First look at NCAA Football 11

Submitted by MGoJohn on

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/news/story?id=4949103

New Features in the game:
-Numbers on helmets
-More Helmets and facemasks
-Towels and Handwarmers
-Auto save and Auto load rosters
-Refs actually on the field
-Gang Tackles
-Formation Subs
-More accessories like half sleeves and right and left seperatly

Those where the small features with "bigger ones" coming out in the next couple months

nightavenger

February 28th, 2010 at 12:03 AM ^

Would it be so difficult for EA to make a marching band in the shape of an 'M' and go back and forth on the field? Is that so difficult? I swear to god if I see the band spell "Go Go Go" again...

Musket Rebellion

February 28th, 2010 at 4:27 AM ^

EA sent out requests to every NCAA D-1 program for their formations. Those that didn't reply got generic formations. UM was one of those that didn't reply, hence the generic formations. OSU, Virgina and others replied and their formations got integrated into the game. It is UM's fault that the band's pregame rituals didn't get entered into the game.

Praetor951

February 28th, 2010 at 5:05 PM ^

FIFA has Pro Evolution to compete with it, and PES is often the superior game. FIFA has just had a lot of pro club licenses for the past couple years.

NCAA has nothing to put the proverbial fire under its ass in order to keep it cutting edge. I love NCAA, and will probably buy it again thing year, but sometimes it bugs me how lazy an effort NCAA seems like.

johnvand

February 28th, 2010 at 5:44 PM ^

The blocking is horrendous.

I also hate how Michigan's defensive line gets stood up by WMU, but WMU's defensive line is in my backfield the whole game.

I just played Texas on All-American this morning and the computer went into "No f-ing way" mode on me. Fumbles, injuries, passes knocked down at the line, I couldn't do a damn thing on offense. Followed by their offense just marching up and down the field on me.

I'd like to see less "no f-ing way" games. I don't mind losing the occasional game, but sometimes it gets ridiculous.

HartAttack20

February 28th, 2010 at 12:16 AM ^

Those are all nice, but Madden already does that except numbers on the helmets that are kind of a waste except for Alabama. Hopefully some of the other features are pretty impressive, otherwise I'll probably just not get it this year. Last years game was pretty disappointing for me. Seemed like a step backwards, and it seems like NCAA Football is just worse than Madden. Madden 10 has impressed me, though, with some cool stuff like ultimate team. I just like the way Madden plays more. NCAA Football seems pretty arcade-y, and I got bored playing it. Maybe I'll rent NCAA if it starts to look decent this year, but otherwise I'll just pass.

Fresh Meat

February 28th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^

I could not disagree more. I think NCAA kills madden. I used to be a much bigger madden fan, but every since about 2005 or so, I think NCAA has been the better game. Madden seems to always have way too many glitches and unrealistic things you can exploit.

HartAttack20

February 28th, 2010 at 1:29 PM ^

up untill this year. I have always felt that NCAA had a better game untill this year. Bought both games this year and Madden is the one that I enjoyed playing more. The online franchise is pretty much all I play along with ultimate team. I just hope that NCAA improves a lot so I can actually feel good about picking it up this year.

bosox1519

February 28th, 2010 at 12:28 AM ^

...but there are some things that are lacking and have been lacking for a while that I want to see:

1. Better blocking, like previously stated. I want to be able to see the option and zone-read run properly, something the game has never had. It's tremendously frustrating to run the zone-read, the user can only RARELY gain more than 3 yards.

2. Better college atmosphere. I want to feel like I'm at the stadium. Right now, the environment feels dead to me. I liked the screen shake from the ps2/xbox days and I like the custom sounds feature from recent versions but I feel they can go further. I also think the marching band formations idea was a good idea, but needs to be expanded. The real formations were good, but there were so few and the generic ones sucked. I think it would be really cool to see team specific intros (like us running out and touching the banner). And overall, I want MUCH more crowd noise.

3. Dynasty mode needs to be spiced up a bit. Progression is currently broken as every player progresses at least 4-5 points at the end of each season no matter what. It makes everything FAR too easy. I think there should also be less elite recruits and a much bigger difference between a 5 star and a 3 star. Also, there needs to be a much bigger spread of player ratings. Right now, players are essentially interchangeable and all feel the same. I think they need to take a page out of Madden's book for this one. Also, it would be nice if they could allow multiple players to have the same number like in real life. Finally, I want to see real coaches running their real systems.

4. ESPN TV-Style presentation would definitely add to this game. Also, it would be nice for Nessler, Corso, and Herbie to record some new lines.

I realize this seems like a lot, but this series needs some reviving in my mind. I feel like it has been treading water since coming to the new generation of systems, but I just may be picky. I blame MLB: The Show, those games are just amazing and have really raised the bar for me.

pdxblue

February 28th, 2010 at 1:12 AM ^

I read the comments where Madden already does something. I thought I read somewhere that the NCAA football game engine is always based on the previous year's Madden engine. Madden is the flagship and I think everything happens there first.

genericmichiganfan

February 28th, 2010 at 3:30 AM ^

This year's Madden was probably the best football game I've ever played. Usually I get both but play NCAA all the time with a little Madden mixed in. This past year I didn't even bother with NCAA because I hated it so much but played the hell out of Madden. I do think there is some correlation between the games, but not to the point where an entire game engine from one game is imported to the other identically. I sort of hope that's the case for NCAA 11, though, because I would gladly take Madden 10's engine completely as it was.

fleetwoodzback

February 28th, 2010 at 12:09 PM ^

what they're basically doing is since madden was overhauled so well last year they are switching development teams so basically the team that created madden last year will be doing ncaa. ea will never do a complete overhaul on both games in the same year, and barely do they overhaul anything every couple of years. ea sports pushes out the same recycled game every year and make a few small changes that really mean nothing to the gameplay. we keep buying recycled crap so they keep recycling the same crap.

Irish

February 28th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^

I really hope they add some type of game awareness tweaks to the AI like being on the 1 down a TD with 7 secs left in the game with a running clock, I don't want everyone to mosey on up to the line, even when you call the hurry up, just strolling along

The Shredder

February 28th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^

I refuse to buy until major improvements are made. They haven't recorded new play by play in years. The TV pres is awful. March Madness sucks balls but has awesome TV pres. I could go on and on.. I want 2K to get a shot at this. It will never happen sadly.

MGOARMY

February 28th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^

I buy both every year and usually NCAA is the one I end up playing the most. This years Madden however is by far the best football video game I have ever played. I love running the zone read out of phillys playbook book because you can actually make the read and run the play correctly. The way blocks set up on NCAA 10 is awful. If NCAA 11 has the same gameplay as this years madden I am gonna become mighty worthless.

Dientrous

February 28th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^

yeah the commentary has gotten annoying ftrom hearing it so much...ive started listening to music while i play because i just dont want to listen to them anymore...

i also agree about the development...every player going up 3-6 overall every year is unrealistic...i expect players to progress, but i think it would be better if they had all of their talent ratings like speed and stuff, and then had like a bar or a rating for experience...because thats such a huge part of the game and i cant tell you how many times i wul just throw in a true freshmen and he would immediately be a good player..

i also think they need to overhaul recruiting because i can get pretty much any player i want and there are too many really good players in recruiting...

they also need to make it tougher to scramble...because whenever i had a scrambler i would just outrun any defensive linemen or LBs who rushed and get a gain of 20 or something...

also personally i would like it if they had more importance on practice...obviously make it so that you can skip it or just set your priorities and let the game do it or something if you want, but id like it if practice made an impact on experience and the development of players rather than them going up an arbitrary number at the end of the season...this would also give more power to you as the coach as it would be your responsibility to ensure that your playersare developing

this kind of goes hand in hand with my last one but i would also lik it if they got rid of the number rating system, added more ratings, or blurred the ratings more than just saying ok this guy is 97 in speed or this guy is 88 overall...i would like to play with the player in practice or scouting or something and see him in the game and make up my own mind how good he is rather than just being told by a rating number...

just some things off the top of my head

lunchboxthegoat

February 28th, 2010 at 6:30 PM ^

I haven't bought this game in three years. I hope this year is good. '08 was fun...I took Pwhite and Slaton and just trucked fools. Don't tell me the zone read doesn't work properly...

MGoJohn

February 28th, 2010 at 6:52 PM ^

One thing that I would really like to see changed, is if a QB has a speed rating of 90, he should not be caught from behind by a DE will a speed of 78. That happens to me waaay to much when trying to roll out.

GoBlogSparty

March 2nd, 2010 at 9:40 AM ^

will enable me to recruit 5 All American RBs and go running back by committee.
I always found it funny that the hurry up offense took longer (play-clock wise) than if I were to quickly choose a play from the playbook.