With each passing year, it becomes harder and harder to improve on games like those in the NCAA® Football series from EA SPORTS™. This year, however, producer Rod Moye and his talented team have accomplished that feat once again, adding the nuances of home field advantage -- among other new features -- to NCAA Football 2005.
We chatted with Rod about what's new in this year's game, and what we can expect when we tee up the ball for the opening kickoff.
EA SPORTS: The theme for the game this year is Home Field Advantage. First off, what do you think makes home field advantage in college football different than in other sports?
Rod Moye: There are many things, but the two main things that create home field advantage are the fans and the actual size of the stadiums. The fans of college football take this sport very seriously, and they’re not only fair weather fans either. College fans pick a school and stick with it until the end; winning season, losing season, it doesn’t matter. Come Saturday, fans are ready to go, and when they get into their stadium, it becomes a mad house.
Then there are the stadiums themselves. For most schools, they are either huge or architected in a way that ensures the maximum crowd noise possible. Stadiums get so loud that sometimes they’ll actually shake like an earthquake. Combine those two factors and the visiting team is in for a very long Saturday.
EA SPORTS: What sort of effects will home field advantage have on visiting teams in this year's game?
Rod Moye: The visiting team will be fighting an uphill battle right from the opening kickoff, so right out of the gate you’ll notice that players are affected by the crowd. The louder the crowd, the more the visiting team feels the pressure. Not all players feel the pressure the same, though. We added a new composure rating for all players. The composure rating determines how each player will handle the pressure. A player with low composure can become rattled, which in turn decreases his overall rating. A player with high composure has that “been there done that” attitude and is less affected by the pressure.
The Stadium Pulse is another key factor. If the stadium is rockin', this meter will show it. The object is to get the Stadium Pulse meter maxed out. Something really cool is that you can repeatedly press on the L2 button and really get the Stadium Pulse going. This faster the better too. When the Stadium Pulse gets maxed out the visiting team will become rattled and confused. From there the effects of home field advantage are in full force.
We can't forget about the thing that really creates the home field advantage, the fans. There's nothing like a playing in a packed stadium on Saturday with 100,000 fans packed to the gill. We've modeled 3D fans that wear team specific stuff and do team specific animations, and these guys are crazy. They cheer, boo, mock, and generally act like wild people.
EA SPORTS: How will players be able to build their own home field advantage for programs that traditionally don't have one?
Rod Moye: It's all about making your stadium one of the top 25 toughest places to play in the nation. Building home field advantage for teams that currently don't have them is easy: win, win, win at home. By winning on your home turf, the stadium will get a crowd factor boost. Since the crowd can make the visiting team's life real tough, this becomes extremely important. So getting your stadium into the top 25 toughest places to play is definitely an advantage you want to have during the course of the Dynasty.
EA SPORTS: What is the Match-Up Stick?
Rod Moye: When we first started working on this year's project, we sat down and discussed how we could get quick reads on the playing field. The real concept being, where does my team have the advantage, and where does my opponent have the advantage. Do I have the advantage running the ball or do I have the advantage throwing the ball? Getting even more detailed, where can I run or throw the ball? So we came up with the Match-Up Stick.
How did we do it? Well, the Match-Up Stick displays meters for all of the players on the field. The meter tells you if a player is good or bad, and how good or bad they actually are. A green meter means the player is above average while a red meter means the player is below average. The more green that is in the meter, the more above average the player is. The more red that is in the meter, the more below average the player is. Average players do not display any color in their meter.
The meter also displays each player's composure level. A full circle means the player has high composure, and an empty circle means the player has low composure or is rattled.
EA SPORTS: What are interactive timeouts?
Rod Moye: If your players become too rattled, you'll be able to take a timeout and have your team captain calm them down a bit. During a timeout, you're giving a choice on which group to coach. It displays the group's overall rating (good or bad) and their overall composure level. Based on this, you'll have to make a decision on which group to coach. Be sure that your team captain is a high composure player though. If he's not, he can rattle the other players even more.
Since we're on the subject of timeouts, you can finally call timeouts to "ice the kicker." "Icing" a low-composure kicker can decrease his kicking ability, thus increasing the chance that he'll miss that game-winning field goal. Be careful, though -- "icing" a high-composure kicker just might make him better.
EA SPORTS: How about custom celebrations?
Rod Moye: We changed the system so that you can choose to play a mascot, fan, or player animation. You can also choose between mild or extreme animations. So if you choose an extreme fan animation, you'll see the fans going nuts.
EA SPORTS: What sort of enhancements have been made to Dynasty Mode?
Rod Moye: We really set out to please our hardcore fan base this year. Basically, we went through and added a lot of depth to our already deep Dynasty Mode.
The biggest thing we added for 2005 is program integrity. You now have to keep tabs on your players off the field as they may have academic issues or team rule violations. You can choose to discipline these players by sitting them for a quarter or suspending them for a game (or the entire season). If you fail to maintain your program, the penalties can be quite severe -- from losing scholarships and television exposure, to the inability to play in bowls or for championships, to even the death penalty.
We also added transfers to the mix this year. Players who feel that they don't have a chance to get on the field may ask to transfer to another school. Conversely, you can have players wanting to transfer to your school if you lack depth at certain positions.
Recruiting has also been totally re-worked for 2005. We added a pipeline feature to allow you to build on your recruiting success out of a certain state or region. We also added the ability to recruit a high school athlete that excels in a variety of positions. You can then switch him to a position that best suits your team and he will progress accordingly at this position.
To top it all off, we added detailed scouting (where you can unlock a prospect's attributes without offering him a scholarship), offensive/defensive coaching strategies (which affects play-calling, simulation, and recruiting), 70-man roster, and accurate conference schedule rotations. Needless to say, our hardcore fans will really appreciate the wealth and depth of features in Dynasty Mode for 2005.
EA SPORTS: How about gameplay?
Rod Moye: Gameplay was our main focus this year. We really wanted it to feel different right from the first play. From run blocking to QB awareness in the pocket, the game plays a lot different than it has in the past. You'll notice that running up the middle is greatly improved. If you have a good offensive line, you can really dominate with the running game now. Running lanes open up now; you simply have to hit the them and trust that your linemen will block for you. Trust me, it's awesome.
To make the running game even easier we added a new agile run animation. This new animation gives you greater control of the ball carrier than ever before. You can weave in and out of traffic for bigger gains. No more getting stopped on an offensive lineman. You now can make those cuts that you always wanted to. This is something that will change the way you think of controlling the player.
On the defensive side of the ball, we added Big Hits. Big Hits are triggered with the L2 button while controlling a defensive player. Right before you make contact with the ball carrier or intended receiver, press the L2 button and the defender will explode into a bone crushing tackle. This increases the fumble or dropped ball chance as well as lowering the offensive player's composure. He'll think twice before coming into your zone the next time!
EA SPORTS: What are the benefits of playing online on the PlayStation 2 or Xbox?
Rod Moye: We've added a lot of cool things to online this year, so you'll have stuff online that you can only get online. One of the things that we really wanted to prevent this year was cheating. We've added a new scouting report that allows you to check any player's tendencies. You can look at their favorite playbook and formation, as well as look at how much they no-huddle, call hot routes, and audible.
We've also put in quick tournaments, which allow you to get into a 4- or 8-player tournament without having to worry about when it will start. We've got mini-games, new leaderboards, an Even Teams mode which will let fans of smaller schools compete with the big boys, and lots of other cool stuff. But you'll have to go online to check it all out.
EA SPORTS: Any new statistical tracking, awards, magazine covers, or anything of that nature?
Rod Moye: One of the things that our fans enjoy is the "User Pick" stat that appears in game. This year, we added a few more of these "User" stats and these are now tracked in your Record Book.
As far as awards and trophies go, each year we add more and more to the mix. We now have support for the Rimington Trophy and the Doak Walker Award. We also have the actual trophies for all 28 bowl games, along with the 49 traveling trophies for rivalry games that we support.
The SI feature was a huge success in 2004 and we really focused on beefing up this feature with even more stories and insights. For this year, we've added the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play to allow users to see the tough venues to play in, as well as to work their way up the rankings. We also added All-Conference teams to go along with our already extensive list of awards. The great thing about SI is that it keeps users involve with their dynasty - if a top school is on probation, they'll read about it, if there is an upcoming rematch, they'll see it, and if there's a big face-off between two high-ranked quarterbacks, they'll know it.
EA SPORTS: Anything else about NCAA Football 2005 that you want to talk about?
Rod Moye: I'd just like to say the entire team (production, art, and development) worked very hard and is extremely proud of this game. I truly believe that everyone is going to love playing it.
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