The Stupid Gamer

Every year it’s the same story. We get all these previews and early impressions of NCAA Football (or Madden) and it gets talked up like it’s the next big thing in football video games. This year a huge portion of the hype came from the 1up guys as they were claiming that EA did a great job fixing this and fine-tuning that. In the end, however, it’s the same story: NCAA Football disappoints once again.

I understand that Madden is EA Sports’ biggest focus from year to year, but why can’t a developer as large as EA put a bit stronger effort behind the NCAA team? Sure, they hear our complaints and promise to address them each year; but usually that fix is a terrible overcompensation or it manages to break some other aspect of the game.

Here’s what drives me nuts about NCAA Football 2008:

• A typical game can see 6 or 7 interceptions between the two teams; an obvious overcompensation for terrible DBs in past games
• Kick returns happen a lot. In five games I already have 3 kickoff returns and two punt returns for TDs. Ridiculous.
• Ball spotting is sketchier than an artist’s notebook
• Running is easy, even on the hardest skill levels. Expect to chew up 4-5 yards per carry at minimum.
• The play calling still isn’t as deep as it ever has been on the 2K football games
• Lots of fumbles by the AI QB
• Turnovers almost always lead to easy TDs because of the stupid momentum built into the game
• The AI still cheeses you out of wins at times
• Glitches lead to screwy on the field happenings

I thought I was alone in my criticisms of the game when I had heard so many positive impressions. To my surprise, however, I found forums around the Internet were full of topics with my same complaints. To address the cyborg-like capabilities of the defensive backs, players are setting their Interceptions and Knocked Down Passes sliders to 0 and it’s still providing 3 to 4 interceptions per game. So instead of addressing the actual issue of sketchy AI, EA just ratcheted up the ability of players in the secondary to close on the ball and snag it. This is just lazy, and it’s as transparent as can be.

He’s frowning because he knows he’s about to throw an INT.

So can NCAA Football 08 still be enjoyable? Yeah, it can. You’re just going to have to deal with plenty of moments of frustration along the way. If you’re thinking about picking the game up, try playing online rather than dealing with the computer. You’ll still have to deal with the cheesy defensive secondary and some of the glitchy moments, but somehow it’s less annoying when you’re playing against a friend or online buddy.

For the love of all that is good and holy EA…don’t shovel out another sub-par effort next year. Deep down inside, however, I know that it’s going to be the same story again. NCAA Football 09 will come out with initial praise and promises of a slew of fixes but two weeks later we’ll all be online discussing ways to circumvent the newest pitfalls and overcompensated “features.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Editorials and Rants. 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.