http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/871/871084p2.html NCAA Football 09 Hands-on
Breakout the keg taps and shut those textbooks. It's football season.
by Nate Ahearn
May 1, 2008 - When news of NCAA Football first makes its way onto the Internet a few months prior to release every season I have to think that a wave of nostalgia and remorse washes over college graduates the world over. Hearing your school's band tune up for the first time in NCAA Football 09 as they prepare to play the inspirational fight song that fueled your Saturdays for four straight years for the very first time is enough to make any man quiver with excitement. Just recently in New York City at an event that saw Peter Moore carry on the Microsoft tradition and call Darren McFadden "bro" (ding!), I was one of those quivering men.
Being such a self-professed football guy I can't help but get excited when I see that Florida State (the college I graduated from a few years back) helmet cycle through the team selection screen in NCAA Football. My first matchup in this year's game was against the Cal Bears. Interestingly enough NCAA 09 includes an option to even the teams so that you can play with two equal squads but still get to see your school's colors running around the field. Don't worry, players aren't all bottlenecked at the same speed rating so tackles are easy to make, you just don't have to worry about an all-star wide receiver completely torching your freshman safety.
There are also a few more uniform options than what we saw in NCAA 08. Take FSU, for instance, who now has their patented black on black uniforms known accurately in the game as "Unconquered." EA is hoping that these little touches help bring home the college feel and endear the game to college fans, no matter what school they attended.
Delivering an authentic college atmosphere that separates itself from what is seen in the yearly Madden release has always been a challenge for NCAA Football, but EA Sports is including a few new additions that will hopefully deliver a more scholastic feel. The first and foremost of these niceties is the celebration mechanic. Now when you score a touchdown you'll have the ability to interact with mascots by running over and performing a signature move or running over and riling up the crowd. You can also taunt opposing team's mascots, but then you run the risk of revving up a hostile crowd.
Once you're actually down on the field and under center you'll notice that the look of NCAA Football has been refinished a bit since you last saw it. Player models have been sculpted to look more like college athletes and less like hulking superstars. There are also new animations (bobble catches and interceptions, for instance) that are specific to NCAA and are being dubbed a part of the Break Away Animation Engine that's designed to help players shed tackles and get into the open field a bit easier than in the past. This is aided by the new left stick controls which are much more responsive than anything we've seen from an EA-made football.
Essentially the juking system is no longer confined to the right analog stick alone. While you can still pull dual analog duty while making your way through defenders, NCAA 09 lets you pull off a few moves with only a simple waggle from the left stick. It took me a few minutes of gameplay to get a feel for the new system, which was obviously still a bit early in development, but once I got my feet under me it was clear that the newfound responsiveness serves the gameplay much better than what we've dealt with prior. Basically all you need to do to perform a little shimmy to the right of left is wiggle the left analog from 12 o'clock on the circle to 2 or 10 o'clock, depending on which direction you want to shift.
Composure is another aspect of the classic NCAA formula that is being gutted and reemphasized this year. As we all know, college quarterbacks are a temperamental group. Throw one pick and all of a sudden your young sophomore leader is totally rattled. Now transfer that scenario into NCAA 09. Tossing a pick up to the opposing secondary now presents players with a mini-game of sorts.
Just like the coaches in the coach's box sitting high above the field send down pictures of the defense to give their young gun slinger a better idea of what he's up against, players in NCAA 09 will now be presented with a similar scenario. You'll be presented with seven photos, one pre-snap and then stills of the play progressing. You then get three defensive plays to choose from and it's up to you to accurately pick the defensive set that just intercepted your pass. Get it wrong and your composure level plummets, get it right and you'll get a little back.
But what does that really mean this year? Well, for starters if your quarterback is rattled he won't be able to see the routes pre-snap. Instead he'll see a bunch of squiggly lines shaking all over the screen. Then there's also the requisite drop in skill that has been in year's past, but this time around it's extremely apparent as your quarterback will flat out miss open receivers.
There's no question that the biggest and most exciting feature to come out of NCAA Football 09 (at least thus far) is the inclusion of Online Dynasties which allows for up to (but does not require) 12 players to pick their teams and compete in an up to 60 year run with their favorite team. But since we didn't get to try it for ourselves we'll have to save our impressions for a later date. One new game mode that we were able to demo is the ridiculous Mascot Mode.
It's just like you remember: you and a friend hop in a game, pick your squads (which are all capped with 99 ratings), and clash on the field complete with ridiculous outfits and all. The real kick is that EA Sports is outfitting the mascots with custom, over-the-top moves like flips instead of jukes. We would like to see other aspects, mainly the hits, receive the same treatment to give it a true arcade feel ala NFL Blitz. Here's hoping they add more insanity before this puppy ships out. As if Mascot Mode was enough of a distracter, there's also two new mini-games – Horse and Special Team Challenge – to the original stable, but we didn't get to try them out for ourselves.
Visually NCAA 09 has taken the expected step up from last year. Both versions are now running at a fluid 60 frames per second and feature a redesigned lighting system that makes the time of day much more apparent with dramatic shadows that spread across the field. Oddly enough the grass has also received an upgrade and each blade is now more defined and overall just prettier than it has been.
Other features and trinkets of note include Super Sim which makes its return from last year and allows you to forward to your next offensive or defensive series depending on what you prefer. Basically it lets you fast-forward to points of the game that you deem entertaining. We're not complaining. There's also a new (and very cool) system that allows for players to load MP3s into the game and set them to play when certain events take place. Want to hear a Kanye song when you score a touchdown? Done. Last but not least is a crafty new play calling system that easily lets you pick any of the four plays being displayed, not just the one that you're highlighting. It's much easier than the convoluted system that was installed a few years ago and should make it easy for noobs to hide their decisions. Oh, and you can also display fake play art at the line of scrimmage if calling a fake play isn't enough misdirection.
As you can see while our play time with NCAA Football 09 was short (they literally had to kick us out of our private room) there was a lot to see. Obviously the biggest draw is the Online Dynasty mode but the revisions and additions to the gameplay mechanics seem to be headed in the right direction. Players move realistically and feel even more under your control than they have in years past and the look of the environment and players on the field was solid for a relatively early version. Also, PS3 fans rest easy, your version is identical (at least at this stage) this time around.
We'll have more on all the versions of NCAA Football 09 leading up to its July 15 release date.