• The Gaming Tailgate's NCAA Football 13 Retail Release Impressions


    Hey guys, gschwendt back again to give you my impressions of NCAA Football 13, this time the retail release version of the game. For new visitors to the site, you can read my previously posted quick background about me as well as my impressions of gameplay from the April community event. Be sure to check out our Q&A and Media article that filled requests by users and for those that download the game early through Season Ticket, be sure to participate in our Impressions thread so that you can share your thoughts on the game.

    For this year’s release, EA SPORTS and the NCAA Football development team needed to focus on making sure that every aspect of the game was solid and provided a great core of both gameplay and other features. Unfortunately for fans of the yearly title, in my opinion, EA has fallen short in delivering the game that many felt was needed to win back those disgruntled after last year’s release. While the additions to the game are nice and do provide entertainment, they only manage to highlight the shortcomings in other areas. To me, this is the year of the ‘but’, as in “that change is really nice, but it breaks that other aspect this year” or “we got this new addition, but then we miss-out on that addition”.

    Click the Read More to read my impressions of NCAA Football 13.
    Some fans start off this year discouraged by what they saw in NCAA Football 12… between broken features (Custom Playbooks), game-breaking bugs (Online Dynasty Transfer Fails), and other issues, those fans understandably needed to see EA deliver a solid, all-around polished title with NCAA Football 13. Unfortunately though, at least based on pre-release, fans will still be left wondering “how did they let that get by them”. Primarily, this is revolving around gameplay issues, most of which were readily evident in the demo released on June 5th/6th. These issues include sometimes downright awful defensive coverage for zones, mindless defenders ignoring the play completely when defending the option, DEs sometimes not remaining unblocked in an option read, very poor CPU logic, and (near & dear to my heart) alignment issues for the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 defenses.

    The largest issue of these is the zone defense. Some of these scenarios include deep defenders not getting deep enough, “stumbling” defenders where they try to change direction and are pulled way out of position, hook zones sometimes dropping 15+ yards with no receiver to take them that deep, Cover 2 Deep coverage having no answer at all for a Four Verticals passing play, Buzz zones not playing the corner route & instead covering the flats, and 2-Deep Safety looks that, when the offense is on the hash, one safety will play essentially one quarter of the field instead of his half leaving a wide open field between them. These issues combined with the fact Quarterbacks have much more in their arsenal for attacking will spell an ugly mess for zone defense.

    In terms of the passing, I do want to point out that there are some good, polished additions. The new passing mechanic does give you much more ability to throw the ball around the field. Not only can you place the ball using the new Total Control Passing, but with the new trajectories and the fact that the defense has to read before they react, fans of wide-open passing games will love what they’re able to do in the game this year. In addition, the Total Control Passing also brings with it two often requested features with Route-Based Passing as well as more passes hitting the dirt. For Route-Based Passing, now you can time your throws so that the ball gets there as the receiver turns around; in years past, you might try to throw a curl a little early only for the pass to continue on as though the receiver is running a streak. And for the passes hitting the dirt, because both the human player and the CPU will be trying to place the ball where they want it, there will be times that it gets placed wrong due to inaccurate quarterbacks; this is where players will be able to tell a high-rated QB vs a lower-rated QB. Overall, the passing game (for the offensive side of the ball), is a very bright spot in terms of gameplay aspects. But again, these additions will only highlight the fact that zone defenses are so crippled. Combine the passing game with the ability for the offense to effectively run a Shotgun Option attack, users will be able to have a lot of fun whenever they have the ball in their hands.

    Continuing with gameplay, as mentioned, the alignment issues with the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 defenses have long been a thorn in my side. Primarily these issues are around the safeties not aligning properly, not covering the correct receiver or being assigned a receiver completely across the field. This year however, EA promised an increase focus on alignment and assignment across all defensive formations, even going so far as to helping the defense disguise coverage so that it's not as easy to read zone versus man. And while the base formations were given a fair amount of attention, the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 still ultimately fall short. They are improved to a degree, but the main staple of my personal defense (4-2-5 Cover 1) produces scattered results that vary depending on not only personnel but also where the ball is on the field (hash vs middle). Examples include players coming across the formation that don't when on the opposite hash or middle, safeties covering a receiver to the outside while a CB covers the inside slot, those combined with the fact that you’ll often see potentially scary results when facing a no-huddle attack and you stand a chance of walking into a minefield or being forced to limit your defensive playcalling. It's difficult to comprehend why the improvements were focused only on some - but not all - formations.

    As well in gameplay, as fans of the series have complained, the CPU logic has long suffered in NCAA Football but as the game improves and offers the user new tools for their disposal, the CPU seemingly isn't taught how to use these new tools. While the CPU does use the new Total Control Passing somewhat, they often use it in bad situations or at bad times; a perfect example would be too often the CPU sails a ball out of bounds over a receivers head. The logic isn't limited to just new features. As seen in the past and in videos previously released for NCAA 13, the CPU struggles to run the triple option with any kind of effectiveness. Between not making the right read, not knowing when to cut it up field, and pitching the ball at bad times, it only spells an easy win for a human controlled defense. Added that the CPU doesn't know how to properly call plays for a scheme, whether triple option or otherwise. Many of the bad examples seen in the demo (such as calling a HB Draw when down with only seconds on the clock) are still seen in the final game. While the CPU does manage to provide a fairly competitive game on default All-American sliders, you start to wonder how much better they could be with a revamped logic, but not this year. For users that focus on playing in Online games, these issues will be rarely seen but those that play in Dynasty or even Online Dynasty will have to contend with with these issues whenever facing the CPU.

    Turning next to presentation, this was an area that needed improvement in order to draw the fans into each and every game. The primary new presentation aspect this year is the Dynasty Mode Studio Updates. These updates will feature Rece Davis breaking into your game to tell you about what’s happening that week in the rest of your dynasty. Initially I expected these to annoy me and take me away immersion factor, however they do appear less annoying than I originally thought they would be. They occur at generally acceptable times (clock stoppage, failed 3rd down conversion, etc.) But the problem is that lines from Rece sound disjointed and disconnected from each other. One specific example, I was shown an update for UL Monroe vs Auburn and during the update, Rece started three straight lines with “The Tigers”. While an example like that is probably somewhat rare, it can occur and really sticks out. The developers did essentially say that this year is just a building block for the future in terms of presentation, and you can see (hear) that a base is there, however for this year, the additions are not enough to warrant too much praise.

    With Dynasty, some fans may see this year as a small update to the mode, however those updates do make a big impact. New additions to dynasty mode include Dynamic Pitches and knowing how you can improve those pitches, Scouting recruits, Breaking into the Top 10, Triple Threat Athletes, you drive the recruiting call, Changes to Player Transfers, and Player Draft Results. Possibly none of the changes on their own would be seen as a huge impact, but together they do indeed give Dynasty Mode that refreshed feeling that it’s needed for the past several years. I would be hard pressed to say which aspect is the most important addition but possibly the most undersold aspect to have a big impact will be the Breaking into the Top 10 of a player. No longer will recruits automatically start with 10 teams that they’re interested in. Now, a player might start with anywhere from 2-10 teams and it’s up to those teams to give him interest. If other schools give him interest, he'll start to add new teams to his list. Now, for that 3-star player from Rhode Island that only has dreams of playing for USC, if USC doesn’t show him any interest, he’ll eventually wise-up and start listening to someone that does want him. Again, all of these additions combined give Dynasty a much needed lift to making it fun and competitive. But, fans will quickly find frustration in the fact that Coaching Carousel, which started with so much potential on NCAA Football 12, went untouched for NCAA Football 13.

    Along the lines of Dynasty, the new Dynasty Wire website features additions for NCAA Football 13. Perhaps the biggest of these additions will be that you can now perform all offseason tasks right from the website. Offseason tasks such as the Coaching Carousel, convincing players not to transfer, changing positions, seeing training results, cutting players, and in the preseason redshirting players. These will be a nice addition for the Online Dynasties where players were unable to get to a console for the offseason… now they can participate from their laptop, tablet, or phone. Other features new this year include Awards information such as Preseason All-Americans/All-Conference, Players of the Week, and individual Awards including a dedicated Heisman Watch page. Of course the new scouting & recruiting are also part of the website updates. In regards to recruiting, for NCAA 12, fans complained about the site that was updated midway through the release year, the two biggest bugs perhaps were being shown the wrong recruiting board and a promises call crash bug that would end up losing call time for a particular recruit. While the recruiting board bug never showed itself during pre-release on the new site, the promises call crash bug does still occur. That bug being that the website allows you to make a promise that you’ve previously offered. When you do this, the call will crash and you’ll lose any unused time for that recruit. I’ve made the web developers aware of that and we should expect to see it fixed soon. Thankfully, the website can be updated at anytime without the need for approval from third-parties (such as Sony or Microsoft). Overall though, the website seems more solid and on the whole should offer a better experience.

    To wrap things up, NCAA Football 13 had a world of potential to make this one of the best releases on this generation of consoles, but they’ve dropped the ball up to this point. They needed to show fans that NCAA Football 12 was just a year that they set their sights too high, but instead, some will still come away feeling burnt by this year's title. Added that NCAA’s bigger brother, Madden, will be getting two very buzz-worthy features in Connected Careers and the Infinity Engine, but NCAA’s most buzz-worthy feature this year is the Heisman Challenge. Overall, NCAA Football 13 at first glance will offer a fun experience and a lot of users will be able to either overlook or may not even notice the detractions, but days after launch, we can probably expect a segment of the loyal fan base to be disgruntled with the drawbacks included in the game this year. Fans of the series of course already know to expect a patch to fix some of these issues but when that patch comes and what it fixes is right now unknown. That combined with previous years where a patch can correct one issue only to uncover a new one, leads to a suggested caution for those that play the NCAA Football series year-round.

    Still want more?
    Click here to join the Impressions thread.
    Click here to read our Q&A.
    Click here to watch our Videos including gameplay, playbook walkthroughs, and some worst case scenarios seen during pre-release.
    Click here to see our Picture Requests thread.


    gschwendt is an EA SPORTS Game Changer that participates in community events for the NCAA Football series. He's been a long-time, year-round player of the series dating back to NCAA Football 03. You can follow him on twitter @gschwendt or watch his videos on youtube.
    Comments 349 Comments
    1. Kingpin32's Avatar
      Kingpin32 -
      The zone play is a big downer. I'm still getting I'm sure, but jeeze. Hopefully they can patch it up.
    1. Deuce's Avatar
      Deuce -
      Quote Originally Posted by gschwendt View Post
      I've not received any official word from EA regarding any patches, when they might come or what they might include.
      I figured but thought I'd ask anyway. It really is unacceptable for the zones to be broken. I'll still enjoy the game and play the heck out of it BUT an important aspect of gameplay being worse than last year SUCKS!
    1. gschwendt's Avatar
      gschwendt -
      Quote Originally Posted by ryby6969 View Post
      How much of the problems on defense are because you can "throw receiver's open"? I do not like the fact that a receiver can be running a streak and you turn it into a post or flag route and him react to it like it was a designed play call.
      Throwing a receiver open isn't the issue... it may make the issue worse, but there are times when defenders just don't play a proper zone. For example, a last second hail mary and the deep zones let 3 WRs run right by them. Here are some examples of worst case scenarios that I saw this past week.

      425 Alignment vs No Huddle
      425 Cover 2 Sink vs Swing Pass
      Bad deep coverage
      CPU Shotgun Speed Option
      Bad deep coverage #2
      Hail Mary gets behind deep coverage
    1. JeffHCross's Avatar
      JeffHCross -
      Quote Originally Posted by gschwendt View Post
      Well, the others aren't as obvious, but it's pretty damned apparent what happened there. The DBs aren't turning and running until after the ball is thrown. So Read & React is reading and reacting to the QB ........... but not the WR that runs right by them.
    1. Dr Death's Avatar
      Dr Death -
      Thanks gshwendt... I guess... Your honesty is much appreciated but what I don't understand is how EA, after last year's colossal failure of Biblical proportions, could follow up this year w/ what you described. They have people come down to their HQ's to help them out and what do they do w/ that? Apparently, they don't listen worth a fuck. Such a disappointment.
    1. ryby6969's Avatar
      ryby6969 -
      The first bad deep coverage one I could live with, depending on the safeties ratings. He jumped the crossing route and got caught out of position. The other two deep issues were definitely bad.

      One thing I do not like is the fact that there is so much time to throw the ball even with a 4 or 5 man rush. This is contributing to some of the issues IMO. You should not have 5 or 6 seconds to throw the ball and let those guys get so deep when you have a 4 or 5 man rush.
    1. Oneback's Avatar
      Oneback -
      Here's a video of Texas vs Texas (A+ rated defense) where I threw virtually nothing but 4 verts and a comeback route. The first video shows Cover 2 Sink and Cover 3 and the second video shows Cover 1.

      Click the following links:

      Texas Orange is throwing against Cover 2 Sink and Texas White is throwing against Cover 3.

      In this video both teams are throwing against Cover 1.
    1. xMrHitStickx904's Avatar
      xMrHitStickx904 -
      Welp , I'm playing man every down I see.
    1. Oneback's Avatar
      Oneback -
      Quote Originally Posted by xMrHitStickx904 View Post
      Welp , I'm playing man every down I see.
      To put those videos in context:

      Here's a video of Texas vs Texas (A+ rated defense) where I threw virtually nothing but 4 verts and a comeback route. The first video shows Cover 2 Sink and Cover 3 and the second video shows Cover 1.

      http://www.media.ncaaplaybook.com/4v2a3.mp4 - on this one the Texas Orange is throwing against Cover 2 Sink and Texas White is throwing against Cover 3.

      http://www.media.ncaaplaybook.com/4vc1.mp4 - in this video both teams are throwing against Cover 1.

      All total I went 18/26 and 5 TDs against one of the best defenses in the game, most of the incompletions were a result of throwing 4 verts inside the +20, which is why I switched to the comeback route.

      After this, out of curiosity I went in and deleted the tuner file as others were seeing better games after doing such, however this resulted in zero change. So I then went into an exhibition game versus Virginia Tech (A+ Defense) this time letting the CPU pick the plays, again no difference in outcome.

      The problem is the middle is wide open versus Cover 2, the hook curl defenders aren't walling off #2 and preventing them from entering the hash area, the corners aren't sinking fast enough to cutoff the 9 route and because the safety is aligned out of position he is unable to effect the throw, finally the hook defender isn't gaining depth fast enough and as soon as #3 releases he stops his drop, this wouldn't be a problem if the hook/curl defenders were walling #2.

      In Cover 3, the Curl/Flat defenders aren't carrying the seam leaving it wide open which results in an easy throw all you need to do is throw away from the safety rotation. Versus Cover 1, the corner isn't playing a high shoulder technique and gets stuck in a trail position far too often, time the pass and put some loft under it to the outside shoulder of the receiver and you'll complete more times than not.

      The only two coverage's that seem to have an effect on 4 verts are Cover 2 Man and Quarters, I'm sure y'all can see the problems there - Texas's QB isn't that great, however he is having great success throwing the ball, imagine doing this with a prolific running QB like the one from Ohio State. This is what we are going to see online. So now as a defensive play caller you have to pick your poison, give up a gain via ground or air, sure you can bring pressure, but are you able to get there in time - this is why I tested with Cover 1, 2 and 3. Versus a man blitz your throwing over the top to #1, you can see in the video that's not a problem, versus zone blitz you're seeing a 3 under/3 deep with the SCIF player not carrying the seam, throw to #2 away from safety rotation or your seeing a 4 under/2 deep coverage with free access to the middle of the field - you're now gambling that the person on the other end can't read it quick enough, however with 15 minutes of practice you can accurately guess the defensive coverage pre-snap as against a balanced formation nothing is disguised. In cover 2 zone or man, the corners are up and the slot defenders are 3-ish yards off the LOS with a 2 deep shell - read #2 to #3 or run. Versus Cover 3 and 1 the slot defenders are up on the LOS, corners are 7 yards off and you've either got a one high look or the safeties are staggered and deeper than 10 yards off the LOS, read #2 away from safety rotation to #1. Versus Cover 4, you get a Cover 3 look underneath with a two deep shell and the safeties are aligned at 9ish yards off the LOS, wait for everyone to drop and either drop it off to the back or run. Once your opponent see's his plan of attack isn't working they'll either bring pressure or play 2 Man, the comeback route absolutely destroys man coverage or if you have a fast QB run with the ball and if they bring pressure see above. If the pressure starts to bother you, throw screens - or you're likely seeing pressure with press man, hot route your receiver to a fade route, in testing it's un-bumpable. I haven't seen it held up at the LOS yet and 9/10 times the WR has instantly gotten past the DB and is wide open.
    1. CLW's Avatar
      CLW -
      Honestly, I'm not surprised. Everyone SHOULD have seen this coming and what you saw in the demo likely is the product at least until Patch #1. I'll enjoy the game for what it is but unfortunately EA just isn't turning out great games (compared to other genres/companies and even other competitors in the sports game genre).
    1. souljahbill's Avatar
      souljahbill -
      Remember when NCAA 12 came out and zone was super over-powered?
    1. SmoothPancakes's Avatar
      SmoothPancakes -
      I just saw exactly what G is talking about. Playing a throwaway dynasty as Colorado State, playing against Colorado, I called a zone play on the very first play of Colorado's drive, got smoked for a 49 yard touchdown pass, where the receiver ended up 10 yards behind my entire secondary, who didn't react until the ball was being thrown. It was too late for any of my players to turn, catch the guy and tackle him by that time. This is gonna be a massive black mark on NCAA '13 unless the team either got it fixed in the day one patch or is going to get it fixed as soon as they can in a second patch. Zones are almost completely unplayable right now.
    1. I OU a Beatn's Avatar
      I OU a Beatn -
      Do the safeties in cover 2 man do the same thing and let the receivers run by them? If so, this is going to be virtually unplayable online.
    1. Kingpin32's Avatar
      Kingpin32 -
      So it seems that the new read and react is what is affecting the zones?
    1. CLW's Avatar
      CLW -
      Leave to EA to tout a new "feature" which opens up a new can of worms that makes the area they were trying to fix/correct worse. Steelerfan going to come through for me though with some kick ass sliders that make playing the CPU fun/difficult
    1. SmoothPancakes's Avatar
      SmoothPancakes -
      Quote Originally Posted by I OU a Beatn View Post
      Do the safeties in cover 2 man do the same thing and let the receivers run by them? If so, this is going to be virtually unplayable online.
      Yep. I just experienced it on the offensive side, completing two passes for 55 and 24 yards, the safeties letting the receivers go right by them and ignoring the receiver until I've started throwing the ball.
    1. gschwendt's Avatar
      gschwendt -
      Quote Originally Posted by I OU a Beatn View Post
      Do the safeties in cover 2 man do the same thing and let the receivers run by them? If so, this is going to be virtually unplayable online.
      It's not an everytime thing but yeah, definitely more than it should.

      Quote Originally Posted by Kingpin32 View Post
      So it seems that the new read and react is what is affecting the zones?
      Read & react is certainly part of it but so is the new alignment, or at least related to the alignment. On the hash, the safety on the short side of the field right now lines up on the OT to his side (or thereabouts). That would be fine if he then dropped straight back or more towards the middle but as it is, he seems to use the same drop-back that he does in the middle of the field, meaning he drops towards the sideline, leaving a wide gap between him and the other safety.
    1. SmoothPancakes's Avatar
      SmoothPancakes -
      Quote Originally Posted by gschwendt View Post
      It's not an everytime thing but yeah, definitely more than it should.
      No, it's definitely not every time. My last defensive series, I was calling zone plays every play, and my guys defended the ball to force a Colorado punt, but other plays, both as the defense and as the offense, it's glaring and massive.
    1. I OU a Beatn's Avatar
      I OU a Beatn -
      Quote Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes View Post
      Yep. I just experienced it on the offensive side, completing two passes for 55 and 24 yards, the safeties letting the receivers go right by them and ignoring the receiver until I've started throwing the ball.
    1. gschwendt's Avatar
      gschwendt -
      For more bad zone play, be sure to watch the final two minutes of the Navy vs Georgia Tech CPU vs CPU game.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Psi...ilpage#t=2068s

      For the impatient, you can watch the abridged version where I go into the highlights and show the three worst cases, all taking place in the final two minutes.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Psi...ilpage#t=2771s