I’ve never once touched the jump the snap. I found that since the FIU QB was tearing me up in zones and cover 2 man, the only option I had to stop them was to blitz often. Otherwise, the QB had too much time in the pocket and would pick me apart.

Interestingly, if I blitzed with zone coverage, I’d get creamed. But the man coverage was good enough that the QB wouldn’t find anyone open by time my linebackers got in.

I’m hoping that there’s some slider set that “works”…but I’m getting pessimistic.

A common line is 23/35 for 200 yards. I’d rather have that than pick off 3-5 passes a game.

I can’t get anywhere near 9 sacks. Do you jump the snap a lot?

I also try to play to my defensive back’s strengths. My guys hate zone coverage so I spend a lot more time in Man to Man.

I am also of the opinion that the player ratings suck in this game. There are *way* too many 85+ rated QBs and making them play REALLY bad is extremely hard to do without making them throw a ton of INTs. The game makes bad QBs bad by giving them low Awareness, which in turn makes them throw picks, when there should be a LOT more QBs with low accuracy.

If it’s possible to have a CPU complete 50% of its passes while throwing 0-1 INTs..I have yet to find that setting. I’d love to, though.

I wish there was a way to

I tried using your sliders with Florida v. FIU, comparing them with default AA. Here are the results for the FIU quarterback:

Your sliders
Fraites 26-32 (81%), 299 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 INTs, sacked 9 times.

Default AA
Fraites 19-30 (63%), 286 yards, 3 touchdowns, 6 INTs, sacked 4 times.

It definitely fixed the INT problem. But it also turned Fraites into a superhuman QB, only throwing incomplete passes when under severe pressure. It needs more testing, but I’m afraid that fixing the INT problem creates imbalance in the passing game, such that CPU QBs are too accurate when not throwing interceptinos.

So, with the new football titles out there, the RROD warranty extension and the upcoming price drop, I’m feeling that 360 ownership is once again becoming an inevitability for me. The icing on the cake would be a great NCAA football title. Who knows, maybe nest-gen NBA Live will finally be worthy of playing time this year too.

First, much like I’ve read about the 360 version, there are way too many interceptions by both the CPU and the human user. I’ve tried every conceivable slider combination with Heisman and AA difficulty to try to alleviate the problem (including trying maxing out WR catching, after reading here that it helped the 360 version issues), to no avail. It seems to be hard-coded into the game. The worst example of this I experienced was taking Colorado into Louisville on Heisman difficulty with sliders heavily maxed in favor of the CPU passing game and still picking Brohm’s pocket 5 times and sacking him 5 times. Zone coverage is far too effective against the CPU. I started slipping back into old NCAA 05 defensive playcalling habits - call a zone with at least one blitzing player, then sit back and eventually watch the CPU self destruct as they will either get sacked or throw the ball right to a defender.

What’s been even worse than the interception issue is the lack of pursuit on running plays, especially outside runs. Oh, and you and the CPU can return kickoffs and punts for touchdowns at the rate of about 1 per game, because if you break one tackle, you’re as good as in the endzone. Here, making slider adjustments doesn’t help either, because if you decrease Run Block and Run Ablility sliders and increase defensive AWR, Break Blocks, and Tacking sliders, you will see runners get leveled in the backfield 10 straight plays, then run one to the outside that you take to the house, with defenders following you like a school of fish, never gaining a step on you. If you reduce RB Ability to 5 or zero to try to cut down the big play ability, that will fix the outside running problem. Of course, then you’ll average like 1-2 yards a carry with the likes of P.J. Hill against SMU’s vaunted front seven, but hey, at least you won’t bust any more big plays, right?

The last major issue is that you can block extra points and FGs with relative ease. I’ve blocked at least one every game I’ve played (about 40-50 games), and have only had the CPU block one in that span. I guess that is necessary because field goals are pretty much automatic for the CPU unless you block one.

Yeah, I still prefer NCAA 07. The only real gripe I’m still having with last year’s game (other than the lack of graphical pop) is the CPU tendency to just lay down and die in some games if you get momentum on your side. Maybe that’s why this year’s version is so turnover-happy - it keeps any one team from being able to absoultely lock down momentum in their favor for the entire game.

Ah well - good points about the gameplay in the 360 version. I really wish I could give it a shot at a kiosk or something for myself before I grab it.

Still, there are things on the new version which have never been in an NCAA to any real degree.

Linebackers now make most of the tackles, defensive secondary awareness (post sliders) matters a lot. Play action works GREAT as do pump fakes. You get good YAC, too.

But the 360 version also has a lot of crazy stuff, too. It’s very unpolished.

Are you still playing the Xbox version a lot?

And what’s wrong with this year’s Xbox game?

I’m just curious, because I totally agreed with your take on NCAA 07 XBOX last year, and since NCAA 08 on the XBOX is a real mess this year, I’m considering rejoining the 360 camp if NCAA 08 is worth the plunge.

14-19? 12-16?

Maybe this is something that you end up having to live with…

Thanks for the mention on the blog. I’m glad if I could help in any way because I would really like a college game this year and don’t demand perfection…I could even live with 1 or 2 picks a game…just not 2 *every* game and 3-5 in a lot of games.

I just had a classic of a game with SJSU against Stanford. Basically, the play of the game was with Stanford on the 1, 4th down with a minute left. Ostrander (STAN QB) is hurried… and Assily (SJSU SS) jumps the route and picks it off. It allows me to win 29-25.

Stanford QB: 14-19, 222 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT

Pretty accurate, the only INT was that play.

For fun, my QB:

12-16, 127 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT

Both were on bonehead plays where I tried to force it.

This is the first time I’ve ever used Heisman, and I’m loving it. Thanks so much, Bill!