The Gaming Tailgate's NCAA Football 13 Retail Release Impressions

[gschwendt]

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8017/7456883770_a0146861f3_z.jpg

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 (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/content.php?562-Impressions-of-NCAA-Football-13-Gameplay). Be sure to check out our Q&A and Media article (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/content.php?601-NCAA-Football-13-Q-A-and-Media-Requests) that filled requests by users and for those that download the game early through Season Ticket, be sure to participate in our Impressions thread (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?5307-NCAA-Football-13-General-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”.

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 (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?5307-NCAA-Football-13-General-Impressions-Thread).
Click here to read our Q&A (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?5252-NCAA-Football-13-Pre-release-Q-amp-A-Thread).
Click here to watch our Videos (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?5254-NCAA-Football-13-Pre-release-Video-Requests-Thread) including gameplay, playbook walkthroughs, and some worst case scenarios seen during pre-release.
Click here to see our Picture Requests thread (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?5253-NCAA-Football-13-Pre-release-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 (https://twitter.com/gschwendt) or watch his videos on youtube (http://youtube.com/user/gschwendt).

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You can view the page at http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/content.php?608-NCAA-Football-13-Retail-Release-Impressions

[Rudy]

Awesome impressions Tommy. Well written. I'm in Wisconsin reading this at the Great Wolf Lodge lol.

[ryby6969]

Damn, that is disheartening to say the least G.

[ram29jackson]

Damn, that is disheartening to say the least G.

what part is disappointing ?

[I OU a Beatn]

what part is disappointing ?

The zone defense probably. If it's actually as bad as it was in the demo, I'll be done with '13 within the first week...no doubt.

[JeffHCross]

Very thorough write-up, Tommy. Appreciate the honesty.


what part is disappointing ?About half of the article?

[Deuce]

Damn... That's really disappointing. We can only hope that a patch will fix some of these issues. :(

[ram29jackson]

Very thorough write-up, Tommy. Appreciate the honesty.

About half of the article?

LOL i'm just asking him for a specific.

I hope the zones arent thaaat disappointing? if they are better then last year,thats fine with me.

[ram29jackson]

Damn... That's really disappointing. We can only hope that a patch will fix some of these issues. :(

I vote for no patch if it does what it did last year LOL

[Gator3guy]

Appreciate you being honest and critical despite being a Game Changer. Pretty much how I feel about the series currently. Just not enough of an improvement to peak my interest this year and that's saying something because I have been a customer since NCAA 2000 with Shaun Alexander on the cover.

[MC1]

I've always felt that EA leaves loopholes for the gamer to fill. I recked that D flaw you mention against Oregon, got burned, but I ajusted my gp and shut them down. Yep you're right, it has potential, but it falls short of what we expected. Regardless, it's a football video game, have fun with it! I'll be online midnight July 9th on gamechanger with gp!

[jaymo76]

Thanks for an honest write-up with regards to the game. My expectations for this year were lower to begin with so nothing here is too shocking. I still plan on playing the heck out of this game.

[Geauxlden]

I respect your objectivity and honesty. Great review!

[ryby6969]

what part is disappointing ?

What Jeff said.

[NaptownMVP]

Is there anything WORSE than last year? Anything that has actually gone down from last year's version, or is the disappointment in EA not fixing something they could have?

[JerzeyReign]

This is why I come to TGT for their NCAA impressions -- no meat riding but y'all always give very honest opinions.

[xMrHitStickx904]

I can live with this. Wasn't expecting it to be mind blowing anyway. Leave that to Madden. As long as the zones play like Madden 12 to a degree after a pay, I'll play this for awhile. About to play now actually. Good review.

[gschwendt]

Is there anything WORSE than last year? Anything that has actually gone down from last year's version, or is the disappointment in EA not fixing something they could have?
Zone play is definitely worse than last year, especially when you factor in the new passing. I'd say CPU is probably worse than last year as well, though not leaps and bounds worse.

[Deuce]

Zone play is definitely worse than last year, especially when you factor in the new passing. I'd say CPU is probably worse than last year as well, though not leaps and bounds worse.

Ugh...any word from EA on zones being a priority for the first patch?

[gschwendt]

Ugh...any word from EA on zones being a priority for the first patch?
I've not received any official word from EA regarding any patches, when they might come or what they might include.

[ryby6969]

Zone play is definitely worse than last year, especially when you factor in the new passing. I'd say CPU is probably worse than last year as well, though not leaps and bounds worse.
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.

[Kingpin32]

The zone play is a big downer. I'm still getting I'm sure, but jeeze. Hopefully they can patch it up.

[Deuce]

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!

[gschwendt]

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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM7CL7KABgk)
425 Cover 2 Sink vs Swing Pass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPplMm60mug)
Bad deep coverage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3PQp94Te88)
CPU Shotgun Speed Option (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IV5VSIH5bg)
Bad deep coverage #2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7hijXi_WHU)
Hail Mary gets behind deep coverage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ZcmrQooHY)

[JeffHCross]

Hail Mary gets behind deep coverage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ZcmrQooHY)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.

[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.

[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.

[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. (http://www.media.ncaaplaybook.com/4v2a3.mp4)

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

[xMrHitStickx904]

Welp , I'm playing man every down I see.

[Oneback]

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.

[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).

[souljahbill]

Remember when NCAA 12 came out and zone was super over-powered?

[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.

[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.

[Kingpin32]

So it seems that the new read and react is what is affecting the zones?

[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. :smh: Steelerfan going to come through for me though with some kick ass sliders that make playing the CPU fun/difficult :nod:

[SmoothPancakes]

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.

[gschwendt]

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.


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.

[SmoothPancakes]

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.

[I OU a Beatn]

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.

:fp:

[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=97Psi6f3GT0&feature=player_detailpage#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=97Psi6f3GT0&feature=player_detailpage#t=2771s

[CLW]

:fp:

Read and react (like pop warner) if its in the game.....

[CLW]

Can you "Game Changers" comment on the quality assurance process? I mean seriously the videos you are showing it should take ea 5 minutes to realize the defenders don't react appropriately.

I can only assume that this (DBs reacting to QBs instead of receivers) is what was EA's intent as football sim this year?

[ram29jackson]

heres a link to a thread started at OS about the review from TGT

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/ncaa-football/559063-ncaa-football-13-gaming-tailgate-review.html#post2043838838

[JeffHCross]

Remember when NCAA 12 came out and zone was super over-powered?No, actually. That happened? :D


Can you "Game Changers" comment on the quality assurance process? I mean seriously the videos you are showing it should take ea 5 minutes to realize the defenders don't react appropriately.G and Chris might know more than I do, which isn't much. I know, from information I learned separate from the EA events last year, that QA is mostly run out of another facility, not in-house at Tiburon. There are some QA guys in house, but not all of them. I think it's done that way to get Testers available to test more than just NCAA or Madden, but that's a guess on my part.

[gschwendt]

We don't have interaction with their QA group.

[souljahbill]

No, actually. That happened? :D
You don't remember? People were throwing picks left and right because defenders could cover ground like Willie Mays and there was no reason to ever play man with zone being overpowered.

[CLW]

We don't have interaction with their QA group.

It just seems odd that it takes "the community" a day or two tops to find all kinds of issues I would think "should" be caught by QA. Again I don't know ANYTHING about the process but it seems to me like either: (1) the process isn't up to snuff and/or (2) QA catches stuff but EA releases the game as is and assumes it is ok to just "patch it"

[souljahbill]

Are we talking about the QA house here in Baton Rouge near LSU?

[souljahbill]

It just seems odd that it takes "the community" a day or two tops to find all kinds of issues I would think "should" be caught by QA. Again I don't know ANYTHING about the process but it seems to me like either: (1) the process isn't up to snuff and/or (2) QA catches stuff but EA releases the game as is and assumes it is ok to just "patch it"

I'm sure it's option B. I can't see how they can't know the problems that are there. They probably just can't find a way to fix them in time.

[SmoothPancakes]

It just seems odd that it takes "the community" a day or two tops to find all kinds of issues I would think "should" be caught by QA. Again I don't know ANYTHING about the process but it seems to me like either: (1) the process isn't up to snuff and/or (2) QA catches stuff but EA releases the game as is and assumes it is ok to just "patch it"

Well, if it's issue one, they are more than welcome to stop by here, drop some of us a line and ask us to be QA testers for NCAA for them. Many of us will be glad to help them out. :) :D

[CLW]

Well, if it's issue one, they are more than welcome to stop by here, drop some of us a line and ask us to be QA testers for NCAA for them. Many of us will be glad to help them out. :) :D

Yeah allot of people would do it for free and abide by any NDA they want to sign.

[xMrHitStickx904]

Don't. Play. Zone. Goodness lmao. We need a patch quick.

[steelerfan]

Steelerfan going to come through for me though with some kick ass sliders that make playing the CPU fun/difficult :nod:

Sounds like I'll have my work cut out for me. :( Reading this almost made me stop my download. Sigh.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

[CLW]

How is the 4-man 3-man pass rush? If you have all day to throw this is going to make 10's wide open game play look like a nil nil soccer match.

[CLW]

Sounds like I'll have my work cut out for me. :( Reading this almost made me stop my download. Sigh.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

My guess is bump up the CPU pass D way up and up the pass rush as well.

[SmoothPancakes]

Sounds like I'll have my work cut out for me. :( Reading this almost made me stop my download. Sigh.

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Well I'm glad you didn't. I'm looking forward to and waiting for your first couple sets of sliders to come out in the future before I get my dynasty started up and running again.

[SmoothPancakes]

How is the 4-man 3-man pass rush? If you have all day to throw this is going to make 10's wide open game play look like a nil nil soccer match.

Well, it's only one play, but I just sat there for 7 seconds against a 4-man rush, none of them getting even close to me until the last second or two, when my controller started to rumble. I threw the ball then, but realistically, I probably could have continued to sit there for another 2 or 3 seconds.

[psuexv]

Anyone check out to see if the sim clock is fixed?

[CLW]

Well, it's only one play, but I just sat there for 7 seconds against a 4-man rush, none of them getting even close to me until the last second or two, when my controller started to rumble. I threw the ball then, but realistically, I probably could have continued to sit there for another 2 or 3 seconds.

Yeah it was BAD in the demo but was hoping it was just the Varsity difficulty level. Shouldn't have held my breath.

[morsdraconis]

:smh:

It's things like this that get people just absolutely RAILING on the game and it's things like this that make me glad I'm done with this series. EA, clearly, just doesn't understand football enough to be able to get a proper football game to work well enough to emulate real life. I feel sorry for the Madden folks because they are going to be sorely disappointed as well.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah it was BAD in the demo but was hoping it was just the Varsity difficulty level. Shouldn't have held my breath.

Yeah, don't hold your breath. I just labbed out 15 straight plays. Very preliminary numbers, but here's my notes:

4-man rush, one LB blitz, 5 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 3 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 6 seconds
4-man rush, safety/LB blitz, 3 seconds

3-man rush, corner/two LB blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 5 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no bliz, 6 seconds

4-man rush, no blitz, 5 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 7 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 6 seconds
4-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 3 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 11 seconds

[souljahbill]

I think they understand football just fine. It's probably just too complicated to program correctly.

[xMrHitStickx904]

man ... smh.

[Dr Death]

From what I am being told by a friend who already has the early release downloaded, this game sucks bad. My D/L is creeping along at 40%... :( But buying the season ticket saved me money, because I don't see me buying this. I just cannot fathom how EA could follow up last year's debacle w/ this. I mean... seriously???

[CLW]

Yeah, don't hold your breath. I just labbed out 15 straight plays. Very preliminary numbers, but here's my notes:

4-man rush, one LB blitz, 5 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 3 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 6 seconds
4-man rush, safety/LB blitz, 3 seconds

3-man rush, corner/two LB blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 5 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no bliz, 6 seconds

4-man rush, no blitz, 5 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 7 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 6 seconds
4-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 3 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 11 seconds

AA or Heisman? 5 second average per play so its roughly 40% too good protection IMHO so if you drop the user pass block down to like 30 see if that helps?

[SmoothPancakes]

AA or Heisman? 5 second average per play so its roughly 40% too good protection IMHO so if you drop the user pass block down to like 30 see if that helps?

This is on AA, default sliders. I'll make that drop and lab out another 15 plays. I'll post my results here shortly.

[JeffHCross]

It just seems odd that it takes "the community" a day or two tops to find all kinds of issues I would think "should" be caught by QA. Again I don't know ANYTHING about the process but it seems to me like either: (1) the process isn't up to snuff and/or (2) QA catches stuff but EA releases the game as is and assumes it is ok to just "patch it"Note that I am not talking about specific issues, but instead to broad QA ... it is not always this simple..

1)Sometimes you don't catch something merely because of circumstances (aka "luck"). There have been several bugs that I have caught in my day job that I wouldn't have seen if I didn't just happen to do one sequence of events in order. Sometimes G, myself, and others just happen to do stuff that QA hasn't.

2) They're not playing the final most of the time. I don't know how long EA takes to certify a game as "final", but I know they certify it "alpha" (feature complete) after they get through a process that, in my understanding, lasts a few days, if that long. Let's say that they have a month between final code delivery and release (I don't think they have that long). That's not much time, in comparison to other software industries. Should it be enough? Maybe. I don't know enough about their #s and timing to say for sure.

3) In theory, every test you do in April should still be good in May, unless they've changed related code. Based on things I've seen in the past few years, I'm not sure I believe that's the case for NCAA. Seems like code that should remain untouched is being mysteriously changed (or code are effecting areas that shouldn't be related).

[Roy38]

Gentlemen:

I've been critical of EA's Game Changers program in the past, but in reading G's review of NCAA '13, my perspective has changed slightly. It was a well written, concise, and critical review as I have read and I certainly applaud your honesty. Well done.

[SmoothPancakes]

AA or Heisman? 5 second average per play so its roughly 40% too good protection IMHO so if you drop the user pass block down to like 30 see if that helps?

Alright, here's my second set of numbers. Being labbed on AA, all default sliders except for User Pass Block, which was dropped to 30 as requested.

3-man rush, 1 LB/1 CB blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4, seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 3 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds

4-man rush, 1 CB blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB/1 CB blitz, 2 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB/1 CB blitz, 3 seconds
4-man rush, 1 CB blitz, 5 seconds

4-man rush, 1 CB blitz, 3 seconds
3-man rush, 1 LB/1 CB blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 8 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB/1 CB blitz, 3 seconds

Definitely got more consistency in the numbers this time. Still had an aberration in there with that 8 seconds on a 3-man rush with no blitz (similar to my 11 seconds on a 3-man rush with no blitz in my first 15 plays. But dropping down to 30 for User Pass Block definitely did make a difference and also give the numbers more consistency.


Gentlemen:

I've been critical of EA's Game Changers program in the past, but in reading G's review of NCAA '13, my perspective has changed slightly. It was a well written, concise, and critical review as I have read and I certainly applaud your honesty. Well done.

:+1: I know some "other" sites love to bash TGT as sucking up to the devs, glorifying every edition of NCAA that comes out as the best thing since sliced bread, etc, but this review was critical, deadly honest and to the point about the issues and flaws that are present in the game. Probably the best review of NCAA '13 we'll see this year from just about anywhere.

[psusnoop]

The zones are not always bad but there were two plays that were funny. Like the demo the cb was running across the field to an unknown destination while my WR was standing wide open on a deep curl. The other they just stood there and never reacted like mentioned.

I'm 1 game in.

I like that the Juke works this year a little better.
I like that your Oline gets pancakes now in games you play. Last year they were non-existent.
I like the new stat page at pauses and end of game. You can clearly see more information. That's nice as well.

They have to fix these zones and defenders re-acting. I ended up naturally calling way more man coverage after a few plays, even though it's not every time.

[VolPett]

Gentlemen:

I've been critical of EA's Game Changers program in the past, but in reading G's review of NCAA '13, my perspective has changed slightly. It was a well written, concise, and critical review as I have read and I certainly applaud your honesty. Well done.

+1

[ram29jackson]

Re: NCAA Football 13 The Gaming Tailgate Review

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by CM Hooe
This is me wondering how the guy ever expected to stop four verticals with a Cover 2 zone.


Yeah, gonna chalk that up to user error. 4 vs 2 = advantage offense.


a couple of smart ass comments from OS kids :D


but over all they liked/appreciated the review !

[CLW]

Alright, here's my second set of numbers. Being labbed on AA, all default sliders except for User Pass Block, which was dropped to 30 as requested.

3-man rush, 1 LB/1 CB blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4, seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 3 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds

4-man rush, 1 CB blitz, 4 seconds
4-man rush, no blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB/1 CB blitz, 2 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB/1 CB blitz, 3 seconds
4-man rush, 1 CB blitz, 5 seconds

4-man rush, 1 CB blitz, 3 seconds
3-man rush, 1 LB/1 CB blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB blitz, 4 seconds
3-man rush, no blitz, 8 seconds
3-man rush, 2 LB/1 CB blitz, 3 seconds

Definitely got more consistency in the numbers this time. Still had an aberration in there with that 8 seconds on a 3-man rush with no blitz (similar to my 11 seconds on a 3-man rush with no blitz in my first 15 plays. But dropping down to 30 for User Pass Block definitely did make a difference and also give the numbers more consistency.



:+1: I know some "other" sites love to bash TGT as sucking up to the devs, glorifying every edition of NCAA that comes out as the best thing since sliced bread, etc, but this review was critical, deadly honest and to the point about the issues and flaws that are present in the game. Probably the best review of NCAA '13 we'll see this year from just about anywhere.

Well the Sliders appeared to help some. From what I recall, a QB generally has between 3-4 seconds to throw the ball. Those 15 plays averaged almost exactly 4 seconds so I'd probably drop the pass block sliders down to 20-25.

[SmoothPancakes]

Well the Sliders appeared to help some. From what I recall, a QB generally has between 3-4 seconds to throw the ball. Those 15 plays averaged almost exactly 4 seconds so I'd probably drop the pass block sliders down to 20-25.

Yeah, that would probably be a good level. I would do some more testing tonight, but I have to be up at 2am for work, so I need to call it a night early tonight.

[Coachdenz]

Great write up Tommy!
Btw I've been out of the loop. In madden what is connected careers?

[JeffHCross]

In madden what is connected careers?It's their replacement for Franchise Mode. It combines Superstar (their RTG), Franchise mode and Online Franchise mode into one massive mode that allows players to connect their Career modes regardless of how they want to play the game. So one guy can play a la Superstar mode, playing with one player, and going against another player who's fully controlling the defense.

[Rudy]

Can you "Game Changers" comment on the quality assurance process? I mean seriously the videos you are showing it should take ea 5 minutes to realize the defenders don't react appropriately.

These problems have nothing to do with quality assurance though imo. These are direct gameplay issues, not bugs or obscure things. I don't think it's fair to blame QA when blatant things caught by Tommy (and probably pointed out during community day events) should also be caught and/or fixed by the developers.

The truth is I probably wouldn't recognize some of these issues, at least right away. I can be fairly clueless about broken zones and alignment issues on the 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 (defenses I rarely use) but the one thing that is easy for everyone to see is dumb cpu AI, particularly on offense. When an option team can't run the option right it is downright painful to watch. It also ruins the one big advantage NCAA has over Madden - diversity of the college game and variety of offenses. Every NFL team is a pro style scheme with some minor changes here or there. College teams have big time differences in offenses that should make the game special and fun. But when the cpu runs those special offenses like crap it's a black eye on the whole thing. When I watched that Georgia-Missouri E3 video and saw Aaron Murray running two straight options I got pissed, especially after the one pitch decision was absolutely awful.

EA just ignores offline users. All of their pre-release videos and blogs had to do with how the user could do new things on offense. Just once I'd love to see EA focus on making the cpu feel like a real opponent instead of an idiot. Using their personel correctly and effectively are a priority for next year.

[JeffHCross]

Rudy, good point. That's the other aspect of QA that I didn't mention in my post that is fundamentally important. When you have QA guys that are new to a product (not knowing the EA QA team, I can't say if this is true for them or not, again, I'm speaking generally), they might not know that something is wrong. Maybe the test they're performing goes without a hitch, except the background for the screen flashed blue when it shouldn't have. If that's not written in the test, they wouldn't know any better.

I posted this (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?425-The-Anything-Thread&p=147114&viewfull=1#post147114) to the Anything thread last week, but it's relevant to this discussion too. In that story, the subject (now a prominent creative director at a major studio) was a QA tester and believed that disappearing enemies was intentional and part of the game. It made sense in the context of the game, and his mind filled in the gaps that would explain that part of the game. He didn't know any better, so what would otherwise be a huge bug was almost passed over by QA. It sucks, but it happens.

[Big Blue]

Game Changers:

Is this game still worth buying?

[JSmith03]

I know this may sound funny, but is it safe to say the "Read and React" system is over-exaggerating (or however you wanna term it) itself? Like, possibly the defenders are literally reading where the ball is and reacting when they see it's thrown?

I don't know if it's done, but I'd ask if someone could run 4 verticals against hook zones (the yellow zones) and see what the defenders do? Particularly, how they react to WRs running right by them? Cause if they continue to backpedal then I think my theory would be correct.

[gschwendt]

Game Changers:

Is this game still worth buying?

Can you have fun with it? Sure, particularly if you're in an Online Dynasty and enjoy the recruiting aspects. But until some of these glaring issues are fixed, it will be tough to give the game a solid endorsement. I would either consider buying Season Ticket to try it t for yourself or waiting until the end of the weekend to get impressions from other users.

[xMrHitStickx904]

I'm laughing at how broken this game is on defense lmao. less than 3 hours & already I figured out how to break man defense, man switch , route pull smh. Funny thing is, the defense is better than '12 except for zones, & the fact that swatting and strafe barely work.

[JSmith03]

I'm laughing at how broken this game is on defense lmao. less than 3 hours & already I figured out how to break man defense, man switch , route pull smh. Funny thing is, the defense is better than '12 except for zones, & the fact that swatting and strafe barely work.

Bro I could tell the passing game would be easy for a lot of guys just after playing the demo. Honestly I don't know if the defense is really THAT broken. I just think they extremely overpowered the passing game. You don't even need a QB with a strong arm, all you need is elite accuracy and your good to go.

That being said, that's why I mostly focused on how to get pressure on QBs. You can't just sit back in zone and let the QB pick you apart. Rarely will I send less than 5 at the QB, and that's the minimum.

[JSmith03]

Also, I don't really like whatever it is they've done with catching/swatting. I've gotten used to it but it's still times where the receiver does nothing even though Im pressing the button.

[souljahbill]

Just played my 1st game [ECU (CPU) vs. USM (Me)] I won 45-7 on AA with default sliders. I definitely wasn't expecting that. Granted, I had 3 turnovers, one of which was a pick 6, so that inflated the score a tad. The game is easily better then 12 (like WAAAAAAY better) but after hanging around here for so long, I saw some of the bad stuff people complain about.

1) I was in zone on the line ECU score and got burned on a deep ball. WR ran past the the cb but the ss could have gotten him but he did this stop/start/change direction "thing" for no reason, giving the WR an easy score.

2) I had 8 sacks total. I didn't blitz often. Most of that was with a 4 man rush. CPU does screens better but still eats more then they should.

3) Blocking logic needs to be addressed. Mr. Pulling Guard, there's a LB 2 feet to your right. Could you please block him instead of rushing to the safety 10 yds. upfield, please? There seems to be issues with option reads too. A few times, I got smashed from the backside and the read guy was blocked. Overall, my running game was very feast or famine. Due to poor blocking, the CPU was in my backfield all night but whenever I got some decent blocking, it led to a big run, offsetting/negating all the negative carries.

4) The CPU loves it some draw plays at the ends of halves, huh?

5) My D returns a pick 6 and Brad talks about how impressed he is with my offense. Guess he's getting senile in his old age.

Those are my quick hits after 1 game. We'll see how far this rabbit hole goes.

Edit: I had 4 turnovers and 2 pick 6's.

[OSUCowboyofMD]

Cotton Bowl Stadium is still wrong.......how :fp:

[xMrHitStickx904]

Nah, I gotta game fly this game now. The defense is broken. Its not just the passing, there's routes on here that are literally UNCOVERABLE lmao. CPU automatically bumps & run, I mean it's terrible. Definitely not dropping 60 on this.

[steelerfan]

Ole Miss playbook - Shotgun Tight, HB Counter. As soon as the handoff is made, the whistle blows, the HB is ruled down (though there is no defender near him and he is upright), and a 4-yard loss is given. I ran it twice in a row and got the same result.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

[ram29jackson]

Ole Miss playbook - Shotgun Tight, HB Counter. As soon as the handoff is made, the whistle blows, the HB is ruled down (though there is no defender near him and he is upright), and a 4-yard loss is given. I ran it twice in a row and got the same result.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2



to be honest, thats the worst thing ive ever heard..thats just ugly

[JeffHCross]

Ole Miss playbook - Shotgun Tight, HB Counter. As soon as the handoff is made, the whistle blows, the HB is ruled down (though there is no defender near him and he is upright), and a 4-yard loss is given. I ran it twice in a row and got the same result.How the how?

[Body15]

I've played 8 games so far and I LOVE IT. It is WAY better than '12 without a doubt. So much smoother. Only problem I have had is when the offense fumbles it seems impossible to pick it up? My guys will scoop and miss and the offense will recover. That's the only problem I have had though.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright, so with the issues found already, I'll go ahead and be the guy to bring it up. Has anybody created a custom playbook yet and is it working fine without any issues unlike last year?

I didn't get a chance to get too deep into the game last night, between playing a dynasty game to get some personal impressions of the game and labbing pass rush numbers for a bit before calling it a night early due to getting up at 2am for work.

If anyone has taken the time away from playing to create a playbook, I'm interested in hearing if there have been any issues. After last year's problems with custom playbooks, figured it best to find out now before I start creating one later today or tomorrow.

[Cane305]

Alright, so with the issues found already, I'll go ahead and be the guy to bring it up. Has anybody created a custom playbook yet and is it working fine without any issues unlike last year?

I didn't get a chance to get too deep into the game last night, between playing a dynasty game to get some personal impressions of the game and labbing pass rush numbers for a bit before calling it a night early due to getting up at 2am for work.

If anyone has taken the time away from playing to create a playbook, I'm interested in hearing if there have been any issues. After last year's problems with custom playbooks, figured it best to find out now before I start creating one later today or tomorrow.

Yea I created one and no issues at all...used in about 3-4 games so far

[ram29jackson]

thats cool , nice to know

[Marlowe]

Has anybody created a custom playbook yet and is it working fine without any issues unlike last year?



Still having the same issue where some quick audibles aren't working.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yea I created one and no issues at all...used in about 3-4 games so far

Sounds good! That was something I just thought of after I got into work this morning, was if playbooks were full functioning this year after the debacle last year that was discovered within hours of all of us getting our hands on the game. Thankfully, with season ticket, a lot of us can find this stuff and find these issues here in the first 24 hours of season ticket, and hopefully the guys can get stuff passed along to the devs sooner for a possible fix in the second patch down the road.

[SmoothPancakes]

Still having the same issue where some quick audibles aren't working.

That (probably sadly I'm saying this) isn't too surprising, but at least, as long as the main custom playbook feature works as advertised, I can live and deal with some of the quick audibles not working. I can always find work arounds for that issue. Just as long as the custom playbooks aren't busted all to hell like they were last year.

[Dr Death]

After a very long time to download this game - now you know why I don't play on-line :D - I have created an offense and defense playbook and played 1 and a half games. Playbooks work fine. That much is nice. First game I was :North_Texas: at home against rival :Arkansas_State: and won handily, 35-10. {My apologies Gschwendt}

I played on AA w/ sliders from last year, and my QB was 50 of 56 for 409 yards, 5 TD's and 1 INT. Adjusted the sliders for the next game and I am :Colorado: playing at home against :Washington:. At half it's 14-0 :Colorado:, but the :Washington: kicker has missed 2 FG's. Despite slider adjustments, my QB is 23 of 25 for 204 yards and 2 TD's. Accuracy was at 35, now it's at 30.

The game should be 7-0. I had the ball at their 40 w/ :03 left in the half and called my final timeout. Then I threw a deep post, led the guy and it was an easy TD. This should NEVER happen at the end of a half or game.

Some things I've noticed that are very bad:

1 - Scoring drives are never right. I went on one 97 yard drive, they said it was 86 yards. This has been wrong on every single scoring drive so far, by me or the CPU.

2 - Penalties... I throw a 15 yard pass and get called for holding and it's 1st and 7 or 1st and 8... only once has it been 1st and 20. Once... it was 1st and 2. :fp: Now I get that there are times when the holding is down the field and results in a lesser penalty of yardage, but not 90% of the time like in this game.

3 - Announcing has got to be overhauled. Jesus Christ... :fp:

4 - Stupid play calling by the CPU. I know, it's been addressed already, but for the love of God man, come on! 3rd and 6 and they run a draw whilst trialing 10-28 w/ 9:57 to go in the game and the ball at my 41. Really???

5 - Is it me or does the field look really, really dark in night games???

6 - :Colorado: has three colors - Black - Gold - White. Yet in the game they have black as the team color. No gold! This has been this way for as long as I can remember. But :Idaho: has the same exact color scheme yet they get gold as team color. Why???

There are more that I can't think of right now. It's 6:32 in the AM and I am sleepy and still need to finish this game. Would really love to hear from any and everyone working on great sliders. I'm tinkering w/ them, and this current game - :Washington: @ :Colorado: is pretty good. But I feel that w/ great sliders this game might actually be playable.

Steelerfan, don't you work on sliders? If so, please post here and share w/ us. I believe you had some good AA sliders last year. I'll keep you guys posted on mine. But I know mine need work.

[Rudy]

Ole Miss playbook - Shotgun Tight, HB Counter. As soon as the handoff is made, the whistle blows, the HB is ruled down (though there is no defender near him and he is upright), and a 4-yard loss is given. I ran it twice in a row and got the same result.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

Now that's a bug for QA! Also I've read tweets that Denard still can't have dreads unless you change his height and skin colour. Apparently that was an issue last year. Why can't anyone have dreads when you edit?

[souljahbill]

Alright, so with the issues found already, I'll go ahead and be the guy to bring it up. Has anybody created a custom playbook yet and is it working fine without any issues unlike last year?

I didn't get a chance to get too deep into the game last night, between playing a dynasty game to get some personal impressions of the game and labbing pass rush numbers for a bit before calling it a night early due to getting up at 2am for work.

If anyone has taken the time away from playing to create a playbook, I'm interested in hearing if there have been any issues. After last year's problems with custom playbooks, figured it best to find out now before I start creating one later today or tomorrow.

The first thing I did was create a playbook and it works like a charm now. It's beautiful.

[SmoothPancakes]

The first thing I did was create a playbook and it works like a charm now. It's beautiful.

You're the second person to give me a confirmation/assurance that custom playbooks (for the most part at least if you count quick audibles as a problem) are fixed and working correctly this year. Sounds great! :up:

[souljahbill]

You're the second person to give me a confirmation/assurance that custom playbooks (for the most part at least if you count quick audibles as a problem) are fixed and working correctly this year. Sounds great! :up:

I played more practice mode last night then actual games just testing my playbook out. I was undecided on if I wanted Wildcat Spread Flex(I think that's what it was, it has the QB playing QB and not the HB), Wishbone Tight, or Maryland I Tight as my de facto goalline package. I couldn't figure out if there were reads with the Wishbone option plays or if I just make a decision pre-play whether to give to the FB or have the QB keep. The Wildcat formation was pretty good. I had some success with it in goalline situations but I eventually settled on the Maryland I Tight with all it's delicious lead blocking.

[Dr Death]

Now that's a bug for QA! Also I've read tweets that Denard still can't have dreads unless you change his height and skin colour. Apparently that was an issue last year. Why can't anyone have dreads when you edit?

That's another "bug" I found. When editing, the "dark" player w/ dreads was the 6th guy... then the next time... he wasn't. It seems to randomly change. The "light" guy... # 33 had long hair... the next time it was # 1. It just seems totally random and fortunately for me, I'm not a "Dreads Fanatic" but I can see how this is going to piss a lot of people off.

[Deuce]

Finally played my first game. Beat Marshall 21-0 with my cupcake TB team. I had fun for the most part. The CPU ran way too many screens and most ended in sacks.

Also, TB teams are showing up in the ticker and I got a studio update and one of my TB teams was part of it.

[Big Blue]

Can you have fun with it? Sure, particularly if you're in an Online Dynasty and enjoy the recruiting aspects. But until some of these glaring issues are fixed, it will be tough to give the game a solid endorsement. I would either consider buying Season Ticket to try it t for yourself or waiting until the end of the weekend to get impressions from other users.

Okay, thanks a lot.

[Big Blue]

By reading these comments it just seems like this game is still in beta or something... I feel like one good patch should fix it right up, or at least i hope.

[Deuce]

By reading these comments it just seems like this game is still in beta or something... I feel like one good patch should fix it right up, or at least i hope.

I hope so...and it needs to come quick. I think we all had reasonable expectations based on last year's game. All we really wanted for 13 was the bugs from 12 corrected and some gameplay updates. Somehow EA took a pretty big step backwards.

[xMrHitStickx904]

I'll put it this way. Once they patch the defense, this game will be VERY fun. I like the changes they made, it's just that defense is horribly broken. People said I was crazy when I said that NCAA 08 is the best next Gen version. After playing '13, NCAA 08 IMO is still the best because it's the only balanced version that we've had to this day that wasn't broken out of the box.

[souljahbill]

Finally played my first game. Beat Marshall 21-0 with my cupcake TB team. I had fun for the most part. The CPU ran way too many screens and most ended in sacks.

Also, TB teams are showing up in the ticker and I got a studio update and one of my TB teams was part of it.

WHAT?!??

[Deuce]

WHAT?!??

Yep...right after the first play got a studio update showing the final score between Iowa and Douglass (TB team). Then those same two teams showed up in the ticker.

[JSmith03]

CPU Shotgun Speed Option (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IV5VSIH5bg)


I know for sure the CPU runs the options the same way in the demo. Something even weirder that would happen - the QB would cut up and the RB would sometimes stop and run the opposite way, THEN the QB pitches it almost directly behind himself to the RB. Ends up in like a huge loss. It almost looks something like a reverse or trick play lol. :fp:

[gschwendt]

I know for sure the CPU runs the options the same way in the demo. Something even weirder that would happen - the QB would cut up and the RB would sometimes stop and run the opposite way, THEN the QB pitches it almost directly behind himself to the RB. Ends up in like a huge loss. It almost looks something like a reverse or trick play lol. :fp:Yep... saw that same exact scenario several times this past week as well.

[JSmith03]

So I'll ask, is this game worth $45?

[gschwendt]

So I'll ask, is this game worth $45?
Maybe the potential is worth $45 but as it stands today, my personal opinion is no. I think a really good patch could make this an awesome game but we'll have to wait and see on that.

[souljahbill]

I'm playing RTG now as an option QB. My RB got tackled on the 1-yd line. The next play call, FROM THE 1-YD LINE, was 4 Verts. WHAT?!?! LMAO!

[souljahbill]

In RTG, the CPU called Curl Flats for me 8 consecutive times.

[xMrHitStickx904]

Speaking of curls, curl man defense is broken too. On a curl route, when the receiver breaks down, the defender runs past him for a good 3 yards trying to break on the ball. Just sit there, wait for him to fly past, easy 15 yards. Also, I found a PB bug again. Sometimes, the screen locks up, & when it unlocks, you can't pick a formation or any plays at all. You're stuck. Btw, somebody please let EA know that whatever they did to strafe & swat , undo it. ASAP.

[gschwendt]

Also, I found a PB bug again. Sometimes, the screen locks up, & when it unlocks, you can't pick a formation or any plays at all. You're stuck.
To be clear, that's not a custom playbook bug... that happens with generics as well. The handful of times I've run into that, if you go back to choose by the various styles (Coach, Formation, Type), then go back into the formation, generally it will work. You might have to do that a couple of times before it will.

[oweb26]

To be clear, that's not a custom playbook bug... that happens with generics as well. The handful of times I've run into that, if you go back to choose by the various styles (Coach, Formation, Type), then go back into the formation, generally it will work. You might have to do that a couple of times before it will.

That has worked for me every time I have run into the problem.

[jaymo76]

I only played one game last night on AA. I played as ASU at home to Michigan St. and I lost 17-7. Overall, the game was a lot of fun. Yes, there were some poor cpu playcall issues and some defensive screw-ups. However, I don't find the issues to be a deal breaker. Next gen NCAA is based on "what you see is what you get" the game has played very similar the past 5 years. I liked some of the new commentary and the new cut scenes added to the broadcast feel. My biggest concern right now... interceptions. 7 were thrown in the first game. Huge slider tweaks will be needed.

[oweb26]

I'm laughing at how broken this game is on defense lmao. less than 3 hours & already I figured out how to break man defense, man switch , route pull smh. Funny thing is, the defense is better than '12 except for zones, & the fact that swatting and strafe barely work.

I think that is what adds to the problems when you can manually strafe or swat worth a damn it makes the bad angles and blown coverage even worse. I personally don't think its broken, as with all new EA implementations when they make one side of the ball more effective it makes the other sides glaring issues even more glaring. Honestly the defense plays exactly like it did last year just now it easier to bitch the shit out of it and also the "read and react" isn't helping with the fact that the "psychic" db is less (notice I didn't say not) psychic.

I played a few online games and I have noticed the best way is to honestly play man over ( or any play that your safities are over top) which helps a ton and you manually control the middle. Now with that you can get exposed to other issue but as with most people online that isn't really a problem.
If they are running 4 verts all game you will be in some trouble because its not covered worth a damn. I just want to see how all this changes with some sliders and better talent all over the field which is what I have on my OD and my single player dynasty.

[Big Blue]

I hope so...and it needs to come quick. I think we all had reasonable expectations based on last year's game. All we really wanted for 13 was the bugs from 12 corrected and some gameplay updates. Somehow EA took a pretty big step backwards.

Yea, looking at these comments and reviews has been extremely disappointing. Although I'm sure I will still have a ton of fun with this game through sliders and hopefully after the patch. AND it's still college football so you can never really go wrong anyway. Haha

[Big Blue]

I've been watching A LOT of gameplay on YouTube and the game looks absolutely amazing. It looks extremely polished and very smooth. The night atmosphere also seems to be much improved. I'm very hot and cold right now because of what people are saying and what I'm actually seeing on YouTube. And yes, I know, watching gameplay and actually playing are VERY different. I've actually became somewhat excited to get this game again.

[souljahbill]

In RTG, my #1 and #2 HBs are black dudes names Ngyuen. Also, my LG (who is always holding) is named Rohan Gandhi.

[CLW]

Maybe the potential is worth $45 but as it stands today, my personal opinion is no. I think a really good patch could make this an awesome game but we'll have to wait and see on that.

Yeah I'm honestly having 2nd thoughts as well as to whether this game is worth the price of me giving up Amazon credit. Getting the game for free but having to give up $45 in Amazon credit and I'm having second thoughts. :smh:

This is NCAA 12 but instead of being .5 they subtracted .5 with the read and react dbs which means they only watch the qb and allow all the receivers to just run past them. Defenders either stopping OR in at least one case literally ran AWAY from me while I ran the option.

Right now this game is just TRASH.

[ram29jackson]

In RTG, my #1 and #2 HBs are black dudes names Ngyuen. Also, my LG (who is always holding) is named Rohan Gandhi.

:D :D

also, when that nadasfan was playing a head to head game for 8 hours ( or was it player vs computer?) inbetween plays they keep showing the mascot outside stadium too many times.

[SmoothPancakes]

So has there been any words on a day one patch yet, and if there is one, what's going to be in it?

[psusnoop]

So has there been any words on a day one patch yet, and if there is one, what's going to be in it?

Last I heard from Tommy was they haven't heard anything yet.

[Dr Death]

I've been watching A LOT of gameplay on YouTube and the game looks absolutely amazing. It looks extremely polished and very smooth. The night atmosphere also seems to be much improved. I'm very hot and cold right now because of what people are saying and what I'm actually seeing on YouTube. And yes, I know, watching gameplay and actually playing are VERY different. I've actually became somewhat excited to get this game again.

I was told - while my early version was downloading - that the game was crap. Then I was told w/ good sliders it's not so bad. I've played 4 Play Now games and one in dynasty, all 10 minute quarters. Trying various sliders out and playing in AA mode... And my worst game passing the ball so far has been a 31 of 37 for 318 yards and 4 TD passes. My dynasty game I was 48 of 52... Now I'll be the first to tell you that I know the passing game and can read defenses... but come on man... these haven't even been a challenge yet. The highest I've had my QB Accuracy at was 35. And every game I've dropped it down 5 points.

So I don't know... recruiting is fun, the game could be really fun, but in typical EA fashion, they know no middle ground. It's either Super Man LBers and Psychic DB's { NCAA '12} or guys who just do nothing {NCAA '13}. It's going to be a process finding good sliders... I have the CPU ramped up pretty damn high on D and O and I still move the ball pretty much at will and while I give up some yards, in the red zone I shut them down.

Scores of 35-10, 28-7, 28-10, 35-7 and 28-0... I know SOMEONE will find some great sliders. And some of the other problems that I just can't fathom... like when you drive 85 yards for a TD, and they say you drove 44 yards??? Or 67 yards???

And another thing... I thought that dynasties were supposed to be random... well BearTide told me in his dynasty that :Arkansas_State: beat # 4 ranked :Oregon: at :Oregon: and damned if they didn't do it mine as well!!! WTF is up w/ that??? No offense Gschwendt... but :Oregon: on the road??? In TWO totally separate dynasties???

[jaymo76]

I wonder how many issues can be fixed with tuning updates rather than a full patch???

[skipwondah33]

Can you have fun with it? Sure, particularly if you're in an Online Dynasty and enjoy the recruiting aspects. But until some of these glaring issues are fixed, it will be tough to give the game a solid endorsement. I would either consider buying Season Ticket to try it t for yourself or waiting until the end of the weekend to get impressions from other users.

Great advice G and very solid, honest write up.

I'm enjoying it in certain aspects like the catch animations and trajectories. But the others are crushing to be honest and I have doubts about ordering it now.

Plus part of my excitement was because I've been playing Madden ad seeing those types of improvements has me excited about it.

Oh and in this case Season Ticket will have paid for itself if I don't indeed buy

[xMrHitStickx904]

Nope, I can't play this right now. Defense doesn't react to anything, zones are horrible, you can BREAK man defense, can't swat or strafe, dudes making 1-handed catches between 3 people & scoring. Only thing that's good is the actual game play, its smooth, there's run defense & the spread option is great. Besides that, this game is horrible. Everybody wanted a better passing game & making easier for sim guys to play. Well you got it; a game where anyone can win regardless of skill level & defense that's worse than PS2 04, 08 & next Gen 09 , 10 & 1#. Game fly it fellas.

[CLW]

Nope, I can't play this right now. Defense doesn't react to anything, zones are horrible, you can BREAK man defense, can't swat or strafe, dudes making 1-handed catches between 3 people & scoring. Only thing that's good is the actual game play, its smooth, there's run defense & the spread option is great. Besides that, this game is horrible. Everybody wanted a better passing game & making easier for sim guys to play. Well you got it; a game where anyone can win regardless of skill level & defense that's worse than PS2 04, 08 & next Gen 09 , 10 & 1#. Game fly it fellas.

Yeah: Ins; Outs; Hooks; Slants; Drags; Streaks; Posts; Flags are all WIDE OPEN ALL OF THE TIME

[ram29jackson]

Nope, I can't play this right now. Defense doesn't react to anything, zones are horrible, you can BREAK man defense, can't swat or strafe, dudes making 1-handed catches between 3 people & scoring. Only thing that's good is the actual game play, its smooth, there's run defense & the spread option is great. Besides that, this game is horrible. Everybody wanted a better passing game & making easier for sim guys to play. Well you got it; a game where anyone can win regardless of skill level & defense that's worse than PS2 04, 08 & next Gen 09 , 10 & 1#. Game fly it fellas.

its suppose to be that, thats why its sold for money to many people.

that said..as every year goes,these are initial impressions and while the game wont improve as you play it more...after 10 -20 games you start to be able to adjust to what it does and doesnt do and why and work around it and as long as you are playing other sim players,the experience isnt that bad.

...I still dont get any "hands on" till Tuesday though anyway :(

[I OU a Beatn]

No, it's not supposed to be that way. I shouldn't have to worry about potentially losing because my safety inexplicably decides he's just going to let the receiver run right by him.

[ram29jackson]

No, it's not supposed to be that way. I shouldn't have to worry about potentially losing because my safety inexplicably decides he's just going to let the receiver run right by him.

LOL you're not suppose to worry about losing in the first place. Its a game.

I of course get what you mean and dont disagree but you are suppose to be old enough to finally get that it will always be that way.

The deep ball will always be available more often then not in a "football video game"

Get use to it

[xMrHitStickx904]

its suppose to be that, thats why its sold for money to many people.

that said..as every year goes,these are initial impressions and while the game wont improve as you play it more...after 10 -20 games you start to be able to adjust to what it does and doesnt do and why and work around it and as long as you are playing other sim players,the experience isnt that bad.

...I still dont get any "hands on" till Tuesday though anyway :(

Nah, it shouldn't be. If I'm better than you, & I know it, I should blow you out every time. This game allows it to where that the flukiest of things can happen & you could win. Not because you're better, but because this game has so many handicaps. It's ridiculous that I can throw at your defenders & STILL complete it with the right animation. What's worse; I'm comfortable with doing it. Makes zero sense.

[ram29jackson]

Nah, it shouldn't be. If I'm better than you, & I know it, I should blow you out every time. This game allows it to where that the flukiest of things can happen & you could win. Not because you're better, but because this game has so many handicaps. It's ridiculous that I can throw at your defenders & STILL complete it with the right animation. What's worse; I'm comfortable with doing it. Makes zero sense.


I agree with you but
its been that way for years of course.

[I OU a Beatn]

LOL you're not suppose to worry about losing in the first place. Its a game.

I of course get what you mean and dont disagree but you are suppose to be old enough to finally get that it will always be that way.

The deep ball will always be available more often then not in a "football video game"

Get use to it

I think you're missing the entire point. Obviously worrying about a video game and something more substantial are two completely different things, but I think you know what I mean. Whether it's a game or a house or a car, a completely fucked up product is a fucked up product.


You originally said "it's supposed to be that way," which is just ridiculous. It's not meant to be so broken that it can't even be played, I can assure you of that.

[psusnoop]

Nah, it shouldn't be. If I'm better than you, & I know it, I should blow you out every time. .


I know you didn't mean this the way I'm reading it I hope, because of you are you need to watch more football on Saturday's because it happens often.

[I OU a Beatn]

I know you didn't mean this the way I'm reading it I hope, because of you are you need to watch more football on Saturday's because it happens often.

It's not because the safety inexplicably decides he's not going to drop and/or because a QB is able to throw it literally through a defender's head and into his receiver's arms. It's because of good play calling, execution, and winning the turnover battle. It happens on the game from pure bullshit...that's the problem.

[gschwendt]

Kwizzy & I just played a Heisman game online... there were still some boneheaded things happen but overall it seemed better than AA. I haven't gone back to watch the game tape to see if there are any examples of awful zones but overall it felt somewhat better.

[ram29jackson]

never ever base/compare a video game to real life in any way.

things happen in life based on logical and illogical decisions
Things happen in NCAA 13 based on a number missing or being in the wrong place in a code or being put there purposely whether you like it or not.

:) and I just sneaked a peak at psusnoop's google page

[ram29jackson]

Kwizzy & I just played a Heisman game online... there were still some boneheaded things happen but overall it seemed better than AA. I haven't gone back to watch the game tape to see if there are any examples of awful zones but overall it felt somewhat better.

if you want, can you play ranked play now-online games on Heisman ?

[psusnoop]

never ever base/compare a video game to real life in any way.

things happen in life based on logical and illogical decisions
Things happen in NCAA 13 based on a number missing or being in the wrong place in a code or being put there purposely whether you like it or not.

:) and I just sneaked a peak at psusnoop's google page

Lol that's funny.

No I know IOU just the way stick said it like I said it sounded so wrong :D

[I OU a Beatn]

never ever base/compare a video game to real life in any way.

things happen in life based on logical and illogical decisions
Things happen in NCAA 13 based on a number missing or being in the wrong place in a code or being put there purposely whether you like it or not.

:) and I just sneaked a peak at psusnoop's google page

I truly have no idea what your argument is. Are you trying to say that because people sometimes blow coverages in real life that you want the safeties on the game to blatantly mess up and give up long touchdowns? I surely hope not.

[souljahbill]

What is Importance?http://img.tapatalk.com/63bcbdb3-aede-724a.jpg

[ram29jackson]

I truly have no idea what your argument is. Are you trying to say that because people sometimes blow coverages in real life that you want the safeties on the game to blatantly mess up and give up long touchdowns? I surely hope not.

A. I was referring to what snoop said

B. its not an argument. Its a statement... " dont compare a video game to real life".. it means what it says

C. how do you know the safeties are messing up ? Its possible that's the extent of the logic they intend to put in there and thats all you are going to get.

[I OU a Beatn]

They intended for the safeties to sit there in the middle of the field doing nothing? :D

I don't think.

[ram29jackson]

They intended for the safeties to sit there in the middle of the field doing nothing? :D

I don't think.


sure,why not ? where is your indication otherwise ?

You complain about the same stuff every year,.. it never changes. It just alters in one direction or another with the same results = dont make it to hard for the mass audience.

look at your statement .. They intended for the safeties to sit there in the middle of the field doing nothing? ..

you are using football terms and logic. You are assuming they are basing it on your understanding of the game ?

No, their job is to try to represent football the best they can without it being too hard. They may well be accomplishing that while you mistake it for screwing up.

[psusnoop]

They intended for the safeties to sit there in the middle of the field doing nothing? :D

I don't think.

Really if they just react faster to the offensive player in their area it will be better IMO. I don't see that part being a huge issue to fix.

[psusnoop]

The zones are going to take some work and then you have the defenders running across the field going to someone they shouldn't leaving someone wide open. Those two are going to take some leg work to work out IMO.

[xMrHitStickx904]

I know you didn't mean this the way I'm reading it I hope, because of you are you need to watch more football on Saturday's because it happens often.

No, I totally get it in that respect. Football on the field is different from the virtual gridiron, which I'm sure you know. I was just saying that in the sense of this game, there's too many handicaps that keeps less skilled players in the game, when I should win easily. NCAA 08 & PS2 10 were great at limiting fluke things. More than often, the better skilled players won. Not saying there shouldn't be upsets, but I shouldn't lose off fluke things either. Example. I won on a hail mary yesterday, & threw at
hree defenders, caught with one hand & scored. Wasn't even happy.

[Rudy]

never ever base/compare a video game to real life in any way.



I don't understand this comment at all. Every sports game should try and emulate real life. What else should they be doing?

[Deuce]

Man, I gotta admit I'm really having a good time with the game so far. My opinion started out negative but after 6 games my opinion has changed. Playing with a really bad team (C- on offense and D+ on Defense) against good teams has been fun. I seem to be getting good games. Right now I'm 2-4 which makes me very happy. I haven't felt cheated and I haven't been able to take advantage of any CPU issues b/c my players are so bad. :D. I should also say that I don't call 4 verticals. That play is just not allowed.

[SmoothPancakes]

Jesus Christ ram. :fp:

[jaymo76]

Man, I gotta admit I'm really having a good time with the game so far. My opinion started out negative but after 6 games my opinion has changed. Playing with a really bad team (C- on offense and D+ on Defense) against good teams has been fun. I seem to be getting good games. Right now I'm 2-4 which makes me very happy. I haven't felt cheated and I haven't been able to take advantage of any CPU issues b/c my players are so bad. :D. I should also say that I don't call 4 verticals. That play is just not allowed.

Yeah I must admit I feel the same way. As of today I am really enjoying this game. I am looking past a few issues but honestly, with zero slider tweaks thus far, I aM having some awesome games. I find this game is the most fun when you play with weak/avg teams. Dropped passes, blown coverages, fumbles, etc. Honestly, I'm am no EA apologist but I think people are being a littlle to harsh to the Tiburon team. NCAA 12.5 is more fun than NCAA 12.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah I must admit I feel the same way. As of today I am really enjoying this game. I am looking past a few issues but honestly, with zero slider tweaks thus far, I aM having some awesome games. I find this game is the most fun when you play with weak/avg teams. Dropped passes, blown coverages, fumbles, etc. Honestly, I'm am no EA apologist but I think people are being a littlle to harsh to the Tiburon team. NCAA 12.5 is more fun than NCAA 12.

I agree, it's a fun game. Besides the atrocious zones and almost no pass rush whatsoever on default sliders, I was still having a fun time last night playing as Colorado State against Colorado in my lone game I got to play. Ultimately, it really does play somewhat well straight out of the box, just gonna need to get sliders to give the pass rush a steroid injection and get realistic stats, and hopefully EA can fix the fucked up zones by way of patch, but otherwise, I'll still manage to have 12 months of fun out of this game. There's gonna be some frustrations with the zone issues in games, but I can manage, I've overlooked and fought through worse in the 12 years I've been playing NCAA Football.

I will also say, EA needed a home run here. While we knew it wasn't going to be great as far as features since the only major feature work went into the Heisman stuff and RTG and recruiting/scouting, they still needed to knock it the fuck out of the park with gameplay, and failed to do so. Ultimately, I agree completely with the NCAA 12.5 moniker, it overall really is more than anything a polished version of NCAA 12, and if they can fix the zones, it will be what NCAA 12 should have been all along.

[Deuce]

I find this game is the most fun when you play with weak/avg teams.

Yep, totally agree. I think it goes along with what G mentioned in an earlier post. He and Kwizzy got a better game using Heisman...I think slider tweaks and a patch fixing the zones and we'll have a great game. :up:

[Big Blue]

How are the zones affected if you turn the pass coverage slider to 100 for both human and cpu? Just wondering if someone has already done it.

[ram29jackson]

I don't understand this comment at all. Every sports game should try and emulate real life. What else should they be doing?

it already does emulate it. But only as far as a number code can take it. You want it to emulate variables,adversity and fortitude and human football logic but it never will.

what else should they be doing? They must be doing exactly what they think they need to, because theyve been doing it for years now.


I want a decent "football" game too. But it will never go as far as you might think its supposed to.
If it does, I'll be happy being wrong though. :)

[Deuce]

Update...I am for sure seeing TB teams in the ticker every week but I have only seen one studio update. The studio update was when the only game that had been played involved a TB team.

[Rudy]

it already does emulate it. But only as far as a number code can take it. You want it to emulate variables,adversity and fortitude and human football logic but it never will.)

The goal is to get the cpu logic to be as good as human logic. No sports game is perfect but how do you determine what a game does well and what it does not? By comparing the game to real life. Any time you make a suggestion on how to improve something in a sports video game it's most likely based on comparing what the game does compared to real life. So telling people to never compare a sports video game to reality makes no sense imo. Most criticism of the game is based on comparisons.

[ram29jackson]

The goal is to get the cpu logic to be as good as human logic. No sports game is perfect but how do you determine what a game does well and what it does not? By comparing the game to real life. Any time you make a suggestion on how to improve something in a sports video game it's most likely based on comparing what the game does compared to real life. So telling people to never compare a sports video game to reality makes no sense imo. Most criticism of the game is based on comparisons.

who said it was ?
where did EA claim this was the ultimate goal? Dude, I want what you want to a degree, I'm not trolling/arguing.
Just asking a logical question. You assume alot in what you expect from who is making the game and why and how they are making it.

I already understand that a sports game is self explanitory at its base as to what is wanted from it. It already does most of all of it..penalty yards,first downs etc.
as far as how zone logic is executed by a number coded animation...dont expect alot from how that works any time soon at all.


the ultimate goal is to emulate football well enough so that people somewhat knowledgeable and others not too knowledgeable about football can both enjoy the game.
They already do that.

[steelerfan]

Something is borked with the punt sliders. I have power at 45 and accuracy at 30, just like I did on 12, and I have averaged 16.3 yards on 3 punts.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

[ram29jackson]

Something is borked with the punt sliders. I have power at 45 and accuracy at 30, just like I did on 12, and I have averaged 16.3 yards on 3 punts.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

what happens when you move it up 5 or 10 more?

[steelerfan]

Something is borked with the punt sliders. I have power at 45 and accuracy at 30, just like I did on 12, and I have averaged 16.3 yards on 3 punts.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

It's the accuracy slider. I moved it back to 50, and my 4th punt was 42 yards (power was still at 45).

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

[I OU a Beatn]

who said it was ?
where did EA claim this was the ultimate goal? Dude, I want what you want to a degree, I'm not trolling/arguing.
Just asking a logical question. You assume alot in what you expect from who is making the game and why and how they are making it.

I already understand that a sports game is self explanitory at its base as to what is wanted from it. It already does most of all of it..penalty yards,first downs etc.
as far as how zone logic is executed by a number coded animation...dont expect alot from how that works any time soon at all.


the ultimate goal is to emulate football well enough so that people somewhat knowledgeable and others not too knowledgeable about football can both enjoy the game.
They already do that.

You seriously need to lay off the crack or whatever it is that you're on.

[morsdraconis]

You seriously need to lay off the crack or whatever it is that you're on.

He just likes to argue for argument's sake.

I gotta say though, I semi-agree with him. EA is constantly trying to make the game more open to people that aren't the hardcore players. What's the easiest way to do that? Make the passing game simple by having poor zone coverage (allows for big plays).

The people that just do what the "Ask the coach" selection tells them to do aren't going to notice that 4 Verts breaks the game or anything like that.

[I OU a Beatn]

I'm not saying he's wrong. What he's arguing makes absolutely no sense. I can assure you the thing with the safeties is not an intentional thing, so it makes zero sense to say EA did it on purpose to attract people who suck at that game. That's what the lower difficulty is for. That's what sliders are for.

I just don't think EA is that stupid. People who buy NCAA are usually in the hardcore group. Who's going to buy a college football game when they can just get Madden? More people associate with the NFL and the same goes for the game. The issue with the safeties letting receivers behind them is a definite glitch, which makes it all that more appalling that it somehow made it into the final version of the game. A blind man could have found that glitch.

[ram29jackson]

I'm not saying he's wrong. What he's arguing makes absolutely no sense. I can assure you the thing with the safeties is not an intentional thing, so it makes zero sense to say EA did it on purpose to attract people who suck at that game. That's what the lower difficulty is for. That's what sliders are for.

I just don't think EA is that stupid. People who buy NCAA are usually in the hardcore group. Who's going to buy a college football game when they can just get Madden? More people associate with the NFL and the same goes for the game. The issue with the safeties letting receivers behind them is a definite glitch, which makes it all that more appalling that it somehow made it into the final version of the game. A blind man could have found that glitch.

I never said the safety thing was an on purpose event. I'm saying its not something that wasnt seriously considered as needed to look into. If i'm wrong, thats great !

LOL no Mors, I do mean what I say. I'm not arguing for the hell of it ,i'm not arguing at all. If the safety thing is a actual mistake they look into,that's fine, thats great ! Do it !

I disagree that NCAA is any kind of hardcore group of fans?
if its so hardcore why did they use 2 machinima guys who acted like complete doofasses with the controllers/game?..and played on varsity :sick:
who appeared to have way less knowledge of anyone here about the game? it was just a thrown together online promo.....I really dont know what it was ? The chick in the pink wig after in the Elsword stream after that was kinda' cute though :D

why did that Nadasfan guy who did 24 straight hours with the game get 6,000 views up to this point in less then a day since he finished. All he does is PLAY the game. Not analyze it, not break it down, not talk hardcore football schemes. He just hunky doraly as you please,plays the game. And is happy with that. Just like the majority who watch his stuff and play the game.

ultimately, no worries...theyve advanced the game enough that a person with decent football knowledge will more often then not beat the guy who doesnt have any.

It sometimes just takes forever because the cheeser passes every down so the game takes too long to finish :D

Ok Mors, I'm done... :D whether you hate the game or not Mors, i'm still getting the game on Tuesday....No midnight releases around here that i know of ?

If you get the Game IOU, I'll play you some game changer games in a couple days :up:

[xMrHitStickx904]

To me, they have the wrong people beta testing this game. They need players to look for things like this. It's astounding how many glitches this game has.

[I OU a Beatn]

Shake Blitz is still in. There's numerous motion glitches. There's numerous man switch glitches. There's a video on YT already showing how to block field goals. Both disconnection glitches that were there last year are still there. Sigh. I really wish I could get some enjoyment out of playing against the CPU because it's blatantly clear EA has no intention of focusing even an ounce of their energy on their broken online play.

[I OU a Beatn]

Anyone else occasionally not able to pick a play? Twice I've tried to select a play and it wouldn't let me and the clock winded up running out. I wonder if it has something to do with custom playbooks - it hasn't happened yet with regular playbooks, of course, it's only happened twice out of the entire time I've played. Still, it's annoying to have to burn a timeout.

[steelerfan]

Anyone else occasionally not able to pick a play? Twice I've tried to select a play and it wouldn't let me and the clock winded up running out. I wonder if it has something to do with custom playbooks - it hasn't happened yet with regular playbooks, of course, it's only happened twice out of the entire time I've played. Still, it's annoying to have to burn a timeout.

Try pausing. I think I heard that works too. I think it happens when you enter a formation then back out.

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[gschwendt]

Shake Blitz is still in. There's numerous motion glitches. There's numerous man switch glitches. There's a video on YT already showing how to block field goals. Both disconnection glitches that were there last year are still there. Sigh. I really wish I could get some enjoyment out of playing against the CPU because it's blatantly clear EA has no intention of focusing even an ounce of their energy on their broken online play.I know you've sent us stuff in the past but if you don't mind, send any details you have on those issues. Really want to make sure there is a full court press on any major and legacy issues.

[gschwendt]

Anyone else occasionally not able to pick a play? Twice I've tried to select a play and it wouldn't let me and the clock winded up running out. I wonder if it has something to do with custom playbooks - it hasn't happened yet with regular playbooks, of course, it's only happened twice out of the entire time I've played. Still, it's annoying to have to burn a timeout.

It happens with regular and custom. I can sometimes intentionally trigger but has to do with going into a formation and then backing out too fast or something. You can work around it by going to the styles selection screen (coach, formation, type) and then coming back into formation.

[ram29jackson]

could it be that some those things occur in the download but not on the disc itself ?

[I OU a Beatn]

I know you've sent us stuff in the past but if you don't mind, send any details you have on those issues. Really want to make sure there is a full court press on any major and legacy issues.

Shake blitz is the one that I would like to see fixed the most. It's as simple as getting in a formation with 3 or 4 LBs, blitzing at least 2 of them, and then spreading them out and back in repeatedly until the ball is snapped. It essentially gives the defenders a full speed start when the ball is snapped and it really messes with the blocking AI. It usually results in pretty instant pressure. I would send this in a PM, but it's widely known by now. I've seen it twice already in 5 games. There's variations to it I'm sure, but they're probably on YT.


It happens with regular and custom. I can sometimes intentionally trigger but has to do with going into a formation and then backing out too fast or something. You can work around it by going to the styles selection screen (coach, formation, type) and then coming back into formation.

Good to know. Much better than having to take a TO.

[steelerfan]

Ole Miss playbook - Shotgun Tight, HB Counter. As soon as the handoff is made, the whistle blows, the HB is ruled down (though there is no defender near him and he is upright), and a 4-yard loss is given. I ran it twice in a row and got the same result.

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Ok. Snoop ran this play about 20 times without a problem. I've run it about 15 and I've always had it blown dead. Even in practice. How the hell could it work for one user and not another? Sigh.

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[I OU a Beatn]

Video I made of something I've seen numerous times that never fails to piss me off:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XDlGlMsMAY

Video of the "goon kick" still working again this year and just as effectively(this will ruin online play):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPpZSfP7hI

G, I sent you instructions on how to do this last year, I believe, and it's the same thing for this year. If you need them again, just let me know.

[ram29jackson]

your top video says private ?

[I OU a Beatn]

How about now?

[ram29jackson]

the top one is comparable to when I said in the demo a player dived forward to intercept a pass and instead of falling,magically uprighted like in your top vid and started running.

[jaymo76]

Ok. Snoop ran this play about 20 times without a problem. I've run it about 15 and I've always had it blown dead. Even in practice. How the hell could it work for one user and not another? Sigh.

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I have seen this from the cpu as well. The first time, no big deal but four times in one game is ridiculous. (vs WSU)

[ram29jackson]

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. (http://www.media.ncaaplaybook.com/4v2a3.mp4)

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


To put those videos in context:


that wasnt pretty

[CLW]

LMAO I was just playing as Desmond Howard in Heisman Challenge and running a deep route the defender was trailing me the QB threw the ball to me and at the last second the defender apparently need to take a crap so he just literally squatted and allowed me to jump and catch the ball for a TD? Defenders taking Poops out on the field. IF IT'S IN THE GAME....

LMAO maybe that was The Rock or just some dude with an INSANE "motor" being able to get up that fast. That's a guy I want on my defense!

[souljahbill]

Will an official bugs/glitches thread open soon?

[Oneback]

Another thing I've found - MOF safeties are able to get beat deep down the middle because they aren't staying deeper than the deepest. In man coverage, the coverage defenders are horrible at covering crossing routes unless you pass commit, then they are on their assignment like white on rice. Other than the passing game in general (overpowered), the zone option game (defensive problem) and the play-action game (defensive problem) I've yet to find an area of gameplay that is actually fundamentally sound/good.

[SmoothPancakes]

Ok. Snoop ran this play about 20 times without a problem. I've run it about 15 and I've always had it blown dead. Even in practice. How the hell could it work for one user and not another? Sigh.

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I'll test it first thing when I get on tonight after Walking Dead. See if we can all find and work out some reason on why it's affecting you and the occasionally the CPU, but not snoop.

[psusnoop]

I'll test it first thing when I get on tonight after Walking Dead. See if we can all find and work out some reason on why it's affecting you and the occasionally the CPU, but not snoop.

I've always been told I was special :nod: lmao

[psusnoop]

Please do, I ran it 15 consecutive plays to open the game. NC State at Ole Miss and was 15-91yds. The more I ran it the more I liked it :D hahaha

[steelerfan]

I've always been told I was special :nod: lmao

http://img.tapatalk.com/62c401e2-cd02-5f6c.jpg

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[psusnoop]

:D

[xMrHitStickx904]

Went ahead & put NCAA on the gamefly, hoping that a patch will really help the game defensively & the amount of glitches it has. It's shame how much to potential this game actually has, & how little the retail copy has lived up to it. It's basically the demo on a disc imo.

[I OU a Beatn]

Why doesn't the game load the custom playbooks as soon as the game starts up rather than waiting until the beginning of a game? It's really annoying having to press circle to back out of a loading screen right before the game starts. It's stupid. I also don't see why it has to load some roster file every time I finish an online game.

[ram29jackson]

the only Best Buy doing a midnight release of NCAA 13 is one in Prattville Alabama?

anyway,cant find a local one around here thats doing it.


in the long run, you better not need to use gameplanning to make defense work at all.

hopefully,in a small way,it was another reason for season pass. They can use it as a larger demo to find out whats wrong and work on it in a patch.
But this better be the most decent patch theyve ever done. I dont have the game yet but some of you guys are sounding like the sky is falling ?

if its that bad and they cant patch it,this is NBA Live again and the first time in my life I will get upset about a games quality....

and being around this site makes it even worse. Its a years worth of hype...and This is the crescendo? Not good..

[SmoothPancakes]

Ok. Snoop ran this play about 20 times without a problem. I've run it about 15 and I've always had it blown dead. Even in practice. How the hell could it work for one user and not another? Sigh.

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steeler, what teams were both you and snoop using? Did you try it after turning off the PS3 and coming back later or after playing a different game and coming back to 13? Just want to check out any variables. I'm gonna test this in 25-30 minutes after Walking Dead is over, want to make sure I cover all bases as far as who and what was used and done.

[steelerfan]

steeler, what teams were both you and snoop using? Did you try it after turning off the PS3 and coming back later or after playing a different game and coming back to 13? Just want to check out any variables. I'm gonna test this in 25-30 minutes after Walking Dead is over, want to make sure I cover all bases as far as who and what was used and done.

We both tried it with Ole Miss. I tried it Friday and Saturday so, yes, the PS3 had been off.

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[SmoothPancakes]

We both tried it with Ole Miss. I tried it Friday and Saturday so, yes, the PS3 had been off.

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Alright. I'm gonna be jumping on here at 11:15, I'll test it out first thing I do.

[steelerfan]

Alright. I'm gonna be jumping on here at 11:15, I'll test it out first thing I do.

:up:

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[SmoothPancakes]

:up:

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Well motherfucker, it's happening to me too. Just ran it three straight times as Ole Miss at home against Air Force, blown dead all three times the moment the HB touches the ball, currently sitting in the game with 4th and 23 at my one yard line.

[SmoothPancakes]

Ran a game as Navy at home against SMU using Ole Miss' playbook, it did it again. Ran a game as Southern Miss at home against Kansas, using a custom playbook with Navy as the base and Shotgun Tight (and only Shotgun Tight) as an added formation, it did NOT do it.

So it looks like it may be something fucked up with Ole Miss' playbook. Steeler, next time you're on, create a custom playbook with that formation added to it, see if that play still does that for you.

[steelerfan]

Ran a game as Navy at home against SMU using Ole Miss' playbook, it did it again. Ran a game as Southern Miss at home against Kansas, using a custom playbook with Navy as the base and Shotgun Tight (and only Shotgun Tight) as an added formation, it did NOT do it.

So it looks like it may be something fucked up with Ole Miss' playbook. Steeler, next time you're on, create a custom playbook with that formation added to it, see if that play still does that for you.

The thing is, it did not do it to snoop and he was using Ole Miss and their playbook. :dunno:

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[SmoothPancakes]

The thing is, it did not do it to snoop and he was using Ole Miss and their playbook. :dunno:

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Yeah, that's what's throwing me for a loop. It did it to you and me using Ole Miss' playbook, but it didn't do it to snoop, nor to me when I used a custom playbook with the same formation and play. That it worked with a custom playbook makes me want to believe it's something with the Ole Miss playbook, but why it did it for us and not snoop is what is puzzling me.

[jaymo76]

Yeah, that's what's throwing me for a loop. It did it to you and me using Ole Miss' playbook, but it didn't do it to snoop, nor to me when I used a custom playbook with the same formation and play. That it worked with a custom playbook makes me want to believe it's something with the Ole Miss playbook, but why it did it for us and not snoop is what is puzzling me.

I wonder if this could be somethnig specific to the season pass download? There has to be some reason to explain it.

[chromeatari]

CPU blah blah blah, computers are dumb! How is it going to play in head to head matches online!?!

[SmoothPancakes]

I wonder if this could be somethnig specific to the season pass download? There has to be some reason to explain it.

But as far as I know, snoop is playing it via the season pass download as well.

[JAYDEISEL]

When EA took the defensive stunts out the game last year I went back and played 2k8. How can 4-3 sets be effective without d- line stunts. I rent this and madden before I buy them.

[psusnoop]

But as far as I know, snoop is playing it via the season pass download as well.

That is correct, I too have Season Ticket so I'm using the download as well.

[souljahbill]

Is anyone else getting pixelated crowd members intermingled with the band during cutscenes?

[jaymo76]

Is anyone else getting pixelated crowd members intermingled with the band during cutscenes?

I haven't noticed that but I must say that the crowd looks absolutely awful (ps3) this year. Maybe it's because of motion blur??

[JBHuskers]

I haven't noticed that but I must say that the crowd looks absolutely awful (ps3) this year. Maybe it's because of motion blur??

On top of that the colors are way out of whack. Nebraska's Sea of Red is a Sea of White :fp:

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[tko27]

Is anyone else getting pixelated crowd members intermingled with the band during cutscenes?

Yes I see this all the time, particularly when the camera zooms out for those scenic blimp-type shots. Each person in the crowd essentially becomes a little green/white/red(insert color) cube.

[tko27]

Another issue I saw yesterday involving the crowd - I was North Texas playing at San Jose State. I had just broken a big run for a TD and the camera cut to my small section of fans celebrating in the stands. Two of the fans that were shown kept having their jersey change between North Texas and SJSU, like the game couldn't decide which team the people were cheering for. Ultimately I got two guys with flashing shirts changing very quickly between green/white and blue/yellow. Minor issue and kind of funny but an issue nonetheless.

[steelerfan]

Another issue I saw yesterday involving the crowd - I was North Texas playing at San Jose State. I had just broken a big run for a TD and the camera cut to my small section of fans celebrating in the stands. Two of the fans that were shown kept having their jersey change between North Texas and SJSU, like the game couldn't decide which team the people were cheering for. Ultimately I got two guys with flashing shirts changing very quickly between green/white and blue/yellow. Minor issue and kind of funny but an issue nonetheless.

Those "fans" may have been guys like ram. :nod:

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[SmoothPancakes]

Those "fans" may have been guys like ram. :nod:

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:D :D :D :D :D

[JBHuskers]

At first I read that as two guys flashing their shirts.

[jaymo76]

Is anyone else annoyed that when you play a night game you can barely read the final score as it is pretty much all blacked out? Also, I don't like that they impact players now have black stars below them. The stars blend with shadows making it difficult to see who is impact and who is not.

[jolson88]

Do we know for sure the Early Access is the final build? I'm playing the PS3 Early Access and getting trophies pops up a generic message saying "earn trophy in the retail game" (or something like that) and no trophies appear to be registered on my account. I know there's practically no chance that means there will be any improvements between this and the on-disk version, but I was simply curious observing this...

[ram29jackson]

Those "fans" may have been guys like ram. :nod:

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:D :D :D :D :D



how long you been a Notre Dame fan again? :P

[ram29jackson]

repost

[SmoothPancakes]

Do we know for sure the Early Access is the final build? I'm playing the PS3 Early Access and getting trophies pops up a generic message saying "earn trophy in the retail game" (or something like that) and no trophies appear to be registered on my account. I know there's practically no chance that means there will be any improvements between this and the on-disk version, but I was simply curious observing this...

That just is telling you that you have unlocked a trophy/achievement in the retail game, and when you start up the retail game, you'll officially earn and receive those trophies. NCAA 13 Early Release doesn't show up in your achievements, so the trophies are simply "unlocked" in the Season Ticket version, and as soon as you start up the retail game, they will all pop for you and it'll show up on your trophy list. Early Release is, to the best of my knowledge, the exact same thing as we will see on the disc tomorrow. There's no reason for them to put an early build/non-final build in the early release version.

[jolson88]

Great! Thanks Smooth. This is my first time even using Early Access, so this stuff is new to me :).

[SmoothPancakes]

Great! Thanks Smooth. This is my first time even using Early Access, so this stuff is new to me :).

Not a problem! Yeah, this should be the final build that we'll see on disc tomorrow, there's no reason for it not to be. And all those trophies you've unlocked so far in the Early Release, you'll see them all tomorrow when you fire up the retail game. Any other questions, feel free to ask, one of us will get around with an answer sooner or later. :up:

[CLW]

That just is telling you that you have unlocked a trophy/achievement in the retail game, and when you start up the retail game, you'll officially earn and receive those trophies. NCAA 13 Early Release doesn't show up in your achievements, so the trophies are simply "unlocked" in the Season Ticket version, and as soon as you start up the retail game, they will all pop for you and it'll show up on your trophy list. Early Release is, to the best of my knowledge, the exact same thing as we will see on the disc tomorrow. There's no reason for them to put an early build/non-final build in the early release version.

LMAO just thought about this. How long is it going to take 23 trophies to pop for me tomorrow?

[ryby6969]

Hey G, did they get rid of the new recruits in the offseason? I just got there and was not prompted to check out the new recruits. I also like how they changed how you try to talk kids into staying instead of transfering/leaving early for the draft. Very nice.

[gschwendt]

Hey G, did they get rid of the new recruits in the offseason? I just got there and was not prompted to check out the new recruits. I also like how they changed how you try to talk kids into staying instead of transfering/leaving early for the draft. Very nice.Not sure... I noticed that as well but with that and the fact hat some guys will come in at stage "3 Schools" from the start, it's tough to be certain. Would probably just have to track 4-star & 5-star players and see if any are added in the offseason.

[xMrHitStickx904]

To me it's official ... the demo actually plays better than retail. Had some friends over to play it. Way more fun on the demo, & it's not even close smh.

[ryby6969]

Not sure... I noticed that as well but with that and the fact hat some guys will come in at stage "3 Schools" from the start, it's tough to be certain. Would probably just have to track 4-star & 5-star players and see if any are added in the offseason.
Yeah, I didn't have any 4* guys interested in me in the offseason(Bama) and I find it hard to believe that if they did add new ones, none of them would be interested. This will make people completely change their recruiting if it is the case.

[steelerfan]

how long you been a Notre Dame fan again? :P

Since about 1985. They were second to Penn State. Not any more.

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[ram29jackson]

Since about 1985. They were second to Penn State. Not any more.

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ooohh, I see, you like more than 1 team, interesting concept.


:P

[SmoothPancakes]

ooohh, I see, you like more than 1 team, interesting concept.


:P

No different than me liking Navy and Florida International. I may like FIU, but Navy will always be my first and main team.

[SmoothPancakes]

So can we now safely assume that there is not going to be a day one patch tomorrow? I still haven't heard any mention of one or what would be in one, and with the game officially releasing in 6 hours, they would have HAD to have said something by now about one.

[CLW]

So can we now safely assume that there is not going to be a day one patch tomorrow? I still haven't heard any mention of one or what would be in one, and with the game officially releasing in 6 hours, they would have HAD to have said something by now about one.

Yeah unless they knew of these issues before hand I think "patches" have to be certified by Microsoft and Sony so I'm not holding my breath.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah unless they knew of these issues before hand I think "patches" have to be certified by Microsoft and Sony so I'm not holding my breath.

Well, I wasn't holding out hope for some of this stuff we just started discovering on Friday, but it seems like any game that comes out anymore, there is a day one patch, and was hoping that maybe some minor stuff that might have been noticed was fixed. But it doesn't even look like that is going to be the case.

[steelerfan]

ooohh, I see, you like more than 1 team, interesting concept.


:P

In college football, I did. Now, it's just the Irish since the PSU BoT killed Coach Paterno.

As for the NFL, it's only the Steelers since 1979. NHL - the Penguins since about 1983. MLB - the (L)Astros since about 1980. I don't care much about the NBA (I followed it religiously until about 15 years ago), but my team is the Rockets. As for European football, it's Chelsea.

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[NatureBoy]

:D I know one thing, I sure to miss Alshon Jeffery. He was a huge part of my offense last year. I wish he would have stayed for his senior season.

[CLW]

Just reviewing the various "community" sites today and its interesting the opinions on the game run from "worst game eva" to the game is "best game eva" to everything in between. After playing it a weekend and reading about all the bugs/flaws I'd probably give it a 5 out of 10. I would not have purchased this game with $ but I have a TON of Amazon credit (and even then I hesitated).

Time will tell if patches and Steelerfan can deliver me at least a decent game.

[ram29jackson]

Just reviewing the various "community" sites today and its interesting the opinions on the game run from "worst game eva" to the game is "best game eva" to everything in between. After playing it a weekend and reading about all the bugs/flaws I'd probably give it a 5 out of 10. I would not have purchased this game with $ but I have a TON of Amazon credit (and even then I hesitated).

Time will tell if patches and Steelerfan can deliver me at least a decent game.

that's still pretty much a negative review though :(

[ryby6969]

I only buy the game to play in OD's so as long as there are no "transfer failed" bugs or recruiting is not completely screwed(seems good 3 years in) then I just need user vs user to play good.

[CLW]

that's still pretty much a negative review though :(

I try to give an "honest" opinion as I see it. Look it clearly isn't as bad as NBA Elite (where even EA KNEW they couldn't release it to the public) or other bad games on the PS3 but it clearly isn't up to great games like Uncharted, Heavy Rain, The Show, etc...

If you enjoyed 11 and 12 you can probably enjoy 13. If you hated 11 or 12 don't even bother renting the game as you will just enrage yourself for wasting your time. I'm disappointed with this year's title as they added NOTHING of value to me and in fact made several things important to me arguably worse (pass defense).

[I OU a Beatn]

It's definitely worse than '12. They ruined the ONE good thing they added to '12, which was the improved zone defense. I don't know what it's going to take to make them realize just how badly they need to improve the pass rush, but it hasn't work ONCE this entire generation of consoles. That is inexcusable for something so crucial. They can't possibly actually think you should have 10 seconds to throw the ball.

[xMrHitStickx904]

I hated zones on '12. Defenders jumped routes they weren't supposed to. But now, I rather have those zones over the zones we have now, they don't even react to anything it's horrible. This game isn't as bad as 09, 10 & 11. But man ... it's close. Rather play NCAA 08 over this honestly.

[CLW]

Some tweets from Pasta Padre indicate his upcoming review isn't that great either:

https://twitter.com/pastapadre

[dukebloo22]

Damn, they could of made this game 1,000 times better. The reason I like this series and pre-ordered the game was for it's variety. You could play as a player, team or with others, it's hard to get bored, and they found a way to fuck up just a polished version of NCAA 12. I believe if Madden hadn't put in the new engine this game would be a ton better. :fp:

[Dr Death]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet or not, but when did EA take away "Pursuit Angles?" FS's and SS's are taking absolutely horrible pursuits, allowing RB's to go for huge yardage in situations that it just should not happen. Example: Playing as :Colorado: at home vs. :Texas:. :Texas: lines up w/ :12 to go in the half, at their own 15... they line up in a goal line offense... 3 TE's... so I know they're just going to run the ball and go to half. I call a Cover 1 defense, which gives me Man coverage and low and behold, they run a sweep, the FS has an easy path to the RB, but he darts toward the line of scrimmage before going for the ball carrier, and the guy goes 85 yards for a TD.

On a play they were just trying to run the clock out on. :fp:

[MC1]

To coin a phrase, "I'm Lovin' It"...whenever I fire up a new football sim, I'm always aware of the fact that I've got to put by brand on the game. Picking the right team for what I want to run, set audibles, and gameplan. Yeah, the game hasn't changed all that much, but I like what I see and feel. I love the quick turnaround on ints, player icons signaling for the ball etc. And since I only play NCAA & Madden, I have a blast every year!

[Sinister]

so far i like the game i put pass defense to 55 helped some with safety issue, but corners jumpin flat instead of hook zone is an issue, but overall i like this game. i'm done reading impressions i bought the game for me not because everyone else is.