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NCAA 08 Game Impressions

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BrutuStrength

BrutuStrength

It's time to bring it!
I originally posted most of this stuff here. You can use the link to see my gamercard if anyone doubts that I have it early.

Roster stuff:
It seems as though most things can be edited outside of dynasty play, except for the player's class. Once in dynasty, it seems the only things that can be edited are names and one other area (possibly equipment). Positions might be edited in the offseason, but I haven't made it that far. I'd assume so though, since you can still recruit athletes. Which reminds me, athletes can now be recruited during the season.

So far I've named all of the players for Ohio State and already found 1 issue with not being able to change the class of players. There's a DE on the roster that left the team a month ago (Ryan Williams) and all other RS-Sophs from the real roster exist on the default roster. So for all real roster fanatics, you basically gotta kill off this character (lower key attributes and the like).

Recruiting:
The recruiting is totally revamped. In all honesty, it was a bit intimidating try to take in all of the new features. They do add a more dynamic feel and approach to the game. The more I played with the recruiting tools, the more I liked them. I've only done a few weeks worth of calling prospects, but I realize it's gonna take a while to figure out how to most efficiently recruit players. Some neat changes to be sure.

Game play:
Quite similar to demo, but better. One of the biggest areas that stands out to me is player speed. It seems to be more realistic. It doesn't look as though slower players are going to catch faster players from behind. It makes having different backs much more useful. For example, tOSU has a speed back and a power back. It's fun to be able to hammer the big guy up the middle and then put the quick guy in and have him run to the outside.

It looks as though body styles have been reworked. Arms and legs show more detail (veins and such). For instance, linemen now have different body types, some relatively svelt, and others that apparently suffer from dunlap's disease (that's where "their bellies dun lapped over there belts"). It's refreshing to see all of the different body types. Along those lines, it's also fun to see when players actually play like they look. For instance, tOSU has a wide-bodied D-lineman (Nader) that is a great run stuffer. He's not real fast, but he can sure clog holes.

Fwiw, I played on default All-American settings.

A few Buckeye ratings:

James Laurinaitis is a 95
Malcom Jenkins is (I think) a 94 (w/ 93 speed)
Then I think it's Alex Boone around a 92 or so.

Ray Small and Brandon Saine are the fastest Buckeyes, both with 95 SPD.

If anyone has questions, I'll try to answer what I can. Unfortunately I'm at work so I can't access the game for answers. Everything will be answered from memory.
 
Insight;881061; said:
You have been playing the PS3 version?
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No, the 360.


I also forgot to mention that the graphical presentation of this game is much better than I remember last year's version to be. There is a stark contrast between the grayness of rainy/overcast games and bright sunny day games. The sunny games provide a lot of shine and neat shadowing. Very nice eye candy to be sure.
 
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The playbooks have also had much added to them, and there appears to be hundreds of plays available. Many of them are similar plays that are just run out of different formations, but it's an impressive collection of plays.

Trick plays that I've seen so far for the Buckeyes include a flea flicker, and one that appears to be where the QB throws a pass to a WR that is behind the line of scrimmage, who then throws the ball down field. I went to run the WR pass play once and got sacked. I think they timed the jump and were all over me. I'll have to try this one again later today.
 
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Are the fumbles as bad as they are in the demo? I've seen up to 6 over the course of games (2 minute quarters) a few times, and seem to see at least 2-4 per.

I should have mine Tuesday, after I come back from the dentist.
 
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Sorry for the late responses. Noone asked many questions during the day on Friday so I didn't check this thread over the weekened because I didn't think there was much interest.

buckeyeinfla;881618; said:
brutus...can you edit players uniforms, wristbands, visors, ankle tape and the other gear on the 360? that is one feature i really missed in 2007...
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I'm pretty certain that stuff's in there. The only stuff I've really edited so far are the names, heights, weights, and tinkered with a few ratings. I do know there is an equipment screen where such items can be edited. I didn't scroll through the whole list, but I'd be surprised if those things weren't in there. The help scroll at the bottom of the editing screen says that only names and numbers can be edited during dynasty modes. I haven't made it that far yet in my dynasty to see what other things can be edited during the off seasons (such as positions).

Clarity;881642; said:
Are the fumbles as bad as they are in the demo? I've seen up to 6 over the course of games (2 minute quarters) a few times, and seem to see at least 2-4 per.

I should have mine Tuesday, after I come back from the dentist.
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No, fumbles are not as bad as I experienced with the demo. To that point though, I've also been focusing on the covering the ball (right bumper) while running through traffic.

I played quite a few more games over the weekend (as you guys can imagine) and I'm very impressed with the overall gameplay. There aren't really any improvements/changes to the presentation and such (before, after, and during the games) but the game runs much smoother than 2007.

I also played a few online games with my brother, and we encountered some lagging. The biggest lag issue concerning gameplay occured when using the kick meter. After pushing up on the right stick to set the kick's power, it sometimes wouldn't register the movement, and the power meter would go down again. I then started to hold the stick in the up position to make sure that the kicks would register, and that seemed to eliminate the problem.

Also we weren't sure if some of the lagging was due to their servers, or because we use different Internet connections. He uses DSL and I use cable. We did have one game that we tried to start, but it stopped us at the coin flip and gave each of us a DNF. It was weird that it said we were both disconnected since we were still able to talk to each other via our headsets the entire time. We then realized that EA didn't have any real incentive to ensure the quality of our online play until Tuesday, so we just chuckled about some of the online issues we experienced.

We played a few MAC games and some Academy games as well. The playbook that looked to be the most fun to me, was when he used Navy. He had a lot of option and wingback plays. Also, both of their offensive impact players were running backs/wing backs, so it seemed like 70%+ of their plays went to one of those guys, which is a great ratio for utilizing impact players.

I had hoped to run more of those types of plays as Air Force and Army, but I didn't come accross many of them. It might have been due to my using Corso's picks though, instead of going through the playbooks myself and selecting what I wanted.

I also noticed that EA has given more QBs higher speed ratings. They still have some players with SPD ratings in the 50s, but most are at least in the 60s. I think Army's backup QB might have been an 84 or 85.

Along those lines, Boeckman is around a 65, Schoenhoft is a 62, and Henton has an 86. Pat White's SPD is 91, and I believe that he's the fastest QB on the game.

During in-season recruiting I've seen regular QBs with a 40 time as low as 4.46 and athlete-QBs with 40s as low as 2.24. I'm in the process of recruiting one such athlete-QB that is 5'11", 244 lbs, and runs a 4.31 40. I hope I can land him to see what his SPD rating becomes.

I can tell you guys that scrambling, even with the speed of Henton is tough. It's great that he has such speed, but I can rarely break contain. And even if I run up through the linemen, once I pass the line of scrimmage the defense reacts quickly. EA did a nice job in fixing this issue.
 
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BrutuStrength;881039; said:
Then I think it's Alex Boone around a 92 or so.
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A correction on this part. Boone is also a 94 OVR, and Barton is a 92.

One pet peeve that I already have, is whenever you edit someone, such as name or position, it automatically resorts the depth chart. I hope they release a patch to fix this.
 
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Which reminds me, athletes can now be recruited during the season.
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You mean you can do recruiting just like its the Off-Season at any point during the season, or did X-Box not have the In-Season recruiting function like PS2 last year? The In-Season recruiting last year was ok, but I didn't like the fact you had to stick with about 10-12 players. You couldn't switch these guys or substitute someone else mid-season if you were trying to get a blue-chip recruit that turned out no good. For instance, if during the recruiting process I noticed a recruit had poor behavior, I drop him then and there. Rather than waste my budget on discipline points, I put a majority of them back into recruiting/training. Besides, nothing is worse than getting a blue chip recruit thats going to break the rules, cost you unnecessary discipline points, and won't be partcipating on game day.
 
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ulukinatme;882602; said:
You mean you can do recruiting just like its the Off-Season at any point during the season, or did X-Box not have the In-Season recruiting function like PS2 last year? The In-Season recruiting last year was ok, but I didn't like the fact you had to stick with about 10-12 players. You couldn't switch these guys or substitute someone else mid-season if you were trying to get a blue-chip recruit that turned out no good. For instance, if during the recruiting process I noticed a recruit had poor behavior, I drop him then and there. Rather than waste my budget on discipline points, I put a majority of them back into recruiting/training. Besides, nothing is worse than getting a blue chip recruit thats going to break the rules, cost you unnecessary discipline points, and won't be partcipating on game day.
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Recruiting is a bit different now (at least in next-gen).

In season recruiting now provides you with a database of players that you can run searches against. You can search based on position, minimum star rating, etc, and any combination of those criteria. You can also have up to 35 recruits on your recruiting board at any time. If you don't like one, just remove him from your board at point of the season and replace him with another player.

You can also offer up to 25 scholarships. It appears to be that you can't retract any such offers though. I did have an OT that I was recruiting and offered a scholly to and he then decided to commit to scUM, but I didn't check to see if I got my ability to offer his scholly to someone else.

Also, instead of using recruiting points each week, you now have 10 hours total to call all of your recruits, regardless of their locations. And when finding out what their likes are, there are now 10 - 15 categories (academics, campus life, coach prestige, TV exposure, etc.) While talking to them you need to find out how their favorite categories. There is always one category rated "most" and 2 others rated "very high." Then when they visit campus, you assign them 3 categories to check out that relate to those main likes. Also, while talking on the phone, a little face shows the reaction of the recruit. The longer you talk, or the more you talk about areas where has low interest, the more likely he is to hangup on you end the call angry.

The part about athletes, was that in previous versions you could only recruit them during the offseason. Attitudes/trouble makers are no longer an issue in next-gen.
 
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