Yep, that’s me holding up the coveted award. Yes, I’m actually wasting blogspace showing a picture of my TV that shows an image of a fake me winning a prestigious award in a fake world created by my video game system. Anything wrong with that? I felt like this would be a good way to let you know I finished my run for the Heisman and have now moved on to Dynasty mode of NCAA Football 2006. Now that I’ve gone a little farther into the game, I can give you some more feedback on my gaming experience.
While the Heisman feature is pretty neat, it takes some of the most powerful tools out of my hands: recruiting and scheduling. My freshman year, I was more concerned about winning than putting up big numbers. I figured that if I went undefeated, I’d have a stellar recruiting class, and it would be easier to run for the Heisman after develloping a year. Not so. Apparently, the coaching staff took the summer off and didn’t bother to bring in anyone who could fill in for all the talent that left. Even though I started my sophomore season high with Heisman Hype, I fell off the map following a dissappointing first game. And that was against Marshall, which brings me to my other point. It was hard to make up any ground in the national title hunt because my non-conference schedule was full of cupcakes. How am I going to move up past SEC and Big 10 schools when my schedule has Temple, Louisiana-Monroe, on top of the already-week Big East. It also took me almost an entire season to get my Heisman candidacy back. Apparently no one cares if you put up 11 touchdowns if it’s against South Florida. I finished the year in the top five, but came away empty-handed.
To start off my junior year, I made sure to put up big numbers in my debut to make sure I didn’t have to play catch-up like the previous year. In fact, the only bump in the road actually came from my own team. My #1 receiver was racking up big yards through the air and through special teams and led all candidates for much of the year. Fortunately for me, he got hurt late in the season, missed a few games, and my other receivers stepped up allowing this QB to win all the hardware.
So, now I was left with a choice: keep playing with this character or export him to Madden. I wasn’t ready to do that yet, I wanted him to be as good as possible for the NFL Superstar mode. However, I wanted to get into dynasty mode and get back into recruiting. So, I cheated and did both. I saved the game at that point, simulated my senior season, and had the player move on to coach in the dynasty mode. The weird thing was that he had his picking of any team out there. I mean, Jason White was a good college QB, won the Heisman, but he wasn’t handed the coaching reins to whatever school he wanted when his career was done.
Either way, I stuck with Louisville since they recruited me and my hard work eventually landed them some talent and a super-high prestige rating. The recruiting feature was more like it was a few years ago where the points are broken up into how much effort you put into each kid. But you could only do one of them. For instance, you can have an assistant coach call a prospect or visit him, but not both. It really makes you think if you’re used to just sending the house for almost every kid like I am.
Then came everyone’s favorite part: cutting players. This was difficult as the computer stockpiled players at certain positions before I took over. I had to cut some quality guys at some positions while keeping some scrubs at thin spots. This, and the rest of the off-season was very similar to previous NCAA games. When the season began, I was finally able to put some quality opponents on the schedule that will hopefully get me into a national title game.
I changed my mind from last week and think the simulated games are still fifteen minutes, but the stats are similar to the five minute quarters game that you play. So, it’s not quite apples and oranges when you compare your stats to everyone else. Another new feature I noticed is that you no longer have to play with the generic position names and numbers like QB #19 or MLB #4. In another smart rip-off from the ESPN games, you can push a button to randomly create names for all the players. Some glitches have been fixed. Coaches no longer congratulate or chew out the other team’s players. But players sometimes become ghostly or disappear celebrating. They also mope at the end of the game, even if they win.
I’m having fun with the in-season recruiting, even though I’m not doing too well. I have to adjust my strategy next time as I only brought in two this year. It’ll be interesting to see what it’ll be like when I bail this national power and move on to some struggling school.
Finally, it looks like the great concept from last year’s game, Create-A-Sign, actually shows up in ths year’s game. I mean, what was the point of creating a custom sign if you never get to see it? In ‘06, your signs are actually waved by fans during the game.
Before I go, I should bring up a video game casualty: Road to Sunday cancelled. Looks like EA’s exclusivity has claimed another game.
“Psychos don’t explode when sunlight hits them, I don’t care how crazy there are.”
