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(More customer reviews)Let me start off by saying that when your playing in a game scenario, this game can be fun, But problems start rather quickly. One of my biggest complaints is in the passing game, the lack of location based passing makes throwing the ball nerve racking, often times on a crossing route your receiver will have to spin around backwards just to make the catch. And if your hoping to throw over your receivers shoulder where a defender cant reach it.... good luck, once again, most of the time he will spin around and try to make a dramatic catch, often times losing the chance to get extra yardage. Then theres one of my favorite pass plays, the deep comeback. This play is insanely frustrating, your reciever will go out the usual 10-15 yards, the problem is, when he turns back for the pass, he comes back a few yards, you throw, he catches, BUT KEEPS COMING BACK!!! It takes him so long to turn back around, that when he gets tackled he has turned what should have been a gain of 10-15 yards or more into a gain of 4-8 yards. And also if your not a fan of using tight ends in the passing game, you better be damn good at this game, because in the harder difficulty levels it is extremely hard to get the ball into your receivers, since the defense is so tough. Make friends with your tight end, he could save you. And also make good use of your hot routes and motions, and remember, just becuase your pass isnt a huge gain, as long as your not losing yards, your doing pretty good. My next problem is the running game in campus legend mode, when you are the quarterback, or any other position, your running back is often a lame duck, unless your on a team with a excellent running back, even then you will have to turn your running backs AI waaayyy up so that he doesnt just do a spin move and get dropped in the backfield. Also in Campus legend mode, when you are the quarterbackback, you want to make sure that you do choose a balanced or running quarterback, otherwise you may be on the wrong side of a sack very often, especially since the offensive line this year is very inconsistant. Now I know that your gonna get sacked sometimes, that obvious, and also part of the game. But what i mean by inconsistant is that, one play the O-line will do a pretty good job, but then on the next two of your guys will grind together trying to pick up a block, and allow the whole D-line to get through and take you down (thats why you want a mobile quarterback). The load times are long, which can be frustrating, especailly in campus legend mode, where the games are considerably shorter since you only play when your player is on the field. But one place the 360 version of the game shines over the ps3 version is the framerate, which is at a lovely 60 frames per second, while the ps3 struggles at 30fps. But so many frames a second can cause some hiccups.
The main menu can be frustrating and confusing at times, but nothing too hard to overcome. i also find myself wishing there was more to do with your player during the week in campus legend mode. Every week goes as follows: Practice, night event (you only read about what you did that night), then comes the next day. You do this all week, then you can play the game at the end of the week. the night event can earn you stats (which will help you for the week), and popularity points (Which will help fill up your legend meter). You cant even do anything during the offseason, no training, no mini camps, not even a spring game. :(
Thats not to say that everythng is bad in this game. Like I said, this game can be pretty fun. The new ESPN.com feature is very nice, and does a good job keeping up with stats, although often I find that a team that was ranked 25th or lower in the BCS one week, is ranked in the top 5 the next, which for anybody who knows college football, can be irritating since this is NOT supposed to happen. To be fair, I have not played on defense very much, so I can't really discuss that. But let me just say, being a middle linebacker is tough.
All in all this isnt a horrible game, its actually very addicting, its just easier to point out the flaws than it is to talk about the good stuff. The frustrating things do happen, but if you love college football, its easy to overlook...Creating your own highlight reel can be fun, but if your like me and dont have box live (at the moment), its just a sad reminder of how you cant show off your skills. The Stadiums are well done, as well as the whether effects, in the winter you could be having a snow shower, then the next thing you know, it has turned into a blizzard that has completely covered the field. Oddly though, you never see a player slip on the slippery surface (as in Madden 08). The Announcers do a good job with the emotion factor. I cant really say much bad about them. They are a little inconsistant though. For example: they will be very excited over the 4th game of the season, but then in the National Championship, they will be very mellow.
If you have a problem with little irritations and flaws, pass on this game, but if you can overlook these thing, trust me... this game makes for a satisfying experience. I just hope this review has helped all who are reading. and i hope it didnt take too much time out of your day.
Thanks for your time! :)
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NCAA Football 08 X360
