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 The first thing you will notice upon playing NCA09 is that it moves much smoother than last year. Considering how last year's game moved at 60fps (for XBOX 360), that's quite a statement. That's not to say that the frames per second has increased, but rather the fluidity of the game seems to have increased. The multitude of new animations have smooth, practically seamless transitions. NCAA 09 looks damn good, and from visuals alone, its clearly the best looking football game I've ever seen. The improved player models are fantastic. EA has come a long way over the past two years in depicting college athletes in their game.
One point I'd also like to make is that the stadium visuals are photo-realistic. The “weather shading” is fantastic. For instance, if its late afternoon game and the sun is setting, the red sky casts the appropriate hue of color on all objects in the game, and that includes the players and their uniforms. Likewise, a mid-day game at Sun Devil Stadium will brighten everything in the stadium and make the colors of all uniforms, stands, cheerleaders and the field even more brilliant. I'll go so far as to say we've seen nothing this close to photo-realism from football graphics. What's even more impressive is that despite all the graphic enhancements, the game seems to run even faster than last year's game. Now, lets talk about grass... Next-gen football has been struggling with its visual interpretation of grass vs. turf visuals for years now. All previous versions of NCAA and Madden did a poor job of giving us realistic looking grass, and the same can be said for All Pro Football 2K8. Well, those days are over. EA's grass and turf depictions in NCAA 09 are second to none. The grass fields look photo-realistic down to the individual blades of grass. Turf also differentiates itself with expert subtlety and texture. It seems like a little thing, but it will be one of the first things you notice at kick-off.  As far as presentation goes, its very similar to last year in terms of audio with the Corso, Nessler, and Herbstreit. I didn't notice much in the way of new audio from those guys, but that might not be fair, because it was hard to hear “my” game being played since we were all playing on stations that were next to each other on tables. So sound was a mixed up affair due to my proximity to other players and their respective speakers. (Next time I'll remember to bring headsets.) That's not to say NCAA 09 doesn't sound good, I could hear the commentary, and it was timely and the usual good quality that the NCAA series is known for. I'm just saying that I couldn't concentrate too well on my own audio to really give it a fair assessment and notice any differences from last year
Cheerleaders make their first Next Gen appearance in NCAA 09, and they look pretty realistic. The game will often cut away to them after big plays or pauses in play. We've been asking for cheerleaders in the game for some time, and EA delivered nicely. There's also “interactive” mascots, which means you can often take control of your player who just scored a TD and run up to your mascot and celebrate with him. These celebrations are no-doubt tied to what button you press when you approach the mascot. So- how did the game play? Well, it plays a very fast-paced game of football. I'm ELATED to report that the menu lag of previous next-gen versions is 100% gone. Yes...rejoice. No more waiting for the playcalling menu to catch up with your button presses to page through them. And, let me be the first to report that LEFT STICK JUKING IS YOUR FRIEND. Yes, you now have unprecedented control of your player now, and you can break those animations at will. Gone are the days of waiting for an exaggerated “juke” animation to “finish”, or a spin, or a back-step. I'm also happy to report that not every player can “break ankles” like Barry Sanders. The star players can do it and do it well, but lesser players might only be able to pull one or two moves off in slower succession, depending on their ratings. Because of this very precise analog control, you can better “pick your holes” in the running game, and it makes a world of difference. This is all part of EA's new “Break-Away” engine which allows more control of your ball-carrier than ever before. I think everybody is going to really enjoy this this new level of control. I'm also very glad to report that EA has shortened the QB release animation to match something much closer to real-world QB release speeds. I spoke about this to the producers and they said they cleaned up the animation, made it shorter and more realistic (its also a new animation that looks 100 times better than previous throwing animations)..and they said this was done because of the wish lists and all the comments about getting sacked despite pressing the passing button a second before. Now the passing game is more crisp, and that in itself is something I've been asking for since the days of Madden on Playstation 1. There's also new right-stick directional pump fakes, and I'm glad to report they are “quick” animations and can also be VERY effective in manipulating safeties in their zones. It's a really welcomed addition, especially considering how important the pump-fake is in real football.  Also- I'm elated to say that offensive line "slide-protection" commands are back! Yes, you can now command your offensive line to pinch in against an inside rush, spread against the ouside blitz, and block to the left or right depending on where you feel the pressure will come pre-snap. Thank you EA. I've missed this since current gen. I'm also happy to report that these audibles work. They increase the blocking when you guess correctly about the defenses intent, and it also hurts you when you guess wrong. By “guessing wrong” I mean doing something like tell your O-line to cheat towards the left for an expected pass rush from that side, but your opponent blitzes and OLB from the right. Obviously, there's a necessary “risk/reward” factor built-in. One of my other gripes from last year was also addressed. Pass lead, pass lob, and bullet passing now feel “right”. In last years' NCAA title, it felt like you'd throw a pass and the AI would determine the velocity and arc..and quite often it would have too low of a trajectory. Now its all on you to control the touch of the pass you throw. Offensive playbooks also seem to have been enhanced. I saw tons of new plays in there that I have never seen before, and many of them are quite nice. There may be some new defensive plays in there too, but the offensive ones stood out more. One feature that I really enjoyed was the “quiz” you are given if your QB throws an interception. This year, if you throw an INT, after the play, you will be presented with three defensive play diagrams. These plays are a multiple choice “quiz” asking you what defense was used against you when you made your mistake. You also have the option to view three frames of still-photos from the play's beginning middle, and end, much like the still photos real quarterbacks are shown of defenses. Using that information, you are asked to make your “guess” as to which of the three defensive plays was used. Guessing wrong means your QB takes a ratings hit for his next series. However, if you guess correctly, your QB will not take a ratings hit. I really enjoyed the feature, and felt that it was a great interactive tool that also helped coach you into reading defenses better. As you all are aware, NCAA 09 will also feature online dynasty for up to 12 players. Of course, we weren't able to test this mode just yet (right now the game is still in development and can only be played on systems with debug kit units that Microsoft and Sony only provide to developers.) From what we were told, there's been lots of work done to enhance the online experience and latency issues that plagued previous versions of NCAA football. We'll have to reserve judgment on that until we actually see that- which will probably be after the official release.  What you have with NCAA 09 is an incredibly fun game of football that looks as good as it plays. After playing the game for about 8 hours, I do have one concern though. EA made a conscious effort to have “Wide Open College Gameplay” - but I'm personally of the opinion that its too wide-open in the build we played this week. Scores are going to be big, and there's a bigger difference than ever before between the “haves” and the “have nots” in terms of both players and entire teams. I understand that this is true of real college football. However, any lateral “drag route”, “in” or “out” against man coverage against all but the most elite linebackers and corners in the game are very high percentage with the build we played in Orlando. This is especially true of routes to the backs. I used my Notre Dame squad against Michigan State on Heisman difficulty and ran patterns that sent my halfback on out routes through the line, as well as passes to the flats. The lateral pursuit of the linebackers in man pass coverage is terrible in most cases, and its not easily rectified with many zone defenses either...since even short zones tend to drop players back too far to be very effective against those routes. My ND halfback had 14 catches for 224 yards, mostly through short out patterns or patterns in the flats. Now, I took that same ND team against Ohio State (who is 99 across the board on offense and defense, and will probably be over-used online by...um...everybody). I lost the game, but those pass plays to the running back were still “there” a bit more than they should be... and this against a 99 ranked defense. They covered those types of plays better, but it was still a bit too easy to get separation from man to man defenders when running lateral patterns. And again, the same is true for short drag patterns to the wide receivers. It makes man coverage a very dangerous endeavor for anyone brave enough to call much of it in NCAA 09... at least with the most current build the community reps got to play. Defense also seems to be getting the shaft this year in terms of various star NCAA wide receivers having the controversial “spectacular catch” ability that many realism-buffs disliked in Madden 08. One of the community reps got to the championship game of our NCAA tournament at Tiburon by using a team with a “spectacular catch” wideout, and throwing to him about 9 out of 10 downs. He was practically unstoppable, since he knew how to “invoke” the spectacular catch animation by “strafing” the wide receiver and hitting the catch button in such a way to regularly get that high jump catch animation with disturbing frequency. He threw it in double coverage, against zone, against man, against cover 3, against 3 deep safeties with man-under... all with equal effectiveness for his offense. I found it to be a little disturbing that someone could rely on one ability in the game to absolutely dominate.  In an interesting contrast, Madden 09 has had its “spectacular catch” receiver ability toned down to the point where you had better be pretty open to make those kinda grabs, because contact with defenders often causes the catch to be dropped. Also, in Madden 09, the timing of that ability must be more precise to even attempt successfully, making those kinda catches more “rare”. However, in NCAA 09, -as the build stands currently- its going to be rough for any defense to do anything against a skilled player with a “spectacular catch” wide-receiver. I would have hoped the lesson learned by the Madden development team would have been conveyed to the NCAA team, but the insistence on “Wide Open Gameplay” in the college game seems to have trumped the outcries against “spectacular catch” from the community. Again, we weren't playing final code. However, I would- in the most emphatic terms- urge EA to re-think just how “wide open” the game is at this moment. I know when I talked to the producers, they say this is part of the plan, and how on last year's game that the defense was to the point where average schools could hang with powerhouses they shouldn't be able to easily compete against, and that wasn't realistic either. ( However, I would personally argue that some of that had more to do with NCAA 08's questionable pass-control, and the “always too low passing trajectory” in last year's version more than anything. Those problems have been fixed this year in a big way.) Sure, I can go in and play with the individual difficulty sliders like anyone else for my offline franchise, but I wonder how the poor man to man defensive coverage and the “spectacular catch” receivers will effect the new online dynasties. Will people who have to constantly defend against those super-gifted receivers (like Florida's Percy Harvin) give-up in frustration? I don't know. Maybe I'm just being that old “defense-first”curmudgeon again. I understand that the college game IS more “wide open” than the NFL, and that there is a huge disparity between a team like Ohio State and the likes of Miami of Ohio. The defining differences between schools like that would obviously be team speed and superstar player talent..and that is definitely reflected “In The Game” this year...and in a big way. In fairness to EA, I don't know how better to reflect that dynamic than they have, although I personally am no fan of the whole “spectacular catch” dynamic. On the technical side, I'm very pleased to report that NCAA 09 looks and plays just as good on the PS3 as it does for the XBOX 360 this year, so you PS3 fans will be very happy. Also on the technical side, you can exchange named rosters online this year without having to buy a 3rd party device. Calling that a welcomed addition would be an understatement. Thank you EA. In conclusion, NCAA 09 is a very impressive football game that will make many college football fans very happy for another season. Its never looked better (and that is an understatement), and its never controlled better. If you are okay with the game being heavily slanted towards rewarding the offensive side of the ball, you will also find quite a bit to like, while “sim players” and players with a defensive focus might find themselves to be a bit frustrated by feeling a bit helpless due to that same dynamic. Also, if the 12 player online dynasty mode plays a lag free game of football, online play fans should be extremely happy with NCAA Football 09 too. Scott Hemphill
Co Founder
Consolesports.net
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