My NCAA 2005 Impressions

[JSteph3061]

Could you perhaps post your link so that we may see your reviews?

[Skyboxer]

Quote:

---

MarchOfThePigs said:
hey dudes, im from gaming-age.com, i went to e3 and posted a big thread about all the sports games. i definently noticed the slowdown in the xbox version. however, when compared side by side with the ps2 version (which is how it was setup at EA's booth), the PS2 version ran at full speed. it looked great. the xbox version ran like garbage. it was slow, choppy, and very unfun to play. i (like the original poster) was thinking "hey why isn't anyone saying anything? maybe its just me..."

but i saw it with my own peepers guys, side by side with the playstation 2 version and there was a HUGE difference. as it stands, i would not buy the xbox version, and if they dumb down the PS2 version to the xbox's speed, i wouldn't buy ncaa period

---

Riiiiiight..... let me change my pre-order now...

[MarchOfThePigs]

lol! you think i'm bs-ing you? ok man whatever, just trying to give you guys the heads up on what i saw because most of you weren't there. here's a link to my e3 review

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthr...threadid=91729

[kodiak]

Link asks for a username and password, secondly there is no review on the news page, which has every other game that was previewed at E3. Now I am not disputing the slow down issue but you need to provide a little more credible link to be fully recognized.

[MarchOfThePigs]

here's my entire post, copy and pasted:

MeestahSpawko
angels raise your voices:
CHEECHOO
(05-14-04 0442 AM)
Reply | Quote | Edit/Del
Report Post | IP: Logged
the official e3 sports impression thread: Because thats all i played

i'll post about each sports game i played, good and bad:

1. Madden 2005, ps2 and xbox (didn't play the GC version) -

Graphics - amazing! the lighting effects on the stadium are sweet. there is this nice little lens-flare effect (in san fran), and also in one of my first games it was a kickoff time of 4:05 est, and it was around dusk, and after halftime it got darker. the new animations are sweet as well, as there is no "invisible barrier" when the ball carrier dives. madden fans know what i mean. if you slide or dive with a QB, you aren't "protected" once you get into the animation, you can be knocked back.

lots of variety in the DB/WR animations. i saw on one deep bomb a guy beat me with chad johnson, and he made a sweet over the shoulder jumping catch while looking back in the endzone. it looked awesome! you can customize your own crowd, so if you dont like how the "black hole" looks, just change the fans there by custom designing them.

Gameplay - easily the highlight of the show (for me). even though the demo was on ROOKIE (or pro, but i think rookie) the gameplay is very much improved. no more jet rocket catches, no more easy long bombs, the D played very disciplined. the hit stick not only works on ball carriers, but also on guys who are blocking you. you can hit stick them and knock them on their asses. there is no more seperation between fast receivers and lower ranked CB's/LB's. loft passes are also very useful, i didn't see any instance where the defender suddenly got a boost of miracle speed to make a play on the ball, so you don't have to be scared about lofting the ball over the D anymore. the momentum has been toned down a bit, it is especially evident on screen passes. last year, when you got a screen play, the reciever would do this ridiculous motion and usually run into the defender. but now the transition is VERY smooth and you have control right away.

the defense was much improved in stopping the QB. i played lots of people who were vick and mcnabb, and thanks to the new individual hot routing on defense, i could spy the QB with any guy i wanted at any time. i could also have my DE's/LB's "contain" the qb, instead of just all out blitzing him to get the sack.

also, one small addition they made was swinging the camera around on kickoffs and punts. last year you would only see it from the kicking teams perspective until you caught the ball, then the camera would swing around. now when you kick the ball, the camera swings around right away so you can see your blocks developing.

online leagues were confirmed to me for both xbox and playstation 2. it will be web-based.

the hit stick is pretty sweet because you can push the stick in any direction, and he will automatically hit the run. it is hit and miss though, as i went after the qb a couple times and got completely whiffed. one thing to note is against this one dude i used the hit stick on delhomme, and plastered him, and his chest was injured on the play. maybe the NFL is letting EA add more injuries for hit stick?

overall, this was the game of the show case closed. i played between 25 and 30 games combined on ps2/xbox on 1 minute quarters, and i feel like going back tomorrow for more. the game is that good!

2. NCAA Football 2005 - ps2, xbox

wow, this game looked awesome on ps2. the momentum meter crowd meter really makes a difference. animations were great, its a totally different feel from madden. blocking is improved, secondary play is more active than in madden (animations are a tad better for secondary play).

one thing i dont understand is why the xbox version was so [censored]. it played like it was underwater. it was slowing down, and overall it was just a bad experience. im hoping they fix this cause i was looking forward to this game on xbox. i have to admit i only played about 4 five minute quarters total, so im not as qualified to comment on it as i am madden.

3. ESPN football 2005 - ps2, xbox

ehhh... i played it on xbox and wasn't very impressed. first off, they DID NOT fix the rb problem yet. tyrone wheatley broke 3 tackles, and outran my CB's for about a 70 yard TD in one game. also, i played the pats, and corey dillon had 3 runs for 123 yards in the first half. the game looked VERY good in motion, but something about the game just didn't sit right with me after playing madden. the passes seemed like they were being thrown under water. i didn't like the lack of momentum with QB's (once again, go into runner mode and you're at full speed right away). they still haven't fixed that terrible running animation. to be honest, the game was identical to last years version besides a bit of a graphical upgrade (which, like i said looked awesome). i dont know if they've implemented the "hit stick" on defense yet, but i couldn't get it to work for [censored] if it was on there. the zone defenses still don't work very well. i called cover 2 and various other zones, and more often than not the players simply didn't play their zones correctly. i remember one time in particular i called a flats zone play, where my LB's were supposed to go wide and cover against the RB pass, and my LB went out there and just stopped at a point while the RB got wide of him and headed up field for the catch and nice gain. why do i call zone if they wont man that zone?

overall i enjoyed ESPN, but it just wasn't in the same league as madden. and dont call me a fanboy because i am geniunely excited about ESPN's new features, just didn't impress me as much.

3. NBA live 2005 - ps2, xbox

wow, what a difference a year makes, this game was AWESOME on xbox. they slowed the game down, improved the defesnse, and improved the graphics. i dont know what difficulty it was on, but i had some good defensive games. there weren't many free dunks to be had, but every once in a while they happened. you could only pick either the hornets, cavs or lakers though. the new strip and dive animations are gorgeous. you can trap a guy and have the ball stripped from him, then you can have your guys dive on the ground for it and call a T.O. or throw the ball out. also, if you jump into someone now going for a dunk its going to be a charge or blocking foul, no more "im going to move you for the dunk".

on another note, the playstation 2 version was simply ugly and like a totally different game. it was choppy and slow loading, and it was waaaaaaaaay too fast. dont know whats going on down at EA canada, but get on the ball!!

4. ESPN basketball 2005 - ps2/xbox

i didn't play the ps2 version, only xbox.

it sucked balls. all the ridiculous dunks you remember from ESPN basketball are back. i played against the lakers as the kings, and shaq did a reverse 2 handed jam after backing me down. i said wtf...

the shooting animation was still pretty slow as well, which is another problem i had last year. isomotion is improved, but still living in the shadow of freestyle control. i dont know what setting it was on, but man was it easy to dunk whenever i wanted with whoever i wanted. thumbs down to this game... although i only played a few games, i wasn't too interested in it after the first game.


so there you have it. all these games could get better before release (we all know that), but right now i have to give GAME OF THE SHOW (not just sports game) hands down to madden. i had a blast playing the game and EA just addressed most every problem i had with the game, no matter how small. ill post more later about non-sports games, not that any of you dudes care what i have to say about that since im no expert....


LONG LIVE KING MADDEN!
------------

hopefully someone from EA will get wind that the slower speed is severely disliked, and they will fix it.

[TopDog]

[/zombie] All hail King Madden, all hail King Madden [/zombie]

Give me a break. To steal a little bit of your originality, your reviews suck balls.

[shermas]

Hey guys,

I was at E3 last week and I can echo the other comments about the Xbox version of the game. Running an option, because of the slowness, was almost impossible and RBs had trouble turning the corner, even when a sweep was a great playcall. Also, we were using LSU and USC, schools that are loaded with burners, so I can't imagine how bad it'll be when I start a dynasty with a dog school.

I'm not sure if EA is going to tune up the Xbox version or not before they ship it. I certainly hope so because the slow down is so dramatic, it makes a HUGE difference. It's not one of those "after I play it a while I'll get used to it" deals. Also, EA was promoting some kind of new "dynamic running improvement" for the game, so maybe that's why it's so slow.

Either way, it's not ideal. I'll be following the news on this game closely as it gets closer to release. Again, this is just on the Xbox version of the game. I didn't play the PS2 version, so I don't know if it suffers from the same underwater feel.

[Shaver]

Quote:

---

TopDog said:
[/zombie] All hail King Madden, all hail King Madden [/zombie]

Give me a break. To steal a little bit of your originality, your reviews suck balls.

---

Take your flaming to another board. Control it or find somewhere else to post.