EA Sports NCAA Football 11

[lazarus]

Anybody play this? I'm just getting into it, and it's kind of frustrating.

There are four difficulty levels: Freshman, Varsity, All-American, and Heisman. I started on AA, and won my first three games in Dynasty mode. Then I got my ass handed to me. I decided to step down to Varsity mode, and did even worse.

Huh?

So I gave up and am playing on Freshman mode, which is a bit too easy, but it's a way to get familiar with the controls, which are plentiful and confusing. I'm still learning how to do option plays properly, although Alabama (the team I control) doesn't do many.

Defense is where I'm having the most difficulty. Any tips on that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, any tips on recruiting? I only went for four and five star recruits who listed me in their top three for interest. The only position I needed to fill was center, and I got two four stars to commit week four. I'm afraid I'm getting three five star running backs, which I don't need, so I have to decided which ones I actually want. Not sure how to do that.

My big complaint is that you can't red shirt once the season starts. My backup running back broke his shoulder week 2. In the real world, I could use a medical red shirt on him. Boo hiss.

Oh, and I'm never using Super Sim to finish a game again. I was beating South Carolina 98-3 at the end of the third quarter, and simmed out the game. They outscored me 21-0 in the fourth. Right.

Final complaint: The stupid "Season Showdown" thing. This is an online thing whereby you amass points for your school. You get skill points when the player you control does something good, like a sack or tackle for loss. You get strategy points for doing a set up play (these are labeled as setups when you're picking your play, and change all the time). And you get sportsmanship points for punting on fourth, that sort of thing.

But I like playing crazy. I always go for two, and I rarely punt. This means I lose big sportsmanship points. You also lose sportsmanship if you pass when you have a big lead. Bullshit, I'm passing on 3rd and sixteen even if I'm up by sixty.

As far as I can tell, the Season Showdown doesn't have any effect on recruiting or anything, so I mostly ignore it. Does anybody know anything further about it? Should I be paying attention to it?

[realisticphish]

1. I assume this is your first NCAA Football game?

The gameplay is generally the same as the other games, but it can be insanely complicated if you've never played it before.

After years of playing these games, I've learned that sometimes, the game just wants you to fucking lose. You can have a knock-out, drag-out fight with some pissant Sun Belt Conference team, then open up a can of whoop-ass on the number 1 team the next week.

Options can be a bitch... you need to have a fast, skilled quarterback, and a good RB to do it right. The trick is to do it RIGHT before the D player hits you, so he can't jump in the way and grab it.

For defense, it depends on you. I always play as the DT on the left side of the line, sometimes as the DE if they don't have a TE or something blocking the edge, so I can go for a sack. But a good friend of mine ALWAYS plays MLB. You just need to find the spot that fits you best. Also, 3-4 is useless, but that's just me.

As for deciding which RBs you want... kind of a crap shoot. You don't have access to their full, real stats, so you have to look at whether they're "balanced" "power" or "speed." And unfortunately, that's pretty much all you get. :shrug: With recruiting, always use all your phone time. Don't forget, that LB who seems extraneous now may be desperately needed in a couple of years. Make sure you look at the school year for your players; you don't want a ton in one class, and none below them, because you will be SCREWED when they graduate or go to the NFL. And be ready in case that player you expected to be there leaves for the NFL (even if he's not that "good" in game). You want to be sure you have a back-up.

Yeah, the unrealistic red-shirt stuff blows. They should at least allow medical redshirts during the season.

Super Sim also sucks... when I'm smashing a team, though, I don't mind giving up all those garbage points.

The Season Showdown thing is indeed bullshit. I started ignoring it pretty quickly. Not only do they have dumbass definitions of "poor sportsmanship," but half the time (at least when the game came out) it wouldn't connect to the servers properly, and wouldn't save the points. And it was all for what is basically a big scoreboard online which has nothing to do with anything, AFAIK.

[lazarus]

2. yep, it's my first

I'm enjoying it, all things considered.

For defense, Bama runs a 3-4, and I'm having some success with it. I too play a DT, usually the player with a star (which I don't know what that means).

It's weird how games go. I just played South Carolina. 8-3 after one quarter, me up by 5. I go on to win by 90 something. Go figure. They did just down the "Wild Tide" for the time, so I ran the pistol or I formation the rest of the game.

[realisticphish]

3. the star

means he's a "star player." It just means he's one of your best, and is more likely to make big plays, break blocks, etc.

The downside to these games is the snowball effect. once you pick up a tiny lead, you can turn it into bullshit scores like your 90 point victory. Once you get ahead, you can score on them at will. Not very realistic :shrug:

[JonLP24]

4. I hope NCAA 11 Heisman level

is not much different than NCAA 09 Heisman level. I think on 09, they have it close to perfect. Anyways I'm sitting for NCAA 12 because of the new teams in big conferences.

[lazarus]

5. a couple more questions

how do I improve my kicking? I don't need it yet, but I figure I'll end up kicking field goals on the higher difficulty levels. My kicks are too short and keep going wide right.

Also, one more defense question: My run defense is spectacular, but I tend to give up lots of yardage through the air. Am I just not calling the right plays?

[realisticphish]

6. Don't run zone D

Zone blows in the game. I always run man, and often bring the corners in tight with the pre-snap defensive controls, unless I'm SURE they're running. Other than that, make sure to recruit very good corners and safeties. My old roommate had a knack for taking control of the corners and doing good stuff, but I suck at it :shrug:

Oh, also bring heavy pressure when you can; not blitzes, per se, but just bring the linemen in as fast as possible. Even a little pressure like that can screw them up.

Kicking is one area of the game that they have NEVER improved. They do change it, but it never actually gets better. Just be sure to stop the wind-up thingy right at the top. Or get a new kicker :)

[JonLP24]

7. Can you tell me how much different 11 is to 09 in that respect?

Have you played 09? If so, is gameplay much different? Zone--especially cover 2--works well for me on Heisman level. Man-to-man works too but speedy guys cutting in or out get open (unless the computer is too stupid to throw it to the open guy which is often the case). This is how I destroy man-to-man on Heisman or Madden levels for that matter. I usually "ask Corso" just to mix things up on defense.

That said. I do have trouble stopping the pass often, especially if I start with a 1-star team (which I like to do for the challenge of working myself up the ladder) while I often have a top 10 run defense no matter what team I have. It is interesting when I play against misdirection teams such as Navy or Oregon. Either I destroy them (because they're doing an option on 3rd & long) or have great difficulty stopping them. I get nervous when I have 1-2 star team playing Navy.

Anyways I guess what I'm getting at is, I love NCAA 09 so much that I'm hopeful 12 will be very similar in gameplay. Especially at the Heisman level(I don't want it to be unreasonably difficult). I'm asking how much it has changed from 09 to 11. (If you played both versions) With 09 I have very little complaints, the major one was no team specific end zones for Bowl games (Madden 09 also had this problem for the Super Bowl). I just didn't get how they could either forget or not do that at all. Especially when there was team specific end zones on regular Xbox and Playstation 2 versions. Anyways, I've read they got that fix.

I'm also interesting about the kicking game you 2 mention. I rarely miss kicks on Madden or NCAA 09.

[realisticphish]

8. I honestly don't know

I played 10 as well, so everything gets mixed up. I use cover-2 occasionally, it depends on the team. I destroy man coverage like that, as well, but the computer always seems to shred my larger zone coverage with slants, and the like. Which is how it would be done in real life, of course.

And oh god, option teams. I LOVE playing with them, hate playing against them

[PVnRT]

10. College kickers are a crapshoot

Some of them just suck and have no range. Think about how many teams you see go for it on fourth down from the 30 early in the game; either recruit a good kicker, or be prepared to go for it a lot on fourth down.

[lazarus]

11. I found a trick on punt returns

instead of picking "return right" or "return left", which usually gave me less than a five yard return, I pick "punt block return" or something like that. Got a 39 yard return right off, and my average is way up.

There were no kickers available to recruit this season. I'll keep looking, though.

I ended up with only 19 recruits this season, I think, for some reason. I'm still learning. Was planning on the whole 25, but had a few break away the last few weeks.

I also just discovered that the game doesn't set you up with a conference championship. I just ended the season with a couple of bye weeks going into the Nat Champ. Very strange, would have thought that'd be something they'd do for sure.

[JonLP24]

12. OMG

That reminds me when I built Arizona State to a 5-star team I found a speedy running back. Every time I did that punt block he would score as a return man. If 11 is anything like 09, try to run a straight line and turn to the outside when players get closer but return to as straight as line as possible. The defenders will pursue in a straight line or left/right depending on how you're running. You could use that to your advantage and shake them bad. Eventually I ended up running out of bounds on purpose. -This was on Heisman level.

Punt block has a strange effect on Madden and college football games in giving you as many return yards as possible, especially with a speedy guy.

As far as your last paragraph. If it is like 09, it probably waits until the regular season is completely simulated before "Conf Champ Week" shows up. Then you sim that and Bowl Week shows up. If not that would be very odd to leave out something 09 has. But I bet you just need to finish all the weeks in the regular season before conf champ week shows up.

[realisticphish]

13. just like real life

it's rare that any juking nonsense will break a returner out in both the game and real life...

[lazarus]

14. something I found similar to that

Bama runs the Wild Tide formation, where the running back lines up in the shotgun. The Jet Sweep, where the second running back crosses the back field at the snap and gets the hand off, then sweeps around the end, almost always results in a score. To the point where I don't run it very often anymore, because it was getting boring. This is on Freshman, though. I'm upping the dynasty mode to Varsity next season, I just wanted to get a season under my belt so I could learn the plays and the various techniques. I still don't have all the controls down, though.

For instance, I can never remember to pump fake on passes. And I'm not clear what defensive set is best against the option. Still figuring that out.

One interesting mistake the game makes: It doesn't handle the Wild Tide formation very well when it comes to announcing. They'll occasionally exclaim it's a direct snap to the back, but if the half back passes the ball, they refer to him using the quarterback's name and call it the option rather than the proper formation. No big deal, it's kind of funny.

[PVnRT]

15. Try using a spy

Either pick a formation where one linebacker is spying, or just take control of a linebacker and do it manually. Beyond that, I try to get the OLB's in zones to the right/left of the offensive line, as I can usually squelch a run up the middle easily.

[realisticphish]

16. yeah

that's another reason I'm usually controlling a DT. I can usually trust the OLB to take care of end stuff, so I focus on the middle

[lazarus]

17. thanks, I'll try that

I've come to the frustrating conclusion that it's impossible to get a safety in this game. I tackled the quarterback a good two yards inside the end zone this weekend, and it still spotted the ball on the goal line. :(

I'm finally getting the hang of kicking. I do much better if I use my left hand on the right analog stick. I always did better swapping hands like that on Tiger Woods PGA Golf, so I figured it'd work here, too.

[JonLP24]

18. You think it could be forward progress?

Such as the QB was at the half yard line when the hit started and the defender tossed him into the end zone.

[lazarus]

19. the play started from the two, iirc

but maybe. I just know I'm getting tired of QBs going down just this side of the goal line. 4 times it's happened so far.

[PVnRT]

9. That's not real unusual for a blowout

In Super Sim, the computer may have just subbed in a bunch of bench-warmers who gave up some easy points. It happens all the time in real life; besides, it's a nice feature to use when you're blowing another team out and don't want to waste another hour playing through the rest of the second half.

Season Showdown has no effect on the game. It's an online-only thing.

I can't help on recruiting, since I like to use lower-tier schools in Dynasty and work my way up, either building up a school or angling for a better job. Consequently, I'm usually stuck with whatever in-state 2- and 3-stars want to come to my school for a while.

[lazarus]

20. yet another question

does practice do anything, like improve a player's stats? If so, how do I do it effectively?

thanx.

[PVnRT]

21. It only will for the Road to Glory mode, as far as I know

Otherwise, I only use it to work out some of the trick plays.

[lazarus]

22. okay, thank you!