NCAA Football 2008

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:42 pm

Why would you play a dynasty as Michigan? Playing the game as a big time school has never been fun.

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:55 am

I spent about 10-12 years as BG and then went to Arizona. It's a lot of fun to go from school to school to try to build a program. In my last couple years at BG I had moved to the Big Ten and won a conference and national championship.

BGSUFootballFan · Post by **BGSUFootballFan** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:35 am

hammb wrote:Why would you play a dynasty as Michigan? Playing the game as a big time school has never been fun.

I agree. I'm 3-5 right now in my 1st season w/ BG on All-American. On last years game I would have to intentionally not call my money plays so that the CPU would have a chance against me on Heisman. I actually like losing on there bc it makes the game more realistic. I also love how most of the recruits don't think much of BG's campus or facilities compared to the bigger schools. Make's it much more challenging and realistic.

On a side note I'm also realizing that BG could go 5-7 this year and win the MAC East. With the division record counting first and foremost, our entire season is really going to come down to just 6 games!

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:58 pm

This game is pretty sweet. The gameplay is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was last year. Like others have said, the big drawback is that the Doyt and Freddy/Frieda are not around. That really takes away from the experience. It would also be nice to have fan close-ups, bands, and referees. Super Sim is a fantastic addition though. You can plow through games a lot faster now, which will keep me from simulating entire seasons just to get to the recruiting. Recruiting being a year round process now adds a lot of depth.

Recruiting is different. It's definitely more involved, but it gets awfully repetitive. I was also able to land a 5 star and a 4-star my first year as BG, so the realism isn't quite there yet. The ability to make promises and have that affect your integrity is pretty cool, but it remains to be seen how much that will actually affect both your chances of landing a kid, and then your integrity down the road. I'm also not sure why that feature is only available in the offseason.

It all comes back to the gameplay though. The AI is far advanced this year, and it's no longer simple to just find a few money plays and run them over and over on the higher difficulties. Hell, even the default Varisty level can be a nice challenge if it's BG vs a Texas or a USC.

So far, I'm liking what I'm seeing.

BGSUFootballFan · Post by **BGSUFootballFan** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:32 pm

J4H-

I went (7-6) my 1st year winning the GMAC Bowl and had the 46th best recruiting class. It's too bad I was able to recruit that well, but I spent a lot of time on it. I only had 1, 4-star player and compare that to Michigan who had 8, 5-stars and 7, 4-stars made it seem more realistic.

I agree that the gameplay is a lot tougher and better than last year. However, I'm still a little frustrated with the number of turnovers in the game. I've had to turn the AI all the way down to 5 for both me and the CPU, there are still 5 or so turnovers in a game (I play 6min quarters). Also I can never throw for a touchdown in the redzone, its WAY too crowded, so I have to score on a bomb or YAC. At least its light years better than preventing myself from calling certain plays to still go 12-0 w/ BG on Heisman level!

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:58 pm

Yeah, turnovers can be an issue. The QB getting hit from behind on long runs seems to consistently cause fumbles. I actually like that interceptions are more common though. In past games, you could chuck the ball wherever you wanted to and almost never got picked. This game makes you pay for throwing into coverage. I think it's more realistic that way. If a college QB were to make the same decisions that most video-gamers do, they'd probably throw at least 6 picks a game.

I went 12-0 my first year as BG (only playing offense), on 6 min quarters, then beat Hawaii in the Fiesta Bowl. I was lucky to win at least 5 of the games though. And the sim feature stopped the computer more consistently than I did when I actually played defense. I still haven't figured defense out in this game. It's much harder to get to the QB, but much easier to play in coverage.

I'm still trying to figure out why they made Dan Macon such a stud.

Columbus_Zak · Post by **Columbus_Zak** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:31 pm

EA is not going to produce a copy for the Wii so I'm left out. Booooo!

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:47 pm

hammb wrote:
1987alum wrote:What are the big improvements in recruiting?
I haven't yet started my real dynasty but what I've played around with, it just feels more realistic this year.

Essentially you do most of your recruiting during the season. You target 35 prospects at the beginning of the year. There are about 10-12 different "recruiting sells" that a coach has. You are rated on the quality of each sell depending on your school's reputation, coach's reputation, etc. It's stuff like, "Produces Pros," "Campus Life," "Location," "Tradition, " etc. If you're a mid-major like BG obviously you're not very highly thought of in most of those areas.

Then each prospect has his own opinions on each of these sells. Some he thinks are important, some not so much.

Now, instead of recruiting points you have 10 "hours" each week to call the prospects and pitch them these different high points of your campus. Essentially you spend the early weeks trying to figure out what makes each recruit tick, then you spend the later weeks trying to put the hard sell on the attributes that you're good in and the recruit deems important. If you get the recruit to like you enough you can invite them into an on campus visit, where you can then choose which aspects you want to sell them on during their stay.

Towards the end of the recruiting period you can also make promises to the recruits such as playing time, division wins, etc. If you go on to live up to those promises your reputation as a coach goes up, if you don't live up to them your reputation goes down.

It's pretty crazy because if the recruit is not very interested in your school he can actually hang up on you and not even give you an opportunity to try and sell your school on these attributes! In the past the recruit never said, "Thanks, but no thanks." That appears to be a major part of this year's recruiting engine.

To put it simply recruiting is far more realistic and light years more in depth this year than it was in year's past. The best part of the game, got better.

Are you playing this on Xbox360 Hammb? Sounds like the recruiting is way better on next gen systems than on the ole ps2 which I'm stuck too for now.

moneymaker02 · Post by **moneymaker02** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:27 pm

prolly because dan macon has ALL the physical tools, he just isn't a great football player. Physically we don't have a running back on the team that can match his god given ability. He just doesn't know how to pick a whole lol

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:07 pm

moneymaker02 wrote:prolly because dan macon has ALL the physical tools, he just isn't a great football player. Physically we don't have a running back on the team that can match his god given ability. He just doesn't know how to pick a whole lol

I wish he could have figured it out. I thought he was really gonna be a player based on those tools. Now I doubt he'll even get the chance with Bullock and Ransom around.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:04 pm

The one thing that bugs me after playing some online games (still awaiting my damn transfer kit...) is the ability to control your WRs. I was money controlling my WRs for catches, but in this year's game it's nearly impossible. Yeah, it's probably more realistic this way, but I miss being able to out play online players with stick skills. A lot of my previous passing success was with dipping below coverage to make catches, and you just don't have that much control of the WRs when the ball is in the air anymore...In my 5 games online I have not seen more than 1-2 user catches or user picks.

zeket10 · Post by **zeket10** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:05 pm

Recruiting is alittle more improved on PS2 but next generation is better.

Globetrotter · Post by **Globetrotter** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:26 am

zeket10 wrote:Recruiting is alittle more improved on PS2 but next generation is better.

How so. I have PS2.

Is it worth buying the new game or is it very similar to last seasons?

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:08 pm

Globetrotter wrote:
zeket10 wrote:Recruiting is alittle more improved on PS2 but next generation is better.
How so.

I can't wait to hear this.

As far as receiver/DB responsiveness, I haven't noticed much of a change. It seems harder to do user catches, but that's just because the AI DBs are so much smarter this year. They jump on routes like madmen and have really good recovery speed. Their hands have improved a great deal as well. You definitely have to be careful in the passing game.

I actually think it's much easier to control the DBs in this version. My cup runneth over w/ user picks.

BGSUFootballFan · Post by **BGSUFootballFan** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:11 pm

God knows I love this game way too much but.... Why in the heck don't the recruits like it when you talk about something they like the "most". Is it just bc I'm at BG or is it a flaw in the game? Seems I can make an angry recruit happy by hard selling a pitch that he only cares about "Above Average" or "High". Whereas his "Most" will match up with a "Very good" part of BG and yet he'll get angry on the phone! Anyone else have this problem?