NCAA Football 09 Updated Hands-On

It's tough to contain our excitement with NCAA Football 09, particularly the Online Dynasty feature, which looks to be one of the highlights of an already full-featured game. We first heard about Online Dynasty at the game's unveiling in New York City a few weeks back. Earlier this week, during EA Sports' press event in Vancouver, we got to see the Online Dynasty for ourselves for the first time.

The goal for Online Dynasty mode, it seems, has been to create a feature that is virtually indistinguishable from the Offline Dynasty mode in the game. Longtime NCAA fans know that last year's game saw a revamped Dynasty mode, with more-detailed recruiting options, better player-search ability, and a new interface. All of those features are still part of the Dynasty mode in NCAA 09, with the added benefit of the entire thing being online.

Up to 12 players will be able to play in an online dynasty together, competing with teams from a variety of conferences and with a rule set that is set by a single commissioner who is in charge of the flow of the entire dynasty. We got a look at how commissioners will set up leagues in the game; the first step will be inviting specific players on your friends list (or adding Xbox Live or PlayStation Network tags in by hand) and then assigning each player a team. While you won't be able to have multiple players using the same team in the dynasty, you will be able to choose teams from any Division I--err, sorry, any "Football Bowl Subdivision" school--found in the game.

The commissioner will set all the dynasty rules--such as what level of difficultly to play on, quarter length, penalty frequency, and so on. Should the commissioner have a roster file with the updated names saved on his or her local hard drive, that will be used in the online dynasty too. After all of these settings are configured, invitations will be sent out to all the players. A player can have up to five online dynasties on a single game profile but can be commissioner of only one league at a time.

Once all players have accepted invites into the dynasty, you'll see a dynasty home page, which will showcase all players involved in the league, complete with name and school played. Here, the commissioner (and other players in the league) will be able to get a quick glance of where each team in the league stands week to week.

The commissioner can set custom schedules in your online league, though conference games will be locked in your schedule. All players must completely finish a week before the dynasty can move on, though the commissioner can forcefully advance a week if he or she so chooses. During a week, a team will have a number of things to do before his or her week is considered complete--including playing their weekly matchup, and using up their weekly allotment of 10 hours for recruiting new players. Thanks to some handy color-coded icons, the commissioner will be able to quickly tell who's done what during the week--a red recruiting icon, for example, means that player still hasn't finished recruiting duties for the week.

While recruiting hasn't changed from a mechanics standpoint, one new feature looks to streamline the process a bit. The "quick call" feature will let you quickly devote a certain amount of time to calling a potential recruit. Unlike the normal recruitment process, you won't be pitching specific aspects of your program to the player--that will be handled by the CPU. Instead, you'll simply choose the player you wish to call and then select how long you talk to him (up to a maximum of 60 minutes).

When it comes to playing the games on your schedule, you'll have a good deal of flexibility here. Players can choose to simulate the games outright, use the supersim feature that lets you watch a sped-up version of the game (with the ability to jump in at any point) or go straight old-school and, you know, actually play the game out in real time. Obviously, if you are up against a CPU-controlled opponent, you'll be able to quit games if you don't like where the game is heading--but beware, as the dynasty commissioner will be able to keep tabs on how many times you backed out of a game, and even throw away a game's final score if he or she thinks things look fishy.

The level of flexibility in online dynasty seems to take into account a lot of possible outcomes--should a player drop out of your league, that spot will automatically be taken up by the AI, and if a player needs to take a week off (such as when going on vacation, for example) he or she (or the commissioner) can set that player to "skip" a week, and let the CPU handle duties for that week. In addition, a commissioner will be able to save online dynasties offline, for those times when a league has lost its members but the commish wants to keep the fun going solo. Alternately, you'll be able to spawn an offline dynasty into an online dynasty, which you can then invite your friends into.

On the field, NCAA 09 looks to play a more wide-open form of football, and it shows. The fumble problems of last year's game didn't rear their ugly head during our time with the game (though we did manage to throw more than a few picks, which speaks well of the secondary artificial intelligence). The game certainly feels more responsive than last year's; jukes and stutter step moves tied to the right stick feel easier to pull off--and more devastating against unsuspecting opponents than ever before. If anything, it seems the disparity between speedy players and average ones is even more pronounced this year.

Though the hardcore crowd will likely want to stick with the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions of NCAA Football 09, the game is heading to practically every major console out there, including the PlayStation 2 and PSP. In addition, the series will make its debut on the Nintendo Wii later this year with NCAA Football 09 All Play, a greatly simplified, faster-paced version of the game that looks to be perfect for players who want to enjoy all the college action, but can't tell an option from a shotgun pass. Simplified play calling, Wii-shaking controls, mascot games, and plenty of minigames look to be highlights of the Wii version of the game. We'll be keeping a close eye on all versions of NCAA 09 in the coming months as we get closer to its summer release date.