Getting the Love of Football Gaming Back

Last year was probably the worst year of football gaming for me in a long time. I haven't been impressed with any next gen football game and I only briefly owned NCAA 10. I was disappointed with it and sold it after two separate attempts to like it. I've played over 150 games on NCAA 09 and had fun with it (I know some of you hated that game) but I'm tired of that engine and the flaws I've dealt with.

I don't want to have to try to like NCAA 11. I want the game to suck me in and put a smile on my face. I want to look forward to playing it every night. I want to love playing it like the time I bought NCAA 06 (first NCAA game after years of Madden only). I think the locomotion will do wonders for the game and the demo will give me a good feel for it. I hope NCAA 11 rekindles the fun factor I used to have when playing football games.

I don't have the ability to vote in this poll for some reason. However, I would be in the "Fun Factor isn't there like PS2 days" camp. That being said, I'm cautiously optimistic about NCAA 11. I've really liked the announcements thus far especially the improved AI blocking. My biggest fear is that the new improvements to the blocking is going to make defense virtually non existent. The Demo on Monday is going to be a HUGE factor in determining whether it is a pre-order/midnight purchase or whether it is rental first material once again.

I am still dreaming of 06 with next gen graphics... I would never turn that game off.

Given how games and gamers have changed, I'm not sure we'll ever get back to the pure fun level we had back in the day (Tecmo Super Bowl) or even on last gen.

Games have gotten more complex, expectations have changed, the bar has been raised - IMO we're at a point where we have to evaluate each game for what it is versus what games were 5-15 years ago. Missing LG features have hurt Madden & NCAA, but they also don't get enough credit for new features they couldn't have done in the past.

Like Online Dynasty. OD has raised the bar for me so much that I'm actually enjoying the new crop of games more than years past. NCAA 2004 was the last time, that I can recall, that I kept the title until (actually past) release day of the next title. I didn't purchase 05 because I kept playing 2004. 06 was very solid, but it just didn't pull me in the same way. I think that was the year I started trying to work on my 95 Ohio State Buckeyes, so not having certain features hurt my enjoyment.

But with Online Dynasty, I kept NCAA 09 until release of 10, and I'm trading 10 in today to take advantage of Gamestop's 50% credit. Otherwise I'd still be playing it ... except most everyone is waiting 11 so badly they've stopped playing, lol.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Like Online Dynasty. OD has raised the bar for me so much that I'm actually enjoying the new crop of games more than years past. NCAA 2004 was the last time, that I can recall, that I kept the title until (actually past) release day of the next title. I didn't purchase 05 because I kept playing 2004. 06 was very solid, but it just didn't pull me in the same way. I think that was the year I started trying to work on my 95 Ohio State Buckeyes, so not having certain features hurt my enjoyment.

But with Online Dynasty, I kept NCAA 09 until release of 10, and I'm trading 10 in today to take advantage of Gamestop's 50% credit. Otherwise I'd still be playing it ... except most everyone is waiting 11 so badly they've stopped playing, lol.

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How long are they doing the 50% credit? Actually nevermind I found out today was the last day. Just paid half of my reservation off with 2 games.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Like Online Dynasty. OD has raised the bar for me so much that I'm actually enjoying the new crop of games more than years past.

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That is me as well. For me, NCAA on last gen (PS2) was something that I would play for a while (until around the end of September or November) and then I'd play nothing but Madden if I played football at all. The only time NCAA lasted longer than that was when I started doing created cupcake teams and trying to build them up. Then I would get to season 3 or 4 and get bored of them because of how poor the recruiting was on last gen.

With '09 and '10, I've played more NCAA than ever before. I don't even hardly play offline dynasties anymore. If I play, it's online dynasties mostly.

My fun factor has definitely increased 10-fold to what it used to be for me.

I think the biggest thing that I haven't liked with the move to the PS3 has been the player movement. The lack of momentum has always bugged me. I think the new locomotion will make the game a lot smoother and bring back that old fun factor.

They have finally added back most of the old features so that's good. The cpu now throws deep again and they seemed to have fixed the cpu QBs throwing a ton of picks too. Hopefully they will have scrambling QBs take off more often as well. But the player movement has always been too twitchy imo. I can't wait to see how the players feel in the demo.

Jaymo, you should go back and re-read the OS preview for the game. Bumble (Christian McLeod) is a lot like me in that he loved NCAA 06 and has been disappointed with next gen football. He also preferred NCAA 09 over NCAA 10 so a lot of his thoughts mirror mine. The fact he loved his time with NCAA 11 is a huge plus for me.

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Originally Posted by Kingpin32

How long are they doing the 50% credit?

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For future reference: Gaming Deals Thread

Fun factor isn't there. Don't get me wrong, it's still fun. Nowhere near like back in the day when I had just gobs of games to play through. These days... I buy only a handful of games each year, though NCAA is one.

But I think that has more to do with me getting older and looking forward to the next step in my life... I still enjoy them, but I'd much rather be outside these days.

Outside? Where the sun is? Why would you want to do that? The sun hurts.