NCAA and Madden

I'll have E3 Madden impressions posted at GameShark for Monday. My flight landed at 6AM and I am absolutely running on fumes.

My NCAA review is written I just need to do what maybe 5% of the people who are publishing articles on NCAA are doing -- testing online Dynasty which is, ya know, sort of important. I wasn't able to test that mode when I had my copy and neither were other members of the media who had retail and debug builds. So how they have reviewed this feature, I really can't say.

Anyway, in scanning a few other reviews it absolutely boggles the mind that so few people are mentioning the punt/kick game and how it is basically broken. I don't know if this means that they don't give a shit (a fair enough reason I suppose) or if they think their readers won't, but how you can write a review of this game and not mention this is truly something I cannot wrap my head around.

It's one thing to skip over how the QB Sim stats are crap--that's a really hardcore feature that a lot of users will never notice, but the punt returns? Or the lack of pass rush? Or the Ghost Juke? Or the defensive AI that seemingly shuts off at times? Or the lack of CPU deep balls?

It's kinda hard to miss that stuff. These are issues that don't require a lot of attention; they sort of beat you over the head at boot up.

I've typed thousands of words on NCAA 09, and you guys know how I feel by now -- I think I like the game more than a lot of hardline users despite its *numerous* issues (the latest slider bug revelation is one for the record books) and the few online games I have played have been exceedingly more fun than playing against the CPU (which I am done doing until the patch) but to not mention the game's problems, some of which smack you across the chops within the first 10 minutes of play is just mind blowing.

Anyway that's my soap box for the day. This happens every year when I get back from E3 and listen to marketing speech from developers (not just sports) telling people basically what they want to hear.

The most honest line came from a Madden 2009 producer when I asked about the game's franchise mode.

"We didn't touch any of the code outside of adding true online league support."

"Wow, really? The CPU still won't put players on the IR?"

"No, we didn't mess with it. It's a "low item priority." (I think he meant to say low priority item, but I got the idea. It was day three. We were all gassed.) We did finally add online league support even though we knew going in that only 3-5% of the people would even try it."

Also, I am about to defend EA Sports here. No one is more frustrated about NCAA's bugs and broken features than me. NCAA, even though it seems to continually disappoint me, is a game I look forward to every year because I am waiting for it to recapture the mid decade magic.

The fact that it has some serious issues really sucks, but hat shocks me is that NCAA reps from the development team are actively posting on game forums (outside of EA) trying top identify issue and gather data for a game play patch.

This is huge.

I know the banter about "we're being charged $60 to beta test."

Well, yeah. That ship has sailed, kids. The idea, even just a few years ago, that EA Sports would seek to make their games better instead of gathering data for a fix list for the next edition is a big, big step. We'll see if they come through with the fixes, but if NCAA 09 gets a gameplay patch following the patch that will be out soon to fix the roster bugs, then it will go a long, long way in reestablishing a connection with its users and not just as a stone faced mega corporation that doesn't give a shit.

So , yes, NCAA's problms suck. But it's July. I'm willing to give them a chance to make it right. After all, I did that with a lot of my all time favorite games which ended up being "meh" upon release but classics after additional development.