NCAA Football 09

"Can on-line dynasty mode save NCAA Football 09?"

Thanks to the haphazardly tossed together NCAA Football 08, fans of the series were probably expecting a genuinely decent leap in presentation, gameplay, and innovation from this newest incarnation. NCAA Football 09 decided to rock the college football gaming world by including a brand new feature: On-line dynasty mode. This new way of playing the game was the flagship of the title, luring in players nationwide to put up or shut up, as everyone vied for a National Championship. Sadly, EA put all of its eggs into one basket, and some of them got broken.

On-line dynasty is mode is a way for up to 12 players to join a single dynasty season and battle it out for a National Championship. Players can choose their own schedules (which, regrettably, are set up solely by the Commissioner of the league), go after any recruit they want (which other users may be targeting as well), and play head-to-head against other players during a season where even a single loss really matters. The premise is outstanding and it is the primary reason I decided to pick up NCAA Football 09 this year. However, if not handled with the utmost of care, on-line dynasty mode falls to pieces.

The biggest problem with on-line dynasty isn't how it is runs. The idea is great. The reality is that it relies on a lot of human players who don't follow through. I've already been in a few on-line dynasties that have fallen apart. After wasting time setting up my schedule and recruiting, the league just sits there. The Commissioner doesn't log in to advance the week, or, more often than not, people who originally said they wanted to join the league don't accept their invites, or when they do, they don't play their games or do their recruiting. Then you get people who just quit the dynasty after it has started, which precipitates more users quitting the dynasty, too. That leaves you with a bunch of wasted time and an empty dynasty against the computer again.

Combine the above with some glitchy stat tracking (some games are played, won, and then the game decides to make up a score and give the user a loss anyway), and you come away feeling less than enthusiastic about on-line dynasty mode. Don't get me wrong. When done properly and with a good group of people, on-line dynasty is a blast and worth every penny. Battling for the same recruits, playing important games against each other, and fighting for Heisman supremacy can be so much fun. However, if you don't have a few reliable buddies of your own to play this mode with, it is very likely you will end up spending a lot of time in an empty dynasty.

Outside of the new on-line dynasty mode, our friends at EA tossed in a "new" Mascot only football game. I love how they called it "new" when they've done it before. The only difference is that the mascots can do insane juke moves and have some cool animations that only they can do. Too bad there really isn't a whole lot of appeal to it once you have played it one time.

There are also a few mini-games, such as HORSE (using FG kicking), or a bowling-style game where you get no more than two plays from the 10 yard line to score a TD. If you score on the first play, you get a strike. If you don't, every yard you gain counts as the number of pins you hit. If you score on the 2nd play, you get a spare. You play offense and defense and try to keep the computer out of the endzone, too. The mini-games aren't bad, they just aren't terribly fun unless you are playing against another live opponent.

Of course you can still play against other users worldwide if you so choose. The disconnection rates of a lot of the players has looked outstandingly high, however. I haven't tried one myself, as I got the game to play on-line dynasty mode against other players instead. But anyway, at least you can do it.

As for the regular gameplay, I'm not terribly impressed. The AI is either always on it's "A" game or it is completely lost. You will either throw 5 interceptions or you won't throw any. AI defenders will constantly stand behind WRs on curl routes. The AI takes lousy angles on outside running plays. It is better than last year's game on the PS2, but come on. A safety should be able to figure out how to get into position to tackle a player without taking such a horrible angle as to miss completely. The run game feels weird, mostly because of a bunch of new animations added to the ball carrier. There are a lot of sick spins and jukes available now, which are cool to watch, but a pain to defend. Players can stop on a dime and change direction, while WRs will catch a ball and it takes them all day to get themselves turned around and in the direction you want them to go.

The graphics don't look much better. They are fine, they just don't look really new. Running animations for defenders look odd, too, as the runners don't move their arms or legs enough. It is like they are taking tiny steps when they run.

Also, I am no fan of the camera angle, which cannot be changed. It plays too close to the field, and outside WRs constantly run off the sides of the screen. It requires you to move the QB all the way over to that side of the field to see if they are covered. Additionally, 2-point conversions are a pain in the rear as you cannot see the outside WRs at all once the ball is snapped.

Speaking of things you can't change in-game, the controls have been changed around a bit. The sprint button has been moved, for whatever reasons I'll never know, and there is no way to set it up to the "old" style controller setup. You do have some latitude in changing the controls, but several buttons are "locked out" (meaning you can't change those particular buttons). For example, the jump snap button is now L2 instead of X. L2 is locked out, so it cannot be changed from that button and returned to the X button. Why would EA do that? If you are going to change the buttons around, at least make it customizable so that you can change it back.

One thing you can change is the music played when you score a TD. You can now input music saved on your PS3 and set it up to play instead of the regular school band after a TD. I've never tried this myself, but a few people I know have and they think it is okay. Nothing great, nothing bad. Just something different and it was nice of EA to give it a shot.

NCAA Football 09 also boasts a "Home Field Advantage" which actually does something other than make the screen shake. Now, when the fans are loud, the passing and rushing routes with shake and squirm violently, effectively making them impossible to read. And, in a particularly loud stadium, like Autzen Stadium in Oregon, the icons will actually change to question marks in addition to the squiggly lines for the routes. Now you can't even see which icons goes with which WR on passing plays. Devilish indeed.

And finally, this new version has added an "Ice the kicker" ability and a QB question mode. Ice the kicker is simple. If the game is close with time running out, just use a time out. The kicker will now have to kick from a different kicking angle and the kicking meter will be frozen over. The freeze is so bad that you can barely see the power meter fill up, and the angling/accuracy portion is smaller and harder to see, too. That's great. The QB question comes up when an interception is thrown. You will see 3 possible defenses and be able to slow-mo parts of the play that just occurred to try to figure out which defense was used when you threw the pick. If you are right, you regain some of your composure for your QB, if not, you lose some. It is simple and quick and doesn't take away from the game intensity in my opinion at all.

-- Bottom Line --

EA really appears to have tried to deliver for the college football fans this year. The inclusion of on-line dynasty is what we've all been waiting for, and it really comes through when done right. Problem is, stories of users not accepting invites, not doing weekly activities, and/or just quitting the league are already piling up. The other new features are decent, such as Ice the Kicker and the QB Question, along with the Home Field Advantage are nice additions. The lackluster and inconsistent AI, coupled with a bad camera angle and annoying controls drags the title down a bit. It's still good football, it just isn't great. But if you can get some reliable friends together to play on-line dynasty with, you will probably be able to honestly give this game a much higher score.

Peace.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/08

Game Release: NCAA Football 09 (US, 07/15/08)