NCAA Patch #2 Quick Impressions & 'Guide'

[bigcdiddy16]

Quote: Originally Posted by Card-me

I'm going to be very critical in this post, and I'm going to say a lot of things about EA that aren't very nice, and I understand that this could get me a permanent ban, but I don't care. I'm tired of this. I will start by saying that in many ways the game we play today is better than previous generations. NCAA06 is very highly regarded, and some of the fans of the new games have wondered whether this is mostly nostalgia. As somebody who played NCAA 10 before NCAA06, I can say that the answer is very simply... maybe. There's no question that running in 06 is completely hit or miss. You either get the hole and make it past the line, or you hit the brick wall and run around like a buffoon. And the zone read is nonexistent since the blocking is just there - not really bad, but there are no schemes, it's just block the guy in front of you. And let's not forget the stone hands. On the other hand, there's actual momentum to movement, passes actually elevate, DBs are neither psychic nor braindead, LBs are not supermen (and not overly fast), and I never really feel cheated. The best thing I can say, though, is that it's consistent, both good and bad. So, to be fair, EA hasn't really been standing still as some of the haters would claim. But that doesn't mean they've been moving forward. The more I play EA Sports games this generation, the more the following phrase comes to mind: "One step forward, two steps back." I think that basically defines current generation NCAA Football, having played NCAA08-NCAA12 on Xbox 360 and PS3. There's no doubt that the game is better looking than ever, they dynasty mode is better, recruiting is better, presentation is better (outside of commentary), and some aspects of gameplay are even better. I would even go so far as to say that, as a package, the overall game is better. When it works. I personally don't see how anybody playing this game after this patch can still say "Overall, I'm happy." Is this a joke? Have I been transported to backward land? Like usual, they broke more features than they fixed. "You mean they broke no huddle? Well, that's okay, because my menus load a half second faster. And they broke custom play books and failed to really fix online dynasties and rosters? Well, no big deal, the AI only goes brain dead (or cheats me) a few less times per game. Plus, they totally kinda fixed the coach progression that was messed up when it shipped." And you know what? Let's ignore the fact that the last two games have basically shipped with half-baked features that are nowhere close to what they promised, then that was followed by two months of promises to make everything better, only to have a patch released that fixed half of what they said it would while breaking twice what it "fixes." Let's just assume all of that didn't happen (which is a pretty big leap), and let's just look at the game. There will be plenty that disagree with me, and I don't really care, but anybody that can seriously try to say that those of us that complain about the game "suck at football" or "don't get the strategy" must be playing a different game than I. I don't suck at football, and there is absolutely no strategy involved in this game. If I can come up to the line in a run play and see the entire defense crowd the box, audible to a pass and watch them all back up, then audible back to a run and watch them all crowd the box again, there is no strategy to the game. If I can run it 15 times in a row, then go play action (on a play designated as "setup" no less) and have zero defenders bite, and I can do this three times in a game with the same results, there is no strategy to the game. If I can scan the field, catch a DB playing off coverage, get his back turned from me, and launch a timing pass (curl, comeback, dig, out, etc), with perfect timing, and watch the DB magically grow eyes in the back of his helmet and beat the receiver to his own route (ignoring all rules of physics and momentum, mind you) and make an interception, then there is no strategy to the game. If I can do the exact same thing again the very next play, but miss the timing and watch a DB just stand there as the ball flies past his head, there is no strategy to the game. If I can pass to a wide open receiver streaking across the field, watch him turn his head, and the ball hit him right in the face mask while his hands never move, there is no strategy to the game (and no, this has not been fixed in the patch, I've had it at least three times per game ever since, even with WR Catching set to "Conservative"). Now let's get really real. All these excuses and "fixes" I keep reading about like "Get yourself a good slider set, bro" or "You can get around the no huddle glitch by changing the way you play" or "Custom play books and dynasties are fine, you just have to start over" are utter bull****. First of all, slider sets are the most commonly misunderstood part of the EA Sports football universe. Can I get a decent game of football with a certain slider set? Sometimes, yes (until the next patch breaks it, anyway). But does it really fix any of the problems I mentioned two paragraphs back? Not really. It just hides them more or less often. That's not the way sliders should work. Sliders should not be used to hide gameplay problems, they should be used to adjust difficulty. They should increase or decrease the amount of time that the CPU outsmarts me or plays better/gets better position than me. They should not increase or decrease the amount of time the laws of physics are broken to make the stats and score look different. I shouldn't be able to turn the interception slider down to reduce my number of INTs and the only difference be that the DBs can no longer catch a virus from drinking out of a used petri dish. I'm honestly not even going to fully address the "workarounds" for broken features, because to call them excuses would be generous. What I will say is that having to change the way I would normally interact with a piece of software to get it to do what I want is basically the definition of a broken feature. And either way, there is no real workaround for the broken no-huddle... I don't run it normally anyway, but when I get to a two-minute drill with no timeouts to try to win or tie a game, I'm basically screwed. Great job, EA. Let's be honest, guys, the game is crap-shoot. You call a play and see if it works. You don't outsmart or outplay anything, and you don't get outsmarted or outplayed. The game rolls the dice and gives you an outcome, and when the game starts to get out of hand one way or the other, it rolls a weighted die to try to even it out. As it is, this will be my last NCAA. I just can't take it any more. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me 6 times, shame on me for being stupid, but my God, you couldn't get it right once? I mean, how many times can I keep watching passes hit guys in the face or watch DBs and LBs bend the rules of the universe to keep the stats right? How many times can I wait three months on empty promises of Grand Fix Patches only to end up with a game worse than the one I bought? How many times can I expect to pay $60/year (plus all the microtransactions... thanks) to end up beta testing a game that's not really that different than the one I played last year? AND HOW MANY YEARS DO I HAVE TO ASK FOR MORE THAN 5 MINUTE QUARTERS IN RTG BEFORE YOU ADD IT AS A "NEW FEATURE?" For me, I've reached the limit. I guess I'll have to give the other game a shot. Oh, wait...

Great post. The "other game" has errors in it that I consider worse than this one, like say commentary which is impossible for any test team to overlook. Really starting to doubt they test their products at all, except post release. Reaslly is sad how many will throw the hey use this work around or this slider to fix the game. Except if they were given say Microsoft word, do you think they would go three steps out of the way just to bold font a word, doubtful. Once again well thought out post.