NCAA Football 11: New Stadiums and Renovations

[CLW]

The stadiums look amazing in the screen shots. I'm not too picky about this stuff though. I seldom if EVER catch myself really paying attention to any of the background/stadium while playing the game.

[Deuce]

The stadiums look amazing in the screen shots. I'm not too picky about this stuff though. I seldom if EVER catch myself really paying attention to any of the background/stadium while playing the game.

I'm the same way...after a few games I don't even notice.

[Jayrah]

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' bout when we get a stadium blog! And I'll cue the theatrics:

I'm guessing that the entrance tarp wasn't added to Martin like Florida's were (those look really good), since it wasn't mentioned. Small sacrifice, but big picture, they did an outstanding job with the renovation part. The entrance gate looks real nice and they reworked new schematics for the buildings behind. The only little touch I'm wondering about is the entrance gate at night. The "Martin Stadium" and WSU logos along the top of the structure light up and glow red at night when the stadium lights go on. If that touch was added, I'll go nuts! Regardless, great job EA boys! You done us proud! A couple minor touches next year and we'll be golden.

[Jayrah]

My review:

This is a fantastic job by the boys at EA to make a huge stride this season in the atmospheric part of this game. To be honest, EVERY single stadium is going to look like it's been renovated because of the lighting and the obvious effort to make the home team look brighter and stand out more in the stands. There is plenty of team color to go along, and it looks like student and visitor sections will stand out more than ever!

It really seemed like EA felt they reached their peak with the graphics so there was nothing to look fwd to in that regard. NCAA 11 is looking beautiful! I'm playin ncaa 10 and everything looks so cartoony. lol.

I don't understand the first part of this. It seems to me like they are just hitting their stride! Maybe you only meant for '10, but that's not how I read it for some reason. But yes, even in these screen shots, you can see how much EA put into this game not being "cartoony" this year. It's refreshing really. IMO, this year the overall picture is going to be so much better, that we will be able to overlook some of the little things that would otherwise drive us nuts. Like 'cartoon' character fans for example. The overall picture has improved so drastically that I will not care for the most part about those 2D fans individually. I can see that in the demo. Another example, a couple of bad animation tackles, or whatever, will be overlooked more than the past because the overall movement of the game is just so much better. If the issue is major, it's still major, but the minor stuff can be looked through for the most part. In the past, like I said, that wasn't the case, and everything just added and added and every minor detail was initialed in all caps.

This is an older pic, but it illustrates a typical Rice crowd:

In it's most recent renovation the end zone seats were eliminated entirely:

Definitely something that Adam and co. should consider fixing for NCAA 12.

Specifically on your thoughts. I LOVE the look of that crowd. I don't agree with the full sellout, but this is one of the few majorly off projects that EA has done that actually looks better than the real life counterpart. That was just humorous to me though.

"IF" they are looking into customizable options for stadiums, something like "tarping" off part of the stadium to fit the crowd should be an option in some capacity.

Also (and regardless of customizable or not) they should look into a dynasty feature of retooled dynamic attendance. One of which the team that isn't drawing enough fans to the game gets a section of their stadium covered in tarp and/or blocked off. Blocking off a section of the upper deck or end zone would be a cool addition for a low tier team that is really struggling. For example, they would completely retool % of crowd coverage, and if there is a 3 or 4 year period where the team doesn't meet their required % of seats, then a section will be blocked. The % would not necessarily be lost, but would instead be re-spread to the remaining available area.

Also would go the other way. So if there was a period of sellouts for 2 years or something, to add to revenue and availability, endzone seating could be added or tarps could be removed to add space. Like I said you don't even need to customize that to our options, just make it a part of the game. I'm thinking that would especially add to the choosing of a stadium when creating a team, as you would know that all the space will not always be full, and it would be a fun challenge to fill the stadium at some point. Could even be made into a 'challenge' item from a 1 star to a powerhouse in a 70,000+ stadium.

NCAA basketball 10 had attendance as its own prestige rating. I liked that a whole lot, it was just very cool to understand what you were doing to draw these fans and what you needed to do more. I think football should adopt that idea and really make dynamic attendance a part of the game in 2 particular ways. 1: What I've mentioned with % and stadium options. 2: I would like to see this carry over into scheduling as well. Actually I would like to see a new feature in the future, in addition to a possible AD mode, that disallows home games for teams drawing X % of fans to upper level teams. Many times as it was in '10, top ranked teams would go on the road to face team Nobody. That should not happen, and a feature like that would alleviate the issue.

Indoor Practice: Nice touch adding the cars passing by. Really caught my attention and gives a live feeling to the situation. In the past, that feeling in practice mode is null and void.

Texas DKR: Moving the field closer was a great addition. It looks like the field may be bigger this year (not just texas but in general proportions) and that fills out more space, so by default it seems that every field will be a little closer to the stands. That is a small thing that bugged me last year too, how far away the fields were removed from the stands. Side note: Texas and Oregon and Florida have to be the most annoying places to play. You can't look in any general direction without seeing the name or symbol of the school in every nook and cranny!

I could go on all night with how proud I am of the EA team for taking the time to care about the most smallest of updates this year. Still more to be done, and probably some stadiums that need additions, but the big picture is really good. The difference in the look of stadiums makes me want to go to every stadium this year. In the past there was about 70 stadiums that I didn't even care to visit because they were bland and uninviting. I want to go to Ball St for heaven sakes! Really impressive.

The only stadium that will still look absolutely awful is Husky Stadium in Seattle

[jschwa17]

This is horse shit! No new pressboxes for Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium! What the hell, they only defend the country EA!

[cdj]

This is horse shit! No new pressboxes for Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium! What the hell, they only defend the country EA!

When it comes to stadium & field art updates, they need the schools to sign off and approve changes if not inform them directly of changes. You just have to hope someone involved with Navy athletics eithers get in contact with EA or responds when contacted by the studio.

[Jayrah]

When it comes to stadium & field art updates, they need the schools to sign off and approve changes if not inform them directly of changes. You just have to hope someone involved with Navy athletics eithers get in contact with EA or responds when contacted by the studio.

Or, Jschwa17, you should get some pics and info together and we can try to get it to Adam for '12. That way they can ask the school to sign off on the update. I never heard anything about that on any of the boards, so it probably never came up in their updates.

[cdj]

Or, Jschwa17, you should get some pics and info together and we can try to get it to Adam for '12. That way they can ask the school to sign off on the update. I never heard anything about that on any of the boards, so it probably never came up in their updates.

I meant to add that as well. If possible, all NCAA Football community members should take pics and share them in the proper thread - that we will create on Tuesday. Pics posted by the community helped lead to the drastic amount of changes in NCAA 11.