NCAA Football 2011-The Review we've all been waiting for-Part 1

First, I want to apologize for my absence, I got NCAA Football 2011 and have been so caught up in it that I haven't written a review in a while. Not to mention my supply of games to play has temporarily run dry. In any case, I feel I have now played enough NCAA Football 2011 to give it a review that will cover all the intricacies that you have come to expect me to notice in an NCAA Football game.

Cover Art for PS3 version - courtesy of pastapadre.com

In case you didn't know, I love college football. And to only a slightly lesser degree do I love the NCAA Football video game series. I have played enough of this series that I know of more long-standing issues in the game series than EA probably does. Of course they don't have the time between game releases to take care of all of these issues, so its understandable that they would still have lots of problems. But, for your benefit I will discuss things I like first, then dislikes, and things that I cannot pass judgement on.

A lot of the things I like about it are things that were either in previous editions that they had inexplicably removed before, or new additions that really add to the game on the whole. A lot of the things are little things that really shouldn't have taken this long to add to the game but are a welcome change just the same. For instance, they have finally added Squib Kicks as a Special Teams option. In previous versions during a kick off right before the end of the half, Brad Nessler would say "I think he'll probably squib this. Don't want to see the returner create lighting before half," or something along those lines, and then you would immediately kick as deep as you could regardless of whether or not you wanted to. So I am glad to see they have decided to include things that they have been suggesting we do for years. Another great thing I like is that they are finally including partial tackles and sacks, which again has been a long time coming. They even added some custom entrances for your team. For ND they slap the sign or for Clemson they touch Howard's Rock. Even if they only use 5 or 6 players instead of a whole team when entering the stadium.

See, without partial sacks these guys wouldn't get the credit they deserve. Jimmy got sacked twice in one play. They only give out half sacks in the NCAA, and he got sacked by 4 people at once. That's 2 sacks in one play. - Photo from the Associated Press

It is nice to see that EA Sports is finally taking steps to get back to their old slogan of "If its in the game, its in the game." Now if only we could get them to include all the penalties in the actual game, all the stadiums people play in, like the Meadowlands for the ND-Navy game, or Yankee Stadium for the ND-Army game. Its not like these things would take to much effort to include.

Some other changes I like that they did include are formation subs, the ability to change recruiting difficulty, and when you recruit a junior college recruit, it will tell you what year they will be upon entering your school.

The problem is that these things, while nice, do make up for the myriad of other flaws that still exist in the series. Most of the flaws are graphical or general programming problems, but then there are the other gameplay issues as well.

First, we shall discuss the graphical issues. On the whole the game looks a lot better than its predecessors, but it also has more bugs graphically than last year's game. For instance, sometimes, when you make a sack a little sign will pop up that says "USER SACK," just like it did last year, but then it won't go away...unlike last year. This makes it impossible to read your score, which can be important when deciding to go for two, or kick a field goal or some such thing. Also on occasion, your quarterback, or linemen won't line up properly after a hurry-up and then they will miss the snap or leave you open for a sack. Also, I have only encountered this problem when playing as ND at Home, but whenever you use ND's home uniform, your players names no longer appear underneath them when you have them selected or prior to the snap. This can be problematic if you have difficulty finding the little blue ring under your player when you switch to them. Whether these are graphical or general programming errors, they are annoying and just plain sloppy.

One smaller problem I have is with the fans at the games. There are only two ethnicities, black and white. And if you just go off of what you see in the pre-game video, every school is at least 50% black, if not more. While I am sure that EA is not being racist, they are being lazy. Why are there no Hispanics or Asians at the football games. I know a couple of Asians who are some of the most passionate fans you will ever see at an ND game. Why can't they be included in the crowd? And even more importantly, why can't they be players, too?

If you have ever been to a Notre Dame game, you know that there are a whole lot more white people in the stands, and there should be Hispanics and Asians as well. Also, notice that the players come down the steps in different orders both times they show the steps - video from youtube.com

Its these little things that I feel get overlooked when you crank out these games year after year without taking the time to improve them between releases.

As far as things I have not yet passed judgment on you will have to wait till part two of the review, where I will discuss the changes to recruiting in dynasties, the changes to online dynasties and new game modes. And let me just give you a teaser by saying that its not all bad, in fact some things are actually really good. There is still a lot to tell about this game.