NCAA Football 11

EA SPORTS

PS3, Xbox 360

8.5 out of 10

At its core, NCAA Football 11 is the same game it has been for the past few seasons. With latest release, EA changed the intro sequence to give the gamer a more collegiate atmosphere, but since so many of the animations are exactly the same as any other school, it wears off after a couple of games played. Graphics are still sharp, and the fans look even more realistic than they used to. NCAA Football 11 continues this trend by combining a solid gameplay engine, a fluid player control mechanism, nifty on-line dynasty improvements, and a more intelligent AI to create a more real gameplay experience.

Full review The gameplay is solid and boasts the toughest CPU AI I’ve come across yet in the college football franchise. In years past, even on Heisman, taking a C- team to an undefeated record was easily achievable, well for some of us talented football gamers. Your opponents would make the same mistakes constantly, and your only real threat at losing was found in canned animations that caused you to be intercepted or fumble. The AI this year is much smarter, taking better angles to cut off players and especially in the way they jump WR routes. If your WR has low “route running” ability, the DB or LB easily jumps the route as your WR makes his cut and you won’t have anyone open to throw to. It is frustrating while at the same time, challenging.

Talent rich, power teams such, as Oregon, will be able to overcome even the most intelligent AI. Cellar dwellers such as North Texas aren’t much competition, as the computer jumps a lot of routes and make passing a nightmare. If you can’t pass, just run the ball. Rushing has been greatly updated, with improved blocking schemes. Going up the middle or off tackle can get you 4-7 yards on most downs, but the option is hit or miss, and never try a pitch as that’s a guaranteed 5 yard loss. The spin move is all but worthless now, but the juke system works exceptionally well. Ball carriers will whisk in and out of trouble instead of awkwardly cutting jagged corners like they used to.

As per EA, they had to tweak the recruiting system again. There’s way too much to do and too many options that made this once interesting part of the game now a tedious task. Tip: you can easily sim this and get the same recruiting result, just make sure you may attention to schedule those recruiting visits to ensure he commits.

On-line dynasty is where the fun is at, with increased ability to write your own stories and talk smack.  The interface isn’t as good as it used to be, as the stories are hidden and you constantly have to go find the info you want to read about instead of just having it at your fingertips. On-line also has added ways to talk smack, as your uploaded highlight videos can now have added commentary (not vocal, but typed up) via dynasty.easports.com. You can look at the videos there and write your own captions. Additionally, you can recruit from this website, allowing you to not only take part in your dynasty from any computer, but also check scores, stats, and uploaded footage from your buddies.

Overall, NCAA Football 11 is the same game we’ve known and loved for the past several years. The gameplay mechanics are roughly the same, but EA, thankfully, bumped up the computer’s AI. Good players will have competitive games even when playing with elite teams, while lesser skilled players won’t be too extremely challenged. With enough gameplay enhancements EA mad, this easily makes this a must buy. — A. Kennedy

Tags: college football, Console, video games

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 pm by anthonylkennedy and is filed under Games, PS3, XBOX 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.