Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

NCAA Football 09 Review

by Zack Rovinsky August 9th 2008 4:12 AM CDT0 Comments

After a few years being portrayed as the bane of both gamers and humanity's creative spirit, EA seems to have settled into a comfortable role as the king of "pretty much what you'd expect" (a darn sight better than Activision: the king of "again with this shit?"). They rarely surprise but they even more rarely dissapoint. If that's what it takes to make hundreds of millions of dollars it makes you wonder why other people try so hard. The only thing really worth mentioning is when they screw up and, low and behold, they did. But, as with many things EA, the flaws of NCAA Football 09 aren't really as big or as small a deal as many would have you believe.

First, lets just get the new stuff out of the way. The grass now resembles a well-mowed green shag carpet rather than a gym mat with grass clippings scattered on it, which is an improvement in my book. The create-a-player and campus legend modes have gotten just a bit deeper since last year. The replay options have been fine-tuned. Custom TD celebrations allow you to chose between kneeling to thank god, jumping around, partying with the mascot, or just running around like a jackass. The player models now resemble actual 18-22 year old human males rather than an anime artist's over-muscled rendering of football players. Finally, as always, the rosters are updated to exclude all the guys on the covers.


All of this is staying within the realm of "pretty much what you'd expect", but that's when laziness and complacency rear their ugly heads. There are serious issues in a few vital places that don't break the game, but can cause headaches for players. The CPU sliders, which are supposed to affect the level of computer-controller opponent play, do absolutely nothing. Instead, the human sliders, which affect the play of all your teammates you don't have the giant super-brain to control, affect both human and CPU play levels. They cancel each other out and bring us back to doing absolutely nothing. Also, the online dynasty, meant to be the future of fantasy football, sometimes simulates games humans have already played. Messing up the results and screwing the whole endeavor.

There are more little disappointments beyond the technical fuck-ups too. It's way, way too easy to just blow past CPU defenders with a speedy player. I should know, it's the basis of my success in campus legend mode. Also, 3 games into the next generation EA still hasn't bothered to render the stadiums of smaller division-1 schools, instead sticking them in generic bowls. As an attendee of one of those smaller schools this majorly pisses me off. I want my Kelly-Shorts!

On top of all that is the general feeling that NCAA isn't nearly as ambitious as Madden. While big bro' is touting a game that adapts to the player's skill and really teaches the game, NCAA is still chugging along with ignorable features, roster updates, and mascot games. Of course, I wouldn't be talking about all this if they had just made the game polished and solid.

Instead, they've traded uninspiring for unacceptable. EA's laziness has cost the franchise it's hard earned reputation, screwed over fans who thought they could buy another annual sports game update without any nasty surprises, and shone a light on just how half-assed their college football games have become.

At least, in a world with any justice it would. Instead things will be back to normal for NCAA 2010 and, as long as they make sure the game isn't broken, we'll be back to putting up with "pretty much what you'd expect".