NCAA 11 --- NTM Review

Ah yes. The annual  review of my favorite game. The difference this year is that, because I am now an old man and have patience, I can wait until I get out of work to grab a copy.

So, this is more of a stop-gap post. To keep you warm while I make some cash in order to purchase it.

Then I will be posting up more interesting stuff than why I don't think our offensive coordinator is hot shit.

Stay tuned.




Update: 12:09am.

Well I got it around 11:35pm. Long story. I'll tell ya laters.

Here we go:

The hype leading up to the release has centered around the graphics, the blocking, and the tweaks to the dynasty. 

Of the three, the most important to me has always been the gameplay.

So how does it play? Awesomely. That is the short answer. The long and nit-picky answer is that it is slower than last year's model. In places it is a good thing. Sometimes passes to the flats, slants, and even downfield happened in a blink of an eye. I understand that they were trying to capture the speed of the game when they made it so quick, but gameplay suffered ever so slightly when it became difficult and nigh impossible to stop certain things.

The slower pace can feel sluggish sometimes, however. The tradeoff for improving gameplay and human player reactions is the loss of the fast-paced excitement of the last game. That portion is probably just a personal preference and so doesn't effect anyone much. *

* There is an option to play faster in the game settings. 

If you were, and are a big Madden player, you probably are more familiar with the speed element, the blocking, the locomotion,  and the play calling screen. It took some getting used to before I was comfortable with the old screen. It probably won't take very long to get used to this one, having played with it for ever. I wonder if EA thought they'd get more people to pick up the game if they remembered that, like, Troy Aikman Football had a similar screen.

Eh. It matters not to me.

So the game. It pretty much is the same as last year with some much needed fixes. I like to go back and look at the replays at the end of the game. What bugged me most about it was when I picked a play from the first quarter, watched it, and exited the replay screen it would put me back at the 4th quarter list. I know. It isn't anything major. After playing 200 or so games it bothers you. Trust.

Any way they fixed that.

Other:

The play designer team does a good job of staying up on trends and really gets all the nuanced plays of an Air Raid or a spread option team. I love that shit. I've linked to smartfootball.com before, and I can't prove it, but I KNOW they read up on some of the blocking and play design stuff. Had to have.

And I love them for it.

I wish I had more time to go into detail about some of the stuff. Alas, I am old and mature. No really. I kind of wish I was 20 again, because I would have played this game all night. Right now? Eh, I got my two online games in and am looking longingly at the sofa pillow next to me. Lame, huh?

Yes. Lame.

Won't be long before I write one of these, I tell ya.