Dear EASports

[HuskerJen]

Dear EASports,

 

I'm writing this to vent my frustration with your NCAA College Football franchise and what it has become. NCAA College Football has become a sad sack, watered down version of the Madden NFL Football franchise. You're motto is, "EASports, if it's in the game, it's in the game." This statement couldn't be further from the truth unless it was a career politician but I digress terribly. What follows is a numbered list of my frustrations with the various segments of your game, both in regular and dynasty mode. I will then follow up with proposed solutions with the number correlating to the frustration in hopes that you will take heed of the discontent wrought by the game your company sells.

 

Keep in mind I play on the PS2 platform and so that is the basis for what follows.

 

 

Frustrations

 

1. The playbooks. For the love of God could you please drastically update the plays in the playbooks on both sides of the ball? We've been running the same plays for four years. The little tweaks you give the offensive plays aren't enough.

 

2. The rosters. A cap of 70 players. Really?

 

3. Position changes. A 78 rated RB should be able to be switched to LB and not drop to a 44 rating. A 76 rated QB should be able to move to WR, TE or DB without dropping to a 40 rating.

 

4. Hot routes. These are old, boring, stale and there's not enough variety.

 

5. Audibes, especially on the road. Have you ever heard of hand signals? Teams use these in loud stadiums to communicate. Speed of changing plays, formations, etc is a joke. You change from one formation to another with 20 seconds on the play clock and by the time your players are set you have maybe 3 seconds left.

 

6a. Recruiting, Potential/Discipline. I've lost track of how many 80, 82, and in one case 86 rated true freshman I've had to cut from my roster because they all seemingly have poor discipline and/or potential.

 

6b. Recruiting ratings. I'm currently in dynasty mode and I recently recruited a LB from Nebraska, George Guidry. The information the game gave about him was as follows:

 

Height: 6'2"

Weight: 217

40 Yard Dash: 4.56

Bench: 345 bench

Squat: 470 squat

Awareness: A+

Hands: B

 

So I scouted him...All categories were as good as they were listed and...

 

Potential: Good

Discipline: Good

 

So I recruited him, signed him and when I saw him on the roster he was rated at 52. 52! With those type of attributes, are you kidding me?

 

6c. Recruiting stats: The top rated offensive linemen: OT, OG and OC's in the nation each allows anywhere from 9-17 sacks in a season-of 10 games? Really? I highly doubt the nation's top rated linemen allow that many sacks. Get real.

 

7. Turnovers. I have had games, both in regular and dynasty mode where I routinely will turn the ball over 4-6 times a game. One regular game I played, I was Nebraska and the computer opponent was Texas A&M and I kid you not I turned the ball over 12 f'ing times! For the game I went -7 in turnovers. Are you bleeping serious with this stuff?!

 

8. Summer drills. Mostly pointless exercises. When you're running a drill where other team members are involved like with the DB man or zone drill, or the defending the option drill why are those computer controlled players there? They are absolutely worthless because they don't do anything except get in your way and slow you down. Why is it that when I'm on offense and my player drops the ball scores are taken away while when I'm on defense and I cause they offensive player to drop the pass I lose points as well? What gives?

 

9. Redshirting. Also pointless. There's almost no improvement or benefit to redshirting a player. It rarely increases their awareness, strength, etc.

 

10a. Blocking. Could you guys please stop with the swinging gate method of blocking along the offensive line? I've lost track of how many times the computer has rushed three, dropped 8 into coverage and I have about 1 second to find a receiver before I'm sacked. I kid you not I've been in situations were I've kept both backs in to block, as well as the TE for a total of 8 blockers against three rushers and what happens is my OL won't block anyone or they'll get knocked back 5 yards at the snap.

 

10b. Tackling. The physics behind the tackling is absurd to say the least. If my player is running with the ball and he's tackled by someone chasing him from behind he's not going to be thrown backwards. And the QB dodging/avoiding three sacks...get real. Missouri's Chase Daniel is notorious for this.

 

11. Motion. One player can go in motion and only in a direction or manner you choose.

 

And I'm not even going to get into the sheer stupidity of how one computer controlled defender can, on an option play: 1) force the pitch and then 2) chase down and tackle the pitch man.

 

Proposed Solutions

 

1. Consult with real coaches. Talk to Urban Meyer about getting the spread option/zone read right. Talk to Tom Osborne about getting the power running game/option right. Talk to Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll, Bo Pelini, etc about getting defenses right. The defenses on this game are a joke. They have more holes than a slice of swiss cheese.

 

And also, could you please fix the way the defense lines up? Proper spacing, alignment and placing need serious upgrading.

 

2. The NCAA allows for 85 scholarships, the roster for your game should allow 85 total players.

 

3. Make changing a players position easier. For example, RB's many times become LB's. QB's beome WR's. WR's become DB's, etc. If I have a 76 rated RB and I want to move him to LB then certainly a slight drop in ratings is to be expected. But going from a 76 to a 44 is patently absurd. How about making a 76 running back, when switched to LB drop a 74 or even a 72? Hell if you really want to get nuts how about a 76 rated running back becomes a 78 or 80 rated LB?

 

The point is there needs to be much more flexibility in switching players positions.

 

4. Keep the up, down, left, right, r1 l1 hot routes as is but expand them. For example, push the triangle to start the hot route process, push the icon which corresponds to the player and then have 6 different routes, represented by circle, triangle, square, R1, etc that you could change the WR/TE/RB's route to. It's the same principle as the stored audibles for offensive plays.

 

5. Is it difficult to play on the road? Sure but the sheer ridiculousness of trying to audible has reached it's apex. Teams use hand signals to communicate. I don't care how loud a stadium is, hand signals aren't affected and most teams can audible just fine. Also, make the players move faster when calling an aubile, especially if a player has to change his position say from one side to the other of the formation. And if a formation change is called make the whole team move faster.

 

6a. Recruiting...news flash not every player has poor discipline and average potential. I always find it amusing that 80+% of the and rated player have average to poor discipline and/or potential.

 

6b. In the example I gave above, with those types of numbers, George Guidry should've been rated a 74 at the minimum. My point is: a or rated player, with attributes like Guidry shouldn't be a rated at 52.

 

6c. The stats for RB's are okay but the stats on defense need to be more tuned into reality. For example, a middle LB will probably have 75+ tackles in a season-not 15.

 

Also, would it kill you to say if the recruit plays other sports? Baseball, basketball, track, etc?

 

7. Just make it a tad harder for the computer to intercept passes.

 

8. Either make the summer drills better or scrap them entirely. For example make you computer controlled teammates more effective in doing that they're supposed to.

 

9. Redshirting is, in real life, an invaluable process. It allows a player to get bigger, faster, stronger and more aware while preserving a year of eligibilty and your reshirt process should reflect that.

 

10. Just get the basic physics right.

 

11. If I motion the TE across the formation, why can't I then send a second guy in motion, especially if I still have time on the play clock?

 

Anyone else has any comments, suggestions or ideas on how to make the game better, starting with the '10 edition?

[GSG]

All valid points. Here's what they are coming up with for next year: LINK Might be a little better. They update the info every Thursday with some little bonuses in between. Covers will be announced in 13 days.

[killer cacti]

How bout Clemson running down the hill? It could even be a video, I'd love to see some real entrances on the game.

 

And bring back create-a-team.

[fro daddy]

All good pts. But i would argue with one.

 

10b. Tackling. The physics behind the tackling is absurd to say the least. If my player is running with the ball and he's tackled by someone chasing him from behind he's not going to be thrown backwards. And the QB dodging/avoiding three sacks...get real. Missouri's Chase Daniel is notorious for this.

 

I am guessing you are talking about NU not being able to sack him. If thats the case, then its pretty accurate. I was at both game the past two years, and NU rarely got close to him.

 

j/k Jen

[HuskerJen]

All good pts. But i would argue with one.

 

10b. Tackling. The physics behind the tackling is absurd to say the least. If my player is running with the ball and he's tackled by someone chasing him from behind he's not going to be thrown backwards. And the QB dodging/avoiding three sacks...get real. Missouri's Chase Daniel is notorious for this.

 

I am guessing you are talking about NU not being able to sack him. If thats the case, then its pretty accurate. I was at both game the past two years, and NU rarely got close to him.

 

j/k Jen

 

[huskernation20]

I am just shocked to see a woman gamer!!!

 

I agree with everything completely. The one thing that I can argue with you about, however, is the position swaps. I do hope they can make this work. But the way it is now, if you recruit a RB his attributes are all going to be built for that position. If you make a switch to LB he just does not have the attributes for tackling, play recognition, etc. If you were to go and change all of that manually, then the player would just show up as the 2 deep at every position on the depth chart. I hate when that happens. But, like I said, I hope they can think of an alternative way to fix this.

 

P.S.

You should really think about upgrading to PS3!

[HuskerJen]

I am just shocked to see a woman gamer!!!

 

I agree with everything completely. The one thing that I can argue with you about, however, is the position swaps. I do hope they can make this work. But the way it is now, if you recruit a RB his attributes are all going to be built for that position. If you make a switch to LB he just does not have the attributes for tackling, play recognition, etc. If you were to go and change all of that manually, then the player would just show up as the 2 deep at every position on the depth chart. I hate when that happens. But, like I said, I hope they can think of an alternative way to fix this.

 

P.S.

You should really think about upgrading to PS3!

 

I'll upgrade at some point...right now my money is going towards other things...

[killer cacti]

I am just shocked to see a woman gamer!!!

 

I agree with everything completely. The one thing that I can argue with you about, however, is the position swaps. I do hope they can make this work. But the way it is now, if you recruit a RB his attributes are all going to be built for that position. If you make a switch to LB he just does not have the attributes for tackling, play recognition, etc. If you were to go and change all of that manually, then the player would just show up as the 2 deep at every position on the depth chart. I hate when that happens. But, like I said, I hope they can think of an alternative way to fix this.

 

P.S.

You should really think about upgrading to PS3!

 

I'll upgrade at some point...right now my money is going towards other things...

 

Jen, you're more than welcome to come play my PS3 if you want to.

 

How does one go about getting online on it? Do you have to pay like on 360? Or do you just hookup an ethernet cord?

[HuskerJen]

I am just shocked to see a woman gamer!!!

 

I agree with everything completely. The one thing that I can argue with you about, however, is the position swaps. I do hope they can make this work. But the way it is now, if you recruit a RB his attributes are all going to be built for that position. If you make a switch to LB he just does not have the attributes for tackling, play recognition, etc. If you were to go and change all of that manually, then the player would just show up as the 2 deep at every position on the depth chart. I hate when that happens. But, like I said, I hope they can think of an alternative way to fix this.

 

P.S.

You should really think about upgrading to PS3!

 

I'll upgrade at some point...right now my money is going towards other things...

 

Jen, you're more than welcome to come play my PS3 if you want to.

 

How does one go about getting online on it? Do you have to pay like on 360? Or do you just hookup an ethernet cord?

 

To play online with a PS2 all you need is: obviously an internet connection-the faster the better, a router, an ethernet cable and you need to register with EASports.

 

Maybe the process is the same for PS3...I'm not sure though.

[strigori]

I am just shocked to see a woman gamer!!!

 

I agree with everything completely. The one thing that I can argue with you about, however, is the position swaps. I do hope they can make this work. But the way it is now, if you recruit a RB his attributes are all going to be built for that position. If you make a switch to LB he just does not have the attributes for tackling, play recognition, etc. If you were to go and change all of that manually, then the player would just show up as the 2 deep at every position on the depth chart. I hate when that happens. But, like I said, I hope they can think of an alternative way to fix this.

 

P.S.

You should really think about upgrading to PS3!

 

I'll upgrade at some point...right now my money is going towards other things...

 

Jen, you're more than welcome to come play my PS3 if you want to.

 

How does one go about getting online on it? Do you have to pay like on 360? Or do you just hookup an ethernet cord?

 

To play online with a PS2 all you need is: obviously an internet connection-the faster the better, a router, an ethernet cable and you need to register with EASports.

 

Maybe the process is the same for PS3...I'm not sure though.

PS3 network is free to play everything. No charge, and actually alot of stuff is server based and not P2P like the 360. Broadband is required though. PS3 also has built in wireless if that is your thing.

[zoogs]

I feel your frustrations. Same with Madden. The sheer lack of thought behind the programming is just mind-blowing at times. It makes franchise mode impossible to deal with.

[Dundermifflinite]

I quit my online dynasty last year after the second season because I realized a glitch that had yet to be patched. In a dynasty setting, you can convince players to come back for the following year by using recruiting points. Upon doing so, I soon discovered that in this setting, only the host actually retains these players. I ended up losing seven players after my second year, five of which I had convinced to come back.

[redout22]

How can you turn the ball over 12 times in one game! Anyway I agree with you, they could definitely make the game a lot better

[HuskerJen]

How can you turn the ball over 12 times in one game! Anyway I agree with you, they could definitely make the game a lot better

 

I don't know. To this day I'm still asking myself that question. I lost five fumbles and threw seven interceptions. One of the INT's I threw was completely my fault because I tried to fit the ball in between two defenders, and they were really close to the WR. But the other six INT's were a combination of a defender jumping seven feet in the air or passes where the ball hit my WR in the hands, bounced around and then was picked off.

 

The worst part is, that despite going -7 in turnovers for the game, I only lost by 3 points. The final score ended up being A&M 24 NU 21.

 

I think, and this is merely my opinion here because I have no facts or evidence to boister my claim, that the game just has "triggers" built into the programming where it makes sure you lose the game. And the game will blatanly "cheat" to make it happen.

 

My favorite though is this "play" when the CPU is on offense:

 

QB takes the snap, drops back, does the rush avoid move not once, not twice, but three times, looking right, falling backwards, fires a wobblylame duck pass to the left, off his back foot 30+ yards down the field, into double coverage. Then, the WR catches the ball because it passes through my defender like he's a ghost-or not even there, the WR then breaks two tackles and runs the remaining distance for a TD.

 

I love that play because like EASports says, "If it's in the game, it's in the game."

 

[cornhuskers4ever]

I take it there is probably a snowball's chance of NCAA Football '10 coming out on PS2 right?