NCAA Football 11 Review
NCAA Football 11 is the best version of the game we have seen since the newest consoles were released. Thankfully, the lawsuits filed by former (failed) college quarterbacks Ryan Hart and Sam Keller regarding player likenesses in the game are still pending. So the experience of playing the game hasn’t been ruined… yet. This year’s version is so good that my anger towards these guys has grown ten fold since last year when I wrote a review of the game. Anyway.. here are a few thoughts.
The first thing I noticed when firing it up are the improved stadiums. More detail has been added and they appear incredibly authentic. Here are some of the updates.
I have come to enjoy the teambuilder feature far more that last year. I guess I’m a little late to the party as over 500,000 teams have been created since it’s launch a year ago.
The ESPN broadcast style is an upgrade as well. Lee Corso and his unintended sexual euphemisms are gone, replaced by Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musburger who do a pretty good job in real life on ABC’s Saturday night game.
The new locomotion system is one of the two features EA has really been bragging about. It’s certainly better than years past. Player movements seem more real and they respond to hits and changes in movement in a far more accurate manner. Huge upgrade.
The second new feature that really makes a difference is the expansion of offensive styles. Each team is unique to their real life counterparts. You can run Georgia Tech’s triple option, Nevada’s pistol, or any of the air it out spread formations that are prevalent at just about all CUSA West schools.
One complaint is the rosters. Although not as bad as last year, they still have some pretty wild errors. Some of these can be seen in the list of ratings below (why is Donta Hightower rated lower than 3 other Alabama linebackers?). But these issues can be fixed with some tweaks to the rosters after buying the game.
I said this last year, but the custom conference realignment still only allows for a one-for-one swap of teams. You’d think with all the realignment talk that EA would’ve addressed this shortcoming so players could add Nebraska to the Big Ten and Utah and Colorado to the Pac 10.
My final complaint about the game is Tim Tebow as cover man. What a joke… just kidding Florida fans. He was the only sensible choice. Although a Game Stop in Tuscaloosa had some fun with the whole Tebow crying after the SEC title game, replacing the game’s actual cover with the image seen above. Pretty funny if you ask me.
Like I said last year, enjoy the game while you still can. If these failed ex- QBs have their way, we might not get to enjoy it for much longer. Happy Gaming!
