NCAA Football Video Game questions
I love this game and It is the only video game I still play. I play in ps3 and I am about 10 years deep in a dynasty, but many things are missing.
My questions are....
1. What new features would you like in the new game if it happens? The biggest thing is it needs the playoff format. I would also enjoy the random suspensions of players for doing something stupid and definitely better commentary that isn’t redundant.
2. Do you think the game will be made by next year, a few years from now, a long time from now or never? EA has to be salivating at getting that money back that they made off of that game.
3. Does anyone still play online? Is it possible to still play online?
I miss this game a lot, every July when it came out was like Christmas.
They should put in Summer Camps so everyone can freak out over how Harbaugh is trying to steal all the recruits.
In-depth recruiting would be great.
Coaching Dynasty that allows you to hire your own staff. Take questions heading into games and afterward. You can build the type of coach you want to be. This would affect team morale, recruiting, media relations and coaching rivalry.
The 2014 (last released) version basically has all of that.
Your assistants get poached and you have to build up their skills. You can start as a coordinator and work your way toward head coach offers. And in-depth recruiting is a staple which makes the game so unique - although recruiting was tweaked year-to-year, so maybe you just didn't like the latest version.
You still had zero say in your own staff. It also would've been nice to be able to essentially toggle off jobs you weren't interested in ever getting an offer from. Say you're the coach of a tier 2 school in a power 5 conference, I don't want offers from fucking Arkansas State about their OC position.
I haven't thought much about changes other than the playoff format and maybe being able to vote in the coaches poll? I bought it every year from like 1999-the last one (2014?) and will instantly buy it when it comes back out. Going to be a tough get though, I know a lot of people are waiting for a new one.
Most games sales now are downloads, supply isn't an issue anymore.
How would you be able to vote in the coach poll? You would not be watching the other games being played. Oh...that's just like real life!
Why do you always post this when someone writes a sentence in that manner? Their objective is clear -- see if other users agree or disagree with what was said before the question mark. It's not the same as the Ron Burgundy situation (accidentally ending the statement with the inflection of a question). The purpose here is to read it with the inflection of a question. Just curious because it seems like you are always digging at people whenever they use this technique, no?
There is a difference between asking a question and making a declarative statement. He said, " I haven't thought much about changes other than the playoff format and maybe being able to vote in the coaches poll?"
He is essentially asking us if he hasn't thought much about changes.
It's all in good fun, man. Relax.
On the first point, I can't imagine a new game being made without the playoff built into the "dynasty" mode. I think we'll have a new NCAA Football game within three years and that it will be made by EA. Not sure about online play.
A couple years ago I picked up an XBox external drive so I could play NCAA Football ‘06 on my current XBox. I pretty much only play that and Tiger some late weekend nights when the Mrs has dozed off.
'06 was the best football game ever made. Prefer less graphics, more speed.
l have had to go through a unique strategy to try and "incorporate" the playoffs into my dynasty. I save a new file during the preseason, and if my team finishes in the top 4 of the rankings, I go back to the 'beginning' of the year and schedule the team I would play in the playoffs on that file; and have it played at the venue it would be played at.
A little ridiculous, but I had to do something.
Then you play the whole season over?
How do you handle the other semifinal matchup? Do you take over those teams as well and make them play each other in Week 1?
Bored at work so here are some features that I would like to see:
customizable playoff-4,8,16 teams/keep the custom conf/schedule option
better commentary
college gameday crew doing a pre-game/halftime/post-game show
proper number of referees/chain gang who comes out and does measurements
more coaches on the sidelines
proper animation from players on the sideline...if you house a punt return i want to see my sideline going crazy like you see in real life
updated playbooks/more uniform choices
Updated recruiting...it gets a little boring after a while
also would like to see players get suspended/have fans rush the field
heisman ceremony after the season
Real life team intros...touching the banner/enter sandman at va tech/etc
road to the heisman mode overhauled
maybe incorporate an “AD” or “Commissioner” mode where you are in charge of everything
either way, just bring the damn game back.
I always liked NCAA far better than Madden because of the playbooks (among other things). The Madden playbooks might have some variety to them, but generally speaking every formation has similar route combos that get stale. I used to change playbooks every couple of games to try something new out in Madden because I would exhaust the one I was on in 1 or 2 games. Then I'd have to change again because every playbook has the same slant combo and TE stick route.
With NCAA, you could run similar plays across playbooks, but you could dig into different ones and find stuff that didn't exist elsewhere.
The Madden games suck compared to NCAA. The only version of Madden I ever purchased was the 2005 one for Gamecube. I sold it three months later and stuck with NCAA ever since.
I think we're looking at a long time from now, but that could change if the NCAA drops the NIL restriction.
I would like, as stated above, a customizable playoff. The old PS1 versions of the game actually gave you an option to finish the season with a 24-team playoff instead of the BCS, and that was fun. I think including the playoff but also including "unofficial" alternative options would be a great move.
I would like it to be easier to customize school names and uniforms.
Beyond that, keep the good gameplay (including the highly enjoyable option game). Any other improvements are improvements that would be revolutionary to Madden as well, things like blocking schemes and such.
1) Playoffs, which will be a given next time this game comes around (fingers crossed). I'd also like the ability to hire your own coaching staff and start your career as a position coach. For recruiting, give a bonus to coaches recruiting their position/side of the ball and coaches from a certain area get a bonus for recruiting that area (IE Don Brown gets a bonus recruiting the Northeast). As for suspensions, they used to have that in older games in the mid 2000s, where every year you had to allocated x amount of points to behavioral enforcements or else your players would be more likely to be suspended.
2) Depends on the NCAA and allowing player likeness to be used. Maybe in a few years they get desperate and make a game with no real licenses but let the community edit rosters, but we'll see.
3) Never used it so not sure.
I am hopeful EA sports would be able to work out licensing with all of the schools again. I want to hear actual fight songs and things like that.
I would buy it in a heartbeat. I also don't think the game is ever coming back.
fill it with micro-transactions
/s
It would be SHOCKING if the game came back and it wasn't flooded with micro-transactions.
You want the Michigan roster? $20
Want to unlock Charles Woodson? $10/pack of cards and it'll take you 7 packs to find him.
They've killed Madden with it. It has severly lacked gameplay improvements for years. Online H2H is always choppy. The only thing they care about is the Ultimate Team because of the micro-transactions.
If NCAA Football game comes back, nobody should get their hopes up. The only thing that would get me excited is if EA wasn't making it, but that's a long shot.
Whatever they do, it will never compete with Bill Walsh College Football for Sega Genesis, so what's the point?
Not sure how I would feel about it now, but when i was younger I enjoyed the “create-a-school” function. Building a program from scratch was always an interesting challenge.
the presence of actual FCS schools would be cool too. Maybe not being able to control them (unless you moved them to FBS) but scheduling North Dakota State would be kinda cool IMO. Even if they shoes away from including all FCS schools, adding some of the top programs would be neat.
Another one would be conference invites/expansion. I know in 2014 you could manually change conferences, but a feature where based on your geographic location and on the field results, you could earn an invite to a larger conference. It was featured in older games IIRC, but it would be cool if you could take over somewhere like Louisiana-Monroe and earn an invitation (again based on geography) to the Big 12 or SEC after a few 11 win seasons. Maybe set a cap on conference size at 16 but allow conferences to expand and swap out teams (like Notre Dame earning a B1G invite and then being swapped with Rutgers based on performance). Sorta make it so you can earn your way into a P5 conference and make teams earn the right to stay there.
I really do miss that game. I still have Denard's version, but have not played it in years. The online dynasty mode with friends is superb. I like being able to customize conferences. The thing I hate the most is recruiting. It is just too much. I let the CPU handle it after I realized I didn't like doing that aspect of the game anymore. It would be nice to have this game again, but I doubt it ever happens.
There is a new game scheduled to come out sometime next year that goes by the name Gridiron Champions or something along those lines. It comes with generic teams and players, but is made for the community to upload teams, stadiums, and rosters. It looks and sounds pretty legit
I don't understand why EA can't do that. Just produce the same game, but with random, generic rosters. It seems like they would be profitting off the schools and not the players likenesses. I assume I'm not the first person to come up with this idea. I just don't know why they can't do it.
The EA football gameplay is pretty stale. Hope NCAA would give them a chance to overhaul playbooks and AI defender behavior (much improved but still too predictable).
I'd prefer streamlined recruiting to detailed recruiting. I hate the weekly "activities" sprawl in Madden; it is good to be able to play two games in a row.
Bagmen & Transfer Portal
I used to love that game. The last year I got it I ran option all the time with Steve Breaston at QB. He hit the corner so quick that he was an automatic 10-15 yards every play. It was a blast. I hope they do bring it back.
New version should give you the capability to tweet at recruits.
Best case scenario would be they randomize the rosters but have the talent level be comparable to how strong the team is, but random players and numbers at each position (i.e. not having Michigan have a QB #2 who is mobile shorter, etc and a WR #9 who is from Detroit). They should then have downloadable rosters. They should go all in on gameplay, additions to dynasty mode, etc. Have scouting reports be available and have your playbook adjusted to your opponent, more realistic injuries, real halftime discussions. They could make a great game and I hope we see it again
In addition to some things others have said, I always wanted the ability to create/customize/expand stadiums. I love unique stadiums and would love to give created teams custom stadiums, or expand existing ones.
Rumor is this was a feature they were working on before the game got canned.
I’m with you OP, this is one of only like 3 video games I still play, and the only one I play regularly.
I don't think the series ever returns. With that said I can't think of a title that I was more bummed to see go. Loved the recruiting aspect, game play as a whole, and playbooks that the NCAA line offered. Just don't get the same type of experience with Madden.
The game itself... probably won't ever be made again! Just sayin', it would take an act of Joe Pesci to make this happen because of the pay/play debate going on. Even if that debate was settled, getting hundreds if not thousands of players, coaches, staff, to sign off on it would be a huge hurdle.
Trivia for you! --- UM players adorned 3 covers for the game, more than any other University! First was Sir Charles, second was Desmond Howard (throwback), last was Shoe-laces!
RPG elements... leveling up both coaching staff and players.
*****FYI if no one posted above... SERVERS FOR 2014 ARE STILL ACTIVE! Play away, with updated rosters!
Adding RPOs to gameplay would be pretty cool. This might be a thing in Madden already, but I haven't played it in a couple of years.
Also, an update to recruiting would be cool. It's been one of my favorite parts of the game.
I can still play ncaa 14, but there’s a bunch of glitches when you download updated rosters, Players play totally different positions than what they actually play. Also it sucks that you’re stuck with the uniforms from way back when. I’ll be looking forward to a new game
Anyone (@Eli) on a PS3 look me up for dynasty-online play. We have 2 running right now with U of M fans. rice4114 is my handle of course.
Also, I said this earlier, you sign 40 ex players of the FBS teams and roll out the game with a skeleton roster. Players can mod away. Sign the stars and fill the rosters with people you don't have to pay much. Not seeing how this wouldn't work.
If it does come back out, don’t play online . You think stopping a running qb is tough in real life... save your self the head ache and play dynasty!