NCAA 2006 Impressions

I’ve had some time now with EA’s latest NCAA offering. Here are a few impressions I have. They’re first impressions and not all of them are good:

• The “Impact Player” is a godsend. A lot of people are saying they make a good player unstoppable, but for a young dynasty, they are saviors in shoulder pads.
• Home Field Advantage should not make such a pronounced difference when I’m playing Brown
• I haven’t noticed the same “dropped passes” problem a lot of other people are talking about. So far so good for me.
• The computer can finally run on a good defense. The “juke stick” makes running a blast. Something is now forcing me to take my finger off the turbo-boost. I know it was there in ESPN 2k games before this but it’s making the running game a lot of fun.
• In-season recruiting hasn’t paid off any divendends but it’s cool in theory.
• The discipline system is borked. It sucks and I wish it would go away.
• Can we please get a mid-game save? I would love that more than any other enhancement of all time
• Can we please hire someone to make a realistic crowd? It’s like they’re not even trying.
• My Dynasty is modeled after my High School. We are the North Royalton Bears. We are not the Bearcats. The announcer seems to have numerous brain-farts during a game. First it’s, “The Bears are lined up…” and then we get “The Bearcats take the lead!” Is it that frickin’ hard to fix this? It’s been going on since 2004!
• And while we’re fixing the announcer, someone hire an English major to fix the grammar. If I hear, “The Bears is ready to kick off” one more time I may lose it.
• The graphics have received another minor upgrade. They are due for an extreme makeover

That’s my first pass. I’ll elaborate on some of these after I’ve played a little more. I’m only a third of the way through my second Dynasty season as the North Royalton Bears. It isn’t easy being an Academic school in the MAC. We’re getting our butts handed to us each and every Saturday.