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05-29-2009, 12:19 AM
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#1 |
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Banned
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I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
Given that I have spoken out previously on my belief that NCAA Football 10 retains some game-breaking flaws, it may be surprising to some (and disconcerting to others) but I actually LIKE the Season Showdown feature more now than earlier!
 It may not be the best way to have spent development time (putting it mildly), but it is showing signs of being something more than totally useless... Short explanation: Strategy and Defensive Keys offer choices and the promise of "risk-vs.-reward" balance to outcomes....Sportsmanship offers labels and values for online profiles, making it easier to identify and avoid undesirable opponents online. Getting these things will enhance the experience, making it easier to find opponents who will allow the glaring deficiencies in the game far less annoying... Nuanced and very long explanation: Can it "save" the game from being "broken"? Probably not...but I have also said that I have a friend's list of players who I trust to ignore the exploits voluntarily anyway, what I am looking for is assistance from the game in controlling or at least identifying players outside of my friend's list that I can still enjoy playing against... Let the fruit fly!!!  Before I get into this further, it is VERY important to define what I am talking about and what I am NOT talking about when I say "Season Showdown" feature. It is also important to state that if you are primarily a single-player experience on NCAA (offline Dynasty or playing the CPU or even Campus Legend), then this feature is TOTALLY useless to you! I am more of a multi-player user of the game though, so my praise of the SS will really relate to that aspect of the game. So what do I mean? I absolutely do NOT mean the accumulation of points for "your" team or the season ending 32-team tournament sponsored by Coke Zero. THAT farce is a waste of time and is something that barely can be called fluff because it is an insult to fluff! The idea is a little like becoming the president of the High School student government...a ******** popularity contest with absolutely no effect on the real world whatsoever! I DO mean the added elements of the system that accumulate the otherwise meaningless points. In particular, the Strategy elements and the Sportsmanship elements (at least as they relate to online lobbies and user profiles).  Let's start with the Strategy and Defensive Keys aspects and specifically the mantra of "risk versus reward" that Ben and Russ talked about in the recent blog (http://ncaafootball.easports.com/media.action). The astute reader will recall that I am on record as saying that a lack of momentum on user controlled players has the ability to be a game killer to me. So how in the hell can I POSSIBLY like the Game Planning and Strategy elements of the blog? Simple....risk versus reward! I want people to have to THINK as well as REACT when playing the game. The first step to making a game play more realistically should be (IMO) getting the player locomotion correct...but absent 100% adherence to physics and reality (which I know we will NOT be getting in 2010), getting real consequences into the outcomes of plays would be progress. The idea behind Defensive Keys brings me back to the days of Tecmo Bowl on NES! That could turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing depending on implementation...    Is it perfect? Of course not! In this case, I agree with people who would say its impossible to judge this without playing it first...and I will be VERY interested to see if the game gives itself away with on-screen cues that will be picked up on to know what is coming (like seeing the CB stay tight to the LOS and outside the hash against a Twins set in NCAA 09...always tips the CB blitz based on the alignment alone)... Is it tuned correctly? Unknown until retail game is in hand...but it better be...a poorly tuned or easily exploited system would be worse than no system... Is it a step in the right direction? Absolutely! I am all for anything that forces players to use strategy, logic and deception to succeed in place of "fast guy run sweep / fast run fly route - lather, rinse, repeat" gameplay. As described by Ben - "If you have ever been in a game and you knew, without a doubt, that your opponent will be running to the strong side of the formation, or its 3rd and 1 and you know a run up the middle is coming, or if you know your opponent will be throwing to a specific receiver on the play, but you have never been able to shut the play down based only playcall/defensive shifts alone then Defensive Keys is what you have been waiting for." This is promising because it offers an idea of what this feature is intended for - specific instances like 3rd and short or situational tendencies like running to the wide side or short side of the field. It is also slightly worrisome because the best of intentions can be ruined in the hands and minds of the online cheeser! It may turn out that Defensive Keys and Strategy is only useful for head-to-head games or not at all, but I applaud the effort (while privately fuming that similar effort did not make it into the physics of motion). The other aspect of SS that I like also deals with online play and that is the Sportsmanship scores (actually discussed in last week's blog). The idea that your Skills, Strategy and Sportsmanship scores will be visible prior to accepting an online game is a huge boost for online play. I know that high Skills, low Sportsmanship and low Strategy guys will be easier to avoid - and in all honesty I do not care how someone decides to play the game as long as I can avoid those who have a different play philosophy than myself with ease. Add it all up and SS is still probably a net loser to most people....the missing things - like Formation Subs, Custom Playbooks and Physical Momentum or Adequate consequences for fleeing the pocket - will be missed more than this feature can add to many players. I will be one of them if these things are poorly tuned or badly implemented (like say the first year of HFA or Impact Players), but if the game ships will a finely tuned and functional system in measuring and reporting on Skills, Strategy and Sportsmanship, then I don't care what they call it, just that it would enhance the experience for me. On this issue, I am going to be a "wait and see" person...  |
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05-29-2009, 12:32 AM
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#2 |
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Pro
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Re: I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
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05-29-2009, 12:39 AM
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MVP
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Re: I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
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05-29-2009, 12:48 AM
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Banned
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Re: I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
(I would also prefer a game that simply was fixed to force people who want to succeed to use realistic play calling and strategy, but in the meantime I will take the added "heads-up" info for online games as better than nothing...) |
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05-29-2009, 01:38 AM
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#5 |
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Banned
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Re: I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
SS= marketing
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05-29-2009, 01:45 AM
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#6 |
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MVP
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Re: I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
 Hey don't give SS that much credit. This gimmick has been attached to the strategy side. I too really like the new game planning but that's not SS, that's game planning.
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Roar you Lions roar! |
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05-29-2009, 01:51 AM
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Banned
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Re: I come not to bury SS, but to PRAISE it???
Thats right, SS is something different than the strategy settings |
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