NCAA Football: 08

[Mayor Quimby]

This is about the only video game I ever get excited about anymore.

-Some overhaul in the Campus Legend mode. Now you start in high school and play through the state tournament and each game you build a scouting profile.

-Dynasty mode is somehow even deeper.

-Sam Keller is a Husker.

However since its a sports game I doubt it gets much love from the rest of you.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/sports/ncaafootball08/news.html?sid=6168928&mode=recent

Some early highlights.

http://www.gamespot.com/video/938465/6169871/ncaa-football-08-official-movie-1

[DAntae]

I buy the new one every year. as far as sports titles go it is my favorite. they seem to capture so much about what makes college football so great. 360 version for me. its out on the 17th right?

new features to dynasty mode, is almost a given. they tweak it significantly every couple of years. heard the campus legend mode (I think thats what its called) is also been bulked up. first month I have it most other games get put aside.

[J.Re*]

the demo went up on XBL Marketplace yesterday, been playing it consistently since then. so much better than '07. so smooth.

can't wait to toy with the features, recruiting looks awesome.

yes, DAn, comes out the 17th.

[Mayor Quimby]

I'm still buying it on the PS2. I haven't decided if I'm ready to switch to XBox 360 or wait for PS3 prices to go down.

[robb]

my buddy and i have been geared up for this for months now.

right now the plan is to get it at midnight and then take shifts naming the players until we get that done, and then start up our dynasty.


can't wait.

[DAntae]

naming players is a younger mans game. any chances of downloadable rosters via live at some point?

[Cole]

ncaa is one of the main reasons i bought a 360 in the first place. buying this and devoting hours a day to it whenver my xbox gets repaired.

[J.Re*]

naming players is a younger mans game. any chances of downloadable rosters via live at some point?
no, none.

NCAA official rules don't allow for players real names to appear in the game. So the only option is to either send your memory card to people who make rosters, or rename them yourself.

I'm going with the latter, renaming teams in my conference and then maybe the top 25.

[DAntae]

something is telling me I should have known about the ncaa rules and such with names.

anyhow worst case I got a few guys who will be phased out with generic names at some point. kind of makes the game seem a little more realistic, after the initial class is moved on.

[kevin]

fantastic franchise. no doubt the spartans will be dominating the virtual big ten in just a matter of time for me.

[robb]

so nobody else is planning on naming players?

we're planning ahead for importing the draft classes into madden later on in the year.

[kevin]

first i name all the spartans, of course. that's no problem. after that, i try to do all the starters/future starters of teams in the big ten. then i just do random key players throughout the rest of the country. i don't name everyone, or even close to it. play a few years and everyone's replaced by new players with names anyway.

[robb]

yeah, i think we decided on naming all the top 25 schools, and then 3-5 from each remaining school.

why not?

[robb]

double post...oh well.

went to 5 different stores at midnight to have all of them tell me that the ps3 version wasn't available until 5 pm.

so, i drove to a gamestop that was supposed to open at 8 am...it didn't. drove across town to a different gamestop and thankfully they had it.


so far these graphics are fucking amazing.

[DAntae]

stopped at the 24 hour walmart around 6 this morning on the way to work. get off at about 2, skipping free food to play. so yeah it will be so sweet.

how is the loading this time around. last year during rainy games game was sluggish a lot of times. tell me it runs smoother.

[robb]

haven't had any rainy games (i've only actually played two). but everything has ran pretty smoothly for me.

no complaints at all. can't find where the statue of liberty play is though, i want to try it out so bad.

[DAntae]

awesome news.

as for importing draft classes, I usually wait about 4 seasons in when all the rosters have names and start. I can knock out 3 seasons by the end of the week.

going to use va tech, then a team that typically sucks. thinking illinois. give me reasons to use michigan state, kevin.

[robb]

holy shit guys.


recruiting this year is fucking intense.

[kevin]

recruiting is insane. tougher to run this year as well as throwing the deep ball. however, short passes are where its at. get a good tight end and good blocking and you'll dominate.

campus legend is pretty sweet too. i might do one of those when i get bored with my dynasty

[robb]

running the ball isn't too bad for me, but i can't throw to save my life.

1-0 thus far though

EDIT: what does everyone play on?

heisman for me.

[Mayor Quimby]

Am I the only one with the PS2? Cause right now there isn't a whole lot of difference between this years and last years. I do like the recruiting promises, but other than that I'm not seeing alot of the features that were hyped. They are probably in Ps3 and Xbox360.

[Gabbo]

Am I the only one with the PS2? Cause right now there isn't a whole lot of difference between this years and last years. I do like the recruiting promises, but other than that I'm not seeing alot of the features that were hyped. They are probably in Ps3 and Xbox360.
yeah, i came in here to say the same thing. i was kinda disappointed actually, and i wish they would have made it more clear on what features would be on each different console. still a solid game though, from what i've seen so far, but i was kinda excited about all the new stuff, especially recruiting.

[DAntae]

havent even started dynasty mode yet. campus legend is simply incredible, dug the entire high school stuff. currently through 6 games my guy has been player of the week 3 times. he missed the opener because of his level on the depth chart. ended up putting him at lsu. he started 4th on the depth chart. I like the fact that the drills are what allow you to move up.

running to the outside is much harder, however you can still pop a lot of big plays by going up the middle then juking someone in space. after finishing up legend I plan to dive into dynasty mode.

also love, love the ability to jump ahead to when my guy is on the field. cuts down on wasted time on defense, if not playing in dynasty mode who gives two shits about their defensive stats, unless your playing defense.

robb I always play my dynasty on heisman, used to start off with all american but even then the games became a little easy to win.

[robb]

this just in: chad henne sucks.

but mario manningham is a god among men

[DAntae]

finally jumped into dynasty mode. thing that I like the most, when your using a defensive lineman, the response to your controls and moves is so much better. now I can blow up the middle of the o-line with my d-tackle. pressuring the qb is so much better than a sack, gets you plenty of easy ints.

[robb]

another thing i'm always interested in is who do you control on defense?

i control the either my left end or strong side lb.

[DAntae]

I tend to try to use one guy at each group at some point during the game. if its a run heavy team I play with my d-lineman. pass happy depends, if they got a stout o-line I play db or linebacker in coverage, if the line is pretty meh, I play with the d-lineman.

also digging the interface/espn.com stuff between games. looks sharp, and does play up to the sports fan in most people.

[robb]

i think the espn radio feature is awesome instead of having to listen to the fight songs. just discovered that earlier today.

[DAntae]

yeah you dont have to set it up or anything, automatically just kicks in.

anybody run any of the new trick plays yet? opportunity just has presented itself yet.

[robb]

i want to try but i'm not sure where they are in my playbook.

[DAntae]

now that I think about it, I havent seen them listed in any other playbook, aside from boise state's. I am sure other teams must have them, but if you are tired of looking, just play with their playbook for a bit.

statue of liberty was under ace trips bunch. last batch of plays, and hook and ladder was labeled circus I think. that was under the shotgun trey play list. again only see these in the boise state playbook.

[robb]

michigan doesn't even have a shotgun formation so that could explain some of it. i'll look in ace trips later on.

[DAntae]

yeah if not there, then just use the boise state playbook for a game or two to try them out. plan to use them on lesser teams until I feel comfortable running them against top 10 opponents.

[robb]

i'm getting some amazing recruits this year. best wr in the country.

[DAntae]

just finished up the first season of campus legend, bar is over half full...woot. as for dyanasty my weekend like usual didnt go as planned, so my dynasty season is only 4 games in...decided to make the custom schedule brutal.

1st 4 games
@florida
@lsu
@texas
@michigan

winning those 4 jumped me to the top of the poll. 3 were decided by 3 or less, only the lsu game was a double figure win.

got one commit from a 5 star linebacker, and who cant use one of them.

[kevin]

i finished my first season with msu. went 6-6, beat missouri in some minor bowl game. i beat michigan at home which was the highlight of the season. had the #19 recruiting class in the nation and i'm ready to go for year 2. hopefully 8-4 is within reach

[Mayor Quimby]

I am in year 3 with Fresno State. Went 6-7, 11-2 (easiest schedule in the nation), and this year I am 1-0 heading into Georgia for a showdown. I've landed decent recruits thus far with four 4-stars and one 5-star, the rest of my team is flanked with 3-stars and 2-stars and left over players.

My town NCAA tournament is coming up last year I placed 8th out of 56 people, and my losses were to the two seeds ahead of me. There is a summer tournament and a holiday tournament. One tournament each year you pick an all time team, last year I was 1996 ASU. Pat Tillman dominated. Any suggestions on who I should play with in the regular tourney? I'm looking at PSU, and Cal so far.

[DAntae]

I'd go with a defensive heavy team, they can make up for a lot of mistakes you may have on offense. can you pick whoever you want to be?

[Mayor Quimby]

Yeah, you can have whoever you choose. Last year was my first year in the tournament and I went with WVU in the Summer and ASU 96 in the Winter. I was damn near unstopable with ASU 96 (completely underrated team) but miserable playing as WVU as I'm not much for scrambling. I like to run the ball alot, but Pat White was terrible for passing when I needed it later in the game.

[DAntae]

thought about using lsu? played a few quickplay games as them, they got a tightend and fullback who catch everything. defense is lights out as far as the players you get to control. not a very exciting choice, but they do get the job done.

as for your all time team go with...1994 penn state team. I can remember at least 7 guys who got drafted from that roster.

[Mayor Quimby]

I could certainly look into it. I like Penn State's team alot, but I don't like the QB for some reason. I like Cal's offense but there defense is suspect. Has anyone played with UCLA yet? I might go play as them. I'm just trying to avoid obvious picks like USC, Michigan, FSU, and obviously where I live Nebraska. I might try Louisville too.

[robb]

i've landed 6 5 stars in the in season recruiting, not bad.


played a total stinker against illinois, and barely lost to wisconsin (#4). looks like penn state is going to win the big ten, but i'm ranked 12 so i should at least make a decent bowl game.