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.
Yeah, don't hold your breath. I just labbed out 15 straight plays. Very preliminary numbers, but here's my notes:Originally Posted by CLW
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
I think they understand football just fine. It's probably just too complicated to program correctly.
man ... smh.
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???
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.
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).
Twitter: @3YardsandACloud
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.
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.
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.
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.
+1
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
but over all they liked/appreciated the review !
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.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.
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.
Great write up Tommy!
Btw I've been out of the loop. 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.
Twitter: @3YardsandACloud
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.
Last edited by Rudy; 07-06-2012 at 09:53 PM.
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 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.
Twitter: @3YardsandACloud
Game Changers:
Is this game still worth buying?
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