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May 13, 2009 - Every season EA Sports' NCAA Football is in the unenviable position of being compared to the professional football title known as Madden. Being developed out of the same studio means that each title needs its own niche of cool technology and feature innovations without feeling like identical products. This year NCAA Football seems to be staying away from earth shattering gameplay changes and, instead, is concentrating on brand new features and game modes that you won't find anywhere else.
I recently got my hands on an early build of NCAA Football 10 at a Pre-E3 event in Los Angeles. There's no doubt that it feels very similar to last year's NCAA on the field. The default gameplay camera angles are the same, animations are carried out at the same speed and the general ebb and flow on the field is the same that I remember from years gone by. That's certainly not a bad thing, but it's definitely going to feel like familiar territory to series veterans.
Probably the biggest single change to the core gameplay is the new player-lock ability. By clicking the left stick you'll be able to lock your controls to a single player, whether on offense or defense, for a given play. On defense, you'll get a nice rotated camera angle that lets you keep your eye on the offense's play as it develops. For a linebacker, that means having to read run or pass – or the dreaded play-action – and the same goes for the defensive backs. The feel isn't all that dissimilar from the Campus Legend gameplay that was used in the past and it's nice that you're not locked into that perspective for the rest of the game if you don't want to be.
The next change that impacts gameplay is the defensive-assist ability. It's extraordinarily easy to use and should help those who like to assume the role of cornerbacks or safeties. At the start of every play all you need to do is hold the A button (X on PS3) and the CPU will assume control of your player. His actions are dictated by the play you've selected, and you can retake control at any time by releasing the button. It's perfect for playing as a DB because all you need to do is release the button right before the quarterback lets go of the ball and you should be able to adjust and try for an interception.
The rest of the on-field additions are more subtle. You'll see a bundle of new animations like defensive backs and wide receivers jostling against each other as they make their way down the field and some very impressive mid-air collisions. I sent one of my wide outs over the middle with a pass that went a little higher than intended and a safety was able to impressively (and painfully) take out his legs when he jumped for the catch. It was both ugly and impressive. Had my wide receiver been injured, I would have been given the newly added option of keeping him in the game or sitting him down. There's obviously a high risk of re-injuring a star, but if your backup is sub par it just might be worth it.
The rest of the changes I saw during my demo of NCAA Football 10 were all presentational changes that, while some did impact gameplay, didn't present a new way to play. The first is setting up your game plan. This is done before the game, but can be accessed again from the play-call menu at anytime. It allows you to select aggressive, balanced, or conservative play styles for every aspect of football. You can tell your defensive squad to go for big hits and try to force fumbles, but the negative is more penalties. You can tell your offensive line to hold their blocks for as long as possible, or try to spring big runs with the downside of more holding calls.
On defense you'll have the added ability of being able to guess the direction of a play by holding the left-trigger pre-snap and flicking one way with the right stick. On offense you're now able to link running and passing plays with things like options and play-action. Running one play increases the likelihood of another working, and you'll get a convenient little percentage over linked plays so you know just how setup it is.
NCAA Football 10 presents pigskin fanatics with familiar territory on the field. There are enough changes that it certainly doesn't feel like a rehash of last year's game, but the real bread and butter is in the Season Showdown and TeamBuilder modes as well as a new mode that we'll be detailing on June 29.
NCAA Football 10 is scheduled to ship on July 14 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PSP.
Screens from Article:
Owned. Note the EA Sports Team created with TeamBuilder.
original link: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/982/982521p1.html
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