guy at my Gamestop said they've had over 300 pre-orders already for Madden.

Is it true they have sold 500k just off preorders? That is amazing if it is true because if you times that by 50 that is ......$25,000,000.....

Anyone suffering slow-downs on the PS2 version? I've read in this thread about issues with the XBOX version but I'm wondering if the same thing applies on the PS2.

Thanks!

There is slow down but it is not as serious as the X-Box I would assume because X-Box users are reporting glitchs and what not.... But in my opinion the slow down helps the running game...

Has anyone tried a CPU vs CPU game or a "don't move the joystick" game?

This is one change I was really hoping they would make, it alone would of made it worth the money for me. I like to use 2 RB's, and I love the ability to quick sub in Madden.

On a side note, I went into the local Blockbuster yesterday and the had about 60 copies of the game on the back counter (pretty even mix of PS2, and X-Box). When I asked about buying one the Manager told me they were the rentals, and they wouldn't get the retail until the Tuesday shipment. Not sure I'm buying that, but I pre-bought it for $39.99 with 2 trade ins. By the way one of those trade ins I got for $4.99 at CC on last Thursday, and got $21 in credit towards NCAA ;)

I'm getting some jerky graphics as well on the PS2. It is also very slow simming.

Other than that, I'm very pleased. Recruiting is improved, and I love the rotating schedules.

My favorite things so far:

- Box scores are finally here!!
- Rotating conference schedules
- The crowd gets HYPE
- Expanded rosters
- Recruiting athletes (non position) and changing players' positions
- Tipped passes

I didn't notice that slowdown was a big problem on the PS2 version so far. Like I said yesterday, simming is really slow. It took me hours to sim 5 seasons to get rid of the nameless players.

I also wish you could create a team that already exists in the game and still have the announcers recognize the names. :( I like to add the Ivy League to the MAC, but I get tired of the generic stadiums for teams like Cornell. Plus, their unis are boring.

BTW, if you have Gameshark, there is already a named roster out there.

What is "the crowd gets HYPE"?

great game lots of bugs

And this adds value to the thread how? What kind of bugs? Are they show-stoppers?

He just means that the crowd really gets into the game. The home field advantage thing where your controller vibrates and the screen shakes when you are the visiting team and the home team is on defense. If you are at a school where the fans are into the game, that is.

In my two games i played I didnt notice ANY slowdown on the PS2 version. I actually said to my friend it seems smoother than any other version I've played. The only bugs I noticed was on missed field goals the mascots would bang their heads against the goal post and fall down, too bad their head wasn't even coming close to hitting anything, and also a tackler made a tackle and magically tilted back upright to taunt, instead of actually standing up. The missed field goal thing happened twice, while the player warping happened once, both were after the plays were done so they don't really matter.

I know it isn't a big leap graphically, but it is a little prettier than last year's game. The helmets are better, the player models are better, the weather effects are better. I'm pretty pleased so far.

As far as bugs go, there is considerable slowdown in the menus. In 2004 there was slowdown when it had to load the ESPN covers, and that is still there as well. But now there just seems to be more slowdown in general when viewing stats, or flipping/sorting through a lot of the screens.

Ok, bug likes ghosting after a play or slow menus I can handle. My concern was easy money plays, scoring, stats issues or other things that would drastically hamper gameplay.

I'm due to get mine tomorrow, so I'm thankful for all your updates, guys. Kodos, thanks for explaining "hype" - I assumed he meant that, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

-Craig

Druez vagueness is killing me softly.

Pre-ordering is for suckers, I got mine about an hour ago :)

I pre-orderers got the game last night, how would that make us the suckers? :confused:

Just picked mine up on my lunch break. It's gonna be a loooonnnnng afternoon here at the office. :(

because you had to go there twice?

I just got it, baby!

See you in a few weeks.

Love this refreshing bit of honesty I got from GameStop (I had cancelled my Amazon order and wanted to get it night of release)... I called them yesterday wanting to see if the game was out, and was told that they were getting it "first thing in the morning", and that I could still come in and put in a reservation.

Of course, this was at 6:30 PM, and I figured I could just pick it up tommorrow (today), and the associate said "The store manager has told us to only put out enough copies for the reservations, and if you didn't have a reservation, to say that the store is out of stock, and not expecting another shipment for 3-4 weeks"..

I asked the guy flat out, "So you're going to have copies of the game in back, but not sell it to "punish" the folks who don't want to preorder?".. at least he had the grace to sound embarassed when he said. "It's not my choice.. it's my manager's policy and out of my hands.."

I re-ordered from Amazon. Won't be ordering from a store managed by an ignorant fucktard like this GameStop's manager again :)

that's not honesty, that's stupidity. How in the heck does that help sales?

I think these folks get graded on how many reservations they take at the store.

It's a bit seedy, but it's not a EB/Gamestop thing only, one of my friends worked at a Suncoast, real knowledgeable, hardest worker they had, closed the store 3-4 nights a week, but couldn't sell their "replay" program worth a bean.

Over six months, they called him in on not making his percentages 3 times, put two notices of reprimand on his weekend, and then dismissed him, all because he couldn't sell the stupid "Club" membership program.

The store manager has told us to only put out enough copies for the reservations, and if you didn't have a reservation, to say that the store is out of stock, and not expecting another shipment for 3-4 weeks

Time to go to Best Buy! Does he think people will actually wait?

When the only competition within 15 or so miles is a Wal Mart, yup, they seem to think we will.

Plus it gives them the ability to say "Hey, we could have gotten a copy for you if you preordered it"

I'll never get the preorder thing. Why is there such a practice?

It's like a limited edition. Limited to how many they can sell.

They get some of your money early, and then when you go in, then you might impulse buy another game..

Also.. if they get enough people to fall for it, they can use that to "manage" how many copies of the new game they have to order.. (so you wouldn't be stuck with 30 copies of Driv3r, for example)

From the consumer perspective I mean.

Oh.. that's simple.

(Braindead consumer mode=on) So if I don't preorder it, there may be a rush of people and I might not be able to buy it in town and haveta drive a full half hour to a store that has it..
(Braindead consumer mode=off)

Managed Hysteria. They think the only way to make sure they get a hot game is to preorder it, so they do so because they want to play it.

I've never preordered a game and don't plan to start now.

I'm going to start preordering my McGriddles.

Do you wait til game day to buy a ticket to the game too?

This fucking sucks...I got NCAA, but of course something has to go wrong. The infamous READ DISC ERROR!!!!!!! NCAA doesn't work on my PS2 even though all my other games do. I am so pissed right now. I'm going to try to figure out how to get rid of this crappy problem. And if any of you know how to get rid of it and could tell me, it would be greatly appreciated.

I don't see why reserving something in advance is dumb. I've had several times when I didn't preorder and ended up running around to half a dozen stores only to come home with nothing. It's not like you're paying anything extra. It's basically removing a hassle and often it gets you the game a little bit early.

that's nowhere near the same thing.

Argh! I created a school to start my first dynasty, the Oshkosh Titans(A division 3 school:D )

First game I couldn't even score until the end of the 3rd quarter. I promptly won 21-9. It was a real good game though.

Second game, who do I play? Oklahoma! BAH! I'm a middle of the road team, I'm not ready to play a powerhouse. I didn't edit the schedule or anything, so it came randomly :(

This will sound desperate, but I would be at Best Buy within minutes getting another PS2. NCAA is the only reason I have the system anyway...

It has some comparisons, preorders typically get the game a day or two early, ordering tickets early get you better seats.

Besides, why the hell do you care? Someone run over your dog today?

I'll take Oshkosh (+62) :D

He didn't preorder the leash... :(

First play of the game, crowd is going wild, and the screen shakin, controller vibratin.. MAAAD SHIT!

Why do you care?

I just think the whole concept is dumb. Next we can have pre-preorders and get the game a week in advance. Kewl.

In my day we never preordered River Raid and that's the way it was and we liked it.

It's on All-American.. It will be a VERY tough game to win.

I pre-ordered because I work out of town. Hopefully then, the game will be on my doorstep by the time I get home. I realize that's not a typical example...but I have run to stores on day of release only to be disappointed. Why take that chance when you don't have to?

I'm with you. If you know you're going to get it, why not just pre-order it. Even though 90% of the time, you can probably get it the same day anyway, why risk it? I think you can put down as little as $5 to reserve it. And in todays market, $5 doesn't bring you much in terms of investment value, so whats the harm?

Haha, I see that your stuck in your ways. No big deal either way.

But I don't think its dumb on anyone's end. It makes good business sense from the stores perspective: It allows them to satisfy their customers demand. They need to have some sort of idea of how many people want the game, or else they'd need to carry excess inventory, which would end up costing us, the consumers, in the end.

movie tickets is a better comparision

I just don't understand pissing all over what people like when you don't care in the first place.

You don't like the all-star game, you don't like preordering, bitch bitch bitch, man go have a few beers and chill out. These people like to preorder, does it affect you at all?

I don't ever remember buying pre-sale tickets for midnight showings of new movies either, I don't do it, but why should I care if someone else gets into that kind of thing? Times change my friend, live and let live.

I just got finished renaming all the players I know of as well as 85 percent of my LSU team. Early Doucet and Xavier Carter is in the game :-). I am starting my Dynasty right now and I decided to redshirt Doucet and Carter. I am about to tear up Oregon St.!!! :-)

I said the concept is dumb not the people. I get it if you need the game immediately.

Not even halftime yet in 7 minute quarters, and I'm losing 31-0.

How can I keep playing!?

That is true, you called them suckers.

38-0 Halftime..

Where is the sim rest of game option?

I'd suggest running as much as you can so the score doesn't get even uglier.

G4TV is the best!!!!!!
G4TV fixed my PS2!!! This site was the one that helped me out: if anyone needs it...RDE Fix

To finish off the argument above.. I don't mind preorders... I do mind punishing people who didn't preorder (I mean, holding copies in the BACK to make people preorder the next big game?) If you legitimately run out, that's cool. No bitch. But..eh...

Crap - I'm given 62 points, and I'm still going to lose?! For shame!

And you walked barefoot, uphill, both ways... ;)

70-7 game over..

I tried to hold 'em!!!!!!!

DANG IT!

I recently started getting my movie tickets purchased online before heading to the theatre. It's pretty slick IMHO, no waiting in line is my cup of tea.

Wow - maybe I should be calling the lines in Vegas...

My first season is finished.. I played two games, and went ahead to the recruiting and finished that in about 15-20 minutes.

Initial thoughts on gameplay:

Everything is a helluva lot smoother than last year. It seems faster, which makes you have to respond to things quicker. The offensive line can be one lean, mean blocking machine during the runs. Finally they don't just stand there and let the defense come to them. Passing against Oklahoma as a very average team was tough, as it should have been. I completed just under 50% of them, for less than 100 yards. It was a very pitiful game indeed.

The recruiting has been improved as well. No more tedious click, down, click, down, click down, click. Select, click down.. You know what I am talkin about! You have the option of scouting a player for points depending on the location of the player. In-state is 5 points, and out of state goes up to 15 I believe, from what I saw anyways. You can then offer a pitch which are the same as last year except they added in coaching prestige.

I had a very poor recruiting class, 4 guys, the highest being a 4 star SS(which I went all out and.. and one other player). I think since I went all out on 2 4 star players, was the only reason they decided to come. I used basically all of my points on them both, so that's cool I think. But I really hurt my chances of getting anybody else.

I went ahead to the next off-season and it was 'Position Changes'. Here you can see if your players would be better at other positions. My team is very unathletic so there were no changes. This is a very cool option, especially if you're loaded at one position such as WR, move him to CB to have a dominant secondary next year. indeed cool.

That's all for now!!!

Time to PLAY a full season. See ya next week this time.

I can't decide when I get this game which team to play.. ps, creating a school in Alaska as a cupcake last year was hard as hell because no recruits out of Alaska ever want to come.

My local Best Buy had at least 100 copies for each platform earlier this afternoon. They also had a display set up with 2 recliners, a 50 some inch widescreen HDTV and surround sound speakers with the game hooked up. Cripes, I almost shed a tear - it was such a beautiful sight. We played for almost 40 minutes before anyone else came over to play. All I needed was a cold libation and I could have stayed all day.

Now, time for that icy cold libation and some dynasty.

Yeah, I went into Best Buy and saw a whole row of them. EB only got 4 XBox ones per store? F that. Best Buy had about 20 of them sitting on a shelf and probably a lot more in the back. I didn't look for the uber-l33t set up, I just grabbed and went.

Yeah, I work at Wal-Mart and we didn't get our copies until 2:15PM today. When we finally got them we got 40 copies of the PS2 version, 4 of the X-BOX, and 3 for the Gamecube. Nonstop calling all day long.

Well I finally got a chance to play after coming home from the worst traffic in South Florida's history... this game is great and on the highest level I already have Miami on the ropes 30-7... I love this game. :)

Well, I am having the slowdown problem on XBox and it is VERY annoying. Not only for the fact of the slowdown itself, but also that EA could let something so blatant and easy to notice slip through. I am going to take this back and get the PS2 version but this is going to be the last money EA sees from me for quite a long time.