Ryan Ferguson brought you a first-glance review of NCAA 09 that was generally positive, but some words of warning if you're still thinking about buying the game: it's plagued by an unusually high number of serious bugs this year. A sampling:
- Sliders are broken. CPU sliders do nothing and human sliders affect both the computer and the player.
- Roster editing remains enormously problematic, though EA says there is a patch coming in the next week.
- There are reports the online dynasty mode is broken and sometimes simulate games that have been played by human players.
- The new speed model (where a 99 speed is significantly faster than a 98 speed, which is a stupid change to make... just change the distributions of speed) causes major problems with CPU pursuit angles.
- SuperSim is still broken: if you use it to fast-forward through the end of a blowout and you're on 7 or 8 minute quarters it will pack in 60% more plays than would happen in an actual football game and you'll end up winning 120-17 or something. The sound you hear is my friend Anthony looking for a gun and a pen to write his suicide note ("DEAR EA: I HATE YOU SO MUCH") with.
- Kick returns are so, so broken.
The eternal question, isn't it? You know it's mostly going to be the same game, that it's going to have some infuriating bugs, that it is eventually going to break your spirit and leave you in the fetal position going "no, no, no." But... you're probably still going to buy it, junkie.
