Demo is now available for XBox and PS3. You can do Oregon @ Texas and Alabama @ FSU. Loving it so far.

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The world's gene pool could use a little more chlorine.

I only buy that game for the recruiting mode... but I do love playing the games as it reminds me of the gameplay of past madden games when it used to be great...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

They changed around the gameplay quite a bit last year, so I don't have my hopes up that there will be huge changes this year. It seems like they put most of their energy into the coaching modes and customization, which is itself cool but still will make the actual game part mostly the same.

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Fire Phil Emery

The game comes out in about 2 hours, I hope it's a good one.

I hope when the Wii U comes out next year it has the next one. Sucks that the Wii doesn't get this (would probably suck anyway).

picked it up for the Xbox... watch my Cats take down Auburn.

Do they still make new games for the ps2? Its been a few years since I have gotten a new NCAA FB game.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

And how about Coleco or Intellivision? Do they make games for that too?

My parents still have a fully functioning intellivision. Frog Bog still rocks.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I had this one... Pick Axe Pete was a Donkey Kong rip off and it was "rad" (I think that was the lingo at the time).

I think there are still a few games made, but this isn't one of them...looks like 11 is the last one made for the PS2

ps2 games still work on a ps3 don't they? I have a very long season of MLB the show going that I refuse to lose.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Only if you have a PS3 from 3 years ago or so...they did away with backwards compatibility (for what reason, I have no fucking clue) in 2008, I believe...

FWIW, If you have NCAA 2011, I wouldn't bother with this game. I actually saw worse graphics, screen tearing and other glitches in this game than I have with 2011. The entrances are certainly better, but frankly that's not why you play this game, right? Coaching mode and having your characte start in high school is not that impressive.

Got my character started as a QB with Orland Park High School (I guess they mean Carl Sandburg). He just got an offer from NIU and NU and Purdue. Wisconsin showing strong interest. Question: How sad is it that this makes me happy? Answer: Very sad.

Probably going to pick this up today after doing some errands. Pastapadre.com has something about the ability to download the real names of the players this season to your rosters.

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They usually patch those things pretty quickly. When '11 came out it was quite glitchy as well but within a week they had taken care of 90% of it (I still had the "opponent runs backwards on failed play action" glitch happen every once in a blue moon).

They made a ton of gameplay changes with '11 so I wasn't holding out hopes that this game would be tremendously different. I still got it because I buy approximately two XBox games a year, so if I'm going to own the machine I might as well buy games for it.

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Fire Phil Emery

Do you play their senior year, or is it just the high school playoffs like last year? And did EA ramp up the in game advertising like they did with Madden 11? I'll probably pick it up regardless as NCAA 11 was one of the better sports games I've played in a long time...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

Agreed on 2011. No opinion on the advertising yet. Doesn't seem to be more than last year with the "Reese's Player of the Game" stuff. Yep... you play their entire senior year instead of the playoffs.

I'm going to pick this up at lunch.

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I've been messing around in dynasty mode, trying to work my way up as a coach. I started as the offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic, so all of my games thus far have been played with really crappy teams, so my perception might be skewed.

1.) Blocking is better again, though the improvement isn't quite as noticeable as the jump in the last game. Suction blocking (and tackling) are almost entirely gone; in fact, sometimes the game goes a little too far in the opposite direction and blocks/tackles aren't made on close players. But on the whole this is an improvement. Also, there are way more cut blocks, especially at the line of scrimmage.

2.) Cornerbacks are too good, especially on curl routes. It is almost impossible to drive a corner off a route. This could be because my QB/receivers suck (Florida Atlantic, after all), but I don't think that's the entire reason.

3.) Coaching carousel is pretty fun. I've gone through one season, met most of my goals, and then got a few marginal offers at new schools in the offseason. You can start as head coach of Alabama or whatever if you want, but this is a bit of an added challenge.

4.) Minor injuries are too frequent; I had a running back who went out injured every single game during the season. On the other hand, major injuries are too rare, because I had one starter miss one game all year.

5.) Recruiting is mostly the same, from what I can tell.

6.) Haven't played road to glory yet. Also, I think there's a coaching mode like in the old Tecmo games, but I haven't tried that yet either. I remember that always being better in theory than in practice anyway.

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Fire Phil Emery

The one thing I found lacking in the 10 version I have was that (and its probably the stupidest thing ever) they didn't have enough jersey options and the helmet stickers were gone from alot of the teams compared to some earlier versions of the game.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Jerseys are about the same as usual (five or so per team). Not sure about helmet stickers; I'll take a look next time I fire it up.

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Fire Phil Emery

They also brought back dreads... but brought them back indiscriminantly. They have given a Wildcat linebacker a set of dreads down to the middle of his back. The dude shaves his head in real life.

The passing game is a huge problem. Receivers drop a lot of passes, but that's nothing the sliders can't fix. Linebacker reaction time is way too fast, and fixing that is a bit more difficult.

Coaching mode is pretty fun, and I feel like the difficulty is finally about right. I started the the OC of Florida Atlantic, and took over the job of OC at Tulsa after two years. No matter how much you improve, you are not beating Florida, Oklahoma, etc. at Tulsa or Florida Atlantic. If everything goes absolutely right, you might beat a Michigan State-type team. Plus, you have to rely upon your other squad to do well also. As OC, sometimes you just can't score enough to win a game, which is frustrating but also realistic.

Road to Glory still has problems on defense too. If you play in the secondary, the constantly changing camera angles makes play impossible. It would be better to zoom out and let you see from the field vision, or to zoom all the way in and make it from the first person. The in-between they chose just doesn't work. For running back and quarterback it works fine though, although gaining skills is too easy; my HB was rated 90 as a freshman, which is really, really high.

There are improvements, though. Blocking and tackling have never been more realistic, and I feel like they've gotten blocking close to perfect for the first time. Quarterback accuracy is more erratic, which in a perverse way is satisfying; if you are playing with the second string QB on a minor conference team, he shouldn't be hitting players in stride 40 yards down the field.

If you are a die hard football fan, I'd buy it. If you have '10 or earlier and you need to pick a game, I'd buy '12. If you have '11 and you are kind of ambivalent, I don't think there are enough changes to justify the $60. I do think NCAA is two or three steps in front of Madden right now, so if you have to choose between one or the other I'd go with NCAA, though I admit I haven't played Madden '11 nearly as much (and Madden '12 hasn't come out yet).

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Fire Phil Emery