NCAA Football 09 Impressions

NCAA Football 09 came out today for all 700 platforms.  I picked up my copy for the XBOX 360 shortly after I got off of work.  I rarely buy games without hearing some sort of feedback on it but NCAA Football is one of those series that gets a free pass from me.

My first impression of the game is that this is NCAA Football 08 with some tweaks.  The game feels and plays pretty much like the previous version which is good.  EA Sports did right by not messing with the game mechanics too much since the game plays pretty well.  I cannot comment too much on the graphics but they appear to be smoother on my standard definition TV.  One thing that has stood out to me is the responsiveness of the menus and actions outside of the actual game.  Some of the things that annoyed me before have been resolved.  In 08, I would dread trying to find the best camera angle for my replays since you could not stop them in mid stream.  In 09, you can cancel out of the replay at any point and choose another angle.  EA also ironed out the bugs on their EA Sports World website so that it doesn't crash your browser.

One of them newest additions to the franchise is the online dynasty mode which I'm all sorts of giddy about.  I started up a league and hopefully the interaction will be strong enough to keep it going for at least a couple of seasons.

Based upon my first impression, NCAA Football 09 gets a B+ from me since it feels like last years game with subtle improvements.  I'd give it a high score if it was a little more innovative but I haven't fully explored the game yet.