NCAA Football 14 Demo Details & Impressions

[ryby6969]

All the time. It basically just reverts back to sprint with the Returners and HB's.

I hope this is fixed as it wears out the HB and really eliminates the whole point of the addition to acceleration burst.

[beartide06]

Anybody having any success with screen passes?

HB Slip Screens, WR Mid Screens, and Bubble Screens are very heavily defended in my games. The OL doesn't slow down the D-Line at all and 1 or 2 defenders cover the screen receiver making the play worthless in terms of yardage. I have had only 1 successful Bubble Screen and HB Slip Screen (10 + yards) in many attempts and 0 successful WR Mid Screens.

I have been able to achieve success with most of the screen passes (bubble, middle screen, hot-route smoke screen, etc.). I've popped a WR middle screen for 35 yards, the bubble screen on multiple occasions with one going 56 yards for a TD, and the hot routed smoke screen on multiple occasions. Obviously, when I identify man coverage, I steer clear of them. The one screen I have had the least amount of success with is actually the HB slip screen. It seems the defense contains it a lot better this year.

[Rudy]

I tried a little of the Skills trainer this morning. I think that's a very good thing to have. The pitch option is a very quick read that I don't do that well with in this game. I'm pretty good at my zone read (not perfect) but I had a TON of fun with the new shovel pass option read. Having to read two LBs and either pitch to the outside, shovel pitch to the inside man or keep it yourself took me a bit to get used to it but that was a lot of fun. My son had a lot of fun doing the Oklahoma drill although it's pretty easy to score with the same moves. The r-stick juke move is too weak imo. Even with the Oregon RB in that drill it felt fairly useless. I think you are better off just using the L-stick.

The passing stuff is OK in the skills thing. The drill has a bit of a bug when it wants you to lob a pass to an inside seam route on a screen pass. You get no protection lol but it doesn't ask for that too much. I still suck at the manual catching. That drill reminded me exactly why I never do that.

I didn't have time to complete the skills training. Anyone know if there is an inverted read play practice? I can run most of the read-options and triple options but when I tried the inverted veer in the game it seemed backwards as though I had to hit X to keep the ball instead of give it to the back. Is that correct? I do like reading the DT but I was getting messed up.

[jaymo76]

I tried a little of the Skills trainer this morning. I think that's a very good thing to have. The pitch option is a very quick read that I don't do that well with in this game. I'm pretty good at my zone read (not perfect) but I had a TON of fun with the new shovel pass option read. Having to read two LBs and either pitch to the outside, shovel pitch to the inside man or keep it yourself took me a bit to get used to it but that was a lot of fun. My son had a lot of fun doing the Oklahoma drill although it's pretty easy to score with the same moves. The r-stick juke move is too weak imo. Even with the Oregon RB in that drill it felt fairly useless. I think you are better off just using the L-stick.

The passing stuff is OK in the skills thing. The drill has a bit of a bug when it wants you to lob a pass to an inside seam route on a screen pass. You get no protection lol but it doesn't ask for that too much. I still suck at the manual catching. That drill reminded me exactly why I never do that.

I didn't have time to complete the skills training. Anyone know if there is an inverted read play practice? I can run most of the read-options and triple options but when I tried the inverted veer in the game it seemed backwards as though I had to hit X to keep the ball instead of give it to the back. Is that correct? I do like reading the DT but I was getting messed up.

Speaking of USER CATCH, during the skills trainer drills I only made one user catch. I don't know why but I find this extremely difficult to do in game... always have actually.

[jello1717]

I tried a little of the Skills trainer this morning. I think that's a very good thing to have. The pitch option is a very quick read that I don't do that well with in this game. I'm pretty good at my zone read (not perfect) but I had a TON of fun with the new shovel pass option read. Having to read two LBs and either pitch to the outside, shovel pitch to the inside man or keep it yourself took me a bit to get used to it but that was a lot of fun. My son had a lot of fun doing the Oklahoma drill although it's pretty easy to score with the same moves. The r-stick juke move is too weak imo. Even with the Oregon RB in that drill it felt fairly useless. I think you are better off just using the L-stick.

The passing stuff is OK in the skills thing. The drill has a bit of a bug when it wants you to lob a pass to an inside seam route on a screen pass. You get no protection lol but it doesn't ask for that too much. I still suck at the manual catching. That drill reminded me exactly why I never do that.

I didn't have time to complete the skills training. Anyone know if there is an inverted read play practice? I can run most of the read-options and triple options but when I tried the inverted veer in the game it seemed backwards as though I had to hit X to keep the ball instead of give it to the back. Is that correct? I do like reading the DT but I was getting messed up.

You don't read the DT on the inverted veer (but you do for the midline option). You read the last man on the LOS just like a read option, but on the opposite end of the line.
You give/keep with the same mechanic as a read option by holding "A" to give it and releasing "A" to keep it. Below is the best way (in the demo) that I've found to practice a particular play.:

If you're struggling with reads on certain plays, connect another controller and use that for the defense. On defense, set the option defensive gameplanning setting to aggressive (to force the D to take the QB) and then run the play over and over to see what a "give" read looks like. Then switch the D setting to conservative (to force a keep) and run the play over and over to see what a "keep" read looks like. This helped me a lot with the new midline option and inverted veer.

[PDuncanOSU]

I tried a little of the Skills trainer this morning. I think that's a very good thing to have. The pitch option is a very quick read that I don't do that well with in this game. I'm pretty good at my zone read (not perfect) but I had a TON of fun with the new shovel pass option read. Having to read two LBs and either pitch to the outside, shovel pitch to the inside man or keep it yourself took me a bit to get used to it but that was a lot of fun. My son had a lot of fun doing the Oklahoma drill although it's pretty easy to score with the same moves. The r-stick juke move is too weak imo. Even with the Oregon RB in that drill it felt fairly useless. I think you are better off just using the L-stick.

The passing stuff is OK in the skills thing. The drill has a bit of a bug when it wants you to lob a pass to an inside seam route on a screen pass. You get no protection lol but it doesn't ask for that too much. I still suck at the manual catching. That drill reminded me exactly why I never do that.

I didn't have time to complete the skills training. Anyone know if there is an inverted read play practice? I can run most of the read-options and triple options but when I tried the inverted veer in the game it seemed backwards as though I had to hit X to keep the ball instead of give it to the back. Is that correct? I do like reading the DT but I was getting messed up.

I never saw an inverted-veer read in the skills trainer. I used a second controller during a game to set the defense gameplan to focus on the QB or the RB and then would run the option plays I wanted to practice to get an idea of what a "give" and "keep" read looked like.

[jello1717]

I still suck at the manual catching. That drill reminded me exactly why I never do that.

Speaking of USER CATCH, during the skills trainer drills I only made one user catch. I don't know why but I find this extremely difficult to do in game... always have actually.

Are you guys trying to user catch like in '12 and older games ("B" to get closest guy, manually move him into position, tap "Y" to catch) or are you using the ball hawk feature like the drill instructs? If you use ball hawk it's actually so easy that (sadly) you can do it with your eyes closed.

1. Tap receiver's button to pass
2. close eyes
3. tap "B"
4. hold "Y"
5. CPU catches the ball
6. ?????
7. profit

[Rudy]

I'm trying to user catch the old way and time the catch button. Many times my WR doesn't even put up his hands.

[jello1717]

I'm trying to user catch the old way and time the catch button. Many times my WR doesn't even put up his hands.

I'd guess that's because it's the same button as ball hawk. I'd imagine that instead of "user catching" what you're doing is "starting and stopping ball hawk." I'm pretty sure I've read from people in '13 that they used to be user catching gods, but are unable to do it in '13 (when ball hawk was introduced) any more and most times their receiver/DB won't even react and I'll bet it's because of what I just wrote.

[SmoothPancakes]

I'd guess that's because it's the same button as ball hawk. I'd imagine that instead of "user catching" what you're doing is "starting and stopping ball hawk." I'm pretty sure I've read from people in '13 that they used to be user catching gods, but are unable to do it in '13 (when ball hawk was introduced) any more and most times their receiver/DB won't even react and I'll bet it's because of what I just wrote.

Shit. No wonder my receivers don't keep sprinting and put their arms up for the pass when I switch to them and try to user catch in my dynasty in '13. I've lost a bunch of guaranteed touchdowns because my receivers didn't keep sprinting and try to catch the pass inside the 10 yard line or in the end zone on a deep pass.

[jaymo76]

I'd guess that's because it's the same button as ball hawk. I'd imagine that instead of "user catching" what you're doing is "starting and stopping ball hawk." I'm pretty sure I've read from people in '13 that they used to be user catching gods, but are unable to do it in '13 (when ball hawk was introduced) any more and most times their receiver/DB won't even react and I'll bet it's because of what I just wrote.

Shit. No wonder my receivers don't keep sprinting and put their arms up for the pass when I switch to them and try to user catch in my dynasty in '13. I've lost a bunch of guaranteed touchdowns because my receivers didn't keep sprinting and try to catch the pass inside the 10 yard line or in the end zone on a deep pass.

Didn't realize this was an issue. Thanks for the info.

[jello1717]

I'd guess that's because it's the same button as ball hawk. I'd imagine that instead of "user catching" what you're doing is "starting and stopping ball hawk." I'm pretty sure I've read from people in '13 that they used to be user catching gods, but are unable to do it in '13 (when ball hawk was introduced) any more and most times their receiver/DB won't even react and I'll bet it's because of what I just wrote.

I should've added that this is 100% just a theory that I just now came up with. EA has different functionality for the same button for other things (tap "A" to throw a lob pass to receiver A or hold "A" to throw a bullet pass to him) so it's very possible that they have the same thing with "Y" (tap "Y" to user catch or hold "Y" to ball hawk).

I'm just figuring that with pretty much everyone's difficulty in user catching since ball hawk was introduced it sounds like EA didn't program dual functionality into the "catch" button and when you tap it you're just starting and stopping ball hawk instead.

[beartide06]

I should've added that this is 100% just a theory that I just now came up with. EA has different functionality for the same button for other things (tap "A" to throw a lob pass to receiver A or hold "A" to throw a bullet pass to him) so it's very possible that they have the same thing with "Y" (tap "Y" to user catch or hold "Y" to ball hawk).

I'm just figuring that with pretty much everyone's difficulty in user catching since ball hawk was introduced it sounds like EA didn't program dual functionality into the "catch" button and when you tap it you're just starting and stopping ball hawk instead.

Jello is right from what I can tell. To expand on this a bit more, I believe in NCAA Football 11 they had the option of either aggressive catching (tap button of WR) or possession catching (hold button of WR). This carried over into NCAA Football 12, but when NCAA Football 13 released last year, they patched in the "Ball Hawk" featured that was also in Madden. This year, it is listed as a new feature because it is shipping with the game, and you do have to hold down the WR's button in order to utilize the "Ball Hawk" feature and make a play.

I was so used to possession catching on '11, that I completely abandoned the idea of tapping the WR's button. Plus, with the addition of the game planning adjustments for WR catching, maybe that plays a factor into if a WR is possession catching (conservative) or aggressive catching (aggressive). At least that's what I've gathered since I user catch about 95% of the time.

[Escobar]

They changed it so that to do any kind of user catching (offense or defense) you have to hold down the catch button. If you just tap it like in the old games you won't do anything.