NCAA Football 09 hands-on: Part one
May 1, 2008 by pastapadre
After getting a significant amount of time with NCAA Football 09 I’ve compiled my initial thoughts on the game and details on features. The games were played on All-American difficulty and five minute quarters and I took part mostly in head-to-head. You can check over at NCAA Strategies and PSU for more hands-on details as well.
Because of the vast amount of info there is to lay out I’ve broken it into two parts the second of which can be found here. Part one goes over things that relate more to the gameplay and part two will concentrate more on the new features (homefield, online dynasty, ect). Keep in mind that this is an early build still very much a work in progress and that some of the issues mentioned can be improved on or fixed by release time and hopefully the feedback will help lead to that happening.
Overall the game felt relatively polished for this point in development, a stark contrast to the early build that was played of NBA Live 08 last year. Visually it looks excellent. The comparison screenshots that were released accurately represent the improvements that have been made in both environment (stadiums, grass, lighting) and player models. It seems like they really made an effort to make the game feel more like the college football experience through the atmosphere.
Got to play both the 360 and PS3 versions. They are virtually identical. I did notice that the PS3 version seemed a little more responsive and loaded slightly quicker. I asked regarding build dates and it wasn’t known whether the PS3 build was more recent which could’ve explained those things. But for anyone concerned about the PS3 version there is nothing to worry about.
At first it took a little while to get acclimated to the player weight, momentum, and foot planting. Movement looks and feels much more natural but at first felt a little heavy. After a few minutes playing though it really began to feel like it was just right. User control is big especially in the running game or in the run after the catch. Elusiveness and acceleration attributes are huge. You can really see the burst and taking bad angles as a defender is punished severely.
The wide open gameplay is the big thing this year. It is refreshing to be able to get big plays through the running game and by running after the catch following years of relying on the deep bomb as the main source of big plays. The moves you can do with the stick are very responsive and a lot of fun to use. We saw so many moves that would not have even been possible in last year’s game.
One thing I came to realize quickly is if you concentrate on stopping one aspect of the opposing offense you’ll be leaving the other open. So if you play defense to try and stop their running game it gives much more opportunity for them to move the ball via the pass and vice versa. Balance as an offense can really pay off. At times though it felt like you were picking your poison when playing defense. Stopping the opposition on a consistent basis just didn’t happen.
When it comes to the offensive-defensive balance I’d say the leaning is clearly towards the offense. However in most of the games that were played the scores ended up realistic. It brought about more excitement due to the big plays. Scores will likely depend heavily on the styles of the people playing. With longer quarters (7+ minutes) on All-American the scores would probably be unrealistically high.
Penalties play a more significant role this year. If you watch the replays you can even see the holding which generally proved to be the right calls. LG #75 on UCLA was the biggest culprit we saw as he held three times in a single game. Also seen were pass interference, facemasks, offsides, and roughing the passer (see later in the write-up for more on roughing).
Offensive line slide protection is in and seemed to work pretty well. Options are to hit to the left or right for those sides or the left trigger and press up for “aggressive” or down for “pinch”.
In general the offensive line blocking is superior to any year I can remember as is the downfield blocking. One of the most frustrating things for me has been taking play action out of my gameplan because of the likelihood it would result in a sack. I was able to run play action effectively with time to look at the receivers which was a very big relief. That is one of the improvements that had me most pleased.
Gang tackling is better than last year, probably more on par with Madden 08’s. I didn’t notice nearly as much “bouncing off” players as the second or third defender in would assist in the tackle.
In a blowout the stadiums will empty out. There was one where I had used super sim to the end of the game and the stadium only had a couple fans sprinkled throughout except in the student section where it was still pretty well populated. Looked neat like that because it was really deserted outside of the student section and band.
I didn’t have much time to spend in Campus Legend. The one major thing I noticed (which was something on my list of things to improve the mode) is that the camera doesn’t swing around after a turnover which previously created a lot of confusion. While I didn’t see any returns or turnovers while using an offensive player I would suspect it would be the same way there too. Apparently they also made it so you don’t have to go back to the menus after doing an activity such as practice. You can do several practices in a row saving a lot of time that would’ve been spent with the game loading. Other than that in the short amount of time most of the things appeared to be unchanged from last year. High School is the same, menus look the same, off-day activities the same. Some of the areas that contain stories have a new rotating menu system which is really nice. When it comes to equipment I took note of the shoes (adidas, nike, generic) and gloves (swoosh, train track, generic colors).
CAP equipment wasn’t fully implemented as the clear visors were not an option and all the others looked the same. In this build it listed Nike, UnderArmour, Oakley, Dark Nike, Dark UnderArmour, Dark Oakley.
Depth chart lag was not evident in the build that was played. That was something that was extremely frustrating last year but it seemed like they fixed it.
Replay cameras look to be the same as last year. So the same options are there when taking the screenshots or videos for EA Sports World. There is still just the one camera angle for gameplay.
There are a lot of minor visual enhancements that need to be seen to really understand. Everything just looks more natural in terms of movement and gestures (for example just catching the ball on a kick return looks much better).
Completion percentage seemed to be on the high side. There were not all that many incomplete passes. It was relatively easy to run an efficient offense and move the chains on a consistent basis. I don’t know if that was due to the increased time thanks to the improved blocking or defensive back AI not covering very well. It may be a combination of both (although I really enjoyed the improved blocking so I wouldn’t ever ask that to be reduced). Because of that it seemed as though forcing a turnover was your best shot at stopping the opposing team from scoring. Still the final scores tended to be varied and realistic. There were some high scoring games, some low scoring, and most in between. This was on five minute quarters though, any longer and I think the scores would be on the high side most of the time. Maybe Heisman difficulty would offer a better experience for longer quarters.
There were a high % of interceptions returned for touchdowns. This seemed to be due to the speed/acceleration and taking bad angles that are impossible to recover from. Off the top of my head I’d say on average 1-2 every game. This got to be a little frustrating that they were occurring so often and there was little recourse to preventing them being taken the distance.
High jump catches are effective but I don’t think it had to do with spectacular catch. They just made a good deal of jumping catches. Actually I don’t think I saw any spectacular ones completed, a few times there were attempts at it that resulted in the player getting hit in mid-air and dropping the ball.
We didn’t really see the CPU throw deep which is a concern when considering this has been an issue for a while.
I’m not a heavy option player so my success with it may not mirror others. I did see some pitches that were probably made a little late considering the timing of the QB getting hit.
Mobile QBs continue to be effective (it is college football so that is as it should be) however QB Spy seemed to work a lot better than in years past. So attempting to contain a QB can be done but you’ll be opening up other options for the offense by doing so.
We saw a couple times where players returned missed field goals. The CPU actually reacted well to it. Considering the kicking in the game it’s doubtful there will be a lot of them (we only saw them when setting them up on purpose) but it’s a nice addition.
Despite the variety of penalties one that wasn’t being called appropriately was roughing the passer. We did see one called but there were several blatant late hits that weren’t. Hopefully that can be adjusted by release time.
Interception returns and other big plays sometimes would have the ball carrier with a lead blocker but no one out ahead for him to block. In that situation he continued to run ahead instead of turning around to block someone who was trying to catch the ball carrier. It looked awkward but I don’t think it ended up costing any of us because it’s so rare to see a player get caught from behind.
The sideline catch animation had an issue where even a few yards off from the sideline they would try to “get their feet in” and then fall straight down.
Playbooks still default to special teams after punts/fgs/kickoffs. This was an annoyance last year and hopefully they’ll fix it.
The cheerleader cut scenes are shown a little too often. I would rather see more post play continuation than so many cheerleader scenes.
No squib kicks again. This is something they should really bring back.
Ball carriers when in the open field had the tendency to carry it held out away from their body in one hand. It didn’t seem to increase fumble risk so it likely was just a visual bug.
There were a few other minor bugs/irregularities but in general less than I had expected to see.
Overall the game is a lot of fun and instantly a lot of improvements are going to be seen. Player movement feels better than ever before and the blocking is excellent. The wide open gameplay brings back a lot of excitement but I suspect that over time the ease of moving the ball, making big plays, and the INTs for TDs may wear on those who play the game a lot. There is still time though and hopefully they take the feedback that we have given act on it.
wow thanks pasta questions r cuming.
When they showed the visors, and it had a dark variant of each of them, did that mean they are going to be tinted or pure black ?
They didn’t change the kicking =/, man, In Peter Moore’s first blog he made it sound like they changed the kicking system. They really need to do that =/
Defense being seemingly non-existant and the lack of the CPU controlled QB’s throwing deep (again) are two issues that raise red-flags for me…
Thanks for the impressions, they are greatly appreciated.
How was the in-game presentation? Any better than last yrs? Beside the cheerleaders, was there any other cutscenes that would add to the overall presentation?
what about presentation before game, halftime, post game. wat about create a player do they have hairstyles
Please tell EA to fix that interception problem. It was very annoying last year, ruining some games. Even if I was on the positive side of it; interceptions happened way too many times.
Put it in bold, underline it, and italicize it.
Ill try to answer some some of your questions during the day today (Friday) time permitting.
Hopefully the fix it; online dynasty wont be as fun.
are the facemasks that tebowe and chad henne wear in the game?
see this..link “new revolution helmets”
http://www.teamskyline.com/pro.....EVO_1a.jpg
do they have the new UCF helmets, stadium (last year was generic), and mascot in the game? i’ve been dying to know.
helmet: http://images.footballfanatics…..3324_s.jpg
stadium: http://farm2.static.flickr.com…..5b2d_b.jpg
mascot: http://farm2.static.flickr.com…..24ef_m.jpg
thanks.
pasta can you check on D1-AA (FCS) schools
I heard that there is NO create-a-school in 09. This is very upsetting to me. They have yet to put it into the next gen game and there are sooo many ncaa fans who love this feature. It really makes me wonder if the game is worth the money when they dont even include the features from the old games that made it popular. Insted they focused some time on adding in Mascot games???? is this a joke?? the only people I could see playing mascot games are 5 year olds. Who cares? Please try and find out what is the deal with Create-a-school? when is it coming back???
Michael wrote:
It takes about 5 minutes to do the mascot games the mascots are already modeled and textured since you see them on the sideline. So your assumption is wrong.
Anyway nice job Pasta
Great write-up. Love that the PS3 version looks good. I really hope the cpu QB AI for throwing deep is fixed. That’s the biggest red flag I’ve read so far.
Thanks Pasta!
Wow sounds great thanks pasta!
Pasta in NYC! whats up man! Hope we treating you alright. anyways, nice write up. Can I make easy assumption and say that Madden will have some of these game improvements? I like the ability to gain YAC or RAC…yards after catch. I like the short throw or the quick slant, but it rarely goes the way I plan, like how J.Rice used to catch the 5 yard slant and take it to the house. I hope thats available to me. I’ll wait for part two. good job. btw: the Mlb 2k8 4/16 rosters are available for download, what are your thoughts?
I know. this is a football weekend. lets go Jets! McFadden, being a coverboy on a game, would be nice in NYC
If they’re only going to have one camera angle, I just hope that it’s wide enough so that we can see the flats. Other than that, the majority of the write up sounds promising. Hopefully, they deliver on the feedback that you (Pasta) and CJP provided to them.
Are you going to play the wii version too?
pastapadre!
thank you so much for the in-depth write-up. very much looking forward to part 2…
on a side note: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE…in conjunction with their, “new gloves and visors” can you please INSIST that EA adds the CURRENT riddell revolution helmets. in other words, tim tebow’s/percy harvin’s/chad henne’s/chase daniel’s/jacob hester’s, etc etc etc…i could go on because sooo many players use these revolution face masks.
please explain to their graphical team that the riddell REVOLUTION face masks they added two years ago are MOSTLY outdated (i.e. the OLD chad henne from frosh/soph years / brady quinn’s)…
i know this sounds like nitpicking pasta, but they should keep the equipment up-to-date to go along with this stellar gameplay this year. Please ASK..i believe there is still time to add simple helmets!!!!!!!!!
Stuntman87 wrote:
THEY ARE NOT IN.
Love hearing that people are leaving in blowouts, very good sign for the presentation. Thanks for all of the “hard work” Pasta, much appreciated!
here are the one’s pasta, so that there are no discrepencies…
the riddell line is the REVOLUTION IQs.
chase daniel’s http://www.riddell1.com/newsit…..ts_id=1458
percy harvin’s
http://www.riddell1.com/newsit…..ts_id=1457
tim tebow’s
http://www.collegesportspro.co…..-tebow.jpg
thanks pasta!!!
aw krap..links aren’t working
nevertheless…
they’re the riddell IQ helmets….
ncaa has been using them for THREE years now and ea still hasn’t added them. and yes, 60-70% of college players are wearing IQs now…
so yes its a bit frustrating for the detail people like me.
http://www.collegesportspro.co.....-tebow.jpg
http://www.riddell1.com/newsit.....368#gohere
Wow - all this talk of helmets! Who cares when the game sounds like an arcade version of real football. Very disappointing to hear that it’s a big play, turnover-fest. Whatever happened to the goal of playing real football on a console?
If anything over 5 mins will give you unrealistic scores, I guess we can kiss realistic statistics good bye. Lovely.
This is the first time in years I’ve been “pre”-disappointed in NCAA. That usually occurs after I bring it home and begin to notice the gameplay bugs. Not this year.
Hey Pasta, great write up man… did you by any chance check to see if formation subs, custom playbooks, create a play, etc are in the game? & What is the maximum roster size this year? (Please say 85!!!)
Thanks!
Hey pasta can you watch your friends play each other in dynasty mode and scout the game????
Do you know if the have the players body types right and how is the create-a-player feature. Do they still have the pre-set faces(I hope not) What about the presentation part of the game have they gotten that far in the game
Craig wrote:
In fairness, this is also the first time we’ve ever had this much info on the game three full months before it’s released. It’s to be expected that there would be still be some things that need fixing.
EA still has at least a month to address gameplay issues. I for one am not going to panic just yet.
What about Bowl Patches and realistic endzones/bow atmosphere.
coogrfan wrote:
I agree he’s going into early panic mode months befroe the game is released.
yay, it’s back
Dre wrote:
Well, when the same game-killing problems from the previous year are still present in the game, is there ANYTHING that would lead you to believe that these would get fixed by release date?
When I hear/see an early release/beta, I’m expecting weird graphical quirks or perhaps a scaled-down version of a new feature. I am not expecting to see broken gameplay, especially broken gameplay repeated from the year before. Call it what you want, but it’s a major red flag.
WOW!Pasta, what C.L. like?
Also, what do the Visors look like? Diiferent brands and different logo colors?
pasta,
Thanks for what you do man. What do u think about the playbooks?> Did you see any new plays/formations?
Thanks
Dre wrote:
News flash guys..This is probably 99% the final product..EA always gives that crap line every year about “It’s still early” “We have time to make corrections” yadayada..But the truth is the game is pretty much finished by now..The only thing they can do is tweak minor adjustments but it’s too late into development to make any drastic changes. Sorry to burst your bubble guys. That being said the game looks great other than the fact THERE ARE STILL NO REFS OR CHAIN GANGS!!!
pasta can u tell me the frame rate for the 360?
Eaven wrote:
60fps on both the 360 and PS3
also do u kno how the presentation into games are? i hope they are like last gen games where they show to commentaters and a key player of the game
so if you are the home team and you are killing a team, your fans will leave? i hope this is the case. and by that little comment about the stadiums….it sounds like they put the bands back on there. I like it and can’t wait for release.
Brink back Create-a-Team MODE!!!! Also have a option to make your own uniforms and be able to add them to your team. Uniforms make a big difference. Have the teams own offense in CL mode. be able to customize offenses. Better recruitings like having some top recruits be really good b/c in the real world there is always going to be a really good freshman in college football ( Sam Bradford, Noel Devine) Steve Slaton and Tim Tebow when they were freshman. And last but not least to have a weekly update on team ranking/Player ratings in the real world but also be able to keep the original ranks. That would be NICE!!!!!
what’s up with playing 2 players in dynasty mode???? who would not want to play on the same team with their friend v.s comp!!!! in a SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok i dont understand why they haven’t brought back create-A-School yet but its on MADDEN(where people are less likely to want to create one) its been one of the things that have made NCAA great especially if u play for D1-AA school like Sam Houston and since they’ve taken away D1-AA teams i cant play with us nor can i create them so its really a bummer to us and we are forced to play with other schools wich is a blow to us wanting to show our school pride…..NCAA is slowley losing my interest and not showing much attention to wht the consumer wants