Re: NCAA Basetball 09 Demo Available, Impressions Here
Very disappointed. It's probably the animations, and the way they work with the game controls, but I find the demo to be alternately clunky and spastic. Nothing on the screen looks or feels like actual basketball, and the timing of everything is just odd and idiosyncratic -- just like the same video game basketball I've been playing since double dribble.
Also pretty unimpressed by the off-ball movement and general AI, the players don't seem to do basic basketball cuts and practice elementary floor spacing depending on your passing, which is something all basketball games need. I'm sure playcalling helps with this, but still -- it just reminds you of how game-y everything feels.
Like all hoops games, the collision system is kinda lacking. I think that's because basketball is a game of constant bumping and sliding and contact with motion, and that's hard to translate into mo-capped animations.
Player face modeling and skin textures/lighting are very, very well done. Some of the best I've seen in a sports game. Body proportions are a little off, and the animations -- well, I think others have said enough on that. Even the nice, fluid animations feel out of place.
On the whole, the graphics seem a little dark, the way night games in movies are always much too dark.
The short shorts on the classic teams is also a nice touch, though it would have been nicer had they fixed the overly large jersey graphics to go with it.
Overall, I guess I'm hoping for a game that captures the good parts of CH 2k8 but has a more organic, looser, better animated floor game, complete with better off-ball movement. NCAA 09 is not that game.
Very disappointed. It's probably the animations, and the way they work with the game controls, but I find the demo to be alternately clunky and spastic. Nothing on the screen looks or feels like actual basketball, and the timing of everything is just odd and idiosyncratic -- just like the same video game basketball I've been playing since double dribble.
Also pretty unimpressed by the off-ball movement and general AI, the players don't seem to do basic basketball cuts and practice elementary floor spacing depending on your passing, which is something all basketball games need. I'm sure playcalling helps with this, but still -- it just reminds you of how game-y everything feels.
Like all hoops games, the collision system is kinda lacking. I think that's because basketball is a game of constant bumping and sliding and contact with motion, and that's hard to translate into mo-capped animations.
Player face modeling and skin textures/lighting are very, very well done. Some of the best I've seen in a sports game. Body proportions are a little off, and the animations -- well, I think others have said enough on that. Even the nice, fluid animations feel out of place.
On the whole, the graphics seem a little dark, the way night games in movies are always much too dark.
The short shorts on the classic teams is also a nice touch, though it would have been nicer had they fixed the overly large jersey graphics to go with it.
Overall, I guess I'm hoping for a game that captures the good parts of CH 2k8 but has a more organic, looser, better animated floor game, complete with better off-ball movement. NCAA 09 is not that game.
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