NCAA 10 Demo Impressions

[Realist]

People shouldn't have to apologize for liking the demo or wanting to buy NCAA 10.
I am laughing my ass off at all the game's fans coming in here and defending their love for the game and decision to purchase it.
At the end of the day, it's you who plays the game, not the rest of us.
If you love it, that's all that matters.
I say the same thing to friends who love fat chicks.

I agree. I'll be buying it at midnight release regardless if it sucks because I love college football. I still think Madden will be better.

[Herm]

Why do i get at least one holding call on every drive and the cpu has never been called for holding in the 10+ games ive played.

[Sven Draconian]

Regarding the Madden vs. NCAA conversation...

I do like this year's Madden, so you can take this with a grain of salt if you like. There will be those who don't feel it's made enough of a leap, and I do fear some exploits might make it through because the game plays so much more organically than before, I can only imagine that the AI will have some catching up to do (don't take this as "I know something", I'm speculating 100% here), but I don't think anyone who plays both this season and is honest with themselves will say that NCAA is the better game.

It's not even close. Even if Madden hasn't improved enough for your tastes, it's just far and away the better of the two.

When I look back at the evolution of t"next gen" football games here are the trends.


1) Dumber AI. Ever since '05 (when the CPU finally ran the ball) the QBs have been playing worse and worse, eventually leading to dump-off frenzy in '08-'09. Coupled with AI defenders forgetting zone defense and you get a game where you can pick apart any zone coverage at will while the CPU is incapable of passing against you.

2) Making defenders shitty in general. More broken tackles, worse DL play ('09 was just a continuation of a trend) and, as mentioned, an inability to play zone coverage (including back peddling against run plays).

3) Faster game play. This includes overall speed (IE, ball speed, straight line speed) as well as the gradual reduction of momentum, making the game more and more twitchy.


The AI started dumb and was made worse over time. Instead of fixing the AI, EA just made the defensive players crappier and crappier. So, the AI does dumb things, but now the defense does equally dumb things so you still get a realistic looking result.

Except of course, that us humans aren't making these stupid mistakes. Ok, well, EA has to fix this. Should they fix the AI, no of course not, so they just make the game play so fast we can't even notice the screw ups (let alone have time to exploit them). Thus, the birth of twitchy, ultra-fast football.

Well, that didn't solve a ton, so we get Madden IQ. We'll make the AI adapt to you, so if you can pass and exploit the crappy defenders will make them super human. If you can't run in our warp-speed game then we'll just make the defenders even crappier.We'll also make the game EVEN FASTER so you can't see what we are doing. (oh, and we'll zoom out the camera really really far too).

What I like about Madden 10 is that they are fixing these issues. Adaptive AI, and improved QB logic are addressing the root problems. The super swat and jumps are gone, hopefully, because they are not needed any more.

Then, they slow down the game speed so it's actually fun to play again.

Obviously the AI will have issues. Thats a given.To "cover" the issues correctly requires a good pass rush and line play. Whatever deficiency the game has AI wise can be helped if the pass rush actually exists.That is the balancer. Just like last-gen, sure the AI had issues then as well, but you could rush the passer and cover up those exploits by not letting them develop.

[steeljake]

i dont like trhis game plan thing at all, adn it also seems very hard for me to picj the ball up in th air on defense.

[JMeist]

It's sad for me really, I can't even get through a whole game of the DEMO before wanting to pop in Tiger or another game. I dunno each and every year the game feels really different at first. I absolutely hate the way the camera goes when you look at your play. It's awkward and i feel rushed for some reason--don't know why.

[NAHSTE]

Am I the only one on here where the more I play the demo the more I love the game? I have just spent the past two days putting the finishing touches on my created team. I can not wait till Thursday for Fight Night and I can not wait till July 14th for this game! This is going to be a great summer!

I've only played it twice, and didn't really like it either time, but I'll give it a few more shots. Itching to play it right now actually....

[NAHSTE]

I've only played it twice, and didn't really like it either time, but I'll give it a few more shots. Itching to play it right now actually....

Yeah, still not sure about it. Getting more into it, but the passing is off, as is the line play. It seems like every running play is either blown up in the backfield or you are lucky enough to squirt through for like 2-3 yards.

And if you try to lob a pass your QB ends up throwing it like Tom Candiotti, then if you try to bullet it in traffic a defender will raise his hands immediately....everything is a touch too fast, I feel like I'm watching Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift.