Digital Sportspage Blog

Some more notes on the NCAA 2008 patch, after getting some more gameplay in practice mode in.

1) Strange defensive AI has not, I repeat, has not been eliminated. One clear example was playing with Florida against Auburn. My primary receiver (Percy Harvin) was running a curl route against man coverage. The pass was thrown before his turn, so that the ball would arrive on time so that the corner wouldn’t be able to jump the route. Before the ball arrived, the corner was about two yards behind Harvin.

If the corner wanted to get to the ball, it would have been difficult due to the timing of the throw and being positioned directly behind Harvin. So as a solution, the cornerback slid, without moving his legs, in a semi-circular path around and then in front of Harvin to make the pick. The animation was quite bizarre with the player, at first with his back to Harvin, moving as if on a pivot to suddenly be in front of Harvin and then make the interception.

Also, this wasn’t an isolated incident, as my defensive back slid over unrealistically (albeit with a less exaggerated animation) to make an interception.

Now, I really don’t mind having AI that makes interceptions. If a quarterback waits too long to throw the ball on a curl route, he should be punished against better defensive backs (either with a deflection or an interception). However, situation where it seems like you are destined to give up an interception regardless of what you do, are not fun. And because of this, it’s not fun to play a game where curls and out routes are dangerous, regardless of whether they’re thrown perfectly or not.

(And as an aside, why can’t EA release a football title without some sort of scripted player warp in the game? Madden would have the issue where players that were running behind a pass would suddenly warp-slide to the ball to make the catch. Why couldn’t where the ball is passed be separate from the receiver’s route running? And now in NCAA 2008, we have the occasional scripted interception. Why can’t a defensive back, if out of position, simply not warp into the interception? EA football games would be much improved without some of the scripted behavior. End of rant.)

2) In the past, I’ve found the computer at times has trouble defending the triple option. The first component of most triple option plays is the option to hand the ball off to the fullback. Now in practice mode, with the defense playing Cover 2 Man I would never hand the ball off to the fullback. However, I would find that both the player assigned to cover the fullback and sometimes even the strong safety (playing zone) would follow the fullback throughout nearly the entire play. It seems a bit absurd, but on some plays the safety would abandon his position and dive into the line to follow the fullback, while the quarterback and halfback charge into his old area for an option play.

However, this didn’t happen on all of the plays. Often the safety would correctly step up and defend the option. My guess is that this is a crude form of “awareness” ratings in players in the form of correct assignments. If a player is smart, they’ll not go on a mindless chase of the fullback; whereas if he is dumb, it’s big play time. If so, it’s an interesting way to go about it, but a bit ham-handed…how often will safeties fly into the line when a quarterback clearly has the ball on an option play? Ever?

(Also note that the above observation may have been in the game pre-patch. However, I haven’t noticed it until now.)

3) Defensive AI against the wishbone is still completely broken, even post-patch. The same problems that are laid out here are still clearly evident. Avoid using the wishbone against the computer unless you want to rack up 500 yards rushing a game.

And a few annoyances…

4) When you’re tackled from behind, you don’t always fall forward 5-7 yards before hitting the ground.

5) When a receiver goes up for a one-handed catch, they should drop it more than occasionally.

Overall, the game is somewhat improved, and definitely worth putting back in to see how the changes affect your style of gameplay. However, for me, there is still too much “old” NCAA 2008 game behavior (strange AI, unrealistic and scripted occurrences) to make this a great football title.