f13.net forums - NCAA Football 2k5

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May 20, 2024, 05:43:54 AM

we're back, baby

Anyone pick this up yet? I grabbed it Friday night, and have played a few games thus far. It is a lot of fun. Passing is a bit tougher than Madden (or perhaps the UW receivers just eat shit...they drop A LOT of passes). Running the option is a total blast- think I will concentrate my recruiting on running QBs so I can run it all the time.

The defensive AI is much better- I can make a mistake as a defender and still get some help from my teammates. Kicking seems drastically underpowered, but again, that may be a function of the team I am playing.

Extras include Campus Challenges, earning pennants to unlock new teams/stadiums, and additions to your EA Sports bio. If you are a college football fan, it is definitely worth a look.

Note that the Xobox version is said to experience some significant slowdown, especially online.

I rented the PS2 version, and as usual, created myself and a buddy to add to the MSU roster. He'll typically play RB/FS, I'll typically take the MLB/FB. NCAA tends to support 2-way players better than Madden, and since I can't keep track of 100+ teams, NCAA tends to play better in Dynasty mode.

Anyway, as one might expect, I make my created players into football gods....99 across the board. Otherwise a 5'9" 220 lb true freshman is going to be hard pressed to start. I also make the players out to look cool, and for me, I make it look authentic to my playing days (mouthpiece, half cage, eye black, and wristbands).

I started locking up after game 2 of my season. During the pre-game Herbstreit gives his pick, and then it locks up before Corso can give his pick. I figured it was a fluke, so I reset....nope, every single goddamn time it locks up again. Plus, after playing through and skipping the pre-game, it locked up during gameplay a couple times.

I come to find out that the game will supposedly lock up if you use visors or wristbands on a created player, and will occasionally lock up if you have a created player with a rating of 70 or above in any category. I removed the visors and wristbands from my guys, and turned off the ask Corso audio. Seemed to help prevent lockups during regular play, but I still lockup in pre-game.

Plus, I scheduled my first 3 non-conference games at #1 USC, then vs #2 Oklahoma, then at #3 LSU before taking on Notre Dame and the Big Ten. As it turned out, I defeated the #1 team in the country 3 weeks in a row. The Media poll had me as a clear #1, with 60% of the #1 ballots. The Coaches poll had me unranked until I ripped off nearly 800 yards of total offense and 3 defensive score en route to a humiliating 80-point win over ND.....which boosted me to #23. The coaches may be dogging me for running up a 100 point total on USC, but I wouldn't think the backlash would hit me that badly in the polls.

My players commit NCAA violations every single week, and the NCAA takes some notice unless you suspend a kid 5 games for missing a voluntary workout. I had to laugh when in week 4, my 2 created characters were cited for serious academic violations....despite being #1 and #2 in the Heisman race. So that part of the game is a bit harsh.

Speaking of the Heisman....my RB gained momentum and became the frontrunner for the Heisman during a week in which he was on the bench with an injury. So that was a bit of a quirk.

The created playbooks are very nice, allowing you to select only the formations you want. This was great for me, as I wanted to take MSU back to a run-based offense.

Created signs don't seem to work...I couldn't get a single one to display during the dynasty. At first I thought it was a simple profanity filter, but even my g-rated signs wouldn't show.

Home field advantage and disadvantage is nice....though it's hard to keep your fans interested during a home blowout.

The Matchup stick is a tremendous addition. I liked using this to set up favorable matchups. Using motion to get a top WR matched up on a lousy dime back made life much easier than challenging their top CB. Same goes with the running game....find the weak guy on their line, and run right at him.

Throwing to your WRs is a PITA. LBs cover very well, WRs don't position themselves well (even with the assist on), tips and INTs are quite common. At least it seemed to apply both ways though...passing is much harder than 2004. My best luck came with play action, deep routes, and focusing on the TE and RBs (bear in mind that MSU has an All American TE, and my 2 RBs are maxxed to 99). Of course, throwing to WRs last year sucked as well, I guess that's to keep you in a fairly realistic 50-70% completion ratio.

The running game is solid, maybe even a bit too much so. My FB can gain a solid 5-7 yards per carry on dive plays, which is a bit much. I am happy though that it is now possible to turn the corner on an outside run (on Varsity setting), but breakaways are still pretty rare. Granted, I had the uber-backfield, but I had to make a decided effort to pass the ball....I could have literally run all over my opponents.

Overall, it's good....the gameplay isn't changed much from last year, but the additional features are very nice. Technical issues really compromise the fun of the game this year IMO, so I'll be waiting for Madden. Even then, I'll rent it to see if it faces the same sort of issues that I found in NCAA. If Madden does have any of the technical issues of NCAA, look for ESPN to be the football title of choice this season.

Kind of a shame, IMO, as I was thinking of doing my upgrade this year, and getting both Madden and NCAA so I could do draft classes. But I can't spend money on this year's NCAA, and I refuse to buy the 2004 titles, given the huge strides the Lions made this offseason.

Bring the noise.
Cheers...............

I skipped last year. So, IMO, the improvments over the 2003 version are very noticeable. Passing is quite a bit harder. It's going to take me a while to get the feel for it. More importantly though, I like 'Stadium Pulse'. Autzen Stadium feels right now, whereas in 2003 it was a bit tame.

:)

I have a few issues with the game and these are mainly nitpicks. Overall it's a lot of fun and easily the best college game out there.

1) Xbox slowdown issues. At first, I thought this was intentional as it seems to mainly occur on kickoffs/punts/running plays and made it easier to find the running lanes. However, it seems as if this is not an intentional 'feature' and if that is the case then shame on EA for letting this happen. It's a freaking console system. You know exactly what every single person who buys this title is going to be using so it shouldn't be hard to get it right in house before release.

2) EA needs to create a little more depth and intelligence in the Dynasty Mode. I graduated from a school that is usually in the bottom 20 but prefer to play them over my hometown team, Tennessee, specifically because they're already awesome. Now, if I win 50 national championships in a row it would be nice to be recruited by a larger conference such as the SEC. The fact is that no team that wins 50 national championships in a row would remain in the Sun Belt conference for 50 years.

3) I'm in the first season of my Dynasty as a team that started the season at around #105. I beat Auburn the first week and then beat Florida at the #1 toughest home field in Week #2. I was ranked around 96 after that game which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I made a bigger leap in the standings by beating the Akron Zips in week #3 than I did in either week 1 or 2.

4) I'm not a fan of the NCAA infractions feature and would like to see a menu toggle for this feature in future versions if it is left in the game.

That's all I can think of for now. Overall the game is excellent but I am really looking forward to picking up my copy of ESPN 2k5 tomorrow.

What I'm hearing strikes me as a bit on the buggy side. I think I'll pass.

Wasn't the common platform supposed to eliminate these sorts of things?

Wow, I have been out of it for awhile, but my eyes just REALLY perked up when I heard the words "ESPN 2k5" and "tomorrow" in the same sentence. I was totally unaware.

Thank god it is cheap as I pretty much broke right now.

It was originally set to release on the 27th but was moved up a week for one reason or another. For some reason I want to say that Madden was also moved up a week which would be more than enough reason for Sega to get that game on the shelves asap.

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Autzen Stadium feels right now, whereas in 2003 it was a bit tame.

Oooh...I can see a XBL blood match in our future =) One in Seattle, one there, and maybe a 3rd neutral site? This is all predicated on my lazy ass getting my XBL account set up, so any preliminary work we do to set it up is likely for naught, since I am in the running for laziest bastard who ever lived.

Quote from: daveNYC

What I'm hearing strikes me as a bit on the buggy side. I think I'll pass.

Wasn't the common platform supposed to eliminate these sorts of things?

Keep in mind that I haven't played the Xbox version, only the PS2.

Even with all the difficulties I had with it, it was well worth the $7 rental....I may even end up renting it again in the future.

As for buying it, I'd make your decision based on the rental....just take the reports here as a standard "buyer beware".

Bring the noise.
Cheers.............

Quote from: WayAbvPar

If you are in the lead then I claim second. My problem is while the uber TV (and attached XBox) is in the basement, there isn't a phone jack anywhere in the area. And a 2 month free-trial to XBox online is not worth buying a wireless attachment for the console (allthough the TiVo on the wireless network is the coolest thing since they invented the Intarweb).

So my point? I don't know. But being able to KICK YOUR PURPLE DOGGIE LOVING ASS may just be the motivation I need to figure out the problem.

;)

I bought this for the Xbox. I haven't played it online yet, but, let me just say: Passing is fucking hard.

As mostly an ESPN Football player over the last couple years, I am no longer used to EA system and it is punishing me for it. Fun game though. Hopefully I can actually get good enough to where my Buckeyes can start stomping the fuck out of Michigan like it should be.

I broke down and cranked the AI up on pass catching (not all the way, but a few notches), and I still get retards dropping wide open passes. I have noticed that if I take control of the receiver before the ball arrives, they seem to catch more often.

Discovered that I can edit players on my roster * (not rankings, but names, etc), so I have started to add names instead of numbers. Also started my Dynasty mode over again with a studly new freshman DT made in my image. He is gonna be a beast when he gets some games under his belt =)

* the manual is fucking useless. I may need to grab the strat guide, which will be playing right into their hands. Having to buy a strategy guide for a fucking sports game is utter bullshit.

There's a guy who actually names all of the players in the NCAA series and makes the file available for download. I have the link stored on my home computer and will post it later tonight.

As far as I know he does it for both Xbox and PS2.

Quote from: WayAbvPar

Sweet mother of...

If that Tight End drops one more pass on 3rd and 5......

To be honest, the single biggest realization for me that improved my passing game was not to zip the ball. College Kids aparently have a problem with 'Elway like' passing. Who knew?

Quote from: Glamdring

That would be cool...I was going to do the research eventually, but if someone else beat me to it, more power to them!

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If that Tight End drops one more pass on 3rd and 5......

Yeah..TEs are especially notorious for 'manos de piedra'.

http://www.ps2rosters.com/

He does have rosters for the Xbox as well.