EA NCAA Football 2002 - Older game appreciation

[ram29jackson]

Gamespot 2002 video review




http://www.gamespot.com/video/2797872






youtube video of some guy playing

[ram29jackson]

haha, design and dialog

[ram29jackson]

the guy is 22 and kind of a dweeb , but, oh well


dig the Boise uni's

[Rudy]

NCAA '06 was my first NCAA game so I can't comment on the older games. The first NCAA game available in Canada was actually NCAA '07 I think. There was some sort of embargo. I was a big NFL fan but after Madden '05 and NFL 2K5 disappointed me I figured I would take a shot and order NCAA '06 online after some good previews. I was hooked.

NCAA '06 was a lot of fun but was still pretty flawed at the same time. The one thing I still like a lot better about that game was the player movement and weight. I wish next gen NCAA had more weight to the players and the actual weight of the players meant something. By saying that I don't want the jukes and spins to be toned down. I like that (and if you could bring back the stiff arm from it's disappearing act it would be appreciated.) But I really miss the weight of the players on defense. Playing defense was a lot more rewarding on the PS2. I find playing pass defense to be very tough on the PS3. I rarely make any plays. I think I get one user pick about every 50 games.

[ram29jackson]

I'll say more later but i basically pulled out the old games earlier this year including NFL 2k5- EA NCAA 2002-03-04-05 after playing those i was completely disgusted with ps3 NCAA 10. the players were just stick figures skipping here and there compared to the older stuff. I obviously buy EA stuff so dont accuse me of bashing them but last year was just horrible.

i'm pretty sure ps2 NCAA 07 was my first year of the online play experience...?

[UGA14]

I had my Sega games out the other day... College Football '95. Then I think I went from then until NCAA Football '98, and I've had NCAA every year since then.

[griffin2608]

Old Gen football is still my favorite. I used to play NCAA 09 on my back compatible ps3 until it broke. I went out and got the new ps3 but I still have my old one and as soon as I get it fixed I will go back to old gen NCAA. I only play dynasty mode and the old gen has so many more features. It is really kind of sad but the new football games cant even touch old gen football games.

[ram29jackson]

http://www.searchingforbillyedelin.c...-fan-of-the-ea


Searching for Billy Edelin -An Exploration in College Basketball
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How I became a fan of… the EA Sports NCAA Football series
by Nick Fasulo on Jul 5, 2010 6:16 PM EDT in EA Sports NCAA FB 11

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

To celebrate the July 13 release of NCAA Football 2011, EA Sports asked the dozens of SB Nation college bloggers to help promote and preview the latest installment of the highly successful series. Luckily for EA Sports, I along with many of my high school and college friends are some of the more ardent fans of the series, so you don’t need a lot of arm twisting from this guy to gush about a personal favorite past time. As I enter adulthood, I’m still not sure if it’s proper or embarrassing that NCAA Football remains part of my life, but I must admit that it's the true catalyst for what hypes me up and gets me thinking about the upcoming college football season.

My first memory of NCAA Football was back in 2001. Play Station 2 was the console of choice, and it was then when it became customary to pick up the new game just before the start of school. Because who actually comes home from a hard day of high school and golf practice, and decides to study before bed? For those that remember the 2001 college football season, the Miami Hurricanes were king, both in real life and as 64-bit football players on NCAA Football 2002. Still one of the most awesome collections of interscholastic athletes, the "U" had enough NFL talent to fill an entire pro team’s draft board and it was a blast to pit their stout defense against the option-centric Nebraska Cornhuskers, led by the dynamic Eric Crouch.

Two years later, laid up from the removal of his wisdom teeth, I spent hours recovering with NCAA Football 2004 (and pain killers of course). The Auburn Tigers were the trendy team that season, and I took it upon myself to groom Jason Campbell into a #1 NFL pick, uploading his draft class onto the premier EA Sports Madden series. The Tigers went undefeated and played for the national title... if only it were a case of art imitating life.

Recently, my friends and I all agree that EA Sports has done an incredible job keeping NCAA Football series fresh by constantly tweaking the gameplay. Users are challenged to actually know that the heck they’re doing when their team steps to the line of scrimmage. No longer can you just drop back on 4th-and-26 to keep your drive moving, run an HB toss with your big, burly running-back and expect a 20-yard gain, or always feel peachy as you try and punch it in late in the game against a rival opponent. Heck, the game even manages to trick us into thinking Lee Corso is still the spry and witty analyst he once was.

I hail from New England - Maine to be exact - so I don't hold claim to a story that opens with "how I became a fan of [STUPENDOUS COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM]." But I am a huge fan of the game and everything that surrounds it, especially the NCAA Football series.

[ram29jackson]

HECK, i'M just impressed you Nebraska freaks got your jersey patch back than too haha

2002-2003-2004














USC 2004= TOO BAD HAHA

[JeffHCross]

I had my Sega games out the other day... College Football '95.

All, College Football's National Championship. Honestly, one of the worst game titles ever ... but such a fun game to play. That started my addiction to both college football and to CFB video games.

And David Palmer.

[Iron Dragon]

My rankings of the last-gen games overall:

1. '07.. played the crap out of this game, bought NCAA '08, it sucked, went back to '07.
2. '09.. fixed the little things we hated of '08, varsity mode made the game play smooth.
3. '04.. 55-man rosters, but fun as heck in it's time.
4. '06.. I remember the deep ball being too easy, I think, but it was a ton of alot better than '05.
5. '08.. Better than '05
6. '05.. Bad.

'02 and '03 I have no idea.

[JeffHCross]

'03 and '04 probably were my best years on this series. '03 was huge because it was our national title year. That was the first year I tried to follow real life recruiting, and I tried to bring guys to my Ohio State video game team that had signed with the real Buckeyes.

'04 I discovered how difficult it was for me to deal with losing as the Buckeyes, when I went 0-3 against Iowa in a 3 day span (yes, I didn't save it). Grew so frustrated that I gave up on my Ohio State dynasty and instead built the 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide (just copying and pasting the Historical Roster that came with the game) and ran a Dynasty with them. Broke Oklahoma's win streak record, then promptly dropped two straight games to the CPU a few weeks later.

[Rudy]

'04 I discovered how difficult it was for me to deal with losing as the Buckeyes, when I went 0-3 against Iowa in a 3 day span (yes, I didn't save it). Grew so frustrated that I gave up on my Ohio State dynasty and instead built the 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide (just copying and pasting the Historical Roster that came with the game) and ran a Dynasty with them. Broke Oklahoma's win streak record, then promptly dropped two straight games to the CPU a few weeks later.

For shame, for shame!!!


I think the only time I did that over the last 10+ years was in NCAA '09. That game was hard on All American so I took Alabama in the SEC and after suffering through a mediocre record in year one I started 1-5 in year two and was down 35-0 at halftime against someone. Every stupid thing that could happen did. Fumbled returned for TDs. Pick 6s with LBs leaping high through the air. An inconceivable string of bad luck and I shut it off. My job security was already at 0. Well I ended up replaying the game the next day and won. I went on a winning streak and finished 7-5 to save my job. Felt cheap but I had never been so pissed and frustrated before.

[JeffHCross]

That's exactly what I was getting at, Rudy. There are very, very rare circumstances where I'll quit or lose a game without saving. But when I was playing Iowa vs Ohio State that year, I refused to lose to the Hawkeyes. But it kept happening! And I couldn't deal with it, so I didn't save. Until this year (with '95 Ohio State), I haven't played a dynasty with Ohio State since. I've learned.

[psuexv]

4. '06.. I remember the deep ball being too easy, I think, but it was a ton of alot better than '05.

Yeah in '06 you could run playaction and send your strong side receiver on a streak and the safety would bite about half of the time and if he did it was 6.

[ram29jackson]

...and along with all this...this years EA NCAA is pretty decent on a video game level. But i have a confession to make haha.

I get the NCAA's and the Maddens and play them because I am a sports fan etc. and I always thought they were good for what they were. But I rediscovered the old NFL 2k5 again ( I aint going to get into -bashing-compare-contrast crap- I'm sure these guys all know each other and a few have worked in both companies)

I played allot of Madden in the past years so I would try playing the 2k5 for a day and just think it looked too sloppy or choppy and never got the controls and thought the animations were white trashy/childish.

over a week ago I guess i just started playing it after looking at some youtube vids ( the fact is, i bought about 5 used copies a year ago just to have as back up games and appreciation, along with some old EA games ). I cant stop playing it as of now. I finally understand everything every kid or whomever it has been on the internet who supported it as a superior football game.
The more i play, the more I see. pass trajectory and timing make different things happen on pass plays. Run plays can be really entertaining but not easy depend on what you can do with the controls. I have seen a ton of different end zone celebrations. its just more realistic-spontaneous and random in all the right ways for a pro football game.
Its sad I cant realy share the experience playing another person though. Other than that, i just fell that this is a fantastic game even though I didnt get to see the highlight stuff because i didnt have an xbox haha.
....and trying to beat that Jamie dude is a pain in the ass

[Rudy]

Buy 2K4 if you can get your hands on it. That was the better game imo. CPU QB AI in 2K5 was horrible. The game improved in some areas but also took a step back in quite a few others. The biggest reason people loved 2K5 is that it was their first 2K football game. If they had played 2K4 they would have probably been a bit upset over some negative things.

[ram29jackson]

Buy 2K4 if you can get your hands on it. That was the better game imo. CPU QB AI in 2K5 was horrible. The game improved in some areas but also took a step back in quite a few others. The biggest reason people loved 2K5 is that it was their first 2K football game. If they had played 2K4 they would have probably been a bit upset over some negative things.

locally I couldn't find copies of 2k4...but if that's the case, how come everyone does 2k5 vids and not 2k4 videos?

[JeffHCross]

how come everyone does 2k5 vids and not 2k4 videos?

Probably because it was the last version, so it's the most common out there. Same reason that all the NASCAR mods are for NASCAR 2003 (last version Papyrus made) and lots of people talk about College Hoops 2k8.

On Amazon you can get 2k4 for .77 (plus shipping) for PS2 and .01 (plus shipping) for Xbox.

[Rudy]

2K4 only sold around 500,000 copies I think because they sold it at $60. 2K5 sold about 2.5 million copies because they were only $20. So many people had never played 2K football before that it became a cult hit. 2K5 also had better presentation than 2K4 and the weekly highlight show with videos really got people going. But the cpu QB AI, the lousy screen pass, the poor timing on counters, the goofy momentum animation they added rather than true momentum, the broken first round in the draft all took steps back in 2K5. 2K4 was more of a power back game and broken tackles were something that was featured in that one. At the time I played these games 2K4 is an awfully close second to NCAA 06 for the PS2 football game of all time.

2K5 also had Flying Finn's editor which let you do mass updates on the rosters for the XBox (not PS2). It had tremendous support. But if you played it you had to do massive slider adjustments, roster edits and use performance EQ on just to get the cpu QBs from being game killing awful. In the end the cpu QB AI was worse than the cpu QB AI in NCAA 08 on the PS3 which is pretty bad. Some people could accept it or overlook it but there wasn't much you could do with how many picks the cpu QBs threw. The big issue was the cpu QB never threw deep in 2K4. They adjusted the AI to throw deep in 2K5 which ended up making them brain dead.