My Last Game - Where is the Pride

[bricap]

I totally understand and agree with you. The last time I really enjoyed the franchise was back in 06 for the original XBOX. 4 versions and a PS3 later, the game has gone back to the stone age. AI sucks, dynasty is stale, presentation is the worst in any sports game made.

Truth is I REALLY want to like this game! I'm trying to see the good in it, but when I remember what the last generation was like, I can't help but to feel cheated. I've spent hundreds of dollars on the franchise hoping each year would be better than the last...only to wind up disappointed.

EA is constantly trying to polish up last years work to call it this years offering. They are taking an AMC Pacer, buffing it and putting a new coat of paint. But when you peel back the layers of paint, you're still stuck with a pile of crap.

It is time to abandon the whole system. Scrap NCAA 11, take the year off to redesign the whole engine from the ground up. The game desperately needs this! (It wouldn't hurt Madden to freshen up either.) I really hope Backbreaker is a hit and gives Madden and NCAA a harsh wake-up call.

NCAA has always been a staple for my PS3, but I'm really considering trading it in. Like I said, I really want to like this game, but it's getting harder and harder to do.

[marcoyk]

If you play this game right out of the box without online capabilities, this game is a complete, utter, joke: wrong rosters, sliders that don't work, etc. If you play this game with 50 sliders, it is unplayable. And you have to do a lot of slider work to make this into a sim-style game - which I still can't achieve. I've tried about 5 sets of sliders, and I've altered many to my own liking for the last week, and I still can't settle on them. For me, it's either accept the robo-QB and have a competitive game, or get rid of robo-QB and blow out better teams every game. I'm such a big college football fan, but this game... really dissappointing. What is really disheartenning is when I'm in a close game (rarely happens, unless I decide to let robo-QB play), and I score the game winning TD on an amazing play, and all of my teammates walk away like they just had a three and out, while I'm pointing to the away crowd or jumping over the mascots legs... I would LOVE a good NCAA football game, but we didn't get it this year...

[xMacabre]

I agree with the blocking part of your post, but you had a lot of exaggerations. I use the aggressive choice for my D-LINE every game and I have had 1 offsides call in 10 games. Maybe I am just really lucky, but I doubt it happens frequently like you suggest.

I suggest the heisman sliders on here, QB at 5, and pass coverage at 35 very nice results.. requires you to be decent with the stick, and no superman defenders.

For the physics this happens on Madden and NCAA it is not just their problem you must not understand the difficulty of coding and programming to appreciate how far they have come from 09-10. Your complaint there is very nit picky and not reasonable nothing is perfect. Would you rather the CB lunge his chest into Dwyer and knock his *** out like 09?

The players running through things is annoying, but not game-breaking. I mean every game has little stuff like that. On College Hoops 2k8(best ncaa basketball game I have ever played) on put-backs the players hands would go through the rim and net OMG I can't play this so distracting.. very lame excuse to say this game sucks.

The moves to the right analog stick are your personal preference I myself like the stick more than the buttons.

As for your loading issues I had that to.. I saved the game to my 360 hard drive and then emptied the cache on my xbox 360 this will require you to re download the patch, but I haven't had a freeze since.

Overall I think this is a great version the best to date no, but certainly a step-above all the other next gen versions. IMO they are going in the right direction

[Jive_Turkey]

Agree I stopped playing. Game is whack. The NCAA series loses replay value quick these days for me. They just port the old madden and throw together some gimmicks every year. What sticks out is how you said your a "BIG COLLEGE FAN." I am to and it is really sick having only ONE goofy/clunky college game each year to play. As long as EA has the exclusive license they could at least have the "Pride" to make a playable game.

I don't think sliders help at all neither do my buds, seems to make the game 2x as goofy.

[BaselineBakes]

This game had so much promise 2 weeks ago, that faded so very quickly.

[CurryStorm]

Over the past 2 years, I have also found that I'm not as excited about NCAA as I used to be. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older (now 29), maybe the game is just becoming stale or maybe the game is just not as good as it was on the PS2. NCAA was the game that I looked forward to all year, ever since it was Bill Walsh's College Football. This was the first year that I didn't buy it first day.

I think my main problem is that the game, at least dynasty mode to me, has regressed since the PS2 games. It's not just that the PS3/360 versions haven't added anything new, it's that they have actually taken so much away from the older versions. The presentation has been discussed before and has it's own thread. But the gameplay also seems to have regressed, simple things like the running animations for the players seem almost worse than their PS2 counterparts. And the commentary, well, I think that's the one thing that hasn't changed at all over the years.

In the PS2 games, we had the magazine photos of your players after a big game. You'd think by now, this would have been improved upon where there are actually small write-ups about the game as well as a photo from the actual game; instead, this feature has been replaced with the same 3 generic team photos of a band or something. And I can't believe there are still no coordinators in the game, which is a HUGE aspect of college football. I'd also like halftime report shows, or in-game score tickers- what football games that are shown on TV now don't have the scoring ticker at the bottom during the whole game?

Finally, I can't believe they don't have a weekly wrap-up show (just like College Hoops) updating you on the results of the big games that week, key performances, and throw-in highlights from each conference's "game of the week" (even if they're just generic highlights, it's still something). Something more to make your dynasty feel "alive." They really had that feeling going in the right direction on the PS2 and then just dropped all of it.

If space is a problem, please EA get rid of Mascot Mashup and things like that. Just make Mascot Mashup it's own game and sell it separately for $10 if it's that important to you.

[xMacabre]

You guys understand that code isn't copy and paste from PS2->PS3.. The games graphically are more complex to code and design around that is not EA's fault blame Sony for creating such a high tech graphics engine for their PS3. According to EA and other game companies the 360 is about half as complicated as the PS3 in coding games. I mean they are learning how to manipulate the graphics engines to their desire(realistic movement) I remember playing NCAA 02 and the game compared to your guys standards wasn't worth 5$. It took to about 06 to get a real good game. 4 seasons of editing and fixing.. we are now on next gen's 4th season is it as good as 06 no, but the code is more complex, so I wasn't expecting anything to 06s level till 11 or 12.

Now as for the lack of presentation compared to the other games. Last gen didn't get those goodies till about 2005 (IMO 2006), 3 seasons after the release of 02. The goodies were made after the physics had reached an acceptable level to EA. The code for xbox and ps2 were very simple compared to next gen, so obviously they got to that point quicker.

[bry422]

I agree with most of what everyone has said. The clipping of players doesn't bother me, but I get everyones main points.

I'm 35 and I remember fondly the time (pre-family) that I'd put into NCAA 03/04 on my trusty XBOX. Well, the babies are now in school and my free time has increased. So, about six months ago, I rented 09 for my 360 and didn't care for it. The following day I BOUGHT an original XBOX and a copy of 07 with the hope of recapturing that magic.

Wow, like your favorite pair of jeans, 07 just felt right. Played right. Looked right. Everything. Heaven.

Flash forward to this past week. I bought 10. I told myself that I was going to retire the XBOX, 07...and jump-in and embrace 10.

Let me tell ya, fellas. I'm struggling. With each passing game on 10, I long even more for 07. There was a "feel" and a "soul" to last gen. Neither of which has been captured on current gen. And I don't even know how you get these organic elements into a video game. I just know last gen had them and current gen does not.