NCAA Football 09 (Xbox 360)
Review for Canespace.com
By BG1906, Canespace.com Video Game Analyst
July 17, 2007
Introduction
What’s good Legion! It’s ya boy Canespace.com video game analyst, BG1906 here, and as you already know, EA Sports has released NCAA Football 09. I was lucky enough to have the game for 4 days prior to the release, and despite my ridiculously busy work schedule right now, (Esteban can attest to that), I have had an opportunity to really go through the various features of the game, and give it a good look over. Here are my findings and impressions. Before I get started, I’d like to remind you guys that I’m an Xbox 360 fan boy, so the review is geared towards that platform, but PS3 fan boys need not feel left out as the game mechanics, and unfortunately the problems with this year’s game are also shared between both next gen formats of the game.
Impressions
If any of you read my review last year, you’ll remember that I said that I thought EA Sports was finally turning the corner with the next gen NCAA franchise, and that it was headed in the absolute right direction. My only gripe with last year’s game was the pass defense. LBs and DBs were unrealistic in pass coverage, and as I frequent the online league’s communities, it wasn’t uncommon to see QBs with a great deal more INTs than TDs (even the top guys), and averages of only about 150-160 yds per game passing. Well this year, the game is totally the opposite, and seeing QBs throw for over 400-500 yds and multiple TDs isn’t uncommon. Add to that the fact that they are throwing for this kind of yardage with completion rates that are sky high. I am talking in the 80% - 90% range, and that’s not uncommon at all! To accomplish that, EA has made defense basically non-existent, and to me, the game, although full of potential, actually digressed this year. But I’ll talk about all of that later. Let’s get on to the review.
-
Modes
NCAA 09 has the usual suspects when it comes to modes:
- Play Now
- Dynasty
- Campus Legend
- Mini-Games
- Mascot Games
- Online
- Online Dynasty
However, the new biggie in that group is Online Dynasty. Online Dynasty mode has been added this year and it allows gamers to enjoy dynasty mode as they’ve always have, but with the addition of being able to have up to 11 of your friends participate in the Dynasty with you in sort of an NCAA type league. The online dynasty is owned by a commissioner who sets up the dynasty and controls all the settings, the pace of the league, etc. Users play a mixture of cpu and human opponents as well as recruit against human and cpu opponents. At years end the whole bowl game system is implemented as well as award winners (Heisman, etc). It’s a neat concept and actually plays pretty well. A lot of strictly online guys, like me, will spend a lot of time playing the game in this mode and online dynasty should keep players very busy until NCAA 2010. It is one of the truly awesome new features of the game.
-
Presentation
Every year EA focuses on a new feature that they highlight in their games, and this year for NCAA 09, that feature is coined Wide Open Game Play. This Wide Open Game Play engine focuses on putting gamers in a position to pull off the big play on a regular basis. Whether that’s throwing the long ball, or breaking your opponent’s ankles with the new Breakaway Engine (which utilizes the right analog stick to pull off an amazing amount of jukes, spins, etc), the emphasis is scoring points and a lot of them. EA also wanted to focus more on the college atmosphere and making the game really feel like being at your favorite team’s game on Saturday. The guys over at EA actually did a fantastic job with this portion of the game. Among other things, they have added new Mascot TD celebrations (where your player can interact with the mascot and celebrate a TD), a smarter, more involved crowd, player reactions on the sidelines, as well as cheerleaders. But to me the best feature in the presentation department is the inclusion of customized Stadium Sounds. This feature allows you to use your own custom sounds in-game assigned to play when particular events take place. For example, say you are playing as our beloved Canes, and after a sack you want to hear the Imperial March/Darth Vader Theme the Canes band plays after the Canes register a sack. Well now you can. Saving your custom Imperial March Audio file to the hard drive of your console, you can now assign that custom sound to play when ever the Canes get a sack. There are 22 different events sounds can be assigned too, and they actually work very well in-game. They blend in with the crowd, and actually make for a more interesting game. For all you Canes fans like me, you can download my custom Stadium Sounds for The U at http://mysite.verizon.net/bgaylor/ncaa09.
-
Graphically EA has also stepped up the game and the game is actually probably the best looking NCAA 09 ever. They’ve also fully implemented dynamic weather by way of the Weather Channel, and if you have your console online, whenever you play a game and you have the Weather Channel option selected, the game will set the weather conditions to the current conditions of that particular city where the game is being played. So if it is rainy in Miami, and you are playing as the Canes and select the Weather Channel, then you can expect to be playing in the rain on the game as well.
Everything isn’t all peaches and cream however, as EA made one glaring mistake in the presentation department. Every year, a group of dedicated gamers, guys like Fairdale Kings and now Pasta Padre, actually go in and edit the default rosters for all 100+ teams in the game. This is a daunting task as each team is initially released with only numbers. So Javarris James for instance, initially appears in game as RB #5. In years past, once the roster guys had edited all the names, the NCAA gaming community would download and install the rosters and would enjoy having the commentators in the game say James picks up 5 yds rather that this RB #5 for a gain of 5. However due to a bug/snafu, this feature wasn’t working quite the way it had in the past. It was actually corrupting the game and causing some teams to lose their team rankings, and some to actually disappear all together (http://www.operationsports.com/mm/showthread.php?t=186018)! There should be a patch to correct this shortly however. Other than that, the presentation is spot on, and while the presentation of the game is phenomenal, it is in the game play department that the game actually has the majority of its problems.
-
Game Play
The most important part of any video game after all the nice graphics and presentations is the game play. You can wrap it up all nice and pretty, but if the game play is lacking, then the game is essentially a failure. While its great that the game has some great presentation and some wonderful new modes to enjoy the game, in actuality, the implementation wasn’t quite what I expected.
-
The Good
Player responsiveness is spot on this year. The new Breakaway Engine allows you to make some totally SICK moves that would not be possible had the game not been as responsive as it is. Players react very quickly to user direction and control; so much so, that it will take you some time to get used too it, as you can easily overcompensate in your player controlled movements.
-
The Bad
- Defensive AI (Passing & Special Teams Coverage)
As they say in the Matrix, everything that has a beginning has an end, and in that same vein, though there are some good things in NCAA, there are also some bad things as well unfortunately. My major beef is the defensive AI. In the passing game it is HORRIBLE. LBs drop way to far back leaving the underneath routes so wide open while DBs, actually stop and watch the offensive player catch the ball before even reacting (see video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU71WjPxebQ). For those that read the review last year, you might remember me commenting on how much of a challenge it was to pass the ball in NCAA 08. Well in NCAA 09, that won’t be a problem, as it seems that Defense just wasn’t in the equation this year. It seems EA deals in extremes, always too much or too little of something and never any type of balance. Last year too much defense and now there is none. There also seems to be a bit of a lack of pass rush vs. human opponents. The CPU seems to be able to get massive pressure while also making good defensive plays in the secondary, but with human players not so (I play on Heisman Level, so I’m only speaking from my own personal experience). Also Kick and Punt Return coverage is pretty bad and most of the time users can expect good starting field position for either you or your opponent. Perhaps with more exposure and practice on the game, as well as some game patching on EAs part, defense will get better with time.
-
The Rest
Everything is pretty stat quo after that and what we’ve come to expect from NCAA.
-
Conclusion
While the game has it fair share of issues, it still is actually fun to play. I usually describe my experience with the game as I love it and hate it at the same time. This game has so much potential its sick, but EA really dropped the ball with the problems on Defense. If these things can be fixed via patching, EA will have a really, really good college football engine to build upon in the future. In their defense however, the developers have been very responsive to the community, and are trying to make the NCAA game that we’d all like to see it be. So let’s hope they can fix the problems that the game currently has. Overall I give the game a grade of B. There are just too many bugs and problems to give it anything higher.
-
Overall Grade: B (3.5 out of 5)
-
The U
Though the Canes aren’t ranked on the game, the developers obviously realized we had a fabulous recruiting class and actually, included a lot of the new blood in the game and ranked them pretty well. Overall we are ranked 86 with an 83 on Offense and a 92 on defense. This goes to show that the Canes defense will be its strength in-game.
-
On offense the impact player is Graig Cooper. Coop boasts an overall rating of 88. He has good speed in the game (92) and has a very high elusive ranking. What that means is that Graig Cooper is a BEAST in space! Baby J is listed as his back up with an overall 87 rating and a 90 speed. He’s bigger and more physical than Coop in the game, and it’s a toss up based on your playing style who you will decide to start. Other RBs are: Shawnbrey McNeal, Derron Thomas, Lee Chambers, Kylan Robinson, and Damien Berry.
-
At QB we have Robert Marve as the starter and Jacory Harris is the back up. Taylor Cook is 3rd string (they have him as #7 but he will wear #17 at UM), and Cannon Smith pulls up the rear. They have Sam Shields and Kayne Farquharson starting at WR with Leonard Hankerson in the slot (He’s a beast use him). All are rated in the mid/high 80s. The #4 WR spot goes to none other than, true freshman Aldarius Johnson. Jermaine McKenzie is the #5 WR and on the default roster Khalil Jones is the #6 guy, followed by Tommy Streeter (they have him wearing #80 in the game, but he’ll wear #86 at UM). Dedrick Epps starts at TE with Chris Zellner as the #2 TE and Richard Gordon the #3. At FB, only Patrick Hill made the game, and if he blocks as good as he does in his highlight video, then that’s ok with me! On the O-Line, starters on the default roster are: Jason Fox, Orlando Franklin, AJ Trump, Joel Figueroa, and Reggie Younglood. Other notable O-Lineman in the game are: Chris Rutledge, Matt Pipho, Harland Gunn, Ian Symonette, Tyron Byrd, and Chris Barney.
-
Defensively we are fairly LOADED! The impact players are Eric Moncur and Lovon Ponder, with Moncur being the highest rated player on our team with a 94 overall. The big boys up front feature Moncur and Allen Bailey (who is listed as LE so you’ll need to sub him or change his position to RE to start him) on the Ends, and Antonio Dixon and Marcus Forston in the middle. Dixon is actually a beast on the game and is the quintessential run stopper. Other D-Lineman on the game are: Courtney Harris, Steven Wesley, Adawale Ojomo, Dwayne Hendricks, Chaz Washington, Joe Joseph, and Micanor Regis. Our starting LBs on the default roster are: Colin McCarthy, Glenn Cook, and Darryl Sharpton. Also featured in the LB group are: Arthur Brown (he’s a beast and rated only 1 pt lower than Glenn Cook, so I start him), Spencer Adkins, Sean Spence (rated very well for a true freshman at 81), Romeo Davis, Gavin Hardin, and Marcus Robinson (also got freshman love with an 80 overall rating). In the secondary are Randy Phillips and Lovon Ponder at SS and FS respectively, and DVD and Bruce Johnson at CB. Depth is provided by Chavez Grant, Brandon Harris, Carlos Armour, Ryan Hill, Anthony Reddick, Ramon Buchanan (they have him at FS and wearing #7, but he’ll play at LB and wear #46 at UM), Vaughn Telemaque (they have him at FS wearing #28, he’ll wear #7 at UM), and Jordan Futch (they have him at SS and wearing #39, but he’ll play LB and wear #58 at UM). Brandon Harris has some very good speed and acceleration ratings as well as favorable Man and Zone Coverage ratings there fore I give him the start at the Dime. On special teams, Jake Wieclaw is the kicker, while Matt Bosher handles the punting and kickoffs. Graig Cooper is the punt returner, and Lee Chambers and Bruce Johnson are at KR.
Well Legion there it is, hope you enjoy it and that it helps you. I’ll look forward to online for the interblog challenge as well as seeing you guys here at Canespace in a few weeks after I’ve spent some more time with the game, and can give you some tips on maximizing your use of the Canes in the game. Until then remember…
-
It’s All About The U…Go Canes!
BG1906 (bgaylor@gmail.com)
C.C.M.J.T.K.O.
