Well I have finally spent some time with NCAA 11 over the weekend. I just beat MSU 24-0(Couisons is out for the season). I am about to up it to All-American since I seem to be killing people. I have downloaded the game to my X360 and I recommend that since the game does have a bit of a slow down or lag in the menus. The game looks amazing. NCAA finally doesn't get 2nd rate graphics. You can tell by the pictures how good this game looks. The new color system really adds some great deep colors and the jerseys look different at night which is really cool.
Dynasty-Offline
Started my UM dynasty after the rosters hit the net. I did need to do some work to the Michigan roster to make it right. The defense was a bit of a mess but I got everything straight. If you wanna DL my roster than download from R3Vb0t. I feel it's pretty good(yes Shaw is now the fastest RB).
Edit-One mistake I made was I put the wrong Gordon at safety so just make sure to put Cam in.
EA overhauled the whole dynasty layout and menu's. It feels a lot more streamlined and fluid. I have never been one to go look through all the stats to see where my guys stack up in national ranks but now I can without even going into the stats as there is now a window when you highlight "stats" that shows where players rank in different areas. Like Tate has 5 TD and is 173rd in the nation in TD passes. It shows the top 5 and than where your player ranks. It's nice since I don't have to go looking to see where he ranks. It's also nice that half tackles are counted now and sacks.
It still has all the same things like the Heisman leaders and all that. Formation subs are a welcomed return. It's been one of the many reasons I stopped buying the game the last few years. For Michigan it's a must since all the RBs bring something to the table. I use them all in different situations and packages. I spent a good amount of time just getting the formation subs right. The practice is also something I never used much but have used to become good at the option reads. I now feel like I could run RR offense with making the right choice in the option read(no I couldn't).
Recruiting
Recruiting is something I always liked but has become stale in the last few years. Players hanging up on you and there not being much to it other than going through the motions to get your ten 5 stars and twelve 4 stars to sign. It's been revamped and for the good. Now there is a difficulty level which helps a lot. I am no longer just getting one stud after another. When it's all said and done I will be lucky to land two 5 stars. I am guessing I might get one.
It is all a point system now. I can see how far ahead I am or how far behind I am. No more just guessing or being hung up on. It's great because I now know when not to waste time on a recruit anymore. When I am 400 points behind I just focus my time on new or other recruits. You can even take points away from other schools which is cool(negative recruiting YAY!). You even get bonus points for recruiting in your pipeline states which makes winning the states you have pipelines in even more important.
You now are given topics at random. Once I get the topic I can now pick and find out how important it is to the recruit,pitch my school on the topic,compare my school to other school and take away points,make a promise,change the topic(you only get to do this three times per recruit) and schedule a visit. You can also sway a recruit on a topic if they feel low about it.
The new system is just more fluid and doesn't seem like such a chore. I am sure at some point it could become a bit more of a chore but I really like the points thing. I get some dumb high out of seeing how many points I can add up and take away from other schools. It's almost like it's own game.
Game Play
The ESPN presentation is great and no more Lee Corso doing play by play is awesome. The commentary is still stale and needs to be redone but it's not awful anymore since Lee is gone. Seeing UM come out and hit the banner is great and helps on so many levels for me since I am not one to skip the pre-game or post game stuff. I wish there was a bit of a longer shot of the players hitting the banner but I can't complain much. The player motion looks great too. No more sliding around on the field. The players look like they are really making steps in the turf and feel as if they have more weight to them. Shaw feels a lot different than Cox.
Offense
A lot has changed with the 120 ways to win. The spread fills like the spread and so on. I am so into the option read or zone read. Its fun and works. It never used to work. It works great now.
I was a bit disappointed that UM didnt have a wild cat for Denard but you can still do this in a five wide spread. There are many new plays and the whole offense feels fresh and new.
The blocking is a huge reason for this. Springing holes have never looked this good or felt this sweet. The WR even block... I know I was shocked when I saw it since they never did in any of the previous games. I have gotten in the open and Odoms made one final block for me to run it into the endzone with Shaw. It was magical. The running game is a lot of fun. It's my whole game. I have had no issues fumbling either. Some have reported too many fumbles. I have not had this problem.
The passing is a lot harder. It seems like the corners and LBs mirror your WRs sometime. It can make it hard to hit for a deep pass but is a challenge. It might get a patch to fix some of this but it's not a killer by any means. You really just need to pass at the right time. No late passes anymore.
Defense
Not much has changed on this side of the ball. Running the 3-3-5 has been fun for blitzing. You can now hold B and switch to anyone on the field with the stick instead of cycling through everyone.
Getting sacks is a challenge but I have done well with RVB. The new "pro-tak" system is awesome. It's great seeing 3 and 4 guys tackle one player. Tackles don't look like canned animations anymore. They seems to have a lot of variety. The D is smart and will do it's job most the time. The safeties can no longer cover the whole field which is nice.
There isn't much to say about the defense. Not a lot of changes but I felt the offense was the side that needed the biggest help and it got that.
After the game is over it goes through a few highlights and pictures from the game which is neat.
Online Dynasty
A lot is the same with as the offline but they add dynasty wire which is neat. It uploads pictures and a story of your game to your leagues dynasty hub. You can edit these and make them funny or whatever you want. The recruiting online is nice and makes things faster and more efficient. I killed some time at work doing it and was fun to be able to just go home and play the game. It keeps my wife was wanting to kill me with my game time on the TV. You can't move up to another job online or leave the conference but those are the only draw backs. My friend,bro and I are doing a bottom feeders of the big east dynasty and I took USF. It should be fun since we are already taking jabs at each other with dynasty wire.
Overall
The game is great and headed in the right direction for once. I haven't bought it in two years. I feel sorry for people who bought 10. They just stole money from you. It was a repackage of 09. 11 feels fresh on offense and in the recruiting. The online dynasty wire is a nice touch and I didn't even bother with other modes since I couldn't care less about playing a football game with mascots and doing campus legend(which hasn't be touched or changed). It feels very diffrent from Madden which is great. The game isn't perfect but will keep you busy for months. The only glitch I ran into was when I returned a kickoff for a TD and than IU kicked off to me again... but it didn't happen again when I returned another kick in online play. My final MM score is...
MM Score 9.3
NCAA 11 Pictures
12:19 PM
The Shredder
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