NCAA Football 14 - First Look at Gameplay (A&M vs. LSU)

[gschwendt]

Here are my notes. Obviously things can change between now & July.

• First play shows bad Safety Alignment... Strong Safety (short side of the field) is halfway between the sideline and the hash. Free Safety (wide side), is near the center of the field. To my understanding, both should be closer to their respective hashes.
• New OL animation has them all take a side-step at the snap... not sure if just on Read Option or what. Not certain whether realistic or exaggerated for the game.
• First play, I assume short side slot CB recognizes the play early... otherwise he just left his WR uncovered. Everyone else appears to play man.
• On the second play, I like that CB #20 doesn't instantly recognize the run... he doesn't see it until he turns back around.
• 3rd play, 2nd & goal from the 7, why does the defense come out in Quarters? Should be in a Nickel or at worst a Dime Normal IMO.
• 3rd play, 0:32 of the video, HB gets stood up with several defenders around. One defender right on top of him tries to make a clean-up tackle but never engages... instead falls on his face (#39 I believe)
• 4th play, in no huddle, defense goes from a Quarters defense to a Dime? but the CB/SS moves to the DT. Theoretically DE should move inside, MLB move to DE, and SS move to LB. That said, defense shouldn't be able to make that formation change since it's different personnel.
• 4th play, you hear the defensive chatter calls out the screen, but doesn't seem that anyone reacts to it.
• 4th play, RG peels off to block for the screen but heads up field and lays out a defender... so long as they call ineligible receiver downfield for throwing it past the LOS, then I like that the OL will get up field.
• OL run blocking assignments look improved overall especially as it relates to downfield blocking.
• Foot planting is still not as prevalent as it should be... several small examples with small cuts but the worst is on the replay of the touchdown. At 1:05, he catches and turns up field but does so without actually putting any kind of weight on his plant foot... just kind of turns & glides.

[Oneback]

Here are my notes. Obviously things can change between now & July.

• First play shows bad Safety Alignment... Strong Safety (short side of the field) is halfway between the sideline and the hash. Free Safety (wide side), is near the center of the field. To my understanding, both should be closer to their respective hashes.
• New OL animation has them all take a side-step at the snap... not sure if just on Read Option or what. Not certain whether realistic or exaggerated for the game.
• First play, I assume short side slot CB recognizes the play early... otherwise he just left his WR uncovered. Everyone else appears to play man.
• On the second play, I like that CB #20 doesn't instantly recognize the run... he doesn't see it until he turns back around.
• 3rd play, 2nd & goal from the 7, why does the defense come out in Quarters? Should be in a Nickel or at worst a Dime Normal IMO.
• 3rd play, 0:32 of the video, HB gets stood up with several defenders around. One defender right on top of him tries to make a clean-up tackle but never engages... instead falls on his face (#39 I believe)
• 4th play, in no huddle, defense goes from a Quarters defense to a Dime? but the CB/SS moves to the DT. Theoretically DE should move inside, MLB move to DE, and SS move to LB. That said, defense shouldn't be able to make that formation change since it's different personnel.
• 4th play, you hear the defensive chatter calls out the screen, but doesn't seem that anyone reacts to it.
• 4th play, RG peels off to block for the screen but heads up field and lays out a defender... so long as they call ineligible receiver downfield for throwing it past the LOS, then I like that the OL will get up field.
• OL run blocking assignments look improved overall especially as it relates to downfield blocking.
• Foot planting is still not as prevalent as it should be... several small examples with small cuts but the worst is on the replay of the touchdown. At 1:05, he catches and turns up field but does so without actually putting any kind of weight on his plant foot... just kind of turns & glides.

I like the blocking animations, thats all inside zone steps - not 100% correct but much better. Looks as though the blocking assignments have been tweaked but they still aren't correct.

Defensive read and react seems much like NCAA 13, and in a lot of cases defenders are out of position before the play even starts.

[SCClassof93]

Bleeding from the eyes now as I have watched this way too much . I was starting to think that the run blocking has been over done but for some reason it looks like poor calls by the L.S.U. d. Quarters on a couple plays near the goal?

[SmoothPancakes]

It is either Freshman or Varsity. The Option Keys do not appear on AA or Heisman difficulty.

That's good. I couldn't see any defensive pressure in that video. It was nothing but the offense driving the defense back 10+ yards. While I love that the offensive line will now actually block defenders, they shouldn't be driving them 10+ yards down field every play. So hopefully that was just from the video being on a lower difficulty without any sliders set.

[tko27]

Am I the only one that doesn't see much if any evidence of the new infinity engine? This gameplay looks almost identical to what I saw last year, yet it's supposed to be infinity engine 2.0, bigger and badder than the Madden engine. What am I missing?

[SCClassof93]

Crowd reaction on TD is less than impressive considering two ranked teams at the 12th man

[Canes Fan]

I'm assuming this a dynasty since TAMU is #15?

[Rudy]

I was hoping it would be longer. I didn't see a big difference in foot planting and player movement. I will be curious from the E3 reports over how NCAA and Madden feel and play differently or the same.

[ryby6969]

Am I the only one that doesn't see much if any evidence of the new infinity engine? This gameplay looks almost identical to what I saw last year, yet it's supposed to be infinity engine 2.0, bigger and badder than the Madden engine. What am I missing?

I agree, even the tackles looked more like NCAA 13 than I would have liked.

[Jayrah]

I'm assuming this a dynasty since TAMU is #15?

Has to be as the players are named and non are RL representations.

[Jayrah]

Still work to be done for sure. But it is better. I wish they would tell which build you were looking at along with the level.

[gschwendt]

Still work to be done for sure. But it is better. I wish they would tell which build you were looking at along with the level.

I would expect this to be a similar build to what will be seen at E3... otherwise, why put out the video when others will be out next week? As for the level, like cdj mentioned, it's Freshman or Varsity (most likely Varsity since that's default).

[Jayrah]

Am I the only one that doesn't see much if any evidence of the new infinity engine? This gameplay looks almost identical to what I saw last year, yet it's supposed to be infinity engine 2.0, bigger and badder than the Madden engine. What am I missing?

I see it but you're right I thought it would be more defined. I think it's just a lot smoother so it almost looks like it's not there. The tackling though... I thought that would be MUCH better. If you ask me this is a very early build and we'll have to wait till some E3 to see what we need to.

[Deuce]

I feel like something was mentioned in a interview with one of the devs about how IE 2.0 was barely noticeable but in a good way. I think it was during a press row podcast? Basically that the differences are very subtle but very well done.


Typed by thumbs.

[ram29jackson]

I feel like something was mentioned in a interview with one of the devs about how IE 2.0 was barely noticeable but in a good way. I think it was during a press row podcast? Basically that the differences are very subtle but very well done.


Typed by thumbs.

that sounds a tiny bit spin-doctorish

[Deuce]

that sounds a tiny bit spin-doctorish

Yes, most likely but I think the point was that you don't want to notice it too much b/c then it's exaggerated and unrealistic. But like I said...




Typed by thumbs.

[ryby6969]

I do not like the suction blocking on the CB on play 1. He reads the play but then gets sucked into the block and turned away from the play.

[Rudy]

Why wouldn't E3 have a final retail copy ready? The game releases in a month and is basically done. Madden may still have some rough edges but the NCAA game shown at E3 should be very close to final if not final.

That video did concern me with regards to player momentum. The last few years I have felt Madden has had a little more realistic movement than NCAA. The NCAA guys prefer super tight and twitchy controls. The Madden guys have promised better foot planting and the elimination of zig zag running. I expect to read similar impressions at E3 and that will certainly impact my decision if I want to give NCAA another chance. CPU AI is a biggy for me as well.

[CLW]

Why wouldn't E3 have a final retail copy ready? The game releases in a month and is basically done. Madden may still have some rough edges but the NCAA game shown at E3 should be very close to final if not final.

That video did concern me with regards to player momentum. The last few years I have felt Madden has had a little more realistic movement than NCAA. The NCAA guys prefer super tight and twitchy controls. The Madden guys have promised better foot planting and the elimination of zig zag running. I expect to read similar impressions at E3 and that will certainly impact my decision if I want to give NCAA another chance. CPU AI is a biggy for me as well.

Yeah this is the final game at this point (or damn close to it). I suppose EA could have released a really old version but why a month until release would they do that.

I just don't see anything really "revolutionary" this year. You either lacked the past few additions of NCAA or you didn't. Nothing this year is going to change your opinion one way or the other.

[KIDZER0918]

I wasn't impressed with the TD Cut scenes. as soon as he ran into the endzone it cut the HB dropping the ball on the turf with no one celebrating, then to a wipe with the running back's name...., then cuts back to the player celebrating with teammates dropping the ball to the turf again.... then the TD wipe to the replay (with the same bad replay angles from last year). All in all i think it is to choppy of a process. I remember one demo, I think they had the players celebrating as soon as they crossed the pylons but it was taken out due to NCAA not liking it or something. I wish there was a smoother more "realistic" way for this all to happen. I have a feeling that when I want to skip the pointless wipe of the player who scored the TD it is going to skip the replay of my Touchdown, which would be bad because I like watching good replays.