Customer Reviews

NCAA Football 09

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

NCAA FB09 is one amazing game. Gamers who have settled for the PSP took a hit last year, when EA decided to leave us out the loop with NCAA FB08, punishing us for the number of bad glitch disks they had to take back with their faulty version of NCAA FB07.

It was worth the 2 year wait.

'09 is packed with a graphic punch that you didn't know your PSP had. Graphics are even improved over Madden '08 by quite a bit. This game comes with 5 different camera angles, NCAA, Overhead, College, Classic, and Zoom and each one of these angles looks brilliant. I prefer the NCAA angle which zooms right into the action and out of as necessary, but the default is college, which gives you a wide angle. Much effort has been made to provide great motion capture moves for the players animations, and much detail has gone into player uniforms. About all that is missing is the earholes on the helmets. Colors are much improved over '07 as well, with more vibrant and realistic tones, which more complements the improved uniform detail quite a bit. This game is worth buying just to show off the visuals to your friends.

Game physics are improved as well, and I feel seem to capture the most accurate football play I have seen. Players don't "pass through" other players hardly at all, and if so, in a very minimalistic way. When your player celebrates and throws the football (an automatic animation), if there is another player close by, the football will bounce off of him, not pass through him (although the player does not care if you throw the football right in his face). Footballs can bounce right off the helmet, or any other part of the uniform with a realistic spin. The caught football does not float a few inches away from the players hand as it did often with '07

'09 packs an improved number of defensive sets, and offensive sets over the offerings of '07. The main changes? On offense more varities of each formation (like 3 I formations instead of 2) and on defense more specialized sets such as the 3-3-5, 4-4, 4-6, 3-2-6, etc. The number of plays is up, but they are still tough to access. You vertically scroll through each formation, and since there are an increase number of formations, it gets tedious trying to find your play, especially if you are unfamiliar with the playbook. Other games solve this with vertical scrolling base sets, and side scrolling formations. Overall, the improvement in play calling variety is appreciated, but they should find a way to make it easier to select a play. As is, there is too much time pressure for those who want to 'browse' the playbook, which might make you hate to change formations.

The overall difficulty level can be set to four levels, and this year they have added "Freshman Mode" to make this game accessible to any player. By using this mode, a variety of special moves are automated by pressing the "x" button, instead of having to learn a complex set of controls for each move. This allows the computer to make the decisions on what move you should make like flying tackles, spins, or stiff arms. Customization does not end there, with throw, catch, and run assist modes which can be turned on or off, as well as team balancing, injuries, etc. If no assistance is needed, you can still adjust the "success" of running, passing, etc as well as penalty levels, etc. Suffice it to say, this game is fully customizable.

For those who want more control, it is in there. Offensive control feels great, with great moves implemented in a somewhat realistic way, say for example, your running back might take a while to build up that burst of speed, or your QB might duck under that flying tackle attempt. Defensive line moves (like the swim) are too automated for my taste, but they are an option. Other defensive positions have the moves you would expect. Special teams even allows missed field goal returns! While control is not perfect, what they must have aimed for and achieved is realism, which works well to increase the fun factor.

Like previous versions, you can enter your teams roster names and the commentary will call them out when they make a big play. I did notice however, there were some inaccuracies with the rosters, and some other details that didn't match up. Austin English DE #33 for OU looks like he must have been going to the tanning salon a lot. Stuff like that just makes it that much more fun, and it reminds you how much really went into the game. I mean, with all the stats, and all the information, it would be easy to slip up. And, I guess, they proved it can happen...

The actual game control is great, but it is difficult to switch to if you are used to playing Madden. Both offensive and defensive controls are intuitive, and allow for some fun action. Fumbles are something that you might see a lot (hey, it is college football) as well as punt returns for touchdowns. I felt that the gameplay was really well balanced for a college football simulation.

Game modes are the same as with previous NCAA's, with play now, dynasty, and mascot games with each mode having its advantages. Dynasty once again allows you to take control of a team over the years with recruiting now beginning during the fall of the previous year.

Overall NCAA FB '09 is the best looking game I've seen for the PSP. The football physics, and the game play is amazing. Peopel want EVERYTHING in their football game. This is far from perfect, but as close as I've seen it. Highly recommended.

NCAA 07 has been the game I have played the most on my PSP. It was an imperfect launch (I got the running glitch version), but it was still fun. I got NCAA 09 and have played an entire season's worth of games. Here now are the good and bad points:

POSITIVES:
-The running glitch is fixed. You now get the forward progress, so feel free to drag the defenders the extra 5 yards.
-The graphics are better, but only slightly.
-The game physics are better. No changing directions 8 times per yard. If your motion carries you one way, you need to stop and then change direction. Much more realistic than 07.
-The controls are a laid out a little better. It seems to encourage use of the advanced controls to take full advantage (i.e., no jumping the snap on freshman or basic mode, you've got to use the advanced mode).
-Man in motion plays have been added, or at least improved from the previous version.

THE NEGATIVES
-The biggest problem that I found was the incredible number of fumbles per game. The chance for a fumble goes up if you are hit while sprinting, juking or spinning which is basically most of the time you're running with the ball. The average number of fumbles per game is right around 8 total for both teams, but 10+ fumbles per game is not unheard of. It just disrupts the whole rythym of the game. Unfortunately, no way to adust this setting.
-Bullet passes still don't work. Never, ever try a bullet pass (holding the pass button down). The receiver will never, ever catch it. Never.
-Penalties are very high at the 50% level, especially facemask penalties.
-The momentum meter is still screwed up. I've actually lost momentum by running back a punt for a t.d. and for getting a sack. It's totally inconsistent and useless.
-A lot of the stadiums are wrong. I know Nippert Field in Cincinnati isn't a classic landmark, but it's still disappointing that the game has the home field as Generic University Field.
-ONCE AGAIN DOMED STADIUMS SCREW YOU OVER if you prefer the overhead mode, like I do. Why? Dear God WHY is this necessary? It's not like you can actually SEE the roof. Stupid, stupid, STUPID programming that will plague you at least once a season. Of course, if you don't play in overhead mode, it will not affect you. But playing in anything other than overhead mode is pointless since you'd be cutting off 60% of your peripheral vision.

NEUTRAL
-The controls and screens are the same as before. Good if you like it, but not an improvement.
-The draft system is not as challenging. I found that I was able to "Send the House" to every prospect and had draft points to spare. No having to make tough decisions on whom to agressively recruit vs. being more choosey.

Not enough improvements to make it a worthwhile purchase. Worth picking up, but wait a couple of months and you'll be able to get a used copy for half the price.

I don't care that much about obscure features, or even about which stadiums they have or how realistic they are. I primarily care that the game plays like football. At the end of a game (assuming you have played the game a number of times and are not basically incompetent), it should have felt like a real football game. The best measure of this is the stats. Unfortunately, there are a number of abberations:
- Turnovers. There are an insane number of fumbles and an above average number of picks. Both teams will probably have 9 turnovers per game. This is totally unrealistic and you feel like you are playing special olympics football or something. Also, it's not a setting. You can't tell it to lighten up on the fumbles. Lame. At first it was really frustrating, but now when my guy fumbles I'm not that worried. I know I'll get it right back through a fumble or a pick.
- Sacks. Each side gets sacked 10-20 times per game. Realistic? I don't think so.
- There are more punt and kick returns for touchdowns than there would be in real life.

So, you know, the game can be amusing but you have to tune yourself to accept that this is not real football, it's bizzarro slippery fingers football. If you can live with that, you'll be ok.

The game is good but the main thing missing is the career mode, the best part of NCAA Football. The dynasty mode has an interesting recruiting style, and it's a little confusing at first, but fun once you understand it. It's also nearly impossible to complete a pass on any mode varsity or higher; it will hit the hands of the receiver with nobody near him, and he will drop it. Overall, the game is fun.

The game works very well and has good graphics. Good for the price even though its outdated. If you like college football alot get this game.

First off get roster downloads with all the names of the players for free from here [...] then going on your Xbox using the EA locker to download it from whatever user name has the latest rosters. It's about time they came up with this. It's very accurate and it's free. There are a ton of reviews already. Check out Gamespot, it's pretty accurate. I do believe that it's worth the money even though it's for a few changes and upgrades. Just playing through Legend Mode once and a couple seasons in Dynasty Mode alone should be worth it for the NCAA fans. Then there's achievements and the mini games which I never played. Add the replay value of Legend mode with different positions and of course online dynasty mode and yea it sealed the deal for me and should please any fanatic.

NCAA Football 09 for the PSP is a fun game, but seeing as it is after the 2009-10 season you might want to wait and get NCAA Football 11 or Madden NFL 11. The freshman controls are fun, but get old. If you chose to do so, you can change the settings to make the camera rumble when the "crowd" gets excited. The graphics are fair, but nothing to get too excited about. The price has probably gone down so if you care about just playing football more than being up to date, this might be the way to go.

I bought this for my nephew for Christmas, I couldn't find it anywhere, none of the stores had it a few weeks before Christmas. My nephew loves it and plays it all the time. I always know I can find things on Amazon!

I recently bought this game and had high expectations. I mean they had two years since the last one so you would hope it would be better. However i was extremely dissapointed. All of the game modes are the exact same as 2007!! I even think some of the uniforms are worse looking! I recomend if you have NCAA 07 to not buy this game and if you dont have either one, then it wont really matter because the only difference between the two, is the rosters are more up to date.

i think this is a great game. i own madden 09 also but this game is way better. the graphics have improved and i love the QB option plays.