Yeah the old sim was broken in cool ways. Like after 4-5 seasons, Army and Ga Tech would start rolling running the wishbone and even Alabama couldn't stop them. It was great fun.
Carl I remember the hell out of both basketball games mentioned above.
Your guy needs to get better at research. 1, Doctors of Dunk. Yes that was Louisville nickname in the late 70s throughout the 80s. But we were also the only school that kept dunks as an official stat for like 20 years.
2 the Louisville stat crew has kept the official box score at every Final Four since 1969, when it was hosted at Freedom Hall.
3 and biggest, we invented the freaking high five. Yes go look it up. No it wasn't Magic Johnson. It was Darrell Griffith, Dr Dunkenstein himself, and teammates in 1978.
Lastly, yeah he's right about the Yum Center. I watched our alumni basketball team in TBT on Saturday, played at Freedom Hall and I could practically smell that old barn through the TV. I've been to 150ish games there and still haven't set foot in the Yum.
Yes, Mitch McConnell and Papa John sick. And I bet Jeff Walz doesn't like him either.
The volleyball Final Four is being hosted in Louisville this December so we're planning on winning the whole thing.
And he didn't mention bourbon at all? Yes you should go to a game and take the Friday before hitting the bourbon trail from Louisville to Bardstown, KY!
It goes semi-viral every 8 months or so, but playing this game and then looking at the season records, that 1988 Barry Sanders season for Ok State is just an insanity, isn't it?
Like, I genuinely think it may be the best season by a player at any position in NCAA history.
Patch this morning but I'm not sure if all that stuff from the known issues was in it or not? I did see a follow up by their twitter saying the online dynasty crash issue should be fixed at least.
Hit #1 in the polls at 8-0 with 2 ranked wins, both top 10 at the time, and the previous #1 lost. I jumped up from 4 for beating 10 Miami.
Then I won another game, was still 1, but the playoff projections released. I was 5th, not even a bye.
Then I had a bye week, dropped to 3rd in the polls, and 6th in playoffs.
Then I beat Stanford 41-14 at their place. No movement. But now FSU is 3rd or something and they are my tentative opponent if I win. Granted that won't happen because we'll be playing each other in Charlotte in a few weeks first. But WTF
And no they didn't put one of the other 3 undefeated teams as #1. I think it was 8-1 Florida? But then they got beat by Georgia this week and fell. Polls definitely weird. Playoff bracket weird in different ways. Guess it doesn't matter until the last week but...
I expected the game to be more fair than the real playoff committee bullshit where they move teams randomly on the final week to get what they want and the weeks before that won't matter. The game doesn't have human idiots on the committee and should be more logically sound in playoff choice from week to week. Sheesh
In Road to Glory mode I joined BYU as a Freshman QB starter and got the Cougars to a CFP bye with 2 losses. It's definitely a little wonky.
I expected the game to be more fair than the real playoff committee bullshit where they move teams randomly on the final week to get what they want and the weeks before that won't matter. The game doesn't have human idiots on the committee and should be more logically sound in playoff choice from week to week. Sheesh
EA. It's in the game.
I just let it go. It's a reminder that EA absolutely does not make "Sim" games.
The records are incredibly weird, but whatever. Sure, my Charlotte team was undefeated through 9 games and somehow ranked #7 in the nation with our highlight victory being a 5-point road win over #18 UAB and having played like one other team that even had a winning record at the time, but it's not a sim, and ultimately, it ended in a pretty reasonable place, because we somehow scheduled at Georgia for our next-to-last game, summarily lost (I simmed it, and 81-rated Charlotte lost to the 92-rated Dawgs 38-33 because sure, whatever sim engine) and now it's basically a "win and you're in" situation for us in the AAC Championship.
I mean, if I REALLY wanted to be a picky-ass Female Doggo, I'd say that it's fairly insane that the recruiting has barely changed at all since NCAA 14.
All of this, and I'm still generally enjoying the heck out of the game! It's just slightly more of a sim than flipping a coin.
To be clear, I was just relating my experience. I actually wish this game was LESS sim-y.
I listened to the Remap Radio recently and they echoed a concern that I have about this game. These modern sports games are so complicated that if you've stepped away for a while, coming back to them can be overwhelming. Especially if you play other video games. Maybe if the yearly sports game of choice is all you play, but if you're an adult with responsibilities it can be hard to learn everything the game requires a lot of time to get good at it these days.
I used to buy NBA2k every year and I would play online games regularly. Now, at this point, I skip most versions and rarely play the game, because it just became too bogged down with complexity, controls and it stopped being fun. Online play stopped being fun, because I went from winning regularly, to losing regularly unless I spent tons of time with the game each year, etc.
I feel similar about this game. I've turned the difficulty down. I'm working slowly through constrained modes and skipping some features entirely. I'm simulating lots of functions. I'm mostly focusing on learning how to play the game on the field, since there's a lot to learn/re-learn. Maybe I'll never get good at it. Maybe I should just go back to Tecmo Super Bowl. I'm enjoying it still, but it still suffers, IMO, from the feature creep of modern games.
That makes sense to me. I bought the most recent 2K, and gave up pretty quick because I was never going to learn enough dribble/post moves to be effective, and that's just against the AI. I never even attempted to play online.
I haven't found CFB 25's complexity to be anywhere near NBA 2K's level, personally. Frankly, I wish it was a little more detailed like 2K is in the sim experience. But I know plenty of people who hate the feature creep in more explicitly simmy games like Football Manager and yearn for something simpler there as well.
Personally, I don't even mind detailed games that reward that kind of interest so much, because it's an impossible attempt to balance between appealing to people who might put in 5 hours a week and people who are putting in 50 hours a week. You want to make the game approachable for casuals, while simultaneously rewarding people for putting in the time year after year.
You can't be Forza Horizon and iRacing at the same time. But it does seem that, as far as sports games go, the money is in the feature-heavy stuff, as opposed to something lighter and simpler, especially now in the "Games as Service" age.
I am definitely going no higher than All-American difficulty for CFB though, and occasional games on Varsity. I have no interest in "getting gud," I am not "gud," and will never be, and that's okay.
Okay, i can't even get mad at the sim engine anymore, this is hilarious.
We beat UTSA to win the AAC, and in the first round of the CFP, are taking on #1 Florida.
It seemed a smidge odd that the #1 team is playing on the first weekend of the CFP, so I checked. Florida lost the SEC championship 17-14 to #9 Oklahoma, but retained the #1 ranking.
I'm over it, I not even mad anymore and I'm not joking, it's just making shit up with the rankings and that's okay. Now I understand what it's doing, which is "whatever."
Got back to #1 at 12-0 to finish the season. But FSU was 10-2 and I guess beat top 5 Florida in final week, so they jumped to #3.
The CFP prediction STILL had me at 6th, and FSU at 2nd or something.
I won the ACCCG 28-25 though, and then I actually ended up the 1-seed in the CFP. I'll see if I can share the screenshot later. Funny thing is, only Florida and Ole Miss, the 2 teams in SEC championship made the CFP. Louisville, FSU, Syracuse (10-2) and NCSU (9-3) all got in from the ACC. 
A rising tide lifts all boats I guess?
Weirder still, Miami was ranked ahead of NCSU all season, was 10 when I beat them and still ranked after FSU beat them. Not sure what happened, if they lost to Syracuse or something? I should go look it up.
Last 2 games have both been a blast. UK game I was up 10-0, getting stuffed in the red zone after 1. Then 13-0 when I made a 44 yarder! But they scored a TD right before half. Then they scored again opening 3rd, and suddenly I was down 14-13. I punched in a TD with 10 sec left in the 3rd, and then went for 2 and got it 21-14. Then I got a stop and a nice chew clock drive in the 4th, where I kicked a FG right at the 2-min warning to go up 2 scores.
FSU ACCCG, they came out blasting, I was down 10-0 in the first. Finally punched one in at start of second. Then TWO interceptions shut them down. After one of them I hit a 70 yd TD when they tried to blitz, and I ended up leading 21-10 at half, scoring with 13 seconds left from 3 yards out. I started chewing clock in the 3rd and scored again with 2 min left to go up 28-10. They had a long drive, I was 3-4 deep chewing clock, and they hit for like a 12 yard TD with only 4 min left. 28-17. Then I got a first down or two but stalled out. I was playing all pass coverage but they hit a 43 yard TD against my corner (not Quincy Riley, other side), and they GOT THE TWO POINTS. Suddenly it was 28-25 with 1:08 left. But I recovered the onside, got one first down to make them burn final 2 timeouts, and took a knee. Still much more entertaining than last year's Louisville FSU ACC game. 
The in-game stuff is pretty great already. Just need them to fix some sim and rankings and this could be really great overall.
Holy shit this game doesn't even follow the damn rules of football. I almost lost a game because of bullshit injury timeouts on a QB Kneel play when the other team had exhausted timeouts. That's a running clock dammit.
The in-game stuff is pretty great already. Just need them to fix some sim and rankings and this could be really great overall.
It really is! I'm still trying to get it "perfect" but my Charlotte squad just beat Florida in the swamp in the first round of the CFB 33-28 in the best game I've ever played, not just in terms of "it was fun" but also in terms of "I called a perfect game, and played it perfectly."
Like, realistically, they should've obliterated me (88 v. 81), but frankly, by how the sim works, we were well within the range of pulling off an upset, so who cares.
Like I said, I just gave up on the rankings/simulation meaning anything whatsoever beyond vibes. The Heisman trophy winner in my second season was a QB from Troy who'd gone 50/4 with 5,000 yards, but the team went 9-3 and got obliterated in their only game against a Power 5 team.
It's not a sim in the slightest, it's just vibes, and that's fine.
Jeez I need to update. Finished the first season. Another close game in the final. Off-season recruiting with the transfer portal was huge. Filled in most of my class from that. I missed several guys in mid season as I was figuring things out, and only had a couple of 4 stars going into the end. But picked up several 4 and even one 5 transfer.
Coach of the year
Defensive player of the year, Quincy Riley
Defensive lineman of the year, Ashton Gillotte.
Started S2 and did recruiting. Then tried to change my schedule and screwed up 2 other teams. One has 13 and one has 11 now. I don't know why it can't switch opponents. Maybe the other team has 11 games too. I tried to fix with a save I made but can't seem to undo it. Don't want to redo my recruiting so may blow up the schedule. We'll see
Weekend Notes:
I actually restarted with Wazzu, and what's interesting to me is, outside of Washington, looking at how EA rates teams, it's entirely possible for them to have the season I just did, namely 12-1 with an appearance in the New Orleans Bowl v. Liberty.
They must've patched the rankings, because we finished the year ranked #8, but didn't get into the CFP because we got waxed by the Huskies by 30 and the best other team we played was, like, Fresno State.
But the season was a blast, and the Air Raid, if competently run, is borderline unstoppable.
They've also definitely patched the SuperSim engine, because before, I'd do SuperSim and my defense would get tackles and ZERO other stats, which is bad because of how the "Playing Style" mechanic works. So if your defense isn't being ballhawks, your best CB might consider leaving because he doesn't like your Playing Style (which is idiotic, just to be clear). But now they're finally getting stats, so that's nice, although it feels kinda random and not based on who is actually good on your defense.
I'm only playing on AA, because I've heard about Heisman and I'm terrified of it, and I'm mostly getting stats that feel good. I am noticing that the AI doesn't seem to run enough.
In real life, well over 45 players had 1,000+ rushing yards. In my season, it was 6.
I think it's partially a function of me cutting down my in-game quarter time to 12 minutes, which I think translates over to the sim engine.
It's a little weird, we're rated an 84 overall in Year Two, up from 80 last year, but we lost our best WR and my offensive "Impact Player" is now my left guard.
I thought they'd changed Impact Players this year, so it was more of a "here are the absolute best players on each team" kind of thing? That mechanic has always been wonky for EA, as, when playing the AI, the players who have it have always played way too well (a 75 Overall Impact Player RE treating a 94-rated LT like a turnstile, for instance).
I was really big on the badges when I saw them at first, but I'm not 100% sure yet whether EA understands how to implement them the way 2K does. I've only been doing dynasties with teams that are terrible, so I haven't gotten to play with the top-level talents that have the best badges. But I don't feel like I'm noticing them that much, because badges appear to be less about boosting players, and more just "things you get when the related attribute passes a certain threshold."
In my gaming experience, 2K has always just been much better at making the top-end talent feel different than mediocre players, and that's a criticism I have of EA in general across all of their titles, not just in this game.
In CFB specifically, though, you get guys (not a lot, but not infrequently) that are so head-and-shoulders above their competition that they are effectively cheat codes. Cam Newton, Reggie Bush, the entire LSU offense in 2019.
Like, remember All-Pro Football 2K8? Remember how utterly unstoppable some of the Gold Star players were? That's what a 99 overall player should be in CFB 25. Not "somewhat better than a player rated 88," but "I have entirely reorganized my defense around stopping this person, and I'm praying we only hold him to 200 yards."
....I'm realizing I really wish 2K was still making football games.
Oh, and the AI spams big hits way too much.
Like, I get it, I remember reading a few years ago that the meta for online play in Madden was to only use the hit stick, because the potential upside far outweighs any downside, but it's still a smidge disappointing for immersion because easily 40% of its hits are all big hits.
There are defense sliders to toggle aggressive or conservative on the big hit thing. But of course that doesn't help with simming.
12 minutes?! I'm on the default 5.
The sim game stats are more realistic, but when I'm actually playing, something like 31-24 is a "shootout" with only 2 punts. There's just not enough time in the real engine, but I also can't play a 2+ hour long actual game so balance it is.
I think in 14 I used to play 7 minute quarters and get a bit closer to real stats at least for my QB and RB. Maybe it would be easier now that I can sleep the console mid-game, since you couldn't do that on PS3. But I enjoy the recruiting and offseason quite a bit, so I'd like to get through the games quick still hehe.
Yeah the badges don't seem to be anything you can focus on or try to get. Maybe in Road to Glory where it's just you? But as it stands, I have 0 idea when/if any of my players have any coins from XP to even spend on any skills, and then checking which one of those might boost a badge... no way that's happening.
At the end of my first season I noticed a bunch of guys had 2-3 coins although most of their skills cost 5-8 to level up a point. So none of it really helped. Then a lot of those guys graduated. Might go try to turn the player XP sliders up in options... but again, how will I know if they are ready to level up? When coach gains a level, it adds "coaching skills" to your main actions tab for the week. But I've never seen anything like that for players. And as far as I can tell you have to dig into the roster or depth chart and click triangle for player info to even see their coins. I can't do that for all 22 starters every few weeks to see if I missed something... it's just tedious.
There are defense sliders to toggle aggressive or conservative on the big hit thing.
I'll need to find those because it is every second hit, genuinely.
12 minutes?! I'm on the default 5.
Tbf, I am mostly playing offense, with the occasional defensive series.
Yeah the badges don't seem to be anything you can focus on or try to get. Maybe in Road to Glory where it's just you?
Probably not. Like, it's an idea they clearly stole from 2K, but again, badges in 2K mean something irrespective of ratings, whereas EA's appear to just be fancy ways of saying your ratings have passed a certain threshold.
It's a real missed opportunity because not only could you use it to differentiate players, but also change the AI's on-field tendencies.
And I'm with you, I've seen that I can allegedly upgrade players mid-season, but it's quite easy to completely miss by not going to your roster and checking the Player Card, at which point you have to do it for every freaking player and just nothankyou.
Is there an ability in the game to just put your best CB against a specific offensive player, every play, no matter what?
Stele wrote:There are defense sliders to toggle aggressive or conservative on the big hit thing.
I'll need to find those because it is every second hit, genuinely.
...
Is there an ability in the game to just put your best CB against a specific offensive player, every play, no matter what?
Both of these are in the in-game adjustments when you're on defense. Right-stick when on play selection, anytime during the game. You can choose CB assignment by rank, speed, position, etc. And the defense big hit or fumble sliders are in there too. Plus there's some zone ones that can shorten/extend the yardage your defenders stay in zone coverage.
Not sure if either one means a damn thing if you sim defense only though? Good luck.
LOL, that's a problem, as I have had SEVERAL drives saved by the AI roughing my kicker.
They wanna make me happy, stop calling holding every second time I get a big play. 
Yeah I started doing safe kick/punt defense a while ago because my teammates kept giving the CPU first downs
I still don't know how to make passing "realistic".
I looked at some guides, and dropped passing accuracy down to the 30s with the sliders, and both me and the CPU seem to still just be able to drop dimes. I dropped interceptions down to 20 as well.
Basically its 100% accuracy on any remotely open receiver, seems like only a jarring hit will cause an incompletion.. or if there's some pressure, maybe the QB throws it away.
I've watched plenty of mediocre college football QB play at Cal... throws that are short/long that don't 100% result in an interception are more than uncommon.
I think the game is ultimately optimized for online play, but yeah, even with passing accuracy dropped, these dudes are WAY too accurate.
finding that balance between the ratings and the player's ability is really tough. I'm playing with the advanced passing (or whatever it's called), and it's pretty easy for me to be on-target for every pass, even the ones my QB is NOT good at.
I think if you try the power only passing, not power & accuracy, you might get you want you want. In that case I believe it's supposed to take the QB ratings into account for how accurate the throws are, not where you place the marker.
I see tons of batted balls and non big-hit incompletes, as defenders stick their hands in and knock the ball out.
I have also seen wild throws when I hold the pass button too long, trying to do placement. Ball will zip out of bounds a few yards away from where I aimed. Kind of like when you do the kick meter at 100% max and it wobbles a bit.
I think if you try the power only passing, not power & accuracy, you might get you want you want. In that case I believe it's supposed to take the QB ratings into account for how accurate the throws are, not where you place the marker.
I see tons of batted balls and non big-hit incompletes, as defenders stick their hands in and knock the ball out.
I have also seen wild throws when I hold the pass button too long, trying to do placement. Ball will zip out of bounds a few yards away from where I aimed. Kind of like when you do the kick meter at 100% max and it wobbles a bit.
I do revamped, so I'm not doing the L2 targeted throwing. On long bombs either its a big completion or its knocked down/picked off. We all watch plenty of football games and I'd say on many long bombs it just falls incomplete because the ball was over/under thrown. Incompletions shouldn't be only because of batted balls. I guess this is a video game and they want to eliminate some of the randomness? If skilled player sees an open receiver and pushes the right button, they don't want the ingame RNG to then have that end up as an incomplete. As a football watcher though.. it happens all too often that the QB misses a pass they should make.
Oddly enough.. the only time I saw "real" incompletes was when I was up by like 2 scores with less than a minute to go, the opponent is throwing all over the place and a few of those fell short.
Forgot to post here. Last night, season 2 came to a dramatic finish in the playoff final game. #1 Louisville vs #2 Oregon.
Stopped my opening drive at the 3, after a couple tries to punch it in so I settled for a FG. Then they took the lead. Then a 53 yard INT TD for me right before the half. Oregon's 4th INT, but I was only up 10-7. Had 1 INT myself, but dang. Could not capitalize off the turnovers.
No scoring in the 3rd... I had a long drive to open the 4th, and had a 4th and 8 or something at the 2 minute warning, but across midfield at the 45. Couldn't kick the FG... first down wins the game... so I went for it, and missed. Oregon TD with 1:25 to take the lead. I quickly got in the red zone with like 45 sec left... but the very next play scored a TD instead of killing the clock. Tough when down 4 to burn too much clock since a FG wouldn't help. Alas... they kicked a FG with 6s left to send it to OT.
Only the 2nd OT I played, the other in last year's playoffs. And both times I lose the toss and have to do offense first. Both score TDs. Then in the 2nd OT, they go for 2 and get it... so I'm down 8, just like last year. 25 yard TD on the first play, boom! 2-point conversion... incomplete. 
I tried to force it to my TE of the year, 1st team All-American.... but the slot WR was probably more open. Oof.
Sometimes I might reset in anger... but what the hell. That was probably the 3rd most fun game of the 30 or so I've played. Oregon are the champs. 2nd place is ok. We have the 3rd best recruiting class and will be back to kick ass next year I'm sure. I let it stand, and into season 3 I go.
EDIT: Thought this was the game winner. Pierce Clarkson to Chris Bell.
Oh God, that reminds me of something!
So, I don't know WHY, but for some ungodly reason, EA decided that when you "Play Offense Only," what that means is that you will play offense and punt and kick field goals...
...but not extra points or 2 point conversions!
This literally led to me losing a game in OT. We went to OT, scored, but then it switched back to the SuperSim screen, where I didn't even notice it going for two, I just looked up and suddenly we'd lost!
I get why they did it, who wants to kick boring XP attempts, right? But how do they not at least ask you beforehand if you wanna handle the PAT, and ESPECIALLY 2 point conversions?
Like, that, to me, is some genuinely unforgivably bad design.
Also, it's 2024. It's actually a little disappointing there isn't easy functionality to watch replays of every single play and take photos. Y'know, like 2K has done for half a decade now.
Well you can change the sim speed. Fast is the default zippy thing. Normal stays in the sim screen and you can see what's going on. Each play takes maybe 3 seconds, but it's slow enough you can read it, and if you decide ooh, 3rd and 18, I want to get a sack... or oh shit they're in the red zone, maybe I can stop them... you can easily cancel out.
But if you choose "slow" sim speed... it actually goes to the field and you watch the plays... you just watch the whole game like a spectator.
I like "key moments"... it wouldn't miss the 2-point. But it does miss some things, to me. Like a key 3rd down at midfield where I could keep a drive alive it might do when the game is close. But when I'm up 14 it might not... but then that's what gets the other team a TD and back into it, and I have to start playing again. So even when I'm doing key moments I try to do "normal" sim speed so I can take over if I decide something is key.
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