That sounds about right. Ball State and UNI aren't exactly defensive juggernaughts.

I play a ton of Cover 2, sometimes man on the outside and sometimes zone on the outside.

With Hodge and Greenway both 97 OVR, using any play where than can spy or just roam is killer.

And Bryan Mattison (LDE, on the right as you're playing) isn't bad either...

Well, Madden is smoother, but I didn't feel it was realistic. Every player could change direction like Barry Sanders...

Yep. And the game against Iowa State was alot of fun. It was really alot closer, but they were up 17-14 and headed in for another TD when they're QB fumbled on the ONE. I marched 99 yards and took the 21-17 lead and then they immediately threw a pick.

Against Ball State I struggled a bit throwing (just getting used to it) but once I found out the Sucklones' defense was pretty true-to-life (they were stout up front and stuffed my run) I pulled out the shotgun and abused their young secondary.

Tate hit 8 straight passes at one point and finished with 4 TDs and no INT's.

I normally play one of the DEs, whichever doesn't have a TE on his side, and take him really wide. I don't get to the QB often, but getting in the backfeild seems to rattle the QB and open holes for my blitzing LBs. Running that Thunder Green, Miles (#27) is a freaking sack machine (2 games with 5 sacks).

When my blitzing isn't working, I pretty much use cover 2 exclusively, and just toy with the positioning.

I'm at haltime against Indiana, and they are giving me fits. I can't stop their option, both their RBs are faster than hell, and they have a WR that's always open deep. I've only forced one punt so far. Luckily, their run d sucks so I'm killing them up the middle.

I was doing good against Ball St until they went to the option late in the game. The scored 21 on me in the second half. fucking option.

I beat UNI 88-0. They have to be the worst team in the game. Two punts returned, one INT returned, and 295 yards rushing on about 23 carries.

The Ohio State game was tough, but for some reason they changed their offense in the second half and I pulled away. The computer AI doesn't appear to know how to stick with what's working.

And If I haven't mentioned it, I hate the fucking option. It's good for 40+ yards on me about 75% of the time.

Against Iowa State, Stevie Hicks opened with an 87-yard TD against me. I adjusted and he had 30 yards on 20 more carries.

That option is pretty hard to defense though.

I haven't had much experience playing aganist a team that runs options, but normally, I would perfer a Nickel or Dime Package to stop that, since I would be more concerned on the outside than the inside, plus it would get more bodies on the outside. Of course, the risk is a FB ripping a 20 yarder in the middle.

I can't bring myself to run a Dime because IA has two 97 ovr LBs. I don't even like the nickel, because my worst LB has 14 sacks 7 games into the season. I started running a 4-3 package that rushes 1 LB and drops the other two into zone and it seems to help against the option. Thing is, they torch me with it, then stop running it. The AI is lacking.

The reason why some of the guys don't sign is because they don't qualify. I know most people didn't scout on that game and I didn't most of the time. But to answer your question if you scouted some of those guys from that game, you'd find out their gpa's were so low they didn't qualify. So you basically scouted a 5 star moron who couldn't get in your school or anyone elses explaining why he sat there all 5 weeks.

That's understandable. I would have probably done the same thing if I had LB's that are over 90's and all.

But it's pretty useful, if your LB's are average at best, but have a excellent secondary.

What difficulty level are you playing on?

I definitely found a problem with pass defense AI on Varsity. Just played my RftH game against Ohio State and between the two teams we have FOURTEEN passes of over 40 yards. Any time there's single coverage, no matter how good or bad, just throw it up. It will be caught.

I'm playing the default level, whatever that is.

Yea I threw a lot against the Luckeyes too. They held me to under 150 on the ground (only team to do it all year). I just don't pass a lot because I want to keep my stats up on my RB.

I did a simulation of the final three games of the season, and lost my only game to Minnesota at home. Won the Heisman, Doak Walker, Maxwell, and some other awards for O-linemen. Also won the Fiesta bowl. I'm simulating the off-season right now, just to see what happens. I'll go back and play those games instead of saving the results though.

Ok, it's official, RftH sucks. Year two, after 2200 yards and 40 TDs, I'm still the fourth best RB on my team. I'm an 84 overall, starting ahead of an 89, 90, and 94, all of whom are much faster. I'm not going to play another season with a slow ass RB.

My reccomendation to anyone playing race for the Heisman...don't be a RB. It's just too boring to play a guy that isn't fast.

As far as the '06 Hawkeyes...

Offense: Tate is a 99. Three good HBs (not counting me). Two very good FBs. O-line is mediocre. WRs are burners, but high 80s overall. A good blocking TE, and Chandler is a solid recieving TE.

Defense: D-line is pretty solid, with #99 as a 90. LBs, other than #27 are pretty bad. CBs are decent. Safeties are very good.

Overall, the '06 Hawks aren't as good IMO. Better on O, but worse on D. Maybe if I had recruited myself rather than simulating, I could have got an impact freshman or two.

that may be the case some of the time, but many of the unsigned players are walkons. For instance, say you're missing a MLB spot and you have a guy who has you as the number one team. After signing walkons he'll usually be on your team.

At least it was that way in 2005

I started as a rushing QB, did the option drill and freaking owned in the drill. Got an offer from #1 USC and #14 OK. Went with OK. First game halfway through the first quarter I had rushed for 150 yards, and passed for 200. He started as an 85 ranked QB with like 90+ speed. Half the time I outrun the RB on the option.

It was awesome.

:rockon:

The problem isn't RftH mode necessarily, it's Varsity level. Of course, that can happen on any level if you're good enough. On 2004, I was playing a dynasty as Utah State and in my 2nd year, recruited an 81OVR RB with 97SPD. He rushed for 2000 yards as a freshman, over 9 yards per carry (far and away an all-time record). That was on Heisman level.

I'll be out with some sliders soon. And I don't think you always get the same slow RB, mine had 84 SPD.

On the 06 Hawkeyes roster -- Tate can spread the ball. I've found that using Chandler, Melloy, and Brodell at TE works really well for passing, but it hurts the running game a bit. Hinkel and Solomon are just solid, and Solomon can make people miss. The guy I'm most surprised with is Calvin Davis. Part of it is that, because he's in the slot, there's often mismatches. But the guy is REALLY fast.

On defense, both DE's (Kenny Iwebema and Bryan Mattison) are doing pretty good.

so htis, tell me how this years NCAA is ?

Cause im planning on gettin it next week, is it worth it ?

My complaint isn't that it's too easy. It's that I'm forced to play an unexciting RB. It's a boring grind to get him his stats, and I can't play a balanced O and still get him his Heisman numbers.

I was hoping he would gain some decent speed after posting the numbers he did, but going into year 2, he's still a freaking snail. I can still get my yards, it's just not fun. Especially since runs to the outside and screen passes are pretty ineffective with a slow RB.

Also, those '06 Hawkeyes comments I made are referring to the second year Hawks on the game.

I'd say it's much better than last year's NCAA.

Overall, if you're only going to get one football game this year, I'd probably wait for Madden. But since I buy both every year, it was worth it to me.

I havent ever bought NCAA Football before, but i liked it when i played it and rented it, I thought about picking up both this year.

It's INSANELY better than last year's.

Gameplay is comparable to 2004, which is one of the best games (let alone sports or football) ever.

I haven't gotten into dynasty mode yet, which is where 2004 needed the most improvement.

Well, to be brutally honest, it is too easy or the "boring grind" you refer to wouldn't even be possible. The opposing defense should be able to shut you down, and if you were to run the same play over and over, they should REALLY shut you down. Money plays like that are a by-product of poor AI, which is the result of the low difficulty level.

The real problem with RftH is that it thrusts you into the starting role immediately, which is terribly unrealistic.

Unless you are the next Herschel Walker.

Yeah. I'm trying to think how many potential freshman Heisman candidates there have been recently. Clarrett and Peterson are the only ones that come to mind at RB.

Wondering, how much is this game, I have 49 dollars and if i can get 5 more then i may be able to get it tomorrow, so how much is it ?

$49.99 + Tax.

TRR how much was it when you bought it, all in total.

Well NCAA Football here I come, goin to go pick up my copy now.

Just picked up my copy, cant wait to play it.

How much did you spend for it? Did you trade anything in?

Guys, I'm playing on default Heisman right now, and this game RULES.

The running game is so much more fluid than in years past.

it cost me 52 dollars.

Still going well?

On gamestop's website...



...this looks pretty cool. It at least looks like more than fluff, since you can track the interest level. I never got to the recruiting part in '05, so I'm looking forward to seeing 2 years worth of improvements.

Yes, it's still going well.

I have a method I use for sliders that involves using CPU vs. CPU simulation to get the game to play correctly prior to tweaking for the human player.

In year's past, on both Madden and NCAA, it was necessary to play on All-American (All-Pro) in order to do this -- the defensive AI on Heisman (All-Madden) was so jacked up that neither team could score, so realistic CPU vs. CPU testing wasn't possible.

I simmed a bunch of games yesterday, and CPU vs. CPU simming on Heisman is working beautifully.

By the way, I think I'll move this to the gaming forum so we can find it easier. Anybody opposed?

I oppose, cause the gaming forum isnt on the front page and nobody looks at it when its not on the front page. I mean it hardly gets noticed over there.

Interesting. I've never tried that, but it might be less frustrating than my past method.... couple notches to the left. Couple of notches to the left. All the way to the left. Everything all the way to the left. Place XBox in far left corner of the room.

Seriously though... is the game pretty balanced in terms of running/passing for you and the CPU? You mentioned the passing was fixed -- is it still better at Heisman? Is the competition top-heavy like it should be? '04 mastered this, but '05 seemed to level teams to the point that it everyone was competitive.

If people have played it enough to know it's more similar to '04 than '05, then I'll probably end up buying it... it's not like I need perfection (see: 100+ sack season by Nick Reid :) ), but I have about another week before stuff slows to the point where I could put some time into it... and at that point it might be 24/7 ;)

Well, this thread has degnerated into just a handful of us that want to post on it.

If it doesn't get moved, it will eventually get buried.

The original Madden/NCAA thread from last year is in the Games forum and it's still going...

It's definitely more like 2004.

Fine with me... I hadn't even noticed the forum moved :shrug:

Heh. Midway through my dynasty, ALL of My offensive line is up for some sort of postseason award. Next year I better change the difficulty levels/sliders.

Hey, guys. Check this out, I made a cheatsheet in Visio to help me remember all the pre-snap stuff.

Alright, I judge football games mainly on how they play online. Any football game can be decent against the CPU, but how they preform online is what stands out to me.

I'd have to say I'm not at all impressed with how this game plays online. Everybody runs about 1 to 2 unstoppable plays, and blitzes down after down. It's just not realistic. This happens with Madden too, but it usually takes awhile before players can find the unstoppable plays, and nano-blitzes. The glitches and nano-blitzes are in full force the first week it's out.

Online play will always suffer like that. Find people you know to play online.

Also, ALWAYS play with people who use a headset. They are generally more respectable players.

I agree, but my main point was that it's already happening, and the game has only been out a week. Can you image the cheating going on in 3 months?

This game reminds me of Madden 2004 so much. You can't stop anyone, and it's all offense and ST's. Every WR can outjump every DB, and if you play any type of zone coverage, the opposing WR is streaking down the sideline wide open. It's fun to a certain extent, but it gets old quickly.

Online play has ruined gaming. Largely because 75% of all gamers are like gochiefs.

I was checking on the Gamefaqs board to see a broad opinion of this game. Basically the general consensus everyone has there is this game has a "comeback AI".

Everyone is really pissed that you can jump ahead and dominate in the first half, then you cut to the 2nd half all of your players turn to shit and the computers become gods. Major complaints about the fact that a computer WR will go up and get a bomb poss in triple coverage procede to toss your guys off and go to the house.

Other major flaws are that if anyone is an "impact" player they are god. If your facing an Impact RB you might aswell just give up. Guys like Reggie Bush will break 3-4 tackles before you can get them and do ridiculous animations where it looks like he grabs your LB with 1 hand shakes him around and throws him.

Another problem that is really annoying is the option, is Marcus Vick fast? Yes, should he be trucking over top of my impact LB? NO, but he does.

Overall I like this game and think it was worth buying. But this game does have flaws one that is most annoying is the computers ability to become god like and do whatever he damn well wishes to you.

A friend of mine was winning 31-7 and proceded to fumble on the first play of 4 consecutive drives.......

If anyone has any sliders that will change some of the outrageous offensive stuff the computer is able to do I'd greatly appreciate them.

Another minor point is when you sim the games for the week the computer QB's put up ridiculous numbers. 70%+ completetion perentages 2-1 TD INT ratios. I'm not talking just the good Qb's I'm talking all the way down to the 100th guy.

I pretty much agree with that review. I was online the other night, and had the 3rd WR for LSU go up and get a pass over two CB's, my SS and my FS, and procede to take it to the house. If you can accept that, then you'll like the game. Right now, I am having a hard time getting over that. It is pretty equal though, because I've had WR's do the same thing.

These two have been around for years, and not just in NCAA. I've had 4-touchdown leads evaporate in the second half because they ran for -48 yards in the first half, but now I can't stop them... or they passed for 78 yards in the first half, but now everytime they throw it up, the WR ends up in the endzone.

The WR issue goes back to an issue I had with '04... sometimes the only way a team could score, or move the ball at all, was courtesy of 50+ yard passes. The CPU's QB would have 15 completions for the game, but have 3 touchdowns & 400 yards passing.

One of the reasons I quite buying Madden & their NHL series is because of the "scripted" feel to it... especially the hockey series. There were times I felt I had to do the cheap plays just so I could get a lead before the CPU decided to take over the game.

Alright. I just finished my first Dynasty. I went 11-2, with losses @Nebraska, and to Texas in the Big XII championship game. In both games, my defense was terrible. I lost to NU 64-57. Needless to say it was an offensive slugfest that came down to the last play. I did win the Cotton Bowl vs Ole Miss easily, and now am starting my next season. Recruiting is still pretty easy. I upped the difficulty level to AA an played with the sliders a bit. Here is my schedule:

Western Kentucky
Marshall
@Fresno State
@Iowa
@Baylor
Oklahoma State
Nebraska
@Missouri
Iowa State
@Colorado
Texas
@Kansas

I'm returning my Heisman Winning Wide Receiver, my Big XII First team QB, and Big XII 1st team HB, with most of my Offensive line. Should be a great offensive unit. The team is ranked #10 in the country.

:ksu:

KSU 31
Iowa 7

I don't know what happened to Iowa in this game. Iowa started out quickly, with Drew Tate completing 5 of 6 passes and scoring a TD, but after that I switched primarily to a Nickel defense and just dominated him. Iowa ended up with 241 total yards of offense, where KSU ended up with 433.

Kind off odd this game ended up a blowout. My previous 2 games were very close. @Fresno State 38-35, vs Marshall 36-35, and I had to come back to win both of them. Iowa was ranked #14 in the country and I went in to Kinnick and blew them out. My defense is very young and inexperienced, and thats what attributed to many of the close games thus far. Ah well..on to Baylor!

I bought it yesterday, and my first impression is like others here... it's a lot like 2004 in that they opened the offense up (Hmmm.... 2007... defense? :rolleyes: ). 2004's AI and 2005's atmosphere, which is what I was hoping for. The in-season recruiting looks cool, too.

The downside is that I haven't found a good fit between AA and Heisman (it's only been one day though). AA is big-play mode.... the option is too easy, and there's way too many 40+ yard passes.

So, I've been tweaking with Heisman, but the Impact RBs are killing me. Throw the Impact Player into the large pile of ideas EA went over the top with... and it's not really an issue of breaking blocks... I was playing Appalachian State, and Impact RB = huge holes... and it continued no matter who I played as or who I played.... every Impact RB has an offensive line that's HoF worthy on the NFL level. Maybe they'll make a patch to include a setting to turn off Impact Players.

So..... anyone want to post their Heisman sliders? :)

I agree...the option is ridiculously easy.

holy shit is there any more scripted game than the EA sports hockey games. That was fing stupid when your goalie just quit blocking anything because you were up

EA's NHL series is awful... I switched to ESPN's a couple of years ago, and it's so much better. I think it was NHL 2004 where I couldn't ever get my defensemen to stay back, so it was like watching a bunch of 10 year olds huddle around the puck. Went to ESPN, and the gameplay was 100% better... the offseason sucked, but it was worth it.

NCAA 2006 has that scripted feel to it, too... mostly because of the big play mentality. I should have known, after watching the movies on the main menu, where the RBs go untouched for 60+ yards :shake:

Played a great Florida/Tennessee game last night... I might be ready to download the rosters and start a franchise. It reminded me of one of the first/best games I played on '04, but with a much better atmosphere :drool:

On a side note, there was one play where I thought my receiver was clearly out of bounds... the replay showed that the heel of one foot was in bounds.... clearly a "bad call". Anyone else see anything like this? I know Madden had the intentional bad calls for challenges, but NCAA? :shrug:

I have Madden 05 and NCAA 05 and I say that NCAA is where your players can change direction like Barry Sanders. Not Madden.

Man, the corn keep giving me all I can handle. Beat em this year by 4 points after losing to them last year.

Offense is still very potent on AA. I didn't mess with the sliders too much, just a notch one way or another on some of the settings.

I've actually bumped up my offensive sliders on Heisman, even though I'm still tweaking. I have an Impact RB at the moment, so I'd probably be pretty successful on the ground without the slider tweaks.

I played LSU last night, and I just couldn't hold a lead... the secondary's movements of batting the ball or going up for the INT seem to have changed a bit, so I'm giving up some huge plays, but I guess that's what CPU play has always been about for EA Sports.


I'm going to download the rosters tonight and probably start a real franchise. I don't know who I want to be though... not sure if I want to build KU or go another route...

Oh, speaking of the Big 12... do you have a schedule rotation with the South teams, or are you playing the same ones in your second year, too?

I never got far enough in '05 to see if they finally changed that...

Yep. The non-con wasn't accurate in 06, but I changed it, plus added one. I play @Baylor, vs Texas and vs OSU in 06. I'll play Baylor, @Texas, and @OSU in 07.

I wish the Big XII would mix that up some day. Every year we play TTU/OU/TAMU OR BU/UT/OSU.

KU plays TTU/OU/UT, BU/TAMU/OSU.

Yep. On Heisman I can score points fairly well, especially with running the ball. However, my defense sucks shit on Heisman. I'll play around with that next year, as I have recruited a ton of good players.

Every year on NCAA I start off with KSU and do about 5 years with them until i'm in contention for the NC every year. Then for a real challenge, I take a 1 star prestige school, and build them up. Last year I did Florida Atlantic. Eventually the ACC took me in and kicked out Duke. FAU was pretty easy to do that for because I was in Florida, a big state for recruits.

A REALLY challenging school would be one in a small state, with a 1 star prestige rating.

:cuss:


Another reason I like this game is that I had to make my defense more realistic. I had problems on Heisman, too, and even though I tweaked the sliders, I'm also not getting away with the same over-aggressive defense I've played for years.

I usually do something like that, too. The problem in '04 was that recruiting was really easy, no matter which team you picked. I built KU in a couple of years, went to South Carolina for the hell of it and they were a powerhouse within a couple of years... and then went to the 117th ranked team (Buffalo) and built them in a few years.

I like building bad programs in big conferences. I've done the Buffalos and UConns, but I get tired of playing Toledo and Rutgers. My hope with KU every year is that KSU, Nebraska, Texas, OU, etc; make their way to the top so I can knock them down & so it strengthens my schedule.

I'll eventually try that, but I might go with a bigger school to start... I love the atmosphere in this game, and it's just a bit more exciting playing Tennessee @ Florida than KU @ Missouri.

I'm in love.

AA has gotten a bit too easy. I bumped it up to Heisman for the 2007 season. Messed with the sliders a bit but not too much. Not more than %10 either way.

I usually end up bumping up the difficulty to Heisman and adjusting the sliders from there after a few games. Still haven't picked up NCAA 06 yet but I'm sure I will. Parker gave me some great slider settings last year from some gaming site that he uses.

I've never been much of a fan of adjusting sliders once I'm in my dynasty... it's like predetermining the game. I try to make it as realistic/difficult as possible by playing powerhouse vs powerhouse, and then rely on me adjusting to the gameplay.

For example, last night I tweaked a little between seasons because my running game was too easy and by the end of the season, I had gotten far better at secondary play...... I beat Miami in the opener, and then figured I'd tweak some more... Played Western freakin' Michigan, and they were unstoppable. Slid them back a little, and they went to crap (well, worse than expected). I gave up for the night, because it was a little frustrating.... I'll probably leave them how they were against Miami until I play another comparable opponent.


I still love the game... Florida and Georgia are still near the top of the top 25, but Tennessee was awful last year... 2/3 isn't bad.

That's odd, because I'm South Carolina, in the SEC East, and last year I played LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, and and this year I play LSU, Arkansas, and Mississippi State.

I'm not sure if the actual rotation is correct, but it's really weird if they created a rotation for the SEC but not the Big 12 :spock:

They do do a rotation in the Big XII. The Big XII rotation is different than the SEC's, though.

KSU plays OU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech for 2 years, and then they play Baylor, OSU, and UT the other 2 years. They go back and forth with that.

KU plays OU, Texas Tech, and Texas, and then they play Texas A&M, Baylor, and OSU.

Here ****ers. Try out these sliders, I love them.
I just started a dynasty as Troy.

Heisman Level, 7minute quarters
subs 80%/85%

Hum/CPU

Offense
60...10
40...00
50...40
60...00
20...00

Defense
30...00
10...00
40...00
20...00
30...10

ST
30...30
50...00
30...30
50...00
30...30

Isn't 00 for anything a bit low?

Not on Heisman.

I've had a theory for several years that with both Madden and NCAA setting any slider to 0 or 20 causes more than just incremental changes in the AI. Normally, it was undesirable to set sliders to 0 (or 20) because it would cause wildly unpredictable results. For instance, in NCAA 2004, lowering Pass Block from 1 to 0 caused the QB to go into "robo" mode.

It doesn't seem to be the case this year. In fact, this year's Heisman is dramatically different (and more open on offense) than any previous year.

Try them out, you'll see what I mean.

Oh, and the reason I set these to zero is because I actually started with all sliders at 0 instead of all sliders at 50.

I completely understand what you mean. However, I just assume that I'm gonna have an adjustment period anytime I buy a new game. I can't stand playing and the CPU is kicking my ass when I know it shouldn't be happening (i.e. your Western Michigan game). Same thing goes if I'm dominating the CPU. I want to make the game to where there's a chance that I lost but at the same time not make it to where I'm losing to teams I should beat all the time. It's just a matter of balancing. I would recommend only adjusting one notch at a time unless something is really out of whack.

Parker, on what system are those slider settings used?

Xbox

I've made some minor tweaks based on my first 4 weeks of Dynasty play.

Heisman Level
7-minute quarters...6 was too short
subs 80%/85%

Hum/CPU

Offense
50...15
45...00
50...45
50...00
15...00

Defense
35...00
15...00
40...00
20...00
30...00

ST
30...30
50...00
30...30
50...00
30...30

I'm still trying to figure out the passing game. I can't stand any more "7-26 with 5 INT's" games...

Alright...........The passing game is pissing me off too.

I'm playing Iowa....Tate is a supah-stah....and I'm ending games 3-15 65 yards and 3 back to back to back INTs.

I'm turning the QB acc and WR Catching way up...and the Comp INTs way down.

I'm getting pretty damn tired...pretty quickly, of being up 24 or 28-0 with a minute left before the half..and fumbling for a TD....INT for a TD....fumble......and then losing 42-31

Yeah, there's some of that. I've worked on minimizing it with sliders.

The part that pisses me off, is the first season...I'm playing on varsity.....and its still happening.

Top notch QBs, with 90+ ratings, don't throw 3 for 15 for 85 yds and 2INTs vs ISU.