NCAA 2009 Versus Madden 2009 – Why Are There Differences?

If you are a football nut and you are a hapless fan of the EA Sports football franchises, then you already know that there are some pretty major differences between the juggernaut games that represent the college and the professional football versions of the popular sports—in their video game format. And seeing how both of these popular games are both developed and designed by teams at the EA Sports buildings, and how they both drive off the same engine for a basis, how in the heck are there, and more importantly why are there so many differences between the interfaces and game play options.

They are both made by EA so What Gives?
Both games were developed by the EA Sports studio, which is responsible for creating all of the sports games in the EA franchise. But they vary greatly when it comes to game play. For example, NCAA 09 will allow you to massively sub out players when you are kicking the crap out of a lesser team, but Madden does not. NCAA 09 allows for triggered play calling on the fly, with different buttons representing plays, whereas with Madden you have to press the Left Trigger to do this. Madden allows for you to train players, but you are not able to trade kickers or punters between CPU-controlled teams in the franchise mode. And, the NCAA 09 BCS Rating system is entirely flawed, to the point where teams like Ball State will make the top ten with zero losses, even though they do not play any real teams throughout the year.

Why NCAA 2009 Was the Best-Selling Over Madden 2009
This one is easy: more options, better in-game play, and improved play calling schematics, more options for your teams, and more teams to choose from. Plus, I have found there to be far fewer game glitches in the NCAA Franchise. Plus it seems that the bulk of the 2008 EA budget for Madden was spent on a horrible IQ system that is terribly flawed and the Virtual Trainer that really is shoddy, at best. Count off the in-game glitches, terrible computer AI and you have a lackluster Madden with Bret Favre wearing the wrong uniform on the cover, and so many glitches you would need a calculator to add them all up.

How They Could Make NCAA 2009 Better
The only thing that they could really do to make this amazing college football game improved is update the flawed BCS rating system, enhance the overall game play, and add an optional BCS plus-four playoff system so us NCAA junkies can at least get a taste of what is truly to come in the future for the NCAA and their terrible plus one, who cares big crock of (expletive) championship series, better known as the BCS. Oh yeah and while you are at it EA Sports, lower the price to something more reasonable, like say forty bucks people! I will keep my eyes peeled for the coming 2010 NCAA—hopefully some of these issues will be addressed.