NCAA 2008

[OmahaBeef]

I guess its hard to rate someone who isn't a proven starter anything above 90, but I was kinda of disappointed to see Beanie rated at only a 89 (2007 NCAA Top 25 Feature - Features at GameSpot). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Laurinaitis rated as a 95. I'm curious to see how they rated him in specific stats.

On another note, has anyone ever seen a list of what all of the stats mean in the game? I don't really know what some of the stats mean, or how much they effect players. (I'm talking like player ratings on the depth chart, not in game statistics.) I'd be curious to see a study saying what ratings do exactly what.

 

[Oneshot]

The 'jump' from xbox to the 360 isn't really a jump...

they're two completely separate games.

The current gen (ps2, xbox) is going to have the same engine from years past with some minor changes.

Next gen takes Madden's engine from the 360 and i guess ps3. they feel, look, and play completely differently.

Last year, I thought that the 360 version was the most awful thing since '05.

But a lot of people are optimistic about '08.

The stats are actually very easy to decipher..

THP is throw power, THA is throw accuracy, STR is strength, SPD is speed..

Do you have any specific stats that you're not sure about?

 

[OmahaBeef]

The 'jump' from xbox to the 360 isn't really a jump...

they're two completely separate games.

The current gen (ps2, xbox) is going to have the same engine from years past with some minor changes.

Next gen takes Madden's engine from the 360 and i guess ps3. they feel, look, and play completely differently.

Last year, I thought that the 360 version was the most awful thing since '05.

But a lot of people are optimistic about '08.

The stats are actually very easy to decipher..

THP is throw power, THA is throw accuracy, STR is strength, SPD is speed..

Do you have any specific stats that you're not sure about?

1. What exactly does strength do? There is already a break tackle stat. There are already blocking stats. Does higher strength augment these?

2. What exactly do throw accuracy and throw power do? For instance, if you have a higher throw accuracy rating does it mean that you have a better chance of throwing a pass on target, or does it mean all of your passes are going to be closer to their target. (So is it just a roll to see if the pass is going to be on target or not, or does a higher THA stat make all of your passes more likely to be near the pass' target.)

3. What does awareness do? It seems to be massively important. The name "awareness" seems to imply something about being aware so you don't fumble or get injured as often or something, but there are already stats for both of those.

4. What does the "impact player" thing really do? It seems like it increases a running back/QB's ability to break tackles when pulsating, but what does it do for someone like a CB?

I would love to know what all the stats can do to help mold a team to exactly what I want. It would be cool to know exactly what I want at every position, and not need to look at the overall ratings to see how good players are, because they are not always indicative of how good players really are (especially depending on how you use them). (Also, try taking a high rated DE and switching him to DT and he'll be very low rated. Is he really THAT much less useful just because he's going against a guard or a center? But back to what I was saying about how I use players differently sometimes...) For instance, FBs get really high ratings if they are good blockers. However, I like to use them as power runners as well. I had a 99 rated FB I benched for a power HB who wasn't as good at blocking (but after an off season or two also developed some blocking) but he fit better into the plays I used because it gave me a power running option that was always on the field. Another example is that I like to run curl flats out of ace slot (the wideout runs a 10 yd come back, and the slot receiver runs a short out). I often position sub my back up running back into the slot because all he has to do is catch a short pass, that is often wide open if I throw to him. The RB almost always makes the catch, and then I have a good ball carrier with the ball. A lot of times the wideout can block his guy, then if the RB can break a tackle he's got a big gain or a TD.

 

[jwinslow]

1. Not positive, but I imagine strength could help you not get flattened during contact, or hold onto a catch when getting leveled by a safety.

2. A less accurate passer will be more erratic. The ball will not end up as close to it's intended path. A 99 will throw the ball accurately almost every time like Troy Smith in 2006. A 70 will throw ducks like Ted Ginn, who might occasionally throw a decent pass to Nicol for a TD.

Throw power is the strength of your arm, how fast the ball gets there.

3. In Madden, awareness affects your field of vision for who you can throw to. I think lower awareness also affects your accuracy.

4. The impact player thing causes stupid things to happen, basically. When it first came out, you were virtually guaranteed at least one broken tackle on offense. Now, they've toned that down some (but not enough).

The defensive player is much more likely to be unblockable and cause a fumble upon tackling.

In short... impact player is like switching on 'arcade' mode for that player.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

I'm getting a Xbox 360 in September (or maybe earlier this summer) but I will still have my original Xbox. Should I buy the game for 360 or for my Xbox? (How much different is the 360 version of NCAA? If it isn't significantly better I am thinking I will buy the Xbox version so I can download the rosters.)

Get the 360 version. Also, get a 360 Elite.

 

[OmahaBeef]

1. Not positive, but I imagine strength could help you not get flattened during contact, or hold onto a catch when getting leveled by a safety.

2. A less accurate passer will be more erratic. The ball will not end up as close to it's intended path. A 99 will throw the ball accurately almost every time like Troy Smith in 2006. A 70 will throw ducks like Ted Ginn, who might occasionally throw a decent pass to Nicol for a TD.

Throw power is the strength of your arm, how fast the ball gets there.

3. In Madden, awareness affects your field of vision for who you can throw to. I think lower awareness also affects your accuracy.

4. The impact player thing causes stupid things to happen, basically. When it first came out, you were virtually guaranteed at least one broken tackle on offense. Now, they've toned that down some (but not enough).

The defensive player is much more likely to be unblockable and cause a fumble upon tackling.

In short... impact player is like switching on 'arcade' mode for that player.

2. But what I was wondering is does the game just have a "roll" to determine if a) the pass it on target, or b) the pass is not on target, or is it a value that is used to calculate how close the ball is to the receiver thrown to.

3. I would still love to know what it does for players in NCAA because it seems to be pretty important.

Something else I would like to know, is how THA and CTH (um is CTH is catch right?) interact. It seems like (as is often the case in EA sports games) the actions you see on the screen are not necessarily representative of what is "really" happening because EA games often get caught up in being locked into certain preprogrammed movements. For instance, sometimes when I'm playing a pass lands IN the receiver's hands, but is not caught. I'm thinking this is because what is happening behind the scenes is that a calculation was made (most likely using both CTH and THA) that determined the ball was not caught. However, the graphics on the screen were such that the ball moved into the hands of the receiver but was not really caught on screen because of the numbers behind the scenes.

 

[BrutuStrength]

2. But what I was wondering is does the game just have a "roll" to determine if a) the pass it on target, or b) the pass is not on target, or is it a value that is used to calculate how close the ball is to the receiver thrown to.

I don't know (nor do I think anyone outside of EA does) the specific calculation behind the numbers (does 89 = 89% passes on target? etc.), but all you really need to know is that the higher the rating is, the more accurate the passes will be and the less likely they'll be intercepted.

3. I would still love to know what it does for players in NCAA because it seems to be pretty important.

Awareness does very little, if anything, for players that are being controlled by human users. It really is a score that dictates how good the players are when being controlled by the CPU. One of the developers confirmed this last year during an interview.

Something else I would like to know, is how THA and CTH (um is CTH is catch right?) interact...

Again, I don't think anyone outside of EA knows how such things are actually calculated. Just know that the higher the numbers are in each respective category, the more success you are likely to have.

 

[OmahaBeef]

Again, I don't think anyone outside of EA knows how such things are actually calculated. Just know that the higher the numbers are in each respective category, the more success you are likely to have.

When it comes to video game information like this I think I'm sorta used to MMOs (games like World of Warcraft) where people put in ludacris amounts of time into collecting large amounts of data, and figuring out the complicated math behind it all. Its still my dream to get to a point where I don't have to look at the "overall rating" to assess how good a player is (because often the overall rating isnt indicative of how useful the player is).

 

[Oneshot]

NCAA Football 08 Previews, Message Board and Rosters at ncaaStrategies for NCAA Football 08

These guys put more time into collecting data than you've ever seen.

They're also great at the game hahaha.

 

[gmsbears]

for those interested, the demo is out for the 360 on xbox live.

 

[scooter1369]

NCAA Football 08 Previews, Message Board and Rosters at ncaaStrategies for NCAA Football 08

These guys put more time into collecting data than you've ever seen.

They're also great at the game hahaha.

Yeah. I got banned from that site almost two years ago for telling some asshole kid about himself and his comments about Ryan Hamby's drop in the UT game/2006. I had been a member for a few years and was considered to be a mod.

The brat had it coming, so I laid into him. I got a perma-ban for one post

 

[Piney]

for those interested, the demo is out for the 360 on xbox live.

Reading a few message boards about the demo and everyone is drooling over the demo saying it is light years better than last year's version.

Dang... I can't make up my mind on a new system. I was really thinking about getting the PS2 version one last time but if the next gen is that much better I might have to invest in a new system. And I really didn't want to get an XBOX 360. Dang EA for not making a Wii version and making the PS3 version suck.

 

[SparkyOSU]

Reading a few message boards about the demo and everyone is drooling over the demo saying it is light years better than last year's version.

Dang... I can't make up my mind on a new system. I was really thinking about getting the PS2 version one last time but if the next gen is that much better I might have to invest in a new system. And I really didn't want to get an XBOX 360. Dang EA for not making a Wii version and making the PS3 version suck.

EA is incohoots with microsoft to make the 360 look better... imho

 

[Bleed S & G]

EA is incohoots with microsoft to make the 360 look better... imho

"If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort. Some developers have been complaining about this but I don't believe we can solve that. Xbox 360 is a different machine with good, but lower powered hardware in a different architecture. Developers have to view them as two different machines not as a common platform."​

It's worth pointing out that EA's been working on Xbox 360 hardware a full year longer than PS3. With Madden, it's almost understandable, but 2K is having the same issues with All-Pro Football 2K8, a game built from the ground up to be released on both platforms. With this now in mind, does this change which version you're going to buy?

I personally, am pissed. Socom will make me happy again :)

 

[Piney]

It's worth pointing out that EA's been working on Xbox 360 hardware a full year longer than PS3. With Madden, it's almost understandable, but 2K is having the same issues with All-Pro Football 2K8, a game built from the ground up to be released on both platforms. With this now in mind, does this change which version you're going to buy?

I personally, am pissed. Socom will make me happy again :)

So ya saying that with time next year's PS3 version of NCAA should REALLY kick ass?

But really I have heard the same thing since they are two totally different systems now. Which is why I was really hoping the PS2 version would hold me out til next year.

But me thinks the new Grand Theft Auto might force me to pick a system. All I know is the wife won't let me buy both so I can hedge my bets