Digital Sportspage Blog

The demo is up on XBox Live, with USC and Michigan. I played about 6 games today, and would have loved to been able to access instant replay to figure out how

First with the negative. There are still some of the gameplay annoyances that I’d figure the game would have fixed, such as DBs jumping to block passes without turning to look at the ball, or tackles where a player is touched and goes down like he was shot (only a few of those). I’ve also seen the “EA slide” a few times, where a receiver running their route suddenly warps ahead in order to catch an errant pass. Ack.

Graphically, though, I think the game is much more fluid and better (thank you 60fps). Helmet jaggies are gone, and the dynamic lighting looks excellent. The animations seem to have improved as well…I haven’t seen a single example of Mario running, and runners seem to get skinny well in holes.

I can’t tell much about the AI since it’s on Varsity, but safeties seem to be smarter and more realistic in positioning and reacting. Not many penalties in the game. And the CPU will miss field goals! So far, the tweaks to the kicking game are pretty positive.

I’m not sure if they finished the AI for CPU playcalling, but the computer made some pretty strange play calls. For example, CPU has a 4th and 6, I come out in a 5-2 set, and the computer calls a draw? Or behind with ten seconds left at midfield, the computer calls back-to-back play action calls, and dumps to the running back both times? Or I’m in the lead, running out the clock in an I-formation Big set, and the computer came out on 3rd down in the quarters formation. There were other cases of more bizarre play-calling that I forgot…but I hope it’s not reflective of the play-calling in the actual game. CPU play calling and time management has been a weak point in past versions of the game, so I’m hoping that this is limited to the demo and not the full version.