EA’s ‘other’ big football franchise
hit consoles this week. NCAA
Football 10 is back in with some big
features, easier gameplay, and Erin
Andrews… holy cow. While there have
been some features added to make it
a more casual affair which can be
good, hardcore football fanatics
might be disappointed because the
add-ons and updates this year are
more about presentation and less
about football.
There’s obviously a ceiling to what
the franchise can update with
gameplay from year to year but this
year it’s disappointing. Not enough
focus has been taken to the gameplay
updates. Instead, they’ve dumbed
things down too much. There are
set-up plays and strategies, EA’s
‘all play” with basically a
one-button control system and an ‘I
Win Button’ that pretty much
guarantees you’ll make a stop on
Defense. Look at Madden from last
year… before you snap the ball there
are ten things to think about and
look at, with NCAA this year,
there’s one, it’s a dumbed-down
version of the game this year in
lots of ways and that’s
disappointing.
The presentation of the game is
better this year. You can build a
team with EA’s online import feature
at teambuilder.easports.com, and
that’s cool but you could build a
team and customize a stadium in
games on the old generation of
consoles. And although it wasn’t
quite as elaborate, it was close and
you could do it on your console, not
have to search and import it, and in
some cases not have to pay for your
creation like they make you after
you make a number of teams and
import them. This is a ‘new’ feature
and a cool feature but they did this
on the old generation consoles and
it’s just a first for this current
generation.
Perhaps the biggest presentation is
the Road to Glory mode. It’s just
Campus Legend mode but Erin Andrews
hosts your journey from high school
stud to All-American and it’s
highlighted with mini-show updates
from time to time when you
accomplish bench-marks with your
prospect. I had the most fun with
this mode just for the bonus
presentation show factor- I played
it for four hours or so and after
setting the same record twice in a
row, I saw the same show twice in a
row. Finally there is a reason for
me to play Campus Legend mode, and
that’s cool but it does need some
improving.
The coolest interactive feature with
NCAA Football 10 this year is the
Season Showdown Mode. When you first
pop in your game to the console you
choose your favorite program and how
you play the game and what you do in
the game gives your program points.
At the end of this year’s season,
the program with the most points
gets the bragging rights. Kind of a
cool feature but how it all plays
out and how it will get talked about
or what it will actually do remains
to be seen.
NCAA Football 10 update is half
disappointing and half outstanding.
The presentation was upgraded and
that’s pretty impressive that they
put so much into that, but the
gameplay, the actual football should
have improved a little more this
year. It’s still a good title and
it’s still a really fun game but I’m
not going to play this one more than
I play Madden which I did with the
‘09 versions.
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