Question

I just got mine, but IMO it's not worth buying a console (any console) solely for one game, especially when you're shelling out this kind of dough. Having said that, I think the 360 is worth the money if you're a gamer. In regards to your question about games, there are plenty of people here who can steer you in the right direction. Also, check out teamxbox.com for the latest news, game reviews, and user reviews regarding the 360, it has some useful info.

XBOX version has a better dynasty mode and other features, 360 has a better graphics engine and things of that nature. Like most 360 sports games, NCAA 2007 isn't that deep.

Oblivion is a good enough excuse to purchase a 360. Its gotta be one of the best games ever made.

I played a 360 game on a plasma hi-def TV yesterday against a friend. I was Texas and he was Notre Dame. We're both fairly good football players that play good defense. I've personally never been beaten in Madden or NCAA, but that's mostly because I played the frat boys on my dorm floor my first year as they were getting over their hangovers. Here were the statistics:

Texas - 84

Notre Dame - 77

Texas:

Rush Yds: 347

Pass Yds: 623

Turnovers - 3

ND:

Rush Yds: 13

Pass Yds: 721

Turnovers: 7

I've never played a football game as retarded as the 360 version. Every single deep pass you throw WILL be completed, no matter what. I think I only deflected 4 or 5 passes the entire game, and that was only when I had triple coverage on the WR. No interceptions for me; all 7 turnovers were fumbles on his part. I played more realistic football on Tecmo Bowl for the NES.

The jukes on the game are laughable. I've seen better jukes by pee-wee players. The stutter step is more like a 3 inch fakeout, and it takes 5 seconds to execute. The spin is pretty close to perfect though, I will give them that. All of my rushing yards came by simply running straight up the middle and hoping my friend wouldn't get smart enough to stop the outside blitz every play. I will also note that Jamaal Charles (Texas RB) is one of the fastest RBs in college football, but yet I kept getting run down by LBs on sweep plays. Sure. reminded me of Madden 2005 when Tomlinson would get gunned down by guys like Warren Sapp.

The players run like they all have hemroids, and they don't lean while making direction changes like the current-gen players do. I will say right now that the animations for the PS2 are superior to the 360 (overall). There are cool pre and post-play animations for the players, but during the play there's really no spectacular break tackle, stiff arm, and hit detection animations. Sure, there are great tackle animations, but it seems as if the ball carrier's animations really weren't focused on much. Personally, that's what I love most about the PS2 version: there's so many new animations for the ball carrier's break tackling, and on some plays it really feels like the RB makes an impact in the way that he should. For example, Michael Bush's weight makes him a bruising RB, perhaps even better than Adrian Peterson, even though his BTK rating is 93 compared to Peterson's 98. Yes, from what I can tell so far in my several hours of practice runs (I've yet to complete a full game on the PS2 version), weight finally makes a difference, despite BTK ratings. I couldn't tell from one game if this was the case in the 360 version (Jamaal Charles is a speed back and only weighs 190).

IMO don't buy a 360 just to have a prettier version of the game. In all honesty, when you're actually playing the game from the default camera, you're too far away to really appreciate the graphics anyway.

That's fine, most people will disagree with my opinion, but I still think the animations are lacking. I didn't think it was a bad game, I just thought it was abslutely retarded how 95% of 60 yd pass throws were completed. I stopped passing just because the system was so broken and I felt like I was cheating. Mind you, NCAA 05 and 06 had this problem as well, but the PS2 version seems to be much better this year.

No, you weren't flaming me. I may not have a lot of posts, but I'm not new to message boards.

This was against a human player. We both tried manually defending the pass and letting the CPU do it. Neither worked. It's basically the same as the way it was in 05 and 06.

A recurring problem I've already seen is that the CPU rarely runs the ball, and when it does it chooses stupid running plays (such as running a draw on the goalline). For once I'd love to see a team with a great runningback actually be able to school me in the rushing game.

Mav^ said:

No, you weren't flaming me. I may not have a lot of posts, but I'm not new to message boards.

This was against a human player. We both tried manually defending the pass and letting the CPU do it. Neither worked. It's basically the same as the way it was in 05 and 06.

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And 04, and 03, and 02, and on and on. This is a problem in Madden as well. Deep passes (especially deep fades) are killer. The only way to solve this problem is with the AI sliders. People will be passing around slider settings within a week that will help solve this.

A recurring problem I've already seen is that the CPU rarely runs the ball, and when it does it chooses stupid running plays (such as running a draw on the goalline). For once I'd love to see a team with a great runningback actually be able to school me in the rushing game.

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This is something that EA has never gotten right either.

From what I've read over at maddenmania, most people are not impressed with the 360's gameplay or overall depth.

I've only got the PS2 version of it, but I'm not 'impressed' with that one, either. Feels very much the same as last year's effort. The added features are really nice, though. I like the Campus Legend mode, and the additions to Dynasty, so I think it's worth the money.

I agree somewhat. I'm a solid defensive-minded NCAA/Madden guy, and I flat-out cannot stop the Heisman CPU at all. The QB always finds the open guy and even if he isn't open...they'll still usually catch it.

EA Sports has a habit of never actually fixing the gameplay problems of their games, just simply masking them. In 06, passing was impossible on Heisman and running was crazy easy. In 07, they made the DL dominant to curb the run and made the DB AI retarded to aid the pass. Madden 06 had a similar sort of reversal from 05 if I remember right.

Instead of making the AI so dumb, why don't they add Madden's precision passing system? It would fix all the problems from 06 and it would keep the CPU from raping my defense so bad.

rgw said:

Instead of making the AI so dumb, why don't they add Madden's precision passing system? It would fix all the problems from 06 and it would keep the CPU from raping my defense so bad.

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Are you talking about moving the directional pad/analog stick a certain direction to influence the pass? If so, that is in the game.

Tonight I've been working on All-American sliders (Heisman becomes hard by giving the players unfair ratings boosts over 99 in some cases instead of actually increasing AI intelligence). What I do is I select basic football plays that you see quite often, such as draw plays (which have NEVER worked in these games BTW), powers, leads, sweeps, and the usual pass route plays. I also select basic defensive plays, nothing way out of the ordinary with 5 stunts involved. I run each play a large number of times to get a feel of how each slider change affected the AI. I think I've gotten the run blocking, pass blocking, and RB strength pretty close. I haven't played any games yet, so I won't post it until I'm sure the statistics and games make sense.

It's hard to tweak the sliders, especially this year with the "jump the snap" feature. I really doubt a 68 OVR DT from Texas State is ever going to plow through a 93 OVR G, but whatever. One thing I noticed while running my plays is each juke move for the ball carrier gives you a special bonus move if you time the juke or truck stick at the right moment. If you time it just right, the guy will do the juke type that you pressed, but he'll really embarrass the defender. For example, a stiff arm timed perfectly will make the RB slam the defender's face into the ground, and it looks awesome. It won't happen like this everytime, but the stiff arm in this situation will look more effective. A soft or hard juke to the left/right will yield you several results if timed perfectly. Some of these examples are:

1) RB will stutter step a few times, making the defender fall down on his face

2) RB will get hit high, then duck down and spin, sliding underneath the defender

3) RB will get hit on the side, but turn his body while raising the ball higher (as if to do a swim move) and slip past the defender

4) RB will get hit down low, and kick his thigh up, knocking the defender on his back.

5) RB will juke the defender, but the defender grabs hold of his back and rides the RB until he gets thrown off

The truck stick (right analog stick up) will yield you a slew of trucking animations that are practically the same as the normal animations. The only difference is the defender flies backwards a yard for total domination.

runtheoption22 said:

Going to completely disagree with you M....I've played both and the PS2 didn't match the 360 in game play or animations....360 is a tougher version, tough to run, if you have weaker matchups, you generally lose- especially in the secondary. To me, it's a much more realistic game.....I get tired of breaking 80 yard runs all day on Reggie Bush HS football highlight plays-- that just doesn't happen often. And I always hate judging head-to-head stuff b/c users generally skew the characteristics. Plus, I put it on heisman on day one and learn the nuiances the hard way.

The 360 version requires more user control, such as DBs, WRs on long passes, etc. Also, you have to run up the middle more to make the defenses honest; they pick up on tendencies more and put better personnel on the field when the time is right.

I firmly believed they left out the spring game and stuff so they would have something to "improve" the game next year.....

and the PS2, XBOX will slowly fade out and the 360/PS3 will be it.....so might as well get used to those versions now....

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I agree. Mind you I've only played the first two games of my dynasty so far but I've found it much more difficult to run than was the case in last years game. The AI seems to be better IMO in this years version. Mav^ what quarter lengths and difficulty level were you guys playing on because those rushing stats boggle my mind, I don't see how you guys were putting up those kind of numbers unless you were playing max quarter lengths. Also your comments about the pass defense aren't lining up with what I've experienced. Bino had 4 picks by himself against Vandy for me. All in all I'm happy with the gameplay, but what really stands out to me is the time of day change in the game, it's awesome! The game looks awesome and it plays good enough for me, but I have noticed some glitches. Like many others have stated, the collision detection could use some work and there are times when more than one sound byte will play at the same time. Also is it just me or do the kicks on PATs and FGs seem to travel a little low? Overall, I'm pretty pleased and looking forward to digging into my dynasty a little deeper! :biggrin2:

Maybe our failures at defending the pass is due to the fact that we both know the playbooks very well and know how to call ht routes and send the right man in motion to set up a mismatch and get the flanker wide open. I seriously use hot routes on every passing play, sometimes for more than one receiver. Once I know what formation the defense is in and what coverage they're in, it's real easy to get the WR wide open. I got so good at telling what play was called in which formation just by looking at where the safties and linebackers would shift up, either on a bluff or a true blitz look. Most of the defensive plays are the same, even on the 360, so we both used that to our advantage.

Mav^ what quarter lengths and difficulty level were you guys playing on because those rushing stats boggle my mind, I don't see how you guys were putting up those kind of numbers unless you were playing max quarter lengths.

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We played 5 minute quarters. most of the drives were 2-3 plays. I scored a TD on every one of my drives, and I only stopped him once. I was able to rack up yardage on the ground because he kept blitzing his OLBs, forming a real good lane up the middle. It seems that on the 360, once you build up momentum you can break a lot of tackles by the DBs. I've always favored the run on football games too. I don't know, it's probably harder against the CPU because they don't blitz too much.

i have begin to notice that maybe we are used to the old gen of games.
Maybe we are calling the wrong plays on the 360.

I have noticed that alot of 4 deep defense is doing pretty well.
I do not know the name of the defense that is the purple marker i would guess a short fade.

the defense that seems to be working fairly well for me is
3 line rush
2 LB middle zone
2 cb "short fade" or purple
2 cb and 2 S 4 deep
if the QB starts to throw screens or flats try cutting the 4 deep to 2 deep and setting up the other to cb as short flats.

I will never put a LB on man because the QB always tears the LB's up ALWAYS.
Try these new techniques on D.
It seems to work fairly well.

Played a few more games on my friend's 360. Before I go any further, I am not a PS2 fanboy. I like the 360 from what I've seen of it, but this game flat out SUCKS.

1st game was 77 - 42 in my favor. Was a retarded game. TD on every drive.

2nd game was the absolute most vile excuse of a football sim that I have ever witnessed. We both got so tired of it we quit at halftime. at halftime the score was 119 - 56 in my favor. 5 minute quarters. I literally scored on every single play I ran from scrimmage, returned 3 kickoffs for TDs, returned 5 INTs for TDs, and returned 4 fumbles for TDs. I ran the same exact play from scrimmage every play, and scored in different ways every time. He called just about every defensive formation to stop it: 5-2, 3-3-5, 4-2-5, nickle, dime, goalline, cover 1,2,3, and prevent, zone blitzes, QB spies, everything. None of it worked. NONE OF IT. This game makes me want to vomit. It's an abomination of football. I don't understand how defense can be so completely absent in this game. His comment: "The PS2 game was so much better than this ****. You could actually play defense. You could actually stop the offense just one time. This game sucks." I would have to agree with him.

If you are curious what play I was running, it is the Ace Slot FL Middle. It's pretty fool proof on the PS2 version as well, but not like this. My QB (Patrick White of WVU) out ran every defender on the Texas defense, even with the angle in their favor twice. That just simply does not happen unless you're Bo Jackson or Michael Vick.