2nd year back playing EA football after years off REPORT.
So i'm a media member... I'm paid to watch sports and TV. I know football from playing it, having a father who was a coach, and years of obsessing over coverages and offensive and defensive schemes and formations as a kid, of what SHOULD be the greatest team sport ever invented... I also have been playing video games since the Pong and the Atari 2600. I know both, i feel like... I think of the quote in the Mapplethorpe p*rn trials. "When you see p*rnography, you just know it..."
This game is REALLY broke. I've seen it for two years. It's even MORE broke than it was last year, which is pretty impressive, tbh.
One glaring issue that was never touched, talked about or even looked at, (and is barely mentioned by the players) is the lack of equity amongst programs.
So yes, the big schools get the best players.... We understand that. They get it in the current environment with boosters paying the kids direct with gifts, contracts etc. Giving the coaches of higher prestige schools MORE HOURS to recruit is anything but realistic, and if anything, it violates obv math issues with the amount of hours that occupy a day, not to mention be a violation of basic fairness rules that are in place with the NCAA. There's other ways to ensure that Michigan will get the recruit from Detroit OVER Michigan State than nerfing Western Michigan with 2-3 star players, creating a major obstacle for mid major to build up. (Ironically, and not so coincidentally, this is the first year where schools will monetarily benefit firectly from EA in relation to how many people use their actual university IN GAME..) More people will be/ compelled to use bigger schools and take the path of least resistance with this in structure...
Another less-talked-about issue is the coach/ dynasty dynamic, and how it's essentially a filter for what your button inputs do.
So, if i'm a hot-shot coach with new perspective, and assuming i have SOME experience if i've been hired to lead a Div1 program full of young men, why would I:
1- Automatically have a dirth of interest from prospects, especially if I'm coaching at a less than prestigious college? Fran Brown and Coach Prime have proven you don't really need experience at the HC job (or in Prime's case, actual coaching acumen) to get talent to show up and sign at smaller, more academically focused colleges
2- Have my button inputs change what happens on-field? I've recorded vid of my hands/ button inputs doing the LITERAL same things in a play now game vs a dynasty game. Play now is MUCH MORE CONSISTENT and does what i tell it to do FASTER with the same players and the same teams than in Dynasty... I've recorded so many examples of this. It's frustrating in that it's like there's two different games, even tho it's football in both instances...
Another issue that's pushing me towards the 2k basketball game next year is just how scripted everything feels.
Look, i get that football vid games, are really just a math engine. You run a 95 ovr RB to the hole, the 96 LB meeting him there has THAT much more of a chance to stop the RB. But the coach filter takes hold, and that RB is instantly a 90 now, nerfing his stats, which is nonsense to me. A 95 is a 95 is a 95 regardless of the schmuck in a visor yelling at them. If the OPPONENT raises their game because my coach is inexperienced, then so be it. But having my player run slower or not tackle as well because the HEAD COACH, someone who RARELY focuses on EITHER side of the ball in College causing a ratings dip in a player isn't just realistic AT ALL. If anything, in today's CFB climate, it would embolden the kid to kick butt to be seen so they can transfer to a bigger role at a bigger school. Don't force my QB to throw bullet passes directly left to a defender when i'm holding and running right. Don't force my CB to run slower when the crowd is pumping. Don't force my tackling defenders to run flat angles CONSTANTLY. Don't restrict my players, boost the performance of the CPU.
Speaking of crowd noise: I don't mind stadium pulse. But leaning back to the 'hot shot coach' theory: Why wouldn't I, as a new coach with tons of new stuff ready to implement have a silent signalling system rtg? And having to re-issue hot routes 5-10 times per pre play to a RUNNING BACK STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO THE QB like he can't hear me when playing at North Texas isn't accurate, realistic, or a smart obstacle to create challenge in-game... it's lazy. The freshman WR out near the numbers... Fine. My junior HB? Nonsense, and put in place as a boost for the cpu. I could go on how the rules, and the lack of correctly applied rules in football in this game help the CPU maintain a casino-esque edge over the players, but i've complained about penalties in older posts, and will come up with a more comprehensive list of those omissions in another post in the future...
The scripted part really rears it's head when you're up 14-0. Ever notice that the offense for the CPU will turn into a pro team if you're up in the first half 14-0? I have , i've NEVER stopped a team up 14-0. Like EVER. The QB turns into Peyton Manning and your players get lax. This, I also get and understand. But **bleep** near EVERY GAME? It happens the most when i'm playing teams ON THE ROAD that are usually 10 ovr points below me. I don't lose all of em, but i know that when i go up 14-0, it turns into an ALL-AMERICAN game instead of a VARSITY game, (or w/e your preffered skill level is set to) This goes back to 25 as well.
Dynasty needs a complete overhaul imo... Give us a version of online dynasty without the coach 'filter' somehow. My button inputs on their subsequent on screen reactions shouldn't be changed game to game by someone not on the field. If the coaches prestige is used to curry favor with recruits or get a better job at a more prestigious school, then so be it, but the players win games, and my fingers control the players. When my hands do things one way, and get one reaction, my hands doing the same thing getting a different response tell me the inputs were jumbled up: essentially censored. Is EA complicit in violating my first amendment rights? I won't go THAT FAR, but dynasty has been capped by some force out there... a force that either wants us frustrated to the point of fervor, or to the point where we'll all just acquiesce to using powerhouse to feed the beast some more....
Thanks...
