NCAA Football 09

PS3 review by Jesse Miller - Saturday 30th August 2008

Back in 2005, EA Sports signed a deal with Collegiate Licensing Company for the exclusive rights to make officially licensed NCAA football games. Fans quickly threw up a red flag, worried that the company’s legal monopoly would cause it to turn lackadaisical in the making of future games in the widely-acclaimed NCAA Football series. Whether or not the versions that followed helped or hurt the argument is up for debate, but the latest game, NCAA Football 09, has certainly added fuel to the fire.


Major technical issues aside (like the roster bug that made fully-edited rosters unstable until a patch was released a month after the game came out), NCAA 09’s gameplay just doesn’t feel decisively next-generation. This being EA’s second offering on the PlayStation 3, fans had high hopes that 09 would be the first real example of what next-gen football could offer. Unfortunately, for every step they’ve taken forward, they’ve taken at least one back.

My focus here will be primarily on gameplay, which is what really makes or breaks a football game. I won’t bother bemoaning roster inaccuracies, out-of-date uniform designs or the lack of referees on the field. It’s not necessarily that those things don’t matter, but they matter relatively very little when compared to the gameplay engine, at least in my book. And when closely examined, it’s not entirely clear that this version’s gameplay is even a step forward from more recent PlayStation 2 ones, much less a leap forward (which certainly was the case from the original PlayStation to PS2).

Right from the opening kickoff you’ll notice a couple glaring issues. The first is the borderline hideous running animations. Players run in bizarre, mechanical fashion with very little torso movement at all. If you couldn’t see their legs churning, you’d be entirely convinced they were simply gliding across the field. Admittedly this doesn’t have a huge effect on gameplay, but it does detract from the realism of the overall experience, as we’d all like to believe we’re controlling a 20-year-old jock as opposed to an ice-skating robot.

The second issue is the downright awful kick coverage. A combination of overly effective suction blocking and the kick team simply taking too long to get downfield almost always result in a return past the 30 yard line. This makes for entirely too many short fields for the offense. It also makes the decision on whether or not to take a kick out of the end zone (often a crucial decision in real life) a no-brainer. The same issues naturally carry over to punt returns. Given that EA has historically given the shaft to special teams play, these problems are not surprising.


Unfortunately, the fundamental gameplay flaws don’t stop there. It won’t take you long to realize that the game’s defenses are painfully faulty. EA’s marketing efforts have touted “wide open gameplay” which, as far as I can tell, could just as accurately have read “dumbed-down defenses”. Defense has rarely been a focal point in the NCAA Football series (and that’s a shame), but past versions have at least given us something to work with. This year’s game makes playing defense more about slowing the opposing team’s progress than actually trying to stop it.

The two main causes of this defensive anemia are a severe lack of pass rush and a pitiful pass defense. The former is pretty self-explanatory: an average offensive line will generally dominate even the most talented defensive fronts. The latter is deserving of a more detailed analysis.

EA’s implementation of pass defense has never been spot-on. It’s certainly been good at times, maybe great, but never quite outstanding. Man coverage tends to have trouble with particular routes (which routes change from year to year). Zone coverage tends to be either unrealistically effective or unrealistically ineffective, sometimes both depending on which types of zones you’re talking about. This year, they’ve managed to severely botch (or purposely retard, depending on your personal opinion) both man and zone.

Without a tremendous amount of defensive speed, man coverage is essentially useless, as there are a whole handful of routes which will beat it nine times out of ten. Curls are impossible to stop without pressing the receivers, and most routes out of the backfield are particularly devastating, even with speedy linebackers in chase. Defenders in zone coverage are dumb (to put it nicely) and strafe robotically backwards, mostly avoiding making crucial adjustments to cover up routes.


These defensive issues are only compounded by the usual super accurate quarterbacks. Real-life college QBs misfire frequently (and often badly), but an even moderately good passer in 09 will throw like a modern-day Steve Young. This means that completion percentages will often end up in the 80s and even 90s. You might think this is a plus for those who favor offense, but for me these performances usually feel cheap and unrewarding.

The running game, thankfully, is one noticeable area of gameplay that has at least taken a step in the right direction. You will benefit from avoiding the speed burst button right out of the gate, as this will allow you to patiently maneuver into the gap before kicking it into full gear. This feels more realistic than last-generation rushing, where there would almost never be a need to avoid maximum speed.

The branching animation system brings a major improvement to gang tackling (which affects mainly the rushing game). Previously, once a ballcarrier and defender transitioned into a tackling animation, other defenders could have virtually no effect on the play. This meant that certain animations in which the rusher fell forward for several yards could be terribly frustrating for the defense. But now, another defender can come in, latch on and forcefully redirect the ballcarrier’s momentum.

The new rushing moves are pretty, but it’s not entirely clear how much better they are than previous versions. A good rushing system should have a set of well-balanced moves that take experience to master. Learning how and more importantly when to use each move based on the specific situation should be central to becoming a good rusher. That’s only the case with this game to a certain degree. You’ll notice the button mashers are repeatedly successful at avoiding defenders by randomly fiddling with the right analog stick as they enter a crowded area. It’s frustrating, but a small issue compared to those discussed earlier.


The option game, frequently cited as the main thing separating college football from the pros, is a step up from last year’s disaster, but still needs work. The issues with it stem mainly from poor blocking AI. Offensive linemen often make odd decisions on who to block, ignoring the obvious choice in favor of defenders already taken care of (or too far from the play to make a difference). This obviously affects other offensive aspects as well, but it becomes most noticeable on the perimeter, where option plays generally attack. Many fans of the series have been asking for a major upgrade in blocking complexity and AI for years now; this certainly isn’t the year for that breakthrough.

Graphics-wise this game is a moderate success. Certain aspects look great, particularly field textures and helmets. The stadiums are as detailed as ever, and lighting effects are well-done. Other areas are solid, but leave considerable room for improvement when compared to the best-looking next-gen offerings. The players’ skin is overly glossy, and jersey designs look blurry, even from afar.

Feature-wise there’s really only one thing worth talking about, and it could certainly be considered a game-saver. Online dynasties allow up to twelve users to compete in the NCAA series’ flagship mode. Playing a dynasty brings in a whole gaggle of enjoyable things that have previously been unavailable to those who play strictly online. And because more and more players are moving away from CPU games and venturing into the online world, this is a smart move for EA.

You might expect online dynasty to be stripped-down or quickly thrown together considering its newcomer status, but that’s not the case at all. It’s set up beautifully and packed with useful features. The dynasty commissioner has just about every tool imaginable at their disposal to help keep things running smoothly. It’s a shame the same meticulousness and thoughtfulness so clearly present with this feature wasn’t put into the actual gameplay engine, or the game as a whole could have been something special.


NCAA Football 09 is significantly flawed, but can still be enjoyable. It’s a game ripe with potential abuse, even more so than most past versions. There’s no doubt most of the players you run into online will take advantage of every flaw possible, creating an experience repulsively far from real-life college football. And even sim-style players will have trouble avoiding extremely over-effective tactics in the passing game (since they are so abundant). But with a healthy amount of self-regulation and a quality opponent, there is potential for a good (occasionally great) time. And with no alternative, it will have to do for those in need of their college football gaming fix. We can only hope EA steps up its game for 2010, lest it lose a good portion of its longtime fans.

Thunderbolt score: six out of ten

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