NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

[Strummer101er]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The good:

* Player lock is absolutely AWESOME. The camera angles and perspective really bring something new to the series. This is NCAA 10's secret weapon feature.

* Incomplete passes and D-line swats. I threw three in row on one drive. D-line has been in my face to break up a lot of passes too.

* Blitzes. Good risk and reward. D-line still doesn't generate enough pressure on its own, but blitzes definitely bring heat and wreak chaos. I've been able to get sacks, QB knockdowns, fumbles, INTs off big blitzes -- and I've also given up a lot of big gains.

* Mixing and matching uniforms. Long overdue but perfect.

* Catching animations -- especially over-the-shoulder grabs -- are fluid and beautiful.

* Pass pressure. The D-line isn't getting much pressure on its own, which will hopefully be fixed in the final game or patched, but taking control of blitzers or controlling the DL yourself works. I've seen more QB knockdowns in the demo than I saw in all my time playing NCAA 09.

* Gameplanning is simple, straightforward and effective. Well done.

* Pursuit angles are greatly improved.

* DB/WR interaction. DBs definitely screw up your timing, which can lead to sacks and incompletion.

The bad:

* Player control seems sluggish and unresponsive on both sides of the ball. I miss left stick jukes and NCAA 09's breakaway animation engine. Players just don't respond quickly enough when I try to juke or rip out of a block.

* The game doesn't feel as explosive as 09. I don't think I'm gonna have the same jaw-dropping highlight-reel plays this year.

* AI ground game is not a threat. Hopefully this can be cured with sliders.

* New gameplay camera is disorienting and too zoomed out, especially when passing downfield. I hope there's a classic camera in the finished game.

* Tackling animations are beautiful but far too repetitive (I know we were warned that this was an issue with the demo). Finished game better have a lot more tackling animations.

The fugly:

* Atmosphere, TD celebrations and post-play celebrations suck. Blegh. Players have no excitement, energy or enthusiasm. It's like they're pumped full of horse tranquilizers. TDs feel anticlimactic. Teammates actually walk away from you instead of butting helmets or congratulating you or whatever.

[JAKEHB20]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Has anybody else experienced the glitch where you hike the ball. It goes flying back past the quarterback, the play is called dead and called an incomplete pass.

I've played 3 total games and had it happen twice. Pretty crap

Yes I've played the demo once and it happened twice in my game. I was pumped when it happened and then threw up ???? when they ruled it incomplete. haha.
Hopefully this is fixed.
I like the bad snaps though.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Alright, even though everyone else has pretty much broken this thing down to bits and pieces, I thought I'd give my two cents from the perspective of someone who is probably more of a borderline casual/hardcore gamer who just wants a fun game to play:

Gameplay
This is something that means so many things to so many people. But in any event, here are some of my thougts:
+ The game is slowed a bit, there's really no denying it and I don't understand how people can say it hasn't. It's not a lot, but it is there, and to me, it is a plus.
+ The catching is very solid IMO. The fade route work to perfection for me, where I lobbed it up with Tebow, and the receiver went up (not rocket style, but very naturally) and pulled it down and got a foot down in the corner of the end zone. It looked incredibly sweet. Maybe this was possible in 09 in some way, but I never got it as smooth and tight looking as I did in this demo.
+ Pocket definitely forms, no doubt about it. A vast improvement there.
+ QBs misfire, I likes A LOT. I overshot an open dude once that could have been six and I was mad, but happy all at the same time lol.
+ CPU burnt me deep and it wasn't just one of those wide open looks, but it actually challeneged me deep one on one, and won.
- Pass rush is struggling. It's more on my end though (of course lol) where I can't get as much pressure. The CPU got to me on many occassions though.
- The running period needs to be addressed. Momentum and physics will help this game immensely. When a guy cuts, there has to be an animation to address that foot plant and push. Not just a simple change of direction of the usual running animation. CPU is more guilty of this cause they'll be twitchin sometimes and it's just not good.
- Along with that, running animations need overhaul. Specifically for fast guys. That high knee thing is a trip lol. Ya'll need to take care of that EA!

Presentation
+ Bands were a good addition, better camera angles on that part would be good though.
+ I love the new look of the score layout and stats banners. I would recommend keeping something similar for future iterations.
- Pretty much same style commentary, this needs to be overhauled to freshen it up.
- Just the overall presentation needs an upgrade. I want to see players entering from the tunnels. Instead of just a pic of a player profile, show the player warming up like back in the day. Post game, I'm not sure if that really it or not, but something's gotta happen after the game as far as players leaving the field, coaches shaking hands, etc. The replay thing is cool, but I needs more.

Overall Impressions
The game IMO, is not even close to nearly as bad as people are making it sound. There are issues like pass rush (my only real main beef) that need addressing in the future, as well as tweaking the running and stuff. I can understand why people call it NCAA 9.5 (which I hate, cause it's so stupid, but whatever lol), but the game definitely feels different than it looks. The way the game is played is not like 09, but it defintely looks similar. If that bothers you, then you will never be able to get into this game. If you are a real HARDCORE SIM guy, you will also have problems because of some of the issues I noted. Like I said, I'm more borderline so although I notice these things and they kind of bother me, they don't ruin my experience with the game because overall it is a fun game to play.

BTW, this is on PS3 and I really didn't notice any graphical issues. The game looked and ran very smoothly. Not a bunch of jaggies at all for me, unless maybe my eyes just deceived me. And also, Uniform Mix-n-Match is the greatest thing EVER LOL.

So yeah, those are just my thoughts on it. Those who loved 09 will defintely still like 10, and those who hated 09 beyond just the issues of pursuit angles and stuff like that will probably still hate 10 lol.

It's not that the game is bad, it's just not improved very much and some annoyances from last year are still lingering.

[dsciara21]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

HAVENT PLAYED THE DEM O YET BUT IVE BEEN READING A FEW POSTS ON HERE AND SOME PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING HOW THE DEFENSE IS COVERING RECIEVERS TOO MUCH. THEY SAY THAT IT FEELS LIKE THEY ARE PLAYING 09 ALL OVER AGAIN. BUT THE SAME PEOLE COMPLAIN OF LACK OF COVERAGE LAST YEAR. SO I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON WITH DEFENSE WHEN I GET HOME TO PLAY. LAST YEAR SHUTTING ANYONE OUT WAS A MAJOR ACOMPLISHMENT BECAUSE OF WIDE OPEN GAME PLAY. SO A BETTER DEFENSIVE SCHEME SOUNDS AWESOME TO ME.

[Pared]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Turn off the caps lock, please.

[Skyboxer]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

HAVENT PLAYED THE DEM O YET BUT IVE BEEN READING A FEW POSTS ON HERE AND SOME PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING HOW THE DEFENSE IS COVERING RECIEVERS TOO MUCH. THEY SAY THAT IT FEELS LIKE THEY ARE PLAYING 09 ALL OVER AGAIN. BUT THE SAME PEOLE COMPLAIN OF LACK OF COVERAGE LAST YEAR. SO I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON WITH DEFENSE WHEN I GET HOME TO PLAY. LAST YEAR SHUTTING ANYONE OUT WAS A MAJOR ACOMPLISHMENT BECAUSE OF WIDE OPEN GAME PLAY. SO A BETTER DEFENSIVE SCHEME SOUNDS AWESOME TO ME.

Give me an example of someone who said coverage was bad last year and the same person said it's too good this year. Just post the quotes here so I can check it out.

[Tovarich]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The 3 timeouts in a row is legal in college guys. That's not a glitch. The only real problem with it is that they shouldn't do it before you call the play, they should wait until you're lined up. But college you can call 3 in a row, the NFL you can only call 1 per play and you get penalized.

[SA1NT401]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

My BIGGEST issue with the DEMO is being able to move the ball at will on heisman. Since sliders are broken...YET AGAIN...what does this mean for the game itself in the long-run?

I know they are patching the sliders and rosters, but what are the chances we get at least the sliders patched for LAUNCH?

There was stuff i liked overall and things i hated. But it does play better..mostly. I, however and NOT SEEING overthrows/underthrows etc. and FG are SILLY easy even on heisman.

There is hope, but i am worried that heisman is easy and AA is a complete cakewalk. Passing to me seems even easier than last year.

But it is a demo, so who knows.

[mikeveli20]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

Just played a great game on AA using the Gators. Won 14-13 with a TD with 8 seconds left. Here are some thoughts after the game:

- Getting a little more used to the camera but still prefer the classic cam

- Once again too many of the horse collar type tackles

- Still can't get a good pass rush with my d-line. Had zero sacks in the game and only got close to the QB maybe once.

- Had some fun adjusting my game plan mid way through the game as I was getting beat through the air pretty badly.

- One instance where I got stuck in a sack animation and couldn't throw the ball away. I though NCAA was using the same branching technology as Madden? I was wrapped up around the waist and being pushed backwards for about 2 seconds before being taken down and couldn't get rid of it.

- One instance where my lead blocker ran about 10 yards behind the ball carrier to block a guy that was already beat, thus leaving two incoming blockers for the ball carrier to deal with by himself.

- CPU nailed a 54 yard FG with room to spare.

- My run game was non existent except for an 8 yard TD run by Tebow with 8 seconds left. It was actually a called Pass play but coverage was really good so I just took off. Any time I called an actual run play I was taken down for no gain or for a loss.

- Love the passing game and the coverage feels almost perfect (except when I was getting burned on aggressive zone play before I switched to conservative lol).

- One instance where I threw to my receiver and he was hit a split second after he caught and it was ruled a fumble. The CPU recovered and there was no challenge. Should have been ruled an incomplete catch. Even if I was able to challenge manually I don't think it would be overturned because if it's the same challenge logic as NCAA 09, the challenge would just check to see if my knee was down or not (which of course it wasn't), not if I had possession before fumbling.


Even though it sounds like there were more negatives than positives, I still enjoyed the game very much. These are just some things that stuck out in my head.

[nxt]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The 3 timeouts in a row is legal in college guys. That's not a glitch. The only real problem with it is that they shouldn't do it before you call the play, they should wait until you're lined up. But college you can call 3 in a row, the NFL you can only call 1 per play and you get penalized.

If that's the case, OK... but the implementation in game is terrible. If it's supposed to reflect icing the kicker, than you are right, they should call the time out after we've already lined up. The way it is now, the CPU called three consecutive time outs before I even selected my play. Just odd and ugly.

[nxt]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

My BIGGEST issue with the DEMO is being able to move the ball at will on heisman. Since sliders are broken...YET AGAIN...what does this mean for the game itself in the long-run?

I know they are patching the sliders and rosters, but what are the chances we get at least the sliders patched for LAUNCH?

There was stuff i liked overall and things i hated. But it does play better..mostly. I, however and NOT SEEING overthrows/underthrows etc. and FG are SILLY easy even on heisman.

There is hope, but i am worried that heisman is easy and AA is a complete cakewalk. Passing to me seems even easier than last year.

But it is a demo, so who knows.

Yeah, Heisman feels more like AA of years past. It's too easy, especially the passing game. Working/Effective sliders are gonna be the key to making this game playable.

[HamTonks]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

The camera (as in 1 [one]) angle is awful. I took Tebow (sorry, QB #15) outside the pocket and had a 30-yard lane and the camera, instead of following behind him went into some strange, nosebleed-section fan's point-of-view -- then, because of the angle, the scoreboard/ticker at the bottom of the screen prevented me from seeing where QB #15 was. My first time playing the demo was just awful. EA needs to implement some sort of pursuit camera angle a la FIFA, Gears of War, etc. Actually, EA needs to implement a lot of camera angles, and let the user define what fits for them.

[jeeve]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

"Also, if you look back on all the crazy issues NCAA '09 had (roster crashing, online dynasties disappearing, zero punt coverage), those issues WERE patched and fixed to the point where they became a distant memory!

So I think it's only fair to evaluate NCAA 10 compared to that experience (with '09) and ask how it improves the experience..."

I can't give NCAA '09 bonus points for fixing online crashing, disappearing dynasties, and zero punt / kickoff coverage. "Fixing" them was merely patching awful errors that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

In the same way, I can't give the NCAA '10 team a high-five for fixing the broken rosters and broken sliders (assuming they can manage to do that)-- the first is an inconceivable screw-up, the second a head-scratcher considering the outcry over broken sliders last year.

I just can't judge '10 based on improvements from '09. Barring dramatic improvement, I won't be able to wrap my mind around the fact that the 4th installment nextgen is still way behind oldgen in virtually every way. NCAA '09 was a big improvement over '08 (an unplayable wreck of a game), but it had too many glaring errors for me to enjoy it for more than a few days of dynasty with my friends.

[bengalboy1991]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

AWEFUL CAMERA ANGLE!


I will not be purchasing the game this year. Most people still have a 4:3 TV. I cannot see the flats. If they had multiple angles, I would purchase it.

EA will be missing out on my money this year all because of poor camera angles.

[Von Dozier]

Re: NCAA Football 10 Demo Now Available, Post Your Impressions Here

I played this last night on Heisman a few times, and wasn't feeling it.

Playing it today on All American with tweaked gameplan, the game feels very good.

As with two powerhouses, things were pretty even. Had decent runs, with 1 broken big one for 20+ yards, pretty much same for Florida.

D-line play was hounding my *** constantly when I was on O, but I only managed to pressure Tebow a few times on D. But far better than the "brick wall" people have been describing in here.

Overall, as someone said, it is NCAA 09.5, but a good one, not bad.