NCAA Football 2011 Review

It’s July again and that means that yes Football season is upon us again. Time for some NCAA Football and Madden within the same month. I am not the biggest sports nut you will ever find, but I do enjoy my football games from year to year, and yes that does mean that I am a sucker for picking up the NCAA Football’s and Madden’s every year they release. EA has finally built an NCAA Football this year that doesn’t feel like the little foster brother to Madden. Although most College football games are about different formations and positions, coaches always strive for a solid running game to back up their plans. In past NCAA Football titles, this has always been one of the drawbacks, and the the game never fully felt fluid. This year they have changed that and offered one of the best NCAA Titles to come out in years.

Their new “locomotion” engine worth very fluid and added some realism to the game that has been needed. If you remember in past NCAA Football titles, the running back would just bounce left or right depending on the juke move being used, with no body readjustment or feet implementation. This year with their new engine on hand, the running back now plants his feet, shifts his body weight, and begin his movements forward. He will do this when the play begins, and if you juke left, or right throughout the run, the animation will repeat depending on the action being performed. Putting the moves together seems to be so much easier than in past iterations as well. When your combining a juke with a stiff arm and a jump to dodge your last defender, seems easier and more fluid to pull off than last year. Just be sure to use the left analog stick along with the right stick.

The dynasty got a huge upgrade this year. For starters you can actually create a custom stories for your team’s dynasty, which can be played off and online. You can also make adjustments for your dynasty within the browser if you’d like, which turns out to be a big help in some cases. Recruiting for your team is still a pain, but is not as bad as years prior, and with pre-order bonuses, helps to make that easier, which I can see happening with Madden, which is why some places are offering 20,000 tokens for pre-ordering.

NCAA Football 2011 is a big step from the rest of the pack this year, with some big improvements in on the field game play, and the new “Locomotion” engine adds realism to the game that the series was crying for for years. The new engine brings you to the field level and gives players the excitement of playing in a college atmosphere on Saturday. With minor flaws, such as catches still seem buggy, as it seems that the ball is a magnet and just randomly falls into the hands of a receiver or defender when it looks overthrown or under thrown, but the game looks better and plays much better than years prior and this is, as I said before, is the best College Football experience we have seen in years.

Rating: 7.5/10  

+ New Locomotion Engine is Solid

+ Upgraded Graphics

+ Strong Dynasty Mode

- “The Magnet effect”

- Recruiting is a grind

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