NCAA Football 09 Review
- Posted July 14th, 2008 at 23:36 EDT by
- 9,367 views
- 9 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 7.5
- Avg. user review score:
- 6.7
Summary
NCAA 2009 is a step above its previous installment and shows EA Sports is dedicated to improving the brand name they’ve created.
We like
- Online Dynasty is fantastic
- Custom Stadium Sounds system is innovative
- Atmosphere is dead on
We dislike
- Shimmy can toy with the AI
- Broken defensive zones
- Player vs. player experience
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
(continued from previous page) ...discrepancies, the fact is they almost completely deteriorate the inter-human experience.
From what I hear, it is unclear whether EA Sports will attempt to patch both of these staggering problems or if users will be forced to just deal with it. The bottom line for me personally, is that neither of these issues should have made it into the final build of the game. They weren’t a problem in the alpha build and the fact that this situation seems to have been exacerbated between then and the retail version is something no developer should be proud of. Instead of giving their users an experience that may have actually been unrivaled by any other sports title to date, EA Sports has let them down by producing a product that only offers a decent amount of fun when you’re playing against the computer.
Features:
EA Sports got around to implementing one of the coolest features this time around for NCAA - Custom Stadium Events and Sounds. What this means is you can import any .mp3 file from your HDD and make it play during certain scenarios within a game. There are over 20 events in total and they include things such as converting a fourth down, scoring a touchdown and creating a turnover. This feature will allow the diehard fans to install authentic chants and songs that their real-life team utilizes and make the overall collegiate experience that much better.
They’ve also added in roster sharing so users can exchanged fully detailed roster files instead of always having to take the field with a team full of numbers instead of names. On top of this, they’ve included the ability to upload highlight reels to EA Sports World to show off to their friends or just for use on their profile.
Some of the gameplay features that were added were the ability to return missed field goals; unfortunately kickers are over-powered and make returning a field goal almost impossible. They also added in bluff play art to fool your opponent on what play you’ve called and continuous play. Continuous play will allow your players to keep going past the whistle on a supposed fumble, interception opportunity, etc., in order to make it more identical to the real thing.
Graphics/Atmosphere:
The most important thing for any college football game, in my opinion, is the atmosphere in which the game is set. Anyone who watches the real sport will tell you that the actual experience is unlike anything else on earth and to replicate it is truly difficult. Despite this, I feel that EA Sports has done a great job in instituting the atmosphere for NCAA 2009. From the custom stadium sounds to the high attention to detail for each stadium, NCAA 2009 surely delivers on that portion of the experience unlike any before it.
Not only does the atmosphere feel right, but also the look and feel of the field and crowd is incredible. No longer do all of the players on the sidelines move like mindless drones and cameramen always seem like they’re doing nothing at all. NCAA 2009 has done everything right in terms of properly populating the sidelines with players and having cameramen take realistic movements in order to capture the game in digital format.
Outside of that, the sound of the crowd truly draws you in and you start to take notice of the home field advantage. The newly designed player models are also brilliant along with the fact that the lighting is tremendous as well. Let’s also not forget that NCAA 2009 is running at a smooth 60 FPS and provides everything a college fanatic could desire in his surroundings.
Online Dynasty:
This is probably the biggest addition to a sports game since the implementation of the original Dynasty. While a lot of people may have wanted other things added in, I think EA Sports came through and delivered something magical with this feature. Online Dynasty features practically everything its offline counterpart has to offer. Commissioners will be able to invite people from their friend’s list to join the Dynasty as well as set sliders in order to make the game play in a more realistic fashion.
On top of that, the ... (continued on next page)
Comments
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funItalian
- 7:38am BST - July 15th, 2008
- 3
sounds like NCAA 09 has great graphics and an overall feel of what collegiate football should be and the review helped a lot, but I just can't help but to think the player v.s. player game play is not up to par. Without great gameplay the game itself is not worth the $60 purchase in my humble opinion. Maybe I'll rent it first just to see if it's worth the money.
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mcwups1
- 11:15am BST - July 15th, 2008
- 4
"Dynasty Mode:
Dynasty Mode has always been the backbone of the NCAA franchise, offering users the opportunity to lead a college program to national dominance. The mode gives the player the responsibilities of red-shirting players, creating recruitment boards, setting depth charts, customizing your schedule and even inviting future prospects to watch your team play."You mean, like a coach would? Huh? Too bad you can't really "coach"....you have to actually "user-control" the players, which defeats the purpose behind "Dynasty Mode" to begin with. Yeah....real good job EA. Just sit back on your lazy butts, add a little something, and collect all that money from people who don't care about quality. I might rent it, just to see if they actually took Josh Portis off of the "Transfer" status, after being at Maryland for 3 years now. Nah....I won't.
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I95SOUTH |
I95SOUTH- 1:19pm BST - July 15th, 2008
- 5
I play NCAA football every year. You have to know whats its about. its not just a football game. I played football for 18 years and I have to say EA does a great job with the NCAA games each year bring something great with it. Im sorry but the rate it should never go under a 8.5 even with last years game being the worst one made atleast an 8.
psn id: I95SOUTH
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VictorValiant
- 2:53am BST - July 16th, 2008
- 6
Gameplay can be tweaked with the sliders and there may be some major bugs with the sliders, such as assigning the wrong attribute to a slider. This is being investigated by some gamers at another site's forum. I'm not sure about this website's policy on linking to another forum, so if it's ok, I can do that.
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Jaxnole22
- 3:36pm BST - July 17th, 2008
- 7
I always get the game- it has changed.
Here's a question- i own ps2- why do i have to "add" every player and number to both dynasty roster/ and the fbs just to play other people and points pursuit etc? am i missing somthing, like add roster to fbs and it when i pick dynasty it adds the corrected players?
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