Here's where presentation just destroys immersion...

[Tecmo Bowl]

COuld not agree more that NCAA and madden both need this badly. In fact it probably needs to happen next year as that is when the commentary upgrades are slated. Anything short of knowing playoff implications, yearlong stat performances, and all around feel is a huge disappointment and failure.

[Playmakers]

Quote: Originally Posted by fldash

First thing I do on NCAA is disable commentary and crank up on the field sounds...

That's the only way i've played for the last 3 years

Turn off annoucing crank up the on Field Volume, Custom sounds, Stadium PA and Crowd Sliders to 100

It'll be just like watching the game at a stadium where you only hear the PA guy and the crowd/stadium during the game.

I always use SEC or AuburnAlumni's stadium sounds for as many teams as possible and the game sounds incredible once you spend some time getting all of that stuff sorted out for each school into the game

[Dr Death]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tecmo Bowl

COuld not agree more that NCAA and madden both need this badly. In fact it probably needs to happen next year as that is when the commentary upgrades are slated. Anything short of knowing playoff implications, yearlong stat performances, and all around feel is a huge disappointment and failure.

I may get criticized for this, but taking out Corso was a death knell. At least w/ him in the booth you had some funny stuff to make you laugh whilst hearing the same old boring crap.

The entire commentary needs to be improved drastically and... they go all in for pre-game presentation, yet at the end of the game the game just ends. There's no excitement for an upset, talk of a rivalry game, guys commenting on some great 21 point comeback... NOTHING.

The game just ends and it's like... really? I had a rivalry game that was close... I was down 13-17... then the other team busted out for two scores to go up 31-13. I then out-scored them 22-3 in the 4th quarter and won w/ :22 left, 35-34... and there was nothing.

It was dramatic and amazing... and yet the commentary was just... blah. Such a shame.

[Dmarzio]

I've wondered if they couldn't just buy the rights to some CBS or ABC broadcasts of actual games, and literally cut some of the commentator audio out of several broadcasts to gather a good base of quality phrases and comments. Obviously they couldn't use the ones that mention specific player's names, and there would be some issues of getting everything to flow correctly, but you could have potentially thousands and thousands of words already recorded and you wouldn't have to put anyone in a sound booth for hours.

I wonder if its actually feasible.

[Gotmadskillzson]

It would be just easier and cheaper for them to record the guys talking in studio themselves. But they must have them together at the same time. All this one guy come this week and the other guy come weeks later to record his lines by himself stuff needs to stop.

[jwilphl]

The in-game broadcast presentation is dreadful and always has been, really. At this stage, it is probably the weakest part of the NCAA game, although gameplay still needs a good amount of improvement, as well.

That said, this sort of dynamic and contextual commentary would do wonders. Another immersion-killer is the exact same camera angles/cuts/scenes that appear game after game, cuts that have been around for years now. There needs to be a LOT more variety in both the visual and audio department.

I think a larger problem this year is crowd noise, as well. Even without commentary, the game sounds flat. This was supposedly fixed this year, but it definitely was not. The crowd is extremely quiet. In my RTG at PSU with 111,000 fans, you would think on the field it would be pretty dang loud. Well it isn't. In fact it only sounds marginally louder than my high school games, which is just sad.

These are issues that need to be addressed--audio, visual, et cetera. Perhaps the guys currently doing it need to be moved because honestly, it is somewhat sad that this many years in things have not changed a whole lot.

[PowerofRed25]

Let me ask you guys this. If given the following two choices, which would you go with:

1) Keeping the "official" ABC/ESPN guys (Herby or whoever else) who come in individually and record the same lines we've heard for years now, maybe with some slight improvements in terms of context specific situations (big games, big time players, rivalries, etc). Not really a significant improvement, but gives a more authentic ESPN/ABC feel when it is the voices we hear every Saturday.

OR

2) Anonymous voice actors come in, maybe has many as 3, 4 or 5 pairs of guys and take on fictional commentator roles ("Hello there I'm Joe Smith alongside Tom Johnson") but can dedicate the entire development cycle to recording very specific lines, a ton of context, with passion and excitement to create a true, authentic "TV" experience. If there were multiple pairs, you could have a "lesser" pair doing the 11am Saturday game or a Friday night game (think the crew that does the 11am ESPN2 Big Ten game). And then you could have the "big time" crew doing the 8pm national broadcast game. With 2 or 3 crews in between doing games that would traditionally be 2:30 games or regional telecasts.

Personally, I would love 2 more than anything. As it stands now, I put commentators to 0 because it hasn't improved a bit for nearly a decade (in fact, it has probably gotten worse with no Corso) and it detracts from the game. So I get stadium sounds set up, get field and crowd noise louder and it works well for me. If there was vastly improved commentary, even if it was from general voice actors, I'd be much more interested in listening to that.

[Bullet Sponge]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

Far as people moving on the sidelines, it isn't processing power that is the problem. Considering NBA 2K11 had coaches walking up and down the sidelines, mascots dancing up and down the sideline behind the baskets, fans waving and all that. So therefore it can be done.

We can't know for sure, since we don't have access to their development, but keep in mind NBA 2K11 is 10 players on the court and NCAA Football is 22, and in a bigger arena with far more people on the sidelines. Even with all the NBA coaches/mascots doing stuff it is less than 22 football players. So I'm still pretty sure it's a matter of processing power. Remember on last gen there were times when the framerate would drop (down by the goal line etc). So I think it's likely they already push it to the edge.

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

Commentary sounds bad because the 2 commentators aren't there together. They record alone on seperate days and one of the developers just piece it together. This was shown on their own making of NCAA 12 tv show. Those guys need to be sitting in the studio at the same time, saying lines together, that way it would sound more natural flowing.

Yes it could definitely flow better, but that's only a small part of the problem. Even if the lines were recorded better and more naturally, it would STILL be the same canned stuff over and over.

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

As it stands now, like it has always been for this series, it feels and sound canned. There is no hype for rivarly games, small schools having an outstanding season, freshmen or non all american players having a break out year, no hype for bowl games or even the championship game. All the games sound the same in the same tone. And what really gets me is when they make blatant mistakes. For example: Saying the ball went into the end zone, it is a touch back, when clearly the ball went out at the 7 yard line and the players are currently lining up at the 7 yard line before he even starts talking. Or they will be talking about a star player that has been out since week 1 and it is now week 8. Why in the world would a team have to worry about a player that has been knocked out of the season since week 1 ? Or how about my FB who was having a break out year, 800 yards rushing, 300 receiving, 16 TDs, he didn't even get talked about at all. They need to be more aware of the season stats and what is actually going on.

That's exactly what context sensitive commentary would be. The game does do a little bit of it already. It mentions things like who is scoring a lot of touchdowns, who set a record, who has a lot of catches or interceptions, who returned the kickoff for a touchdown last time, who has a few sacks etc.

But that should be the tip of the iceberg. Literally everything the announcers say should be processed through a deeper announcer AI system first. Everything generic should be gone.