Community Event Impact on NCAA Football 09
July 17, 2008 by pastapadre
One of the biggest benefits to the early community events is being able to provide input that can be acted upon. This is the first year with the football titles in which that opportunity has been available. So it’s important to look back at what was mentioned coming out of the first event for NCAA Football 09 and see how much impact it actually had on the final product.
The game was reeled in from then to now and I have somewhat mixed feelings on that. It was much more “wide-open” originally which provided a greater feel that anything could happen at any time which I enjoyed. But the frustration of realizing the defense couldn’t get any stops started to build along with how many interceptions were being returned for touchdowns. Now the game is more constrained, and while keeping the possibility that “anything can happen” it just does so much less frequently. Playing defense can still be frustrating but not because of allowing big plays, instead because stopping the short safe ones consistently is unlikely.
Continue on to read quotes from my event impressions and my feelings on those areas now. For reference you can check out impressions from the first event through parts one and two. How much was acted upon based on the feedback that was given?
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.
Frustration can still stem from the defense’s inability to get stops. At times it feels like an INT is more likely to stop a drive than forcing a punt. In an online game a few nights ago I was up by two points with a minute remaining and had to punt. Right then I knew I was going to lose the game. I didn’t have any expectation of preventing them from getting in field goal range. It is tough enough to do that with three downs but in four down situations like that you almost feel helpless. Still though it doesn’t mean the defense can’t do anything to prevent first downs, it just feels that way at times.
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.
As I mentioned earlier the gameplay is more restricted now than back then. For as much as people concentrate on the wide-open gameplay the scores are realistic if even a little lower than expected. It is just the difference between a quick drive that resulted in a big play TD vs a long drive that involved plodding down the field using a short consistent passing game. Six minute quarters seem to produce the most realistic results on All-American.
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).
I’ve experienced a handful of penalties but they aren’t being called at the rate they were back then. I fall in the middle on how penalties should be handled. I get frustrated when something happens that was completely out of my control (a holding call on a quick slant for example) but would like to see a higher ratio of them when they are deserved (such as QB dropping back too far or holding the ball too long).
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.
This was never really addressed. I see a few more errant passes now but generally QBs finish around 80% completion. It still tends to feel as though forcing a turnover is a better bet than preventing a first down.
The pass rush was not something I specifically noted, and even coming out of the second event which used a largely final build I had not spotlighted that as a major issue. What I had realized was the ease of the passing game. Not having a clear idea of what was leading to that other than spotting the high completion percentages and saying the offensive line protected really well…which we now know the ineffective pass rush is a big factor in. For whatever reason though online games are offering a much more balanced experience, completion percentages are more reasonable and the pass rush is fair.
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.
This was one of the aspects of the game that was easy to identify as having been fixed. There are still some INTs for TDs but not nearly like were happening back then. Acceleration has been somewhat toned down and the players take better angles to prevent those from happening.
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.
I was at the events with people who generally aren’t looking to find exploits and that isn’t ever going to be a focus of mine so it looks like I missed on this one. Stick skills are a big part of success this year and those who user catch seem to be able to pull almost anything down regardless of the situation if they know what they’re doing.
We didn’t really see the CPU throw deep which is a concern when considering this has been an issue for a while.
From what I’ve seen and heard this continues to be an issue. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been addressed by now.
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.
I still like this addition to the game but the chances of returning missed attempts is rare considering the overpowered field goal kicking. When college kickers are hitting 64 yarders and barely missing from 65 (as I did in an online game) that is a big problem. Kickoff distance comes out about right but field goals are ridiculous and one of the most glaring problems I’ve come across.
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.
I haven’t noticed if this is being called properly now. Has anyone seen a roughing penalty or had instances where it should have been called but wasn’t?
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.
I believe this has been fixed. Once that video came out showing “convoy blocking” I assumed it was just the early stages of getting that built in. But to this day I haven’t seen or heard that anyone has actually come across the convoy blocking, especially in the way it was displayed in that video.
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.
Not fixed.
Playbooks still default to special teams after punts/fgs/kickoffs. This was an annoyance last year and hopefully they’ll fix it.
Not fixed.
The cheerleader cut scenes are shown a little too often. I would rather see more post play continuation than so many cheerleader scenes.
Thankfully there is much less of the cheerleaders now than back then.
No squib kicks again. This is something they should really bring back.
I knew that wasn’t going to make it in for this year, but they desperately need different options for kicking and kick returning.
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.
This still appears to happen though it isn’t as pronounced as back then.
Online Play
Check out my full early impressions of online play here. This was a topic discussed at several points as it was stressed that online needed vast improvement. It looks like they’ve delivered that this year. 09 offers a better online experience than NCAA has ever had. It literally almost feels like a whole new mode has been added now that it is playable.
Conclusion
So while I feel as though improvements were made in response to the feedback out of the first event I’m unsure as to how much difference it actually resulted in. Most of what changed seemed to be things that would’ve been naturally tuned regardless. Still I found that opportunity to have been a beneficial one for the community. Not only did it help by providing suggestions for 09 but by taking an active interest and learning from this experience better ways to take advantage of community feedback will be understood going forward.
NCAA Football 09 is arguably the deepest sports title ever made. Concerns over some gameplay elements are certainly justified through. Online Dynasty is fantastic (along with Online Team Play the best additions to sports gaming in years), custom stadium sounds add the ability to personalize the game, a full blown Campus Legend mode remains, and online play actually runs well this year. Those elements will keep me playing NCAA through Madden 09’s release and beyond.
PASTA why is that everytime i try to advance on my online dynasty from pre-season to regular season it freezes up on step 2 of 6. i have to restart my console and it keeps doing the same thing. I deleted that dynasty and got my friend to create one and the same thing happened to him any suggestions? also anyone please send me and invite too im tyna get it on
Two45 & whiteshoes62…we both want in ya dig!!!
2nd
damn Last
if ur NOT 1st ur Last
words 2 live by
2for5 wrote:
Not sure, I can check into it. But I haven’t heard of any problems like that. I did a test run through week 2 of the regular season in an online dynasty and didn’t come across any issues.
I don’t know if I would call this a full blown CL mode
1)can’t make TE’s FB’s etc
2)still can’t do KR/PR
3)it’s NOT as engaging as it was on ps2/xbox as far as taking a quiz 2 maintain grades, picking a major, social activities, cut scenes depicting you winning the Heisman
I mean there is so much they could do with CL/SS this yr seems 2 be ALL ABOUT DYNASTY hopefully the next iteration will pay more attention to CLM
thats a pretty good assesment - this game isn’t perfect but it is definitely more fun and playable than last years.
One thing I noticed was when I first started the game I wanted to try to go back to the old controls but soon found out that YOU CAN’T! b/c the “A” button is locked onto “strip” in the controller config. - pretty weak. The only reason I wanted to switch back was b/c I was use to tapping A to help break tackles. Does tapping RT help break tackles like tapping A used to?
man that sucks to hear that pasta, now i really dont know whats going on..lol..if you hear any different please let me know! By the way i was directed to this site for the 1st time today and its legit, you’re on your job man!! I’m going to keep checking back to see what you have cooking up next!
Whats your gamertag i would love to see where your game is at
Pasta, that’s an excellent idea to call holding penalties if you drop back with the quaterback to far. That along with making the passing icons disappear if the quaterback has his back turned would really make passing feel more rewarding & realistic. Do you think a patch would be possible for this?
there are problems with editing players at the moment, but what about creating new players?
is it a problem? i want to create about 4 players at the beginning of my dynasty..
thank you
Great article, Pasta.
I know some people aren’t happy with how ‘wide-open’ the game is now, but they should have saw it in NYC. I really like 09 and feel the second patch could do wonders.
Joe wrote:
I believe once you are within a dynasty you should be fine doing that, there is a lot of uncertainty though around the editing aspects.
cdj wrote:
Yeah I’m with you on that. The potential is there with some adjustments to areas that have been clearly identified by the community.
PASTA,
the weather channel feed has NOT been working for past 2 days for any online or play now games..any word on this issue?
Not sure on the weather channel problem, I’ll check into it
1. Any football game when it is easier to get a pick than force a punt is absurd! This has GOT to be fixed ASAP. For me, I could care less about the rosters as long as the gameplay is good….and when I can’t stop ANYONE, it is a problem.
2. The “keeping your feet inbounds” thing that happens 2 yards from the sideline is rediculous! That is just PURE laziness on EA’s part. How the hell do things like this get into the game?
3. So they had almost all the authentic stadiums in last year’s game, but some pretty significant MAC school don’t have their real stadiums in this years game. WHY? This kind of stuff makes absolutely NO sense to me. 1 step forward 12 steps back.
For me it all boils down to gameplay. I really could care less about progressive lighting, rosters, field damage, etc, etc…….they are great additions and if they were in last years version then why did they take them out? Regardless….the defense issue is what really pisses me off. Seriously, when the opposing team’s QB completes 80-90 percent of his passes, THAT is a problem.
Pasta the only problem I have with the game is how they switched reciever 5 from RB to LB. It seems like such an odd choice because you had all of your recievers right together (A,B,X,Y, and RB) but now RB is throw ball away and the game won’t let us switch it back. So Pasta I was just wondering is you like this switch or don’t really care for it. Personally I have gotten used to it but I prefer the old scheme, although I do love the right thumbstick pump fake.
As for the roughing penalty I have only noticed it not been called when I dove into the kicker by accident on a PAT after the ball was through the upright. Maybe I got there way too late, like too late for the game to even register it, or maybe it is a glitch and they don’t call it. I like how they made penalties actually look like penalties though. Holding used to be a guy just standing straight up blocking and he would get called but now it’s blatently obvious. My right tackle literally tackled the defensive end, I would say that’s holding.
Zane ,
Just seems your defense is horrible if you cant force a punt , work on your play calling , You cant blame EA , they arent picking the plays for you
I actually has a roughing the passer penalty last night. I have also had a pass interference called. Lots of holding, offsides, false starts and facemasks.
Zane wrote:
Yea I have to agree with some things you said. EA is really pissing me off with how they take important aspects out of the game only to add them back a couple years later so they can promote it as a “new feature”. Why on God’s green earth would you take away progressive lighting? I know the added a new lighting system this year (which is somewhat overrated) but you can not afford to keep playing with our emotions like this. I know you said all you care about is gameplay but the truth of the matter is that it takes more than just gameplay to keep you playing the game. Progressive lighting really makes the game feel alive. Also, I thought they said that the field would be degradable this year? What happened with that? I don’t have any problems with the gameplay this year. Most problems with gameplay can be fixed with either slider adjustments or patches. I just wish that EA would add everything that last gen has into “Next Gen”(Refs, chaingangs, coaches on the sideline, etc..). I mean this is year 4 into Next Gen & we still don’t have everything that Last Gen has. How many years are we gonna have to go through this? Quite honestly the only thing Next Gen has over Last Gen is graphics & that’s getting old. They spent most of their time adding online leagues this year which is well overdue but most people don’t play online. IGN & Gamespot rated NCAA 09 lower than 08 & 07 & this is for a reason. Although the core gameplay has improved, they still haven’t mastered everything that these Next Gen consoles can do & people are losing their patience waiting for it.
I’m not quite sure why everyone is complaining and commenting that you can’t play defnse in this game? Ii’ve had no problem at all adjusting my defensive strategies on the fly to counter what the offense is throwing at me. Playing as a linebacker is critical in this years game (for some reason you get better penetration by letting the cpu take control of your linemen).
I’ve been getting the most realistic stats/scores in this years game since 2004. The only stat that is out of wack is the qb completion percentage- but I really could care less when 50% of the cpu completions are 2 yard gains on hb screens. Last night I beat Miami 38-20, and Miami’s qb’s stat line was:
17-22, 154 yards, 1TD, 2 INT.
Yeah, he had a 77% completion rating, but it didn’t affect the overall flow of the game.
On another game last night I was Michigan State (38) against Florida State (34). Drew Weatherford went:
21-27, 210 yards, 2TD, 2 INT
My final game of the night had Central Michigan (me) beating Notre Dame (cpu) 35-12. Claussen went:
9-13, 75 yards, 1TD, 3 INT
I guess my point is that the cpu may complete a lot of passes but it’s not like the cpu is throwing for 400+ yards a game. If the majority of completions are dump off’s and finding the bubble underneath a zone for 5 yards is it that big of an issue. Sure the numbers look inflated, but the TD’s and yards per throw aren’t there.
The game is great, most fun with an NCAA game since 2004- and I don’t even miss the bowl patches and lack of presentation- the issues people should be complaining about.
P.S. Pasta-
I’ve had 2 legit roughing calls, and have only noticed one marginally late hit that was not called. Seems balanced.
rob wrote:
No, my defense is not “horrible” but when you run man coverage and the opposing receiver makes a cut and the CB ends up 10 yards away…….that is really pathetic! I have caused some punts…..but at times it just seems impossible!
I agree with everything you said… the QB percentage is waaaaaay to high and its extremely hard to stop an offense no matter what team your playing against. I love playin the weaker schools in dynasty mode to build them up but its becoming a pain when every single down the cpu gets a 20 yard gain. It seems like the only time I can stop them is if they do 3 options in a row with a slow QB. Another thing that annoys me is EA was preaching about all these alt uniforms yet they left so many out. I am a syracuse fan and was kinda pissed off when they left the blue top orange bottom out. Pasta do you think its at all likely they would come out with a patch to add new uniforms if thats at all possible? I know theres more pressing issues on the game I was just wondering if EA can even do it.
james wrote:
They cannot patch new jerseys. Over at Operation Sports they are having this discussion right now. And one of the designers said there would be no more Uni’s released. But only gameplay issues can be “patched.”
Zane wrote:
Zane-
Not to discount what you are saying, but I have noticed that most of my pass D success comes from playing man as opposed to zone. Zone seems to be where the cpu picks me apart.
Overall, I like the game and I’m having fun with it. That said, I have a few problems. Namely, the LBs in the game are way too slow. For div. 1 college football, a LB, when he has the angle on a back or receiver, should not be outrun.
Cpu passing also feels cheap (at times)…they complete way to many passes on the run with pinpoint accuracy, especially on the slant, where my DBs, no matter how good they are, seem to always get beat. When I try to pull the same stunt, the cpu DBs recover unbelievably quick and either break up the pass or get the int. Pretty frustrating.
Otherwise, the running game seems pretty decent. Passing this year has been difficult to get used to but I’m getting it. Offensively, its no where near as “wide open” as I thought it would be and thats probably a good thing.
Zane wrote:
Well they can add jerseys in a patch (they did with 07) but I think their priorites are elsewhere.
Bumble14 wrote:
Finally someone who isn’t annoyed like me! I thought I was the only one!
Zane wrote:
thanks for the info… i guess im taking this back to radioshack and paying my $3 and not buying this game, the past 3 years ive rented easports games for this exact reason (especially madden and ncaa football)… they promote all these things like “improved graphics” “wide open gameplay” and “various alt uniforms” yet every year they release what looks like an unfinished product with glitches and automatically start thinking up of patches that need to be implemented. I hate to say this but I kind of wish 2k was in the picture so at least theres another game to fall back on… ohh well hopefull they get it right next year (is what I’ve been saying ever since I’ve went next gen).
lol not radioshack blockbuster
PASTA!!! WHAT THE HELL??? Why is the Alamodome not the site of the Big 12 Championship game and why is it not a dome??? They don’t have a roof on the Alamodome!!! I just came across this because I was going to play the Big 12 Championship as an exibition game for fun. What happened here??? It’s only the most famous stadium in Texas. Please respond to this Pasta.
Ryan wrote:
Yeah, I know the Alamodome isn’t in this year. Not sure why that missed the cut. I’m guessing they wanted to focus on building out stadiums that would be used on a weekly basis rather than one that would only be used rarely.
I went online and had a 65-63 triple ot game with some guy who used Oklahoma, I had Ohio State. We each threw 7 touchdowns, I threw two picks, he threw 3, that was the difference in the game. He made 7 Fourth down conversions, I avg 23 yards a catch with Robiskie with 4 TDs. I loved every moment of it.
I had my dynasty freeze on me when I tried to reorder the depth chart, I reseted, and used Pasta’s rosters the way they are, and everythings fine again. I like the game where its at. I’ve posted my videos on my maddenpad and easw. I’m sure guys will figure out some solid coverages to get the scores down.
yo pasta we got tha full rosters from ps3 i got em from a guy named userp1ck get em from my locker rashard2k8 lets get get get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i had some roughing calls, pasta (in fact, i have had this penalty called more than any other penalty…and it always happens when i dive at the QB)…but i also naturally bump all of my penalties up to 60 in my settings before i get started…still not alot of penalties called…i think the computer facemasked me once and also had a defensive pass interference in a game…
Who can I download the rosters from? Thanks.
rashard you are the reason I kept this game rental… I might just buy it cause of the roster and the customized music… damn you EA for letting me listen to DMX when I score a TD with my favorite teams (UGA n SU alllllllll day!!!)
PASTA,
any word on why the weather feed isnt working??
Hey pasta, been a reader for a while never really posted much but i figure i’d give try and help get some people off your back….. so anybody needing rosters for their ps3 feel free to contact and you can download them from me……
Offense is crazy on this game, i play with michigan and J. Feagin is like the best 68 rated player on the game LOL. Home field advantage is big on this game and yeah the offenses on this game (particularly spread) are unstoppable if you know how to run it.
All and all the game is good. Looking back at last year they made alot of changes… mainly slimming down the players, the almost look like APF 2k8 players (not the usual bulky).
That roster “glitch/virus/whatever” hasnt been a problem since I downloaded it (someone gave me a good one on here… i forget who but good looking out).
BUX
But for the record…..the graphics on this game are AMAZING!
I see that we havent had any new information for about 15 hours on this website
“Online Dynasty is fantastic (along with Online Team Play the best additions to sports gaming in years) “
Does NCAA 09 have Online Team Play like NBA Live? Can two people play on one team in a Online Dynasty? So if me and my brother wanted to play in an Online Dynasty but we live in two different cities, could we play on the same team together?
i agree the defense is hard to play
pasta, every day i somehow get stoked to wanna go start a corner on campus legend but then i rember why not to when i play it. do you think there is some patch that could make playing with a db more exciting and with defense in general? and does anybody know how to fix the xboxbox stuck in dvd mode thing, its been bothering me for months and months.
I still feel like the PS2 version just has tighter play, I don’t know what it is. I know you can say the PS2 has had 8-9 years, but they had it down pretty good quite early in the process.
I picked up both the PS2 and 360 versions of this game and while I play the 360 version more (online play, achievements of course) I have enjoyed the games more on the PS2. Maybe I enjoy playing as the Montana schools though lol, it could be that…
This game might be a topic for sometime. i personally feels it’s the best next gen football game so far and arguably the ebst football game ever made aside from 2k5…
there ARE issues but when are there not? tis game pretty much ranks up there with Ea’s best efforst since last years fifa, last years NHl and now this years Nascar. 08 09 titles are starting to look very good now…
I know this is off topic but the Madden 09 Demo will be available as a bonus on a NFL DVD on July 22
As the first poster said above, I too have the “Step 2 of 6″ problem, or S2o6.
I don’t understand it. I edited one player (Made Wisconsin WR Kyle Jefferson look like Kyle Jefferson), and created 4 players (One for each member of the dynasty). Other than that everything wwas routine. Do you think the created guys was the problem?