The Dude

From what I've read, as long as you don't edit the rosters after you've d/l them, you should be fine. Apparently, there is some maximum number of edits that you can make and once you exceed that, it corrupts the file.

Question for you guys. In Campus Legend mode, what effect does practice have if I'm already the starter? Also, what is the overall effect of going to the gym, studying the playbook, going to the trainer? I see that it raises my Awareness, Speed, Jumping, etc. but is that for the next game only, do I get some sort of partial boost if I win the game?

I've really been enjoying CL so far (had a great game vs. UF in the SEC title game), I'm going to wait and start my NCSU dynasty once the roster patch comes out.

danegger

Got the game Thursday. Played it all day Thursday and some on Friday. I started up a Dynasty, played two games. No problems at all and I absolutely love the game.

Then I read up on the rosters, decided to go w/ EA's rosters and downloaded them. I don't do any editing anyway, just thought it would be really cool to have all the names and it was. It was a blast, until........MY FREAKING GAME STARTED FREEZING!!!! I can't even get through 1 qtr in my Dynasty before it tells me that I have an unreadable disk??? WTH man...it's brand new!!! I played some Mini-Games and it worked fine. Tried my Dynasty again...and it froze up three times in a matter of minutes.

What causes this crap??? Is it part of what they are going to patch?? I'm sure it's been said time and time over, but it really sucks to pay 60 bucks for a game and you don't even get to play it 'cause of crap like this. I tried my other games...Everything else plays fine. Just this one. Pisses me off...I hope Madden doesn't pull this crap!!!

Gromit

Gamefly sends me a "we shipped NCAA 2009" on Tuesday. As of Saturday, it's still not here.

jonw9

I played the Demo for a game yesterday. I don't know if it was my poor playing style or what, but I got whooped.

I was OSU and I could hold LSU for a couple downs, then third and long they would throw some pass to the left side, break a couple tackles and score a TD.

One problem may be I am still trying to use the controls from 2 years ago. I threw my first pass out of bounds because I didn't realize they moved RB to LB

Bell65

From what I've heard the wii version sucks. Online is at a minimum. the game is meant for 4 year old kids and the graphics take you back to the original nintendo. Caused some people to flat out put their wiis up fro auction!

Wish I had better news!!

Im a big college fball and wii fan, EA f's it up again!

BravesMG

Damn, still no roster patch yet? I was really hoping it would be out by now, I know they're working on it, but come on guys, this is ridiculous.

Jeremy517

Here is a good write-up about about what makes this game so incredibly broken:
Part One
Part Two

A couple sample videos, two on Heisman and one on All-American difficulty levels:
Watch the angle that the defender at the 40-yard line takes
Goalline defense
Yes this is really NCAA Fotball 2009 on Heisman difficulty and not Bo Jackson in the original Tecmo Bowl

Another outstanding EA product

astrochimp

BravesMG

The speed disparity is absolutely true. It's amazing how slow some of the WRs are, and I don't think there's a way to fix that at all. But I've played a lot of full games on All-American and Heisman level and haven't seen any issues with the tackling angles or the hoooorible goal line stuff. I'm not doubting that it happened to him at all, but it's not prevalent at all from what I've played.

dvd182

It happens every game for me; the pursuit angles are unbelievably awful.

thelwig14

It is a broken game and EA is aware of it.

Here is hoping to Madden which by all accounts is much better and already has a patch done.

Tygan

Can't believe that Madden already has a patch done....talk about BS.

thelwig14

The head designer wouldn't reveal any information, but he said there were 3 or 4 minor gameplay issues fixed.

TruGator

EA servers suck. Couldn't even play a game online tonight because I kept getting kicked off.

DJ_Longfellow

I find NCAA 09 WAY too easy. I'm playing on Heisman and just blowing the compeition out. I'm using Michigan, so not sure if that is it. Passing just seems too easy, and I'm pretty good on "D". I blew out Ohio State, Florida, and Notre Dame recently in my Dynasty.

jonw9

Well, it has been ~2 weeks since this thread was active.

I figure with Madden coming out, there may be some deals to be had on NCAA.

Has EA done anything to fix the issues, or will this game remain broken, hoping to force people to buy Madden (which i have no desire to do so).

BravesMG

A patch came out that fixed the roster issues last week that is working well.

There is another patch coming hopefully in early September that fixes these issues:

Online
Ability to view your Online Dynasty HQ through EA Sports World.
Improved online performance.

Dynasty
Fixed a couple recruiting exploits.
Faster simming between weeks.

Custom Stadium Sounds.
The “All” option will now only work when the user is the home team.

Gameplay
Improved coverage on kicks.
Hook Zones depth keeps defenders in their zones.
Fixed an issue with the Strafe Catch.
Allow fumbles to occur when diving.
WR screen routes improved.

Bug Fixes
Sliders will now work correctly.
An issue with missing stats after simming has been fixed.
Ball carrier will no longer run out of bounds when changing hands and heading towards the sidelines.
Fixed an exploit that allowed the slot receiver to burn the safeties in a prevent defense.
Fixed a bug where the the ball would hit the cross bar, drop through, and not be counted.
Fixed a bug that would prevent Hot Routes from working.

That's more than a freaking patch, it's a complete game overhaul, which is what NCAA needs at this point. I've heard a few positive rumblings that the patch really makes it a different game (in a good way), but it's ridiculous that they need this much work after releasing the game.

Anyway, I'm having fun with the downloaded real rosters and dynasty, even with a somewhat broken game. I'm looking forward to the patch and sending my guys to the pros in Madden.

jonw9

That sounds like an improvement. I may try to pick up a (used) copy near the end of this month then.

acidburnlk

The amount of smaller mistakes in this game is just ridiculous.

It's like nobody did any QA testing for this game!!! Stupid stat errors, and image mistakes.

EA, you have plenty of money, hire some decent people to do some QA testing!!

No I will not come back, that was hell enough the first time!

Jeremy517

In a case like this, it is more likely that QA found a lot of these bugs and the developers just ran out of time to fix them. They've got a hard deadline since they need to get out for the college football season starts, and at some point the project managers have to decide whether a bug is serious enough to get fixed or not. EA is notorious for working their developers 60+ hours a week, so the chances are that they need more programmers (or better ones, maybe) to fix the bugs rather than QA to find them.

fujishig

I don't think the college season is the deadline they had to meet, but they absolutely had to get out a few weeks before Madden. In fact, because of all of these bugs, and because Madden's already out now, I decided to skip NCAA for the first time in a long time...

argh923

Meh. I've been playing it since release date, and haven't seen any of these so-called "bugs". I love the game, personally...a buddy of mine and I are already in Season 2 of our online Dynasty.

jonw9

I finally got my copy, and downloaded an update last night, but I don't know if that was just the first, or second patch.

I tried campus legend for a while. My two favorite positions are CB and DE. I tried DE for a while, and got nowhere. I think I have 1 sack in my 3 hs and 1 college game!

The keep passing to the other side when i am CB, so that isn't much fin. And the pass rush, dear god. No pressure on the QB. i try the RB and LB to do the defensive mose, and end up getting pancaked.

jonw9

The more i am playing, the more frustrating it is becoming. It seems like a definite parity between the CPU and user teams. Like blocking. When my defensive guys get locked up, the get stuck for pretty much the rest of the play. When I try to run, their guys immediately dump my O-line and make the tackle.

Plus, the passing is still frustrating. Granted I didn't play last year, but I don't recall things being this bad.

i may have to adjust sliders for the first time ever.

jonw9

Since nobody is playing this anymore, I should probably stop posting.

After a few days of playing, I am a bit less frustrated. I still have the issue with the AI breaking away from the blockers, but I am stuck like velcro.

I am doing better with the passing. I try to keep a LB or DB spy, and that breaks up more passes. I also started rushing with my weaker DE. I still don't get anywhere, but I notice the good DE gets more pressure.