I've played this for over a week now, so I'm revising my earlier review. I still say there are some definite improvements.
The CPU can actually play offense now! I was getting quite bored with the complete inability of the CPU to run, and minimal ability to pass. It was fun to rack up the stats, but winning 84-0 even in Heisman mode got old. The CPU receivers can actually catch the ball, and the quarterback actually avoids sacks and scrambles for positive yards on blitzes and draws. In All-American and Heisman difficulty levels, the defense AI manages to catch on to your play calling pattern a lot better than before, so you're can't successfully run the same play over and over again as easily as before. There is some benefit though, you can REALLY exploit an over eager defense with the right play action, screen pass (which actually works for positive yards now), or draw plays. It works to your disadvantage on defense though, because if you are not creative and run the same defense on the same formations over and over again, the CPU will burn you. They have also added some new defensive QB Spy plays (e.g. Nickle DE and Nickle OLB Double Spy plays) which work very well against the option.
The best new features by far are the impact players, and "in the zone" modes. Both player and CPU impact players when "in the zone" make some spectacular plays, and fun post play celebrations. Thankfully, the refs are not as trigger happy with the unsportsmanlike conduct flag. The timing of the players going "in the zone" is quite good. It happens at key moments in the game on key plays. Unfortunately, and I may discover this not to be true later, is that you can't seem to develop an impact player during the course of a season. They are locked in and set for the entire season. If you end up with a linebacker with 60 tackles, a dozen sacks, and a half dozen forced fumbles and interceptions by mid-season, I should think that he is an impact player by any definition.
The Dynasty mode is about the same as 2005, but one REALLY nice feature is season long recruiting. You are shown the potential weaknesses in positions where you would lose seniors, so you are given 12 scholarship bids you can put out and monitor recruit interest and allocate 0-100% of points weekly amongst recruits throughout the year. They have also added academics as a pitch. Unfortunately, (and maybe I just haven't figured out how yet), you cannot choose the recruiting pitch criteria nor choose to scout. The AI doesn't do the best job, because let's say you figure the pitch to use is Program Prestige, the CPU continues to pitch other things. The only time you can choose the pitch is during in campus visits. There is a menu option to select when you can pitch, but it's always set to campus visits, and I can't change it even if I disable the recruiting AI assistance. You also get a lot more 5 and 4 star duds with "poor" to "average" potential which was very rare in 2005. Sadly, you are locked in with 12 recruits at the beginning of the season, so you can't replace any choice, and all you can do is change the priority percentage to 0 and hope he withdraws from contention. You cannot target kickers or punters during the season. Another nice new feature is that you can auto-name the select or complete rosters, so no more of the Position + Jersey Number schemes for the first few seasons. However, in Race for the Heisman mode, you have to do that before you start the campaign, because you absolutely cannot edit the rosters in his mode.
The most spectacular feature which makes this game far superior to 2005 is the Heisman Race mode. You select a player position, and run drills for college scouts. Depending on how well you perform, you get scholarship offers from various schools which you can choose to accept, or go in as a walk-on to any school you select. It would seem the ability scores and the number and quality of offers are directly correlated to how well you do in the drill. My first run through with an RB, I only scored 3 touchdowns in 10 tries, and got offers from three schools ranging in rank from #51 to #58 in addition to walk-on. I ran through it again, scored 7/10 times, and this time I got some offers from top-25 teams. This also sets the ability scores which cannot be modified. The gameplay, as I mentioned, is spectacular, and the games when teams are close in level, are exceptionally close. There are some caveats to this mode. It might seem that you have no control over rosters and recruiting in this mode. You also have no access to the pennant collection, and cannot edit rosters (names, equipment, etc.), and can only set the depth chart during the game, and it does not carry over to the next game. You can play pennants during the game, but to cash in points and enter codes, you have to exit Heisman and go to Dynasty mode. Having said that, I think Pennants are irrelevant because the gameplay (especially passing) is much improved. Rushing has become a lot harder which is a good thing, especially because I-Form Normal counter play is not a guaranteed touchdown with 4-3 man coverage & wide receiver motion like it used to be.
There are some other odds & ends.
The Good:
You can switch the controller to either team's side during the game. This is really fun if you choose to play some of the marquee games and play either offense or defense on both sides. I don't recall this ability in 2005. It will disable pennants if one of the teams is user controlled.
You can't edit player skills in Race for Heisman mode, so you can't create a super player. The skills are set during tryout.
There is less discrepency in the coaches/media rankings. In 2005, if a team started too far down, at one point it would be ranked #2 in the media poll, but #25 in the coaches poll.
The Bad:
You can't redshirt your Heisman hopeful. If you do well enough in the tryout, you may end up on a top team with a 99 skill senior in your position, and it seems insane that a freshman would get the start.
Players and refs still walk through each other in the post play animations.
It is sometimes raining with clear blue skies, and sometimes there is sunshine during night games! :)
The OL gets WAY too many pancakes. After my first season, my center had 288 pancakes! Even mediocre OL players pancake all but impact D-Linemen on 20-50% of the plays. The CPU doesn't get that benefit.
You can edit *every* skill value when you create a prospect up to the 99 maximum. In 2005, the upper bounds were limited by player position and size. Now every created prospect can be a super Paul Hornung. It would have been nice to create an "athelate" prospect with some limits, but this one goes too far.
On the Xbox, they switch the select player button from X to B, so it takes some getting used to. The juke function has moved from the right trigger to the right paddle, so it is extremely difficult to pull combination spin, hurdle, juke moves without your right thumb fumbling and flailing all over the place.
In the weekly schedules, when you looked at the game info, it would show the teams' current ranking whether they were in the top 25 or not, but now, you only see that right before the game starts, or right after it ends. There is also no longer an overall grade for a team. You just have offense, defense, and special team grades.
The Ugly:
Who in the blazes picked the menu colors? Dark navy text on a black background? That is what you get for your team in Race or Dynasty mode. The contrast is so poor, it actually hurt my eyes. I can't believe the Beta testers did not riot over this. They also had some nice red-yellow-green shading for NCAA interest level, coach job security, etc., but they've gone to solid colors now. There is no longer a grading system for coach job security.
All the player pictures in roster and recruiting screens look like county sherrif mug shots. This is a really major step down from the last version. Also, the refs have five o'clock shadows and look like they came to the game all hung over after throwing an all night drunk.
During late afternoon games, the shadow coverd parts of the field are pitch black! If your team is wearing light uniforms,
you can barely see them, and if the other team is wearing dark uniforms, you absolutely cannot see them until they tackle you or intercept your pass.
They changed the kick meter to Madden style, and I personally do not like it one bit. However, that is entirely subjective.
All in all, this game is an absolute "must buy" if only for the Heisman mode. I will be wasting a signficant number of hours of my life on this game!
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Well, I picked it up yesterday (7/11/05) and I can say, the passing has been much improved. My star catchers are more likely to catch the ball than drop it. There are still dropped passes, but it's more realistic now and not as frustrating. In fact, when my big star does miss a catch, it's usually because I didn't throw it well or I'm throwing into double or triple coverage. However, I have seen him make the catch when he's "in the zone", a new feature that is pretty cool. Basically, your star player(s) will eventually get into a groove, which means they are more apt to make the big play when you control them. If they do, the game will zoom into slo-motion video to show the big play they made and then zooms back out as the play continues.
The ability to easily scramble your QB is great. No longer do you have to "shut off" the passing icons. On the Xbox, hitting the A button turns off the icons, makes your QB tuck the ball and sprint. As long as you haven't crossed the LOS, you can let go and you are immediately back into the passing mode. Very simple change that makes scrambling a lot easier and less frustrating.
Juking is all done with the right analog stick, as is swimming on defense. Also, the right analog stick acts as the "Big Hit" control, just like in Madden and unlike last years NCAA game. Still no play-maker-style controls, though.
Presentation is not bad, but it's still EA-ish and not as spectacular as the ESPN games were (like ESPN NFL 2k5 and MLB 2k5). Hopefully, next year they can revamp all that, especially on the new consoles. The commentary is new, but it repeats itself quickly, but I'm pretty engrossed in the game at hand, so it's not that annoying. Still, it's nice that Nessler, Herbstreit and Corso recorded new commentary that is still fun to listen to.
The only other minor quibble I have with this game is the collision detection. I've seen my players walk through refs or other players as they get up after a play. It looks pretty weird and I wish they'd fix this. This was present in the 2005 version as well. Still, it's not a show stopper, but it makes the game feel as if it could be a lot more polished than it is.
I've only played a few games, including the Run For the Heisman mode, which is pretty cool as you play as a recruit for up to 4 years in persuit of the trophy. You name your player and then have your choice of how you want your stud player to be: pocket QB, scrambling QB, running back, wide receiver, defense. Which choice you choose then puts you into a "mini-game" to rack up as many points as possible to impress the college scouts. Your stats will be based on how well you perform. This will also give you a list of the top 3 schools that want to recruit you. However, you don't have to go there and can choose to walk-on any campus you wish. At that point, you go to your dorm room and your off! You don't have much control over the off-the-field activities in this mode, though. Still, this mode is a really fun mode to play in as you play the character you created and watch him attempt to garner the Heisman Trophy.
I haven't played dynasty yet, as I'm still playing exhibition games in order to get a handle on the game. You can do recruiting year round, and from what I've seen so far, this year's edition is definitely a big improvement over the previous edition.
I didn't get a chance to play online games yet. I did log on, and the interface for Xbox Live is revamped and looks pretty good. Only about 12 people were on-board, but none were quite ready to challenge me (nor was I ready to be challenged yet).
Overall, this is definitely one to get if you love college football. The graphics were tweaked, but they are still nothing to really gush about. They did tone down the "steroid" look so that the players look more like college players. But overall, the graphics tweaks are not what make this the must-buy college game. It's the actual gameplay tweaks/revamps that were done that have made this one of the best NCAA football games yet.
Best Deals for NCAA Football 2006 - Xbox
Like the last game I reviewed, Need for Speed: Underground 2, I really didn't want to purchase this game, but another family member (my borther this time) brought it home anyway. At first, I was distracted with a rental of mine: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. But after getting frustrated with the final mission (actually, I wasn't frustrated, but I was too lazy to go through the entire level to get to the point where I failed), I decided to pop in NCAA 2006 and see what it was like.
When I first entered the game, I decided to try out the new flagship mode of the game, Race for the Heisman Mode. In the beginning, you are at a college scouting session picking which position you will play (they're all specialty positions, leaving out the underappreciated O-Line). When you pick your position, you will enter immediately into the spring drill which best suits your position (Oklahomas, Pass Skeleton, etc.). When you are done with your drill, you are then immediately given the choice of three schools (their strength depending on your success rating at your drill) or you can choose to walk-on to any school you like.
Once you are in you dorm room, you have the option of doing several things, one being playing your games (or simming them). Other things you can do is look at your achievements and awards over the years, look at fan mail (I never knew that college football phenoms only got one letter every several weeks talking about their career choices... interesting), and look at a picture at an really ugly-looking girl on your computer (when you are a freshman, at least).
When you play a game in RFTH mode, I expected it to be as I just playing as myself throughout the game and resting when on defense. But what I got was pretty much a game that I could've played with the Quick Start option. I control any player on field on my team, I control offense and defense, I control playcalling, etc. This is extremely dissapointing in my mind. Once again, this is supposed to be about me controlling my player and bringing him to glory . Controlling the entire team destroys the illusion that I am slaving to bring my custom player to glory.
A few more gripes about RFTH mode is that no matter what team you play for, you will always start off the bat, no matter who you are replacing. Once again, this is very unrealistic. Also, about controlling your personal player, you do not control his actions off the field. I would've liked to see at the very least an answer based thing which allows us to shape the character of our player. I have only gone to my sophomore year (with no Heisman trophies), but I beginning to feel that RFTH mode is just a worthless novelty mode brought in to garner in the feel of the game. Hopefully, this mode will be improved upon in 2007.
Onto the actual gameplay, it seems to be more "Offense-friendly" than seasons past. Recievers and halfbacks drop fewer passes than last year (thankful for this), the kicking meter is slower on All-American than last year, and it is much easier to bust big gains on the ground with a few well-placed jukes. Another thing that may contribute to this is the fact that the defensive controls have been unfairly altered from last year (player change and sprint on defense have been switched, which results in confusion and sometimes frustration). There is this new feature in the game called Impact Player and at random times, Impact players will be "In The Zone". Besides this, no other new features in the gameplay.
For it's flagship Dynasty mode, It is pretty much the same Dynasty mode as last year with a tune-up to make it better for the current year. Several things new to the mode include an Athlon Sports preview of the upcoming season (nothing new inside, though), pipeline states to have an easier time recruiting (you need at least 5 players on your team in a state to have it considered as a "pipeline" state), and a key new feature called In-Season recruiting, which allows you to recruit hot prospects in-season, as the title suggests.
The graphics have been relatively unchanged from last year, except for the fact that the heads have been pretty much "inflated" to a weird level. The collision detection bugs after the play seem to be gone, as I have seen none as of yet.
The Create-A-School, player, sign, etc. options remain unchanged from last year.
At the beginning of the game, NCAA takes a page from ESPN NFL 2K5 and has 3D renditions of Brad Nessler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit. Unfortunately, these previews get repetitive really quick. Here's the basic skeleton of these intros: Brad introduces the broadcasting game, he adresses the weather, the home team comes out, the away team comes out, Brad makes his prediction, Kirk makes his prediction and his key player to watch for, Lee makes his prediction with some helmet or mascot head of the team he is favoring. I feel ashamed the way that they changed Lee from a person who made a decision based on the analysis of the game to a person who just puts on something and says "I'm favoring Team A!" If it was a way to try and make the situation of broadcasting the game looser and more relaxed, then it failed.
For the music, I am disappointed with this as well. From EA's view, it seems that all college football fans want to listen to is Punk Rock with a splash of Ska and Old-School Rap (One song each). As for the bands they chose, they have a nice blend of new and old tunes for you to listen to (the better songs are from De La Soul, The Pixies, and The Clash). And if you get sick of the EA Trax, here's a tip to all of the unknowing reviewers out there: THEY DO HAVE MARCHING BANDS IN THE GAME! If you want bands on the main menu, go to MY NCAA, Audio, and then change menu music from EA Trax to Bands. Personally, I like the fact that EA put new music in the game instead of listening to the bands which were fun in the beginning but got irritating later on in the gaming experience. The only thing I don't like is that it does not support custom soundtracks (Bummer. I would've liked a mix of EA Trax, my music burned onto the XBox, and marching bands).
In final, this is game that is pretty much a must own for any colege football fan out there. It simply is if you liked NCAA 2005, you will be very pleased with the new rendition of NCAA.
Honest reviews on NCAA Football 2006 - Xbox
Bought it last night at midnight and while I only played for just over an hour...I was very impressed. The graphics have seen a huge improvement and the added "Race for the Heisman" feature adds a new dynamic. The EA developers are doing a great job evolving this game into something great on its own rather than an annual Madden tag-along. Improved controls make this game much more fun to play than last year and the gameplay...especially running the option, is much better. A must for college football fans, hardcore gamer not required (I'm certainly not one). My only complaint, and it's just me getting used to it is...it seems to take more skill now in the passing game, which frankly was too easy in previous versions. Running the ball is a treat, with new analog controls for directional juking I feel like I have better control when scrambling or using one of my backs. Hope this is helpful. Go Gators!
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Here is in my opinion the best way to play this game on the Xbox.
WHAT'S RIGHT ABOUT THIS GAME
1. Set it to Dynasty. Heisman mode is kind of a waste -it's funner to control a coaches career.
2. Set it to Heisman difficulty level. DO NOT mess with the AI sliders.
3. Set it to EAsy Play. Your runingback will find the holes and your receivers have indicators to tell you which one is open. You will not always be successful, however. It isn't that EAsy.
4. Turn the unsportsman like conduct down to about 30% in the penalty section. You can still get nailed for it, but when you suspect your player is doing something stupid pause the game and unpause it -no penalty.
5. Use the Auto-Name function in the roster section. No more ROLB #54 -they will all have names now except for the really small schools like Maine Black Bears (example only -you may find differently). Brad Nessler will actually pronounce the names.
6. In the contoller section you can switch to the 2005 control layout. There's too much whining about the controls. If you want last year's, you can have it.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS GAME
1. There's still too many long bombs.
2. It's too easy to block punts. All you have to do is take one of the men on the far right and scooch him over to the rest of the lineman, but yet not right next to them so he can get around the offensive line. Then since the defense won't jump offsides you can already have him running in place with your finger near the B button. When the ball is snapped hit that B button and nail that punter.
3. The soundtrack stinks. I mean really stinks. Go to the audio section and change the music to "bands".
That's about it.
