FEAR THE TURTLE!!!

RECEIVING
HB #23 (Shop) 5 for 120 yards. He caught me in the flats a couple times. I think one of the catches was the 75 yard TD, which accounted for the high total.
CB #6 (Mad) 5 for 132 (26.4 average), 1 TD. My experiment was pretty successful, but risky. If #6 were to get injured, at 95 SPD, the defense would have been at a disadvantage. In college ball, players do move around. So, if I need him, it’s great to know I can sub #6 in for a couple WR reps.

In terms of Season Showdown points, here is what we earned from playing the game:

Until the next update my friends!

Holla atcha boi!

MadScientist06
-The Architect

First off, just let me say that I can wait to get my hands on NCAA 10 having played it at EA NCAA 10 Community Day a couple months back. I know there has been some talk in the community about just how horrible NCAA 10 will be, which is total nonsense! Calm down a little fellas—we are looking good for the 2010—trust Da Scientist when I say that! All the attendees of the event have been held to secrecy about unannounced features, understandably so. However, our gag orders have contributed to the lack of information available, because, normally, attendees are allowed to take video and screenshots, and if you know me and the fellas, we always come back from community day with hours of gameplay footage and follow up on that with impressions. So, compared to the last couple years—information has not been as plentiful.

Luckily, for all of us, E3 is upon us! Now it’s time to EA to show its cards. Big info will be dropped from now until the end of E3. Hell, it’s already started! There are tons of NCAA 10 stuff that has not yet been dropped, and just when you thought you knew it all—guess what? You don’t! So get AMPTED! This big info dump will also free the community day attendees to provide more insight as well. This is a WIN-WIN for everybody.

Here are my TOP REASONS why you want NCAA 10.

TEAMBUILDER

TeamBuilder has got to be one of the top 5 reasons you want NCAA 10. If you were ever a fan of Create-A-Team in the past, you’ll love TeamBuilder. The great thing about this feature is it’s online. Game designers always struggle with disk space and performance issues. Having this feature online is a great way to expand the game’s feature set without compromising disk space. This also allows gamers to use the feature, via computer, without having to be in-game or near the console. Not only that, this also opens up the possibility for easy updates that are not tied to development cycles (say goodbye to game patches). Hopefully, this trend will continue and more features are pulled from the constraints of the disk and housed online. Allowing the community to share created teams is incredible, just think about the possibilities. Once created, it takes merely seconds to get your team in the game. Even if you are not a fan of Create-A-Team, you have to love the innovation and the promise of this feature.

Get ready, TeamBuilder should be operational soon. If not during E3, expect it soon after. My sources indicate between June 1-June 15, so get those custom logos ready!

CUSTOM CONFERENCES
Custom Conferences is another top 5 NCAA 10 feature. If you play in or run NCAA online dynasties, this feature is one that you have been waiting for. This season, DaONE League ran 6 dynasties at the same time, managed by myself and JoseBoza (Boza SFMB). In order to run such a large number, we had to create (and PAY FOR) multiple XBL Gamertags. Each dynasty focused on a different conference (ACC, Big 10, PAC 10, SEC, etc). In order to accommodate our veteran ballers, who all wanted their favorite teams, we had to fill all the conferences that housed their teams. This was a tricky proposition.

This year, we can allow everyone to run with their favorite teams and save money by moving them into custom conferences. We may still run one or two regular conferences, but most will be custom. Not many ballers want to jump in a conference where all the power teams are taken and all they have left is some bums team nobody else wanted. We’ll also be able to max out the conferences as well, as every one of the 12 slots can be utilized. Choice is a wonderful thang.

ALTERNATE UNIS
ALT UNIS is DA HOTNESS! In a recent ESPN interview, details were finally revealed about Alternate Uniforms.

Jon Robinson (ESPN): I saw the ability to mix and match uniforms in the game for each team. How will that work?
Ben Haumiller:

In years past, you had your home uniform, your away uniform, and you might have a couple of alternates. But this year, we wanted to break these up into individual pieces because there are so many uniforms that are just the change of a pant color or something like that. So we broke all of these up so you can set your helmet, your jersey, your pants and your shoe color independent from each other. Just doing that right there, the number for the potential of alternate jerseys grew exponentially, especially for a team like Oregon who has different helmets and like eight different jersey tops and three or four different pants. If you’re playing as Oregon, you can have a completely different uniform every game of the season.

Source

Alt Unis have been a highly requested feature since the move to Next Gen. Now we have Da HOTNESS. This is by far the best Alt Uni feature of ANY GENERATION! The Alts for teams like Oregon or DaU seem unlimited. Being able to mix and match options (jerseys, pants, helmets) is incredible. If, by some chance, the combination you want is not available, be slick about it, go to TeamBuilder, import your roster, add whatever missing jersey and pants you want, ADD THEM…PRESTO! Look to hear more about this at E3.

GAMEPLAY
We haven’t heard much about NCAA 10 gameplay and we haven’t seen much gameplay footage so far. I’m sure you’ll see quite a few from here on out, now that E3 is here and the release date gets closer.

Here are some reasons you should get hyped for NCAA gameplay. To me, NCAA 10 felt a lot different from NCAA 09. I don’t think it’s just one thing, it’s a combination of features that make me say that.

Goodbye Wide Open Gameplay
Many NCAA gamers will say the Wide Open Gameplay experiment did not turn out so well. I agree. I think the promotion was well intended, but paralyzing the defense was a source of frustration for many NCAA players. Personally, my league lost a lot of return players because they felt they had no control on defense. The key to enjoyment for any video game is having the ability to exert control on the game and affect the outcome. Not having control on defense turned many players away—only Online Dynasty kept many coming back, however. Luckily, the fine folks at EA have been working on improving the defense. This was evident in the early build we played at Community Day. In a nutshell, there were more INTs and more defensive pressure from the outside. Heisman CPU was pretty tough. I did not win one CPU game. Teams with better defensive ratings played much better defense I felt. Highly-rated teams like USC, Oklahoma, and Florida ripped my MD Terps to shreds. There were several of us who asked that the defense be made even tougher.

THE BIG THREE
The three biggest gameplay adjustments that will make you quickly forget NCAA 09, besides the move away from Wide Open Gameplay, is the fix to pursuit angles, the speed adjustment, and adjustive AI. These three will address some major issues that plagued NCAA 09 and made it frustrating at times to play. In my league, one of the our ballers ran up over 1,000 yards rushing IN ONE GAME playing against an FCS scrub team. Of course, as commish, I was shocked. Several ballers were incensed, suggesting the baller take the RB out of the game at least at halftime. Everybody had an opinion. Regardless where you stand on the issue, in REAL LIFE, one running back putting up over ONE THOUSAND YARDS IN ONE GAME is unheard of! It’s unrealistic! It just sounds unnatural, don’t it? First off, there should be some type of dynamic fatigue, that would kick in after that RB got over 200 yards. Second, his performance during the season should have suffered as the energy he expended that first game should have affected his performance the rest of the season. We see persistent fatigue in some of the video basketball games—why not NCAA 10? Well, probably because games are played once-a-week. Basketball, however, can have 2-3 games per week. Maybe that matters, but still, something is wrong with this picture.

Pursuit angle issues in NCAA 09 really come to surface when playing against an inferior (and slow) NCAA team. Being able to zigzag your way down the field, virtually manipulating the defense, is how faster runners made long runs and returns. So, an FCS team was no match for a 98 SPD RB, who simply gashed them for insane yardage. In comes NCAA 10. First off, speed has been toned down. You won’t see as many 99 SPD players. Second, a 99 SPD player is slower in NCAA 10 than NCAA 09. In NCAA 10, you won’t be able to zigzag you way past slower opponents as you did in 09. So, the frequency and length of long runs will be severely reduced.

On top of both of these enhancements, players will not be able to run the same money plays over and over without the CPU making adjustments. Most of the guys played on All American, but I rolled with Heisman the entire time. On Heisman, the adjustment was pretty effective. After running the same play a couple times, the defense started clamping down on it. That was great to see. So, add all three of these together makes 10 tower above 09!

Fullback / Runback Blocking
Fullback blocking has been improved. During community
day I had a chance to talk to Greg Heddlesten, one of the NCAA 10 designers. He let me look over his shoulder as he demonstrated how FBs do a better job of picking up interior blitzers. We all have seen those plays when the LBs breach the line during a running play and your RB has no chance to avoid the tackle. In NCAA 10, the FB and RBs pickup those breaches very nicely.

New Animations
Every game brings new animations. As always, new animations make for a fresh new feel. Some of the ones we got tired of seeing in 09 won’t be seen in 10 thank goodness, that includes the one where it looks like the player broke his leg falling back during the tackle. The sideline tip toe animation that seemed to get triggered at the wrong times is also being corrected. There is nothing quite like your WR doing a sideline tip toe pass and falling on the ground when they are not even close to the sideline (good riddance).

Pass Accuracy
Another issue addressed in 2010 is pass accuracy. I didn’t have any issues with pass accuracy in 09, but some purists complained that passing completion rates were way too high. Pass accuracy has been turn down in NCAA 10. They this manifests itself on the field is more incomplete passes. My mother used to say, be careful of what you pray for, you just might get it! You will see more incomplete passes. It seemed to me that this was based on mostly on THA, as lower rated QBs threw more incomplete passes. What I do not like about this is, even if you do everything right; your QB will still throw an incomplete pass. So, the built-in randomness bothers me, at the same time, you get a more realistic feel.

Miss Catch Animations
As already mentioned, a number of miss catch animations have also been added to NCAA 10. This adds to the games new feel and to some degree, a better feel of realism.

Play Action
Another big issue in 09 is the utter abuse of Play Action. There are a couple ballers I know who use Play Action on EVERY PASS PLAY. Don’t worry, I won’t call you this time, but you should be ashamed of yourself. I think most would agree that play action and misdirection (e.g. option) plays still confuse the defense. In NCAA 09 you can call a Play Action pass on third and 45, an obvious pass play, and the defense will still bite. Luckily, EA has a fix for this in NCAA 10. Not much I can say about this one as I’m not sure it has been discussed. If I find out the feature has been, I’ll update this section.

RUN COMMITT
Run commit is back, but now you can run committee left, right, or to the middle. Nice!
HEISMAN
Most of the games we played at community day were us vs CPU. I got housed by the CPU all day. I used the hometown favorite Terps and they were crushed at every opportunity.

I went right for the big dogs.

First up, Florida. Funny, yet quite realistic, Florida QB #15 scored three rushing TDs on me. Anytime Florida got close to the goaline, they kept giving it to the starting QB. I will get revenge, July 14, QB #15!

Second, Oklahoma. Pretty staked at #2 and A+ OVR, A+ OFF, A+ DEF
(note the disclaimer). Score: 55 (CPU) -7 (MAD)! Heisman 5 minutes.

In Closing:
So, take all the features I mentioned and add to it all the hype features you’ll hear about during E3 and it’s time to get your pre-order on!!!

Hope you enjoyed this as much I did finally getting to let some info out.

Peace!
MadScientist06
The Architect!

PS: Stay tuned for Part II

In comes Defensive Assist (DA). For many of us, we were already using a similar technique, but in round about way. Now though, DA takes things to a higher level. I primarily used Defensive Assist during the NCAA 10 play test as a LineBacker. This, to me, was a great way to get a quick read of the play (run vs pass). What I would do is use DA for just two seconds or so just to let the MLB reach and take a couple steps. Then I would take control and follow the play. This feature reminds me of the great WallStreet Baller from MWS fame. When he tutored me as a young Madden Baller, he would always tell me when I took control of a player to honor the player’s responsibility for that play, whether that be man or zone.

PLAYER LOCK
I had more fun though, with Player Lock (PL). I found it by mistake actually, and it surprised the hell outa me. Why is it cool as hell? When you play defense in NCAA or Madden, you actually face the defense, which is counter intuitive. Just think about it, if you are like me and Al Bundy, and you played High School football, or if you have ever played the game of football before, you know, that when you play defense, you face the offense…you stare the QB in the eyes and in the eyes of the chumps you are about to thrash. In NCAA and Madden, your perspective is switched…you actually look at the back of the QB’s head and into the faces of your defensive players (granted you are playing defense)…hence, the conter intuitive ness!

For a video game, this is perhaps a necessary evil. I am not an expert on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) or user/gamer interface design…so, I can’t say why it is the way it is…I’m not the person to ask, but I think there is a good reason, which I’ll discuss later.

If I remember correctly, pressing down on the left stick after taking control of the player you want, will result in the screen switching from facing the defense to facing the offense. What are the ground rules? You can swap back and forth, repeatedly, if you like, until the ball is hiked. Once the ball if hiked however, you are unable to switch players and you must finish the play controlling that player. Basically, Player Lock changes your view of the play and puts you into a mode similar to Campus Legend.

Changing into a pseudo Campus Legend mode can be crazyHYPE and WhyDidIDoThat?, all at the same time…lol. In other words, as we were told, using Player Lock is a risk/reward move. Why is it crazyHYPE? A couple reasons. One, when you transition into Player Lock, it feels natural. It’s how you have always played football…facing the offense. You also feel closer to the play…so moving players into position felt much easier to do. Most rewarding? Taking an LB in a short yardage situation, following the play, fighting off a 300 lb lineman and making the tackle…OOOHHH BABY!!! SWEET! It just feels like real life. Taking a FS and blitzing the QB through the gap…PRICELESS! It just feels right. I felt like I had more control with player positioning and movement. Part of it was because I felt closer to the play. Some of it was I felt, in stead of pressing the stick down to run forward, I was pressing forward to run…oh snap…actually forward! I also think made taking a DB and sticking a WR feel more easy to do for me and it was hella fun.

The only down side or risk of using Player Lock is that if the play gets by you, you can not switch to the nearest defender. I had similar feelings like ShopMaster, during pass plays, you feel helpless as the play gets by you and you have to actually look down the field to see how the play develops. You can actually get to be pretty far away from the action….Campus Legend players will probably easily adjust to this feeling.

Funny, several of us mentioned that we’d actually like to switch to the nearest player once the play passed us by…but the guys at EA thought this might be too much screen flipping in one play (easy to understand). If we took a vote, I think we’d all like to be able to switch players out of Player Lock. Hopefully, this gets added to the game. If not this year, next. Instinctively, I kept trying to control the player closest to the ball regardless…kinda like the same thing I do when playing Head Coach…lol.

So, to finish up, I think it’s logical to play video football games facing the defense, because on pass plays it’s easier to follow the play and actually pan back to see the entire field. Think of it like this, for the most part, nothing gets past you. If you were facing the offense, WRs could actually get behind you and tracking them would be tricky, at least how I see it.

PS: This feature works perfect when playing against the CPU. When playing someone online, however, although you do lock on a defensive player, the screen does not swap. I’m thinking when playing a head-to-head game offline, the same thing would apply…no screen swapping (just a logical hunch though), but like my man Third and Long (MWS) says…”I might be wrong…I was wrong the other time!”

Let me know if you have any questions.

-Mad
Reply With Quote

Six of some of the most hardcore football community contributors, you boi included, were invited down to attend EA’s NCAA 10 Community Day, March 21, 2009. We were allowed to give the upcoming title a 16-hour, no holds barred, test drive, mixed in with presentations on many of the new “not-yet-announced” features.

Unfortunately, for you and I, we all had to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (the dreaded NDA), and were sworn to secrecy until each feature is revealed.

Stay tuned as your boi breaks down the game and asks the questions that you would ask if you were in my place.

What was the run game like?
How did the game feel?
Is 10 better than 09 or 08?
Should I pre-order my copy?
How did Online Dynasty look?

Stop by the DaONE League forums and holla atcha boi MadSci. As soon as I can drop the hot hot info, you know I will. Until then, without a doubt, get your PRE-ORDER on!

-MadScientist06
The Architect!