The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Okay, so I just came out of the coma from last week’s five season sim. It wasn’t the sim that was exhausting. That was pretty simple. It was the ass-backwards way I chose to go about transcribing it (don’t ask). Anyway, I’ve finally been able to play a few more games and in terms of the big picture, I’m getting a much better handle on how things are playing out:

- Momentum is just a god-awful feature. Not just within NCAA, but as an idea. Momentum is not something that I think should be modeled in a game. It’s like modeling a clutch rating for individual players. The concept may exist, by no matter how complex the code you can’t model and replicate it in a way that doesn’t imbalance the gameplay. NCAA 2007’s model I think is much less severe than in 2006, but I still think it’s at the root of some truly whacky turnover behavior (fumbles in particular), amongst other things. I’d be much happier if it could be turned off.

- EA will never implement a balanced penalty system.

- The gameplay is prone to some bizarre happenings. I’ve seen a receiver watch an incoming pass fly straight into his helmet without attempting to catch it. I’ve seen the QB throw a pitch off a fullback’s back and stand their with the ball at his feet while the defense comes in to scoop it up. Etc. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it happens.

- The ebb and flow of the game (momentum excepted), is phenomenal. I don’t feel like there’s anything scripted about the games I’m playing, in terms of playcalling or results. Momentum I think makes some things too predictable (maybe it’s my imagination?), but I don’t feel like the end result of a game is pre-determined and I had that feeling a lot in NCAA 2006. It’s really a tremendous amount of fun.

- The sliders appear to work very well. I’m playing All-American and have tweaked up the run block and RB ability sliders and noticed an immediate payoff for both the human and AI in terms of being able to generate four to six yard runs up the middle. I do think the outside run game is a little too prone to tackles for large losses (both human and AI), but it’s not egregious.

- The playbooks and playcalling, I think, really work well. EA needs to fix how the offense gets to the line (cutting right to it when you press A), but I haven’t found a play yet that I simply can’t run and get a fair result. (I love how screens work and draws are very usable in moderation. Playaction, when used appropriately, can be absolutely lethal.)

- I’ve even grown to like the jump snap feature just a little, since it was explained to me how you can use it to draw the AI offsides and keep their D honest. (You have to fake the snap with some regularity the keep the AI from jumping on you every other play.)

- It just plain feels like football. I love that. The presentation needs work, to be sure. But in the in-play action just feels like football to me and that’s been missing for a long, long time. I love how you can slide your QB around in the pocket to help your lineman pick up blocks and buy yourself time. I love how your QB is not guaranteed to throw an on-target laser. I’ve seen overthrows, underthrows, and everything in between. It’s completely revolutionized the deep passing game, as compared to previous versions. Airing one out to an open receiver only to see it land five yards ahead of him is finally a part of the game. (This is one place where it sounds like the 360 version has it all over the Xbox version.)

Overall, I’m really quite pleased with NCAA 2007. It should be taken to task for the feature drops, but since half of the missing features aren’t done that well on the Xbox, it’s almost a blessing in disguise. I’m actually more worried about what happens when EA starts adding these features back into the game, for the 360 because I absolutely don’t want to be fretting over junk like NCAA punishment for not suspending my kicker for being late to a team meeting. Know what I mean? I’ve still got to play the game a lot more, to be sure, but for the first time since NCAA 2004, I’m really enjoying the on-field gameplay instead of fighting against it for the sake of having a college football game to play.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.