Dr Death
07-20-2010, 05:16 PM
It's been one week and while NCAA 11 is a lot of fun... it can also cause excruciating frustration for those of us who want more real than video game. Namely... the passing game. I am going to address several issues and possible ways to fix this.
Let's begin w/ the Superman/Mighty Morphin Power Ranger linebackers... Whoever designs the passing game at EA needs an intense course in physics and a few hours on an actual football field. When you have a WR at the 43 yard line, your QB is at the 14, and the LB is standing on the 28, there is no earthly way for him... the LB... to jump up and bat down the pass intended for the WR who is on the 43 yard line. That's 15 yards separating the two players.
Newton, Einstein and about 37 other physics are turning over in their graves at the sight of this. In real football QB's throw the ball with arc, the put air under their passes, they can hit a gnats tiny butt from 25 yards yet in this game all are plagued by this Super Leaping Linebacker crap.
Enough is enough. We have locomotion for forwards, sideways and backwards... how about next year they bring in real-time physics and gravity???
Moving on...
In real life a QB can scan the field at the line of scrimmage... he can look left, he can look right... but not in NCAA 11. If you are lined up on the right hash, and are playing Trips to the left, you will not see your far WR... X in real life, X on 360... I don't know what on PS3... but I do know this... do you remember Steve Grogan? QB for the New England Patriots? He once played QB w/ a neck brace...
http://patriotreport.blogspot.com/grogan.jpg
And this is how I feel when playing QB in this game.
Here's how I would fix this. Keep in mind this will greatly alter the way the passing game is played, so many people may balk at this, but give yourself some time to think through this and I think you'll see it makes sense.
EA tried the Vision Cone, which was cumbersome and took too much time. The only way for a person playing the game to feel like a real QB is to have reads. Remember Joe Montana? Scanning the field... read 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... then BOOM! Completion. My idea is this... give the player/QB... you... or me... the opportunity to set our primary WR, secondary WR and so on... so when we get to the line, if our intended receiver is the X, then after the snap our first look would be the X. Meaning... the QB's head will rotate to the left sideline so we can see X and stop throwing blind passes.
Now, say X is your intended WR but at the line you notice the coverage is something that will prevent him from being open. Give us the ability to change our intended receiver and let us do this at the line. Just as you press B to cycle through your players to send one in motion, do something similar to set the intended WR. Too time consuming? No. It's real. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees do this all the time. So did Colt Brennan and Colt McCoy. So does Case Keenum and Blaine Gabbert.
To make this easy, understand that QB's reads are typically in order. From far left, to left to middle to right to far right. Rarely will you see X be the primary w/ Z... the WR on the far right, being the secondary. Why? Because not too many people can go from looking at the extreme left to the extreme right in an instant with 4, 300 pound men chasing them.
Reads are done in a way that will hopefully get the ball out of the QB's hand quickly. So in the video game, if you have Trips left and are on the right hash, your QB will be able to see 2 and maybe 3 of his receivers just by looking left. Something we can now only do by rolling out. There would need to be an awareness rating in the game so that if all the receivers on the left are covered the QB automatically starts looking right. This could be based on the QB's awareness, or a timing deal... so that after 3 seconds, if he's still standing, he starts looking elsewhere.
I know football and I know how passing is largely timing based. Yet in this game you can't work on timing when YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR WR! Until this issue is addressed properly nobody is ever going to be able to have fun passing the ball. Because now it's either a guessing game or you roll out, many times resulting in sacks. It is also frustrating to narrow your receiver choices down, excluding the far left {X} and far right {Z} receivers because you simply cannot see them. If that far corner is blitzing and I see it instantly, I can get the ball to my WR and negate the blitz. Just like real life.
This is where practice mode would be great. Set your intended WR's there. Just like Formation Subs. Yes, it can change at the line from play to play, but you could make this real, fun and so much better than it is. And the days of blind passes would cease to exist!
Let's begin w/ the Superman/Mighty Morphin Power Ranger linebackers... Whoever designs the passing game at EA needs an intense course in physics and a few hours on an actual football field. When you have a WR at the 43 yard line, your QB is at the 14, and the LB is standing on the 28, there is no earthly way for him... the LB... to jump up and bat down the pass intended for the WR who is on the 43 yard line. That's 15 yards separating the two players.
Newton, Einstein and about 37 other physics are turning over in their graves at the sight of this. In real football QB's throw the ball with arc, the put air under their passes, they can hit a gnats tiny butt from 25 yards yet in this game all are plagued by this Super Leaping Linebacker crap.
Enough is enough. We have locomotion for forwards, sideways and backwards... how about next year they bring in real-time physics and gravity???
Moving on...
In real life a QB can scan the field at the line of scrimmage... he can look left, he can look right... but not in NCAA 11. If you are lined up on the right hash, and are playing Trips to the left, you will not see your far WR... X in real life, X on 360... I don't know what on PS3... but I do know this... do you remember Steve Grogan? QB for the New England Patriots? He once played QB w/ a neck brace...
http://patriotreport.blogspot.com/grogan.jpg
And this is how I feel when playing QB in this game.
Here's how I would fix this. Keep in mind this will greatly alter the way the passing game is played, so many people may balk at this, but give yourself some time to think through this and I think you'll see it makes sense.
EA tried the Vision Cone, which was cumbersome and took too much time. The only way for a person playing the game to feel like a real QB is to have reads. Remember Joe Montana? Scanning the field... read 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... then BOOM! Completion. My idea is this... give the player/QB... you... or me... the opportunity to set our primary WR, secondary WR and so on... so when we get to the line, if our intended receiver is the X, then after the snap our first look would be the X. Meaning... the QB's head will rotate to the left sideline so we can see X and stop throwing blind passes.
Now, say X is your intended WR but at the line you notice the coverage is something that will prevent him from being open. Give us the ability to change our intended receiver and let us do this at the line. Just as you press B to cycle through your players to send one in motion, do something similar to set the intended WR. Too time consuming? No. It's real. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees do this all the time. So did Colt Brennan and Colt McCoy. So does Case Keenum and Blaine Gabbert.
To make this easy, understand that QB's reads are typically in order. From far left, to left to middle to right to far right. Rarely will you see X be the primary w/ Z... the WR on the far right, being the secondary. Why? Because not too many people can go from looking at the extreme left to the extreme right in an instant with 4, 300 pound men chasing them.
Reads are done in a way that will hopefully get the ball out of the QB's hand quickly. So in the video game, if you have Trips left and are on the right hash, your QB will be able to see 2 and maybe 3 of his receivers just by looking left. Something we can now only do by rolling out. There would need to be an awareness rating in the game so that if all the receivers on the left are covered the QB automatically starts looking right. This could be based on the QB's awareness, or a timing deal... so that after 3 seconds, if he's still standing, he starts looking elsewhere.
I know football and I know how passing is largely timing based. Yet in this game you can't work on timing when YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR WR! Until this issue is addressed properly nobody is ever going to be able to have fun passing the ball. Because now it's either a guessing game or you roll out, many times resulting in sacks. It is also frustrating to narrow your receiver choices down, excluding the far left {X} and far right {Z} receivers because you simply cannot see them. If that far corner is blitzing and I see it instantly, I can get the ball to my WR and negate the blitz. Just like real life.
This is where practice mode would be great. Set your intended WR's there. Just like Formation Subs. Yes, it can change at the line from play to play, but you could make this real, fun and so much better than it is. And the days of blind passes would cease to exist!