NCAA Football Video Game question

[bull2saintleo]

My brother wants to upgrade our NCAA 05 game for PS2 to NCAA 06.  Is USF listed in the Big East in this game or not?

[___ Eats It]

Yes.

[Bull Dozer]

The PS2 version of the newest NCAA is pure garbage.  The play controls are very unresponsive, the pre snap changing of players is terrible, there is a delay between when you hit the change player button and when you actually gain control of the new player, add that in with the secondaries terrible AI and them always being out of position and never breaking on the ball or WR and i was very disappointed.  I liked alot of presnap additions but i would gladly lose alot of that to gain better and more responsive controls.  

[bull2saintleo]

Yes.

Thanks!

[BigShoop]

um, why not get ncaa 07?

[USFPDiddy]

Recommendation as a ranked player in every NCAA since 2005, and as a ranked player in each of the past 2 maddens (working on the newest one atm):

NCAA 2006 sucks.  Horribly.  It's a joke.  No, seriously, don't get it.

If you do, however, USF WILL be in the BE.  Also, you can run the ball every single play and if you're halfway decent, win every game on the hardest setting offline that way.  If you run the option or the direct snap, it's even easier.

Online games in 2006 among top players were among the most retarded things ever...50+point for each side scoring sprees where the person that won did so off a lucky fumble, a very skillful 1 on 1 user pick, or their opponent accidently doing something retarded.

I recall calling an outside linebacker blitz as USC, with safeties in man (the strong safety manned on the halfback), and watching vince young run for 20 yards without ever having to pitch it.  Annoyingly, the safety went after the QB, only after young crossed the line, and didnt play the pitch man...not that it mattered.  Next, I tried a spy...that held them to 15 yards after the pitch.  Finally, I attempted a 4-4 double spy.  You guessed it, successful vince young option run for 8+ yards no pitch.

What's even more horrible than that is, I WON that game.  He couldnt stop the reggie bush direct snap-pick-which-way-you-run a thon, and he sure as hell couldn't stop the 90+% success rate USER CATCH.

At some point, he tried to pitch it too late and fumbled.  The game ended with me having about 70 points ish and him high 60ish.  We were both top 1000 players at the time.  Any school with a scrambling QB (favorites being Texas, Va Tech, and Penn State of course) can abuse the option, and any team with an impact halfback can abuse the direct snap, and then once 1 on 1 coverage is forced bomb it, which almost always works with user catch.  DB's will NOT jump for it under normal circumstances (you can try to make them, but the game doesnt call offensive interference, and you'll be in a major fight with the bigger wideout to be in even remotely decent position)

Of course, I still haven't mentioned the glitch where a guy can snap it straight from his center to a slot wide receiver, while he's about 5 yards from the sideline.  Instant ball teleportation screen?  Try defending THAT!  That glitch in particular was so bad that if used it would remove any semblance of football from the game whatsoever.  Literally NO way to stop ball teleportation.

2005 and 2007 both have much more balanced offense-defense relationships, such that if you call the correct defense, it will beat the offense and vice versa.  2007 on 360, that is.  2007 360 madden is probably the best overall gameplay engine yet (ncaa 2007 on 360 being second)...Although i DO miss 2005 where I was #38 on the PS2 ladder as USFPDiddy.  I play as Turb0USF on Madden 2007 now.  And yes, all 4 of those losses are disconnects where I was leading at the time.  Disconnect abuse is a problem that will be addressed elsewhere...

In short, NCAA 2006 is probably the worst version I ever played.  If it isn't, it's by far the worst one to ever make it to online play.

[whataknight]

Recommendation as a ranked player in every NCAA since 2005, and as a ranked player in each of the past 2 maddens (working on the newest one atm):

NCAA 2006 sucks.  Horribly.  It's a joke.  No, seriously, don't get it.

If you do, however, USF WILL be in the BE.  Also, you can run the ball every single play and if you're halfway decent, win every game on the hardest setting offline that way.  If you run the option or the direct snap, it's even easier.

Online games in 2006 among top players were among the most retarded things ever...50+point for each side scoring sprees where the person that won did so off a lucky fumble, a very skillful 1 on 1 user pick, or their opponent accidently doing something retarded.

I recall calling an outside linebacker blitz as USC, with safeties in man (the strong safety manned on the halfback), and watching vince young run for 20 yards without ever having to pitch it.  Annoyingly, the safety went after the QB, only after young crossed the line, and didnt play the pitch man...not that it mattered.  Next, I tried a spy...that held them to 15 yards after the pitch.  Finally, I attempted a 4-4 double spy.  You guessed it, successful vince young option run for 8+ yards no pitch.

What's even more horrible than that is, I WON that game.  He couldnt stop the reggie bush direct snap-pick-which-way-you-run a thon, and he sure as hell couldn't stop the 90+% success rate USER CATCH.

At some point, he tried to pitch it too late and fumbled.  The game ended with me having about 70 points ish and him high 60ish.  We were both top 1000 players at the time.  Any school with a scrambling QB (favorites being Texas, Va Tech, and Penn State of course) can abuse the option, and any team with an impact halfback can abuse the direct snap, and then once 1 on 1 coverage is forced bomb it, which almost always works with user catch.  DB's will NOT jump for it under normal circumstances (you can try to make them, but the game doesnt call offensive interference, and you'll be in a major fight with the bigger wideout to be in even remotely decent position)

Of course, I still haven't mentioned the glitch where a guy can snap it straight from his center to a slot wide receiver, while he's about 5 yards from the sideline.  Instant ball teleportation screen?  Try defending THAT!  That glitch in particular was so bad that if used it would remove any semblance of football from the game whatsoever.  Literally NO way to stop ball teleportation.

2005 and 2007 both have much more balanced offense-defense relationships, such that if you call the correct defense, it will beat the offense and vice versa.  2007 on 360, that is.  2007 360 madden is probably the best overall gameplay engine yet (ncaa 2007 on 360 being second)...Although i DO miss 2005 where I was #38 on the PS2 ladder as USFPDiddy.  I play as Turb0USF on Madden 2007 now.  And yes, all 4 of those losses are disconnects where I was leading at the time.  Disconnect abuse is a problem that will be addressed elsewhere...

In short, NCAA 2006 is probably the worst version I ever played.  If it isn't, it's by far the worst one to ever make it to online play.

Good review.....while I find the "smoothness" of game play superior on 2006 than in 2007, it was ridiculously easy on some plays. I could run that HB Direct snap play for 10+ yds 98 out of 100 times. While the changes to the controls in 07 are tough to pick up at first, I think they have done great work in normalizing the game. No more easy 5 yd to the side jukes and being able to audibilze your offensive line blocking assignments and your defensive player responsibilities is a huge plus.

[BigShoop]

'07 has it's flaws as well. they made it harder to run and fixed all those bugs, but if you have a fast QB, the rollout pass/run is unstoppable. Every year it's something different.

I just wish I could put some green pants on my team, god da*^%*&^%it.

[USFPDiddy]

'07 has it's flaws as well. they made it harder to run and fixed all those bugs, but if you have a fast QB, the rollout pass/run is unstoppable. Every year it's something different.

I just wish I could put some green pants on my team, god da*^%*&^%it.

Rollout pass/run has been a consistent problem in the college game since ncaa 2003 or earlier (2003 was the first year I played on the then new-gen ps2) 8-).  Scrambling QB's are kinda a problem in real life, too.

I have found a couple ways that severely hamper it:

First of all, anytime they're not a running threat up the middle (and many of those cliche' scrambling garbage players NEVER are), use the right analog stick to fan the defensive line out on a QB contain pass rush.

1.  Send a corner.  No, you can't do this every play (unless your opponent sucks and can't read the D), but when they snap the ball they can't see the corner coming right away.  If he tries to roll out, he'll be sacked almost instantly...no way out of it.  Decent chance of a fumble too.

2.  Run a heavy man blitz (preferably one to the outside) and control a linebacker to run after the quarterback.  Faster LB's are on par with most scrambling quarterbacks, and even if he's 5 speed slower, it will be very hard to throw a good pass with someone bearing down on him (it's nice that DB's actually try for the ball and jump this year).  Yet another thing you can't call every time.

3.  This is the simplest way, but the least consistent:  Call a zone that stops their tendency.  Most people that roll out will a) scramble or throw a route to the outside...which is almost always a flag route.  It is very hard to run on a cover 2 with a corner in the flat.  If he tries, you should be controlling the end on the side he was rolling out to.  If he tries to juke inside on the corner, you should be there with your DE.  If he's getting pass happy, use the pinkish/purplish zone assignment, which covers the flag.  In fact, that zone assignment is designed specifically to cover the hole in typical cover 2, where flags and outside WR streaks can beat it.

There is also a version of cover 3 that covers the flat with a safety on one side, as well as the flag routes.  It leaves the middle somewhat open (still a MLB in zone there as well as a FS behind him), but QB's that roll out won't be able to take advantage of that (it's throwing back across his body).  Flip the play so the safety is covering the flats on the side he's rolling out to, and control/switch to your DE like I said.  This will box in Scrambling QB's fairly well.  Also, a safety jumping the flats can be confusing to a lot of players.  If he's thinking corner blitz and throws to the flats because of that, you can run a pick back on him.

Finally, the spy can screw him up too.  Especially if he's trying to roll out and throw drags or in routes.  Often when people look downfield, they forget to account for the spy.  Passes thrown near the spy have a VERY high pick rate.  Also prevents the QB scramble.  Use it if you have strong man coverage and/or pass rushing DE's that can get pressure.

If you add in the occasional corner blitz and man blitz as well, the constant scrambling QB can become very error prone (a major reason i've put many hours into pocket passing well).  Also, safeties play the pitch man correctly on options now, so using a spy and the right defensive calls will beat the option too.

No, ncaa 2007 isn't perfect, but it is a LOT better.