NCAA Football 11
Time to break out Rudy...
Posted August 16, 2010
With the college football season just a couple weeks away, die hard fans are thinking about sinking their teeth into the new version of NCAA Football from Electronic Arts and taking their favorite team to the National Championship before the real season even starts. NCAA Football 11 (available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PS2) brings a new online dynasty mode into the mix this year, complete with connectivity to check on your recruiting / game schedule through a PC or mobile device like an iPhone. Slick as always, the presentation of the game is filled with high levels of game video as well as more ESPN integration / branding.
One area that Electronic Arts has finally given some love to is player momentum. Rather than an arcade feel at changing directions from years past, there's a much more realistic style to the running game. Called locomotion technology, we now have a greater control of the player’s weight and how it causes tighter, sharper movements with the control stick. A player can make a sharp shift when starting a run or catching a pass, causing havoc with the defense. It's a very realistic style of player that's more accurate to a real player's decision making ability while on the field. Used improperly, players can veer off out bounds or directly into defenders for an injury as well.
The passing game is somewhat tighter as well, at least for the high-performance teams. There's still some persistent QB clipping issues and the occasional odd quirk, but receivers have been animated to make more effort to remaining in-bounds and continue streaking down the field. I didn’t see any major changes in the defense though. Some of the same passing plays that consistently worked in NCAA 10 work in 11.
There’s little that’s new in terms of game modes or improvements to the modes from previous years. Road to Glory is pretty much identical and not as much fun as last year. The dynasty mode has slight improvements to recruiting in the form of seeing how effective that your efforts are with prospective recruits, but it’s still incredibly confusing and takes more time to get through a recruiting session than half your season.
That being said, anyone that digs Fantasy Football will have a ball with the online dynasty mode. Players can compete directly with other real players for recruits and talk some serious smack when players sign. Recruitment reports and information about wins / losses can be posted to an online “blog” shared among your friends in the dynasty. There’s an extra layer of competitiveness when you don’t have to be in front of your PS3 to perform many of these actions. You can keep tabs on all the other teams in the dynasty through your PC or mobile device.
Online play has some of the same issues that plagued last year’s version. Quick changes in direction during a play can fall victim to laggy performance as well as kicking field goals. I also heard some of my opponents complaining about error messages during games as well as completely dropped connections. I didn’t experience any of these problems, with the exception of occasional lag.
Electronic Arts has taken a significant step in tweaking how the artificial intelligence reacts to the game as well as the control scheme in NCAA Football 11. On the flip side, there’s very little that’s new in the game modes, beyond the online dynasty mode, and you may miss the energy that Corso brought to the broadcasting booth. That being said, this is a solid entry in the college football franchise and certain to please anyone that wanted greater control of the players in last year’s version. Pick it up before the season starts and try to beat my Orangemen in an online match. Go Cuse!
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One area that Electronic Arts has finally given some love to is player momentum. Rather than an arcade feel at changing directions from years past, there's a much more realistic style to the running game. Called locomotion technology, we now have a greater control of the player’s weight and how it causes tighter, sharper movements with the control stick. A player can make a sharp shift when starting a run or catching a pass, causing havoc with the defense. It's a very realistic style of player that's more accurate to a real player's decision making ability while on the field. Used improperly, players can veer off out bounds or directly into defenders for an injury as well.
The passing game is somewhat tighter as well, at least for the high-performance teams. There's still some persistent QB clipping issues and the occasional odd quirk, but receivers have been animated to make more effort to remaining in-bounds and continue streaking down the field. I didn’t see any major changes in the defense though. Some of the same passing plays that consistently worked in NCAA 10 work in 11.
There’s little that’s new in terms of game modes or improvements to the modes from previous years. Road to Glory is pretty much identical and not as much fun as last year. The dynasty mode has slight improvements to recruiting in the form of seeing how effective that your efforts are with prospective recruits, but it’s still incredibly confusing and takes more time to get through a recruiting session than half your season.
That being said, anyone that digs Fantasy Football will have a ball with the online dynasty mode. Players can compete directly with other real players for recruits and talk some serious smack when players sign. Recruitment reports and information about wins / losses can be posted to an online “blog” shared among your friends in the dynasty. There’s an extra layer of competitiveness when you don’t have to be in front of your PS3 to perform many of these actions. You can keep tabs on all the other teams in the dynasty through your PC or mobile device.
Online play has some of the same issues that plagued last year’s version. Quick changes in direction during a play can fall victim to laggy performance as well as kicking field goals. I also heard some of my opponents complaining about error messages during games as well as completely dropped connections. I didn’t experience any of these problems, with the exception of occasional lag.
Graphics
- The character models look much better to me this year than the previous version, very possibly due to the lighting effects. Animations are superb as well. There’s a higher level of realism to player tackles and running motions that raise the visual bar.
- I only ran into a couple of framerate issues in the late stages of a couple games. For the most part, it’s smooth as silk. The crowds have a larger number of school specific waves and signs this year, but the character models are still weak. It makes me wonder if they will ever be improved to the quality on the field on this generation of HD consoles. Load times during recruitment sessions in the dynasty as still incredibly long as well.
Audio
- Where’s Lee Corso? Corso is noticeable absent from this year’s version of NCAA Football 11. Despite his corniness, his loud quips were often a fun addition to the low energy of Kirk Herbstriet and Brad Nessler. Speaking of the duo, the commentary is fairly lackluster this year. I’m not even sure if they recorded a fresh batch of lines. Erin Andrews is a bit better, but the group clearly falters without a fourth like Corso.
- The on-field sound effects are excellent as well as the ambient crowd noise. It seems like there’s an increased amount of school specific chants / music as well.
Conclusion
Electronic Arts has taken a significant step in tweaking how the artificial intelligence reacts to the game as well as the control scheme in NCAA Football 11. On the flip side, there’s very little that’s new in the game modes, beyond the online dynasty mode, and you may miss the energy that Corso brought to the broadcasting booth. That being said, this is a solid entry in the college football franchise and certain to please anyone that wanted greater control of the players in last year’s version. Pick it up before the season starts and try to beat my Orangemen in an online match. Go Cuse!
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum