Life and Leisure. Tech and Toys.

I had a chance to sit down and play the demo of EA’s NCAA Football 10 and I have to say after playing Madden 09 for so long it was a nice change. The demo only allows you to play 2-minute quarters using the two BCS Championship contenders which is short considering the 1.57gb download. The presentation is top notch and actually beats out Madden 09 but will likely fall short of Madden 10. Everything from the crowd and cheerleaders seemed to get a little more attention this year.

One feature that I enjoyed in the demo was the ability to choose how aggressive or conservative you would like to be in different parts of your game. For example tackling, you can choose to be aggressive and the AI will go for more big hits but may miss tackles more often. There are options for many different aspects for both offense and defense. These modifiers are chosen at the beginning of every quarter and during each timeout.

While playing as the Gators I felt running the option wasn’t as easy as they make it look in real life. I was able to break off one 50 yard run with Tebow though. For the most part the run blocking didn’t seem all that polished while the pass blocking got the most improvement. You’ll see your blockers really start to create a pocket for the quarterback this year while rushing you’ll be amazed at how often you get hit in the backfield. There were a few new tackling and catching animations which I thought looked really realistic. However, there is one tackle where the defender literally throws the ball-carrier which I felt played too often.

I have to say something about these college games still can’t rival the pro games. Something about the lack of player names and the commentators just saps the life out of it. Even after a final touchdown drive to win the game I just didn’t feel any emotion come out of the game. No wild celebrations or the commentators flipping out. I guess this isn’t the case in Madden 09 either but I think this area could be more focused on in all of EA’s football games. I know there is still a huge market for NCAA Football but for me its just another football game to hold me over until Madden 10.