Let Me Tell You: A Review of NCAA 13 - Meast21Forever's Blog

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Meast21Forever's Blog

Let Me Tell You: A Review of NCAA 13

Posted on August 24, 2012 at 02:41 AM.

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This is the first year I didn�t buy NCAA at midnight since they started doing midnight releases. Maybe it�s because I�m getting old and have old dude responsibilities (being an adult blows). Or maybe it�s because EA�s annual hype train lacked steam this year. In reality, it�s a combination of both. To spare you all a diatribe about my qualms with adulthood, I�ll focus on the latter.

EA Sports does it to us every year: leak out little tweaks and fixes early in the year, then as launch approaches, drop bombs to swell the hype level for that year�s iteration. In the past, that has worked. This year, in this reviewer�s opinion, it did not. Let me preface my next statement by saying I hate when people call new games a �.5� version of the last game. I hate that. But this year�s edition of NCAA truly feels the same as NCAA 12 with a few new bells and whistles. If the crew felt like their foundation was strong and they could afford a year to just improve what was already there, then that�s acceptable. That is not the case, though, and what they produced is the same mediocre package with some extra ribbons. The game wasn�t all bad (trust me I played the crap out of it), but it wasn�t that good. I�ll try to minimize the whining and keep the criticism constructive as we proceed.

What�s New
- Several more team intros
- Some new sideline cut scenes
- A couple of tweaks to gameplay (well, a couple of noticeable ones)
- A segmented commentary that does not fit together
- ESPN Gameday that becomes super annoying (on/off toggle? maybe?)
- The poorly executed �motion blur� that arguably makes the game look worse
- The all-new (and mostly fluff) Heisman mode

Now looking at that list (and I'm sure there are a few that I missed...), you may think that�s enough. If it is for you, enjoy the game to your heart's content, my friend. To me, it�s not simply less successful � it�s a failure. To put it bluntly, the old features are older and the new features just seem half-assed in this year�s iteration.

So this review isn�t all negative, let me point out -

The Positives:
- Playing against a real person is fun. The playbooks in the game are fantastic.
- The lighting looks great. Shadows and reflections as well (on 360 at least).
- Pictures during replays. This is something not many appreciate, but those who do REALLY do. The ability to share great in game images is awesome.
- New catch animations: sometimes not the most realistic, but they look good
- New passing animations: small affect on gameplay, but the drop backs and throwing motions look great
- The recruiting roulette system was removed. Playing a season takes forever when recruiting, but at least it�s less of a crapshoot.

To sum up, the game has pros and cons. Unfortunately, most of them were in last year�s game. The new stuff feels like an attempt to garner more mass appeal and the few changes that were made for the more hardcore gamers fail to meet the standard.

I�m not a pro reviewer so I�m not going to score the game. Instead I�ll share this bit of info: I purchased NCAA 13 (used) 4 days after release for $43. I played it daily for about 25 days, completing 2 dynasty seasons, a season of RTG and all of the Heisman challenges. I then traded the game in for $30. Since I traded it toward Madden 13, I ended up getting $38 in store credit. So essentially, I rented the game for a month for $5.

To me, NCAA 13 was totally worth that.