Madden NFL 09 vs. NCAA Football 09: Battle Royal

[RaychelSnr]

The question on many gamers minds who haven't picked up NCAA Football 09 or Madden NFL 09 is which game is actually better. Will McCombs is taking this natural sibling rivalry and raising it a notch today in order to determine which game is better and worth your hard-earned $60: Madden NFL 09 or NCAA Football 09.

"From July 15 to the present, I have had a rather difficult time prying myself away from my Xbox 360 in the few hours of free time I have during the work week. Between NCAA’s breakaway gameplay to Cris Collinsworth’s analysis of my dubious passing blunders, I have become a full fledged junkie for EA Sports' formidable tag-team of football sims."

[Da Birthday Boy]

NCAA's gameplay was a joke, if you like scoring every play then it's obviously for you. Madden is better in all categories, it shouldn't even be talked about..

[asu666]

The NCAA team needs to get all of the Bowl Division team's stadiums in the game next year. There's nothing that kills the atmosphere of a game more than playing in the generic stadium. I'd like to see the crowd size change with performance too and defense come back in as a meaningful part of the game. It would be nice to have a setting that eliminates turbo use too. Players should run at their maxium speed when the analog stick is pressed all the way in one direction.

Madden needs its Owner Mode back. I'd like to see interactive sidelines like All Pro 2K8 where you can run into the real players standing there or if you break one down the sideline some of them step forward and cheer you on. I was excoted about the stadium exterior shots until I relized that they were just pieced together with the stadium in the middle, a shot of downtown in the background, and the same cars always in the foreground. Anyone who has been to the Cardinals stadium knows that it is out in the middle of no where to keep the sink away from the population centers in Phoenix. If you've never been there and just played Madden you might get the impression it is right downtown.

People keep talking about the running game improvements for both games too and I still think that being able to put the runner right in behind a blocker and have an anmation where the runner puts his hand on the blocker's back and can smoothly break either way like in the 2K series is still better than where Madden and NCAA are right now.

Having said all of that, I think Madden is the better of the two games this year. I can see that the gameplay is starting to catch up to NFL 2K5 in a few areas and maybe even improve upon it in others. It's still sad that we are four games into this generation and I still play ESPN NFL 2K5 more than Madden or NCAA. I guess there's always next year. I believe that Peter Moore will make some postive contributions over at EA Sports. Maybe Madden 09 is the first step to something better.

[Spanky]

Right now, my vote also goes to NCAA, thanks in large part to the second patch. That could change after Madden's second patch and some more time with that game, but right, I'm having more fun with NCAA.

NCAA just plays a tighter, more realistic game, with less issues like 20 for 22 CPU passing and no cpu run game. The atmosphere is much better in NCAA (there is zero atmosphere in Madden, you can't even hear the crowd). Graphically, NCAA gets the edge because there seems to be more close-up scenes. Madden's close-up scenes look good, too, but there isn't enough of them.

[bigjake62505]

NCAA for me. Madden is flat and boring. The stadiums should be louder and more excitement should be in the air. I like college football better than NFL so I guess I am biased.

[BlackRome]

bigjake62505 : Madden is flat and boring.

I couldn't have said it better.

I feel like I'm wasting my life watching the clock tick.

[mercalnd]

Re: Madden NFL 09 vs. NCAA Football 09: Battle Royal

Wow. I can't believe that the author said Madden had no major glitch, How about franchise mode freezing in year 2 or 3 every time for many users, making the mode prety much useless?

[ab2c4]

Re: Madden NFL 09 vs. NCAA Football 09: Battle Royal

My vote goes to Madden this year for the first time ever. Both games have their share of problems, but Madden is the winner because it has less gameplay killing problems than NCAA. It's sad really. This is the first time ever that I have already sold NCAA and am going back to 06 on the ps2 and 08 on the 360.

[dbrandon]

At my local Gamestop they have had 17 NCAA returned 3 Madden. Gameplay was the main reason for returns in both cases.

[sbmnky]

This is the first year in quite a while I have decided not to purchase either game. After reading this article along with other threads and comments throughout the boards, I'm confident in my decision.

I must admit I really want to play a good game of football, but after reading all the glitches, freezes, etc I don't want to feel as though I'm wasting my time.

Perhaps when the patches are complete for both games I'll look into purchasing one or both. But for now I'll continue to be on the outside looking in.

[asu666]

Next year is Madden's fifth and NCAA's forth on current generation hardware. I think people are rightly getting a little tweaked that EA still has not been able to flesh out the feature set in each game to meet the prior generation's feature set. Not having all of the stadiums in NCAA and no Owener mode in Madden are my two biggest compliants in the arena of features, but little things like play conduct in NCAA to bigger issues like a lack of ESPN integration (or some kind of more dynamic reply, commentary, and statistical breakdown graphical overlays with more frequency) during games and overall lack of atmosphere are nagging problems too.

Another huge issue is that games development have been too focused on the 5 minute quarter crowd. That's the only reason I can think of that defense is under appreciated and the CPU QBs run to the line and snap the ball while the play clock has only run for a few seconds. This makes playing a game of official 15 minute quarters with realistic stats almost impossible. Tiburon should concentrate more on the pace of the game in the real world and let the 5 minute quarter audience hit the A button to hurry to the line. The 40 second play clock in NCAA and the additional time at the line the CPU QB will have to make adjustments (letting the player make defensive adjustments) will be welcome changes.

[TCF]

mmmmmm i will take ncaa over madden and nfl hc over both

[rckabillyRaider]

Re: Madden NFL 09 vs. NCAA Football 09: Battle Royal

after the 2nd patch, NCAA by far is better, IMO. Madden couldnt keep my interest for more than a few days. Its collecting dust now. Hopefully the 2nd patch and DLC for Madden make it better also.

[arichzona]

Re: Madden NFL 09 vs. NCAA Football 09: Battle Royal

mmmmmm i will take ncaa over madden and nfl hc over both

cosign that.

I admit I did really like Madden for the first week. Then, like every year, I slowly go back to NCAA .- not because the gameplay is better, or the visuals are better, but becuse year after year - Madden is dull.

HC though?.......

[ChicagoSparty]

Re: Madden NFL 09 vs. NCAA Football 09: Battle Royal

NFL Head Coach 09.