NCAA Football is a breath of fresh air on Saturday mornings for people all across the nation. They put on their school colors, tailgate, and pray that they’re not fans of Michigan and they’re playing Appalachian State again.
Last year’s version of NCAA Football was a solid game, but it had quite a bit to be worked on, and the developers knew it. It felt sluggish, momentum didn’t feel right, stadiums were off, the A.I. was non-existent at times, and the game just didn’t feel like a true college football experience at times.
NCAA Football 09 brings two major features to gamers this year: wide-open gameplay & the online dynasty. The wide open gameplay is something that I’ve been wanting for quite some time, and it’s executed rather well in this year’s version. You can tell the difference between playing with the University of Florida and Virginia Tech. Each team finally needs to play to it’s own personal strengths to give you the best shot to win, rather than going with one straight philosophy for every team you play with.
Playing defense in this wide-open gameplay world can be quite a challenge at times, and really requires some quick thinking and use of angles, but isn’t that college football? A lot of users have been complaining about the defensive side of things, but personally, it feels great to me. College football is full of speed, and just like on the field on Saturday, speed will turn the game around for you.
There are quite a few small fixes that have been applied to the game that add just that much more entertainment value to the game. The crowd is extremely believable and influential, and they react very realistically to the big hits, big runs, and quite a few other explosive plays.
Speaking of big runs, the tweaking of the juke/highlight stick is a blessing. Have one of the most dynamic players in college football and the ball is in their hands? Say no more. NCAA Football 09 gives you the opportunity to break out of any animation to create some of the most realistic, but yet anklebreaking moves, you’ll find in any football game.
While the much needed upgrade of the highlight stick was something most users have enjoyed so far, running in itself can be somewhat non-existent against the majority of opponents. NCAA Football 09 is a passing game, and most of the success in the game will rely on you being a dominant passer. Crossing routes and screens dominate online play, and quite a few games turn into a high scoring shootout.
When you do get the chance to sit down and play the actual game, NCAA Football 09 gives you some of the most dynamic and addicting gameplay you’ll find. A new feature that gamers will find while they’re actually on the field will be the QB Quiz. Ah, there’s nothing like throwing an interception only to be asked what defense your opponent was in. While the feature can quickly be bypassed by angry users, using it is definitely to your advantage as guessing the correct defense out of the three available options will allow your quarterback to regain most of the composure he lost. If you’re the away team, this is easily a feature that you want to take the time to get the answer right.
Menu navigations are much cleaner & more responsive than in the actual year’s past. One of the most often overlooked things within the playcalling menu would be the addition of "Supersim" within, rather than having to press start each time you wanted to actually simulate any part of the game.
Campus Legend makes a return, but sadly doesn’t bring much of anything new to the table this year. You still start off as a high school senior in the state playoffs trying to make a larger case for yourself to be at one of your favorite division one schools. Upon taking an offer from one of the schools of your choice, you’re either going to a five second class, practicing, or figuring out what you’re doing the night before the big game. This year didn’t change much on this actual mode, and while it stays as a nice change of pace, it’s still average at best.
EA Locker has been added to the world of NCAA Football, and sharing rosters have never been easier. Tired of throwing with QB #15 to WR #1? Use EA Locker to access a plethora of users with fully named rosters and you’ll be smiling within no time. Share rosters or files with friends, or even if someone isn’t on your friends list, they can look you up by gamertag to get the file as well. Rosters are easier than ever to get now, and this cuts down on the incredibly shameful business of people forcing gamers to pay for the rosters year after year.
Online Dynasty was when it was announced and will continue to be one of the favorite innovations from this year’s game, just as long as a few of the bugs are worked out. The dynasty interface is beautiful, with a "blade" that’s similar to Xbox Live Marketplace for each user within the actual dynasty. Users can have up to 12 total players within the online dynasty as they battle for recruits, trophies, and the plethora of bowl championships available to them. The online dynasty can go up to 60 years, and I will send anyone a cookie if they can play it that long, I promise.
Within the online dynasty, any user that is online in it can fully communicate with the other users, sometimes leading up to twelve users boasting about their performance of the current week. Everything that you will find in your regular dynasty, is going to be in the online dynasty. EA made a brilliant move in bringing this to the online world this year, and with a few small tweaks here and there (fixing a few bugs too!), EA could have quite an amazing feature that we would love to see implemented in their other sports titles as well.
There have been a few glitches reported in the online dynasty, however. Users can win a game in the online dynasty, and when the week is advanced by the commissioner, that user will lose their game. This doesn’t happen every time, but it has been reported quite a few times over the large number of online dynasties out there currently. Glitches have been reported within the EA Locker’s as well, with files becoming corrupted, but EA released a statement earlier this week that they are aware of the issues, and are not too far off from fixing the issues server side.
While the dynasty both on and offline along campus legend will occupy most user’s time, there are a few other game modes included such as: H.O.R.S.E., Bowling, Special Teams Challenge, Mascot Games, Tug-Of-War, and the Option Dash. The majority of the games are entertaining, but we seriously wish that EA would remove the Mascot games completely and put something useful in like, oh, I don’t know, create-a-teams that can be imported into dynasty?
For fans of the series, this is one game that will not disappoint you whether you’re playing on or offline. The previous games in the series have been rather suspect in terms of the performance of the game online, even when users were experiencing a "green" connection. Through the countless games we’ve played online, they’ve all seemed to operate with little to no lag at all, leaving the game as an enjoyable one.
When you’re not on the field, you’ll find an interesting feature known as "custom soundtracks" available for users to play with. The feature is perfect for those of us who want to play a little Michael Bolton to have our opponents scream in terror, or for those of you who like to use it for what it’s actually worth, you can upload as many true fight songs as you can possibly find for your actual school.
Visually, this is one of the more accurate and more pretty NCAA football games to date. The stadiums and their lighting looks to be spot on, the grass and field textures are some of the best in any football game, and the environment that the fans create is truly one for games to be jealous over. Character models look more life-like, no longer appearing as though every single player in the game as cut from the same block of wood.
All in all, NCAA Football 09 is going to be one of the best football games you’ll have the chance to put your hands on, offensively. There are a few things that need to be worked out on the defensive end, but the game is easy to pick up and learn, and has enough game modes to keep users coming back especially if they enroll in an online dynasty. While the game is an offensive minded one, experienced users can dominate on defense and take their team all the way to the title game if the BCS just wouldn’t screw up.
