Bill Abner's thoughts on NCAA after playing at E3

[koolbubbaice]

Quote: Originally Posted by SpartanPride

it was indeed minor...you people bitch about realism and then when you get it you decide things arent "fun" enough. I've gone to every single MSU game for the past 7 years, several for other schools like OSU, Mich., and ND, and 4-6 drops per game are common. Guess what....sometimes more. The bottom line is simple, you will NEVER get the perfect defensive interface for CB's, therefore a drop extra here and there becomes almost needed. Also, QB's are too perfect. To me, those, not the drops, are the issues. It's not about willing your way to liking it. On the contrary, it's actually being smart enough to know what to look for. You expect 1 drop per? Go play NFL Street.

Wrong.. Having top WR's droping passes with no defender on him 3-4 times a game is not realistic.. Screen passing aren't dropped half the time by HB's.. Playing against the AI, having the QB going 2-17 isn't realistic budddy.. The composure feature is broken & is the cause of the excess drops.. You say the drops are realistic, yet 80% of the ppl here thought NCAA05 was a major let down, with too many dropped balls as one of the culprits..

[VTPack919]

Quote: Originally Posted by koolbubbaice

Wrong.. Having top WR's droping passes with no defender on him 3-4 times a game is not realistic.. Screen passing aren't dropped half the time by HB's.. Playing against the AI, having the QB going 2-17 isn't realistic budddy.. The composure feature is broken & is the cause of the excess drops.. You say the drops are realistic, yet 80% of the ppl here thought NCAA05 was a major let down, with too many dropped balls as one of the culprits..

Yes the dropped balls were just terribly unrealistic and frustrating. It also seemed like i could never break off a long run or kick/punt return unless my guy was 99 speed. I have been playing NCAA for years and years so i know its not my skill level. Please tell me im not the only one with that problem.

[dave360]

If it were only 4-6 or even 10 drops per game I could handle it, but 2-17, 3-30 games just don't get it. Throwing a wide open pass to an 80 or above rated catching receiver with no defenders within 5 yards of him and having him drop it is unacceptable, and it's just as unacceptable when you're playing USC and Leinart goes 2-20 with 56 yds passing. 15-20 drops per game doesn't even happen in high school ball. If 06 has only 10 drops or so per game, then I'll pick it up the day it comes out.

[Brandwin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Clay_OS

I'm sure you all know me as the Pope of Sports Gaming...so I'd like to bless you with a thought.... Hell, Bill Corleone may love the game by the time it makes it through final QA and hits shelves... .. Love, The Pope

LMAO!!!

[Bill_Abner]

Wow.

I guess I should clarify a few things:

1) Being at E3 and being grumpy are one in the same. Long flight, no sleep, bad food, and everyone saying how their game is the best thing since Pong. Its the same show every year. Plus as a press member I like to keep my head as level as I can; too much fawning from a press member is just unprofessional IMO. I even tried to stay calm after the Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends showing..and that was hard to do.

2) Ok the game. I appreciate the feedback -- but this was a first impression off one 5-minute quarter game with no slider adjustments. Even at its best NCAA needed slider tweaks. So to say that NCAA 2006 isnt going to be worth a damn is getting way ahead of ourselves and I never said any such thing on the blog.

The initial impression was indeed "eh" but thats mainly because the engine is in place and it felt, off that first impression, very much like 2005. I was indeed shocked that the Producer said that wide open receivers still drop passes if their composure is low. Personally, I hate this "feature". Your mileage may vary but I hated this about 2005. I hated the Discipline system as well and I cant believe that was not fixed.

Graphically, it looks almost just like 2005 off of a first impression. I think it looks fine, but all this talk about upgraded graphics, I aint seein it.

Passing felt the same but they did fix the crazy bouncing balls on tipped passes. They also fixed some DB AI as passes in the flat seemed to work better and Michigan's Hart ran well on me, which was nice to see. Again, guys..1 5-min game..this is hardly enough to say much about the game.

The blog update was never meant as a fully fleshed out preview. The people that read the blog asked for showday impressions and that's what I posted. Could NCAA 2006 be the best game in the series? Sure it could, even with some of the holdover problems. Its way too early to say either way. But if you expect this to be a HUGE upgrade, well, it's just not. (Again I didnt see any recruiting so I dunno how that looked)

As for "who asks about drops?"

Not enough people, which is why the sports gaming media doesn't get it. Why is a question such as that out of bounds? God forbid a press member ask if problems from the previous year are fixed. Lets talk more about the new Spring Drills!

[SoMiss2000]

It's not your fault that you have reached "Rockstar Status" is some of these guy's eyes. I'm sure it's quite flattering.

[Jistic]

Quote: Originally Posted by shortsoldier

Breaking News: Jistic has been promoted.

Does this include a pay increase?

[kevinpars]

I think the biggest problem with 2005 was that the risk/reward for passing was all out of wack. I got to the point where i never threw short passes to the running backs because they would drop the pass most of the time. But I could throw bombs down field and complete them at a much higher percentage. It was virtually impossible to run an offense like the West Coast and dink and dunk down the field. I could run the ball, run the option, go deep, but the short passing game was broken. It has nothing to do with 'realism.' Not being able to complete a short or medium pass but being able to throw the ball 50 yards and have your receiver catch the ball with 3 defenders on him ain't realism. I played this game a lot and it isn't that I don't know how to play or didn't have the right sliders. It was a flawed game with serious problems. To say it was 'realistic' and if we didn't like it we just 'sucked' is a cute premise but flat out wrong.

I think what we can expect from NCAA 2006 is 2004 gameplay with 2005/2006 extras tacked on and fixed. I imagine they toned down the home field advantage a little. Slowdown on the xbox was supposedly fixed. But we sure are not going to to see a new engine, so the flaws to the engine are still going to be hiding in the background.