NCAA Football 12 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[Gloves 82]

10 hours later and it's still at 14%... (it was only at 14% earlier, not 15)

[dochalladay32]

Quote: Originally Posted by shyvoodoo

Dude don't go out like this!! I've been using your sliders as a base for my own sliders and I like your varsity sets. Man don't let a couple of guys keep you from doing what you do best.. These guys don't even watch football because they are too busy playing the games... ben voodoo

Yea, I don't play much on varsity, but a good slider set can make it more difficult. I don't touch heisman usually because the computer is all of a sudden superman and I agree, it is ridiculous when people brag that they can do this or that on heisman. At least it isn't as bad as I remember All-Madden being.

[kblu54]

Played a few games so far and here's my thoughts...

PROS

Not seeing much suction, especially on FG block or normal pass rush. I've been playing a little NCAA 11 lately to compare with the demo and you don't even realize how much suction there is in last year's.

The 3D grass looks sick. It looks amazing on closeups and replays. It really gives a "real-life" feel to the games.

The team entrances are awesome I feel. I know a lot of people were worried about the same entrance being played over and over, but so far I haven't seen the exact same entrance twice. They change the camera angles and everything, so I thought that was cool.

Pass coverage (esp. zone) is much improved. It is harder to throw so that will take some major practice to get used to. The difference between AA and Heisman is very noticeable (more on that later)

I love the ESPN intro, it makes it feel somewhat like a broadcast.

Helmets and facemasks finally look like they are the correct size. The revo helmets looked HUGE last year. I also love the selection they have, I will be curious to see the full boat when its released.

Running out of the shotgun looks much improved (which is great for me since I usually run spread option). Read option works well but if you abuse it the defense will stomp you. Gotta pick your spots (but that's a great thing!)

I love the way the dynamic blocking changes pre-snap. Looks much smoother and sometimes one single lineman will make an adjustment instead of the whole line re-setting. A subtle but great improvement.

Tackling looks awesome. I've never seen the same tackle twice, and I've seen like 15 new tackles. One I saw a RB hurdled over a fallen down defender and got hit, flipped mid-air and landed on his back. Looked so real. Also saw a WR running down the sideline and the safety blast him out of bounds. Also new and cool.

Pass rush feels so much better. I feel like you really have to work to get a sack, yet sometimes you pull the right rush move and get a sweet sack. Seems like your teammates also rush better so you don't feel like you have to get ALL the sacks.

Game Tracks, replays and end of quarter flash-overs are sweet. The replays look like a real-life play. The game tracks show important big plays and the end of quarter flash-overs remind you of a real ESPN broadcast.

CONS

Pass coverage is TOUGH. Wow. Sometimes a well-placed pass ends up in the roaming safeties hands. You really gotta be careful finding the right spot in the zone.

Psychic DBs? I hate saying that but I did see a few instances where the CB ran a curl with a WR and stood right in front of him for the INT. Thought that was strange.

The difference between AA and Heisman is huge. My 1st game was Oregon (me) vs Texas (CPU) on AA and I won 17-0, pretty easily. I ran well and passed pretty well, but my D just flat dominated Texas. My next 3 games were all on Heisman with these results: loss 21-0 to Bama, loss 20-14 to Texas and loss 3-0 to FSU. The first game was embarrassing, Bama just shut me down. The next game Texas suddenly turned into the Pittsburgh Steelers after being down 14-7. The last game was a tough battle, but I threw two questionable INTs (psychic DBs?) late in the game to lose. I'm surprised how much of a difference there is.

Gotta be super careful on your pursuit. Now that the tackling requires you to actually make contact, you BETTER make contact. I've had some plays where I had the safety lined up for a tackle, didn't press the tackle (X button) and the RB ran right by me. You need to strafe or slow down and make sure you get the contact, otherwise the CPU will just blow past.

Need more stat overlays. In 4 games, I think I noticed maybe 5-6 total stat overlays. Gimme some info!

More on zone coverage... Defenders react REALLY fast to a nearby pass. I've thrown perfect bullet passes and at the last second, the closest LB jumps in front to knock it down. Same on deep balls. I think they need to react a little more naturally. You notice how all of a sudden they "flash" to go for the ball.

OVERALL

I probably will have more later after I play more, but that's after the 1st few games. So far, I am quite impressed but there are some little things that concern me. If the RTG and dynasty improvements play out well (I'll be reading your reviews!!!), I will probably buy this game later in the fall.

[boredhusband]

Defensive Ends look absolutely terrible, they look fat/overweight. Defensive Tackles look more fit.

[nag5115]

I was a little scared of what I would get from the demo after reading all these impressions, but from what I saw I am really excited for the game, especially if this was only the late April build. Apart from the terrible pixilated 1080p for PS3 which looked horrific, hopefully will be fixed. I was impressed with the ability to run out of shotgun. With my Ducks, the read option seemed to work well. One play I had where all of the Texas line/LBs overcommitted on the LMJ play fake, leaving a nice hole outside for the QB to run through. Tackling looks great. The pregame intros were nice, but I was skipping over them after seeing them the first time. The LB superjump to knock down passes was a little better, saw a few LB swats, but the moon jump wasn't nearly as bad as in 11. I was very pleased with the demo, wish they had the ducks yellow socks available that they wore for the NC game, and dreads look way too long kinda like a spider coming from the players neck. But as long as the PS3 pixilation that I see others have had is fixed and along with the new features in RTG and CC in dynasty this should be a fantastic game.

[raiders81tim]

Quote: Originally Posted by khaliib

This is due to WR's having High "Route Running" rating in the Demo/Default Roster, which is increased greatly to produce high OVR rated WR's, which are needed for the teams OVR rating to be rated as A's. It causes WR/TE/RB's to change direction on a dime within there routes. When edited 60'ish or below, routes aren't so crisp and sometimes rounded. -Most in-game generated WR Recruits will rate Low - Mid Route Running unless they've changed something. (this is a good thing) You just need to lower this particular rating.

And if you only play online, like 50% of sports gamers?

[jwilphl]

[PS3]
After a couple games, here are my impressions thus far:

Presentation
+ I like the new ESPN graphics. They definitely look legit.
+ The pre-game stuff is a nice addition.
+ The after-quarter and half-time stuff is nice, but it still needs work.
+ I noticed a few cameramen walking around the field.
- The noise in the game, except for the commentary, is very subdued. Not sure why that is.
- Extension to that would be very poor crowd noise.
- The commentary is very much the same. Lots of needless dead air.
- The camera angles are all so close and zoomed in--where is the broadcast integration here? Some of the cuts between scenes are also very abrupt and not realistic. NCAA take a page from Madden '12.
- Some of the graphics are strange, such as the scoreboard under the LCD screen during the after-quarter highlights.
- During the coin toss the camera suddenly cut away to a side-view and no one was on the field.

Graphics
+ The new lighting system is nice.
+ The 3D grass is great on replays.
- The graphics take a hit when you step back and are zoomed out. The grass looks no better than before, and there seems to be some oddities with the players, although I can't really explain it.
- The crowd seems to be improved but it's hard to tell.
- Sidelines look awfully plain and poor still.
- I think the PS3 is inferior to the 360, which hardly seems fair, but I hope some of the issues are fixed in the final version.

Gameplay
+ The tackling feels really nice--this is definitely an upgrade from '11.
+ Overall the "feel" of the game is improved from '11.
+ I noticed many mixed results between the OL and DL. On some all-out blitzes the OL would pick them all up. Other times when rushing four, I could still get to the QB--indeed there were some "missed assignment" plays.
+ The animations and running feels improved, but still need work.
+ The spin-move feels a lot better.
+ Pylon physics! I saw a guy run up and kick one.
- Poor CPU QB awareness--3rd and 2 the QB is all alone to take off for twenty yards, but he stays behind the LOS waiting for a receiver to get open.
- There still lacks true momentum at times--guys can turn without effort or any sort of transition.
- There are still some sliding issues, and obviously animations still need some work, i.e. no multiple-colliding and there are those "canned" animations where players get stuck.

I will add to this list as I play some more games and notice other issues. So far I really like the changes from '11. Since I didn't buy last year, it does look like I will buy this year, but I was still hoping for TB updates.

[niggarachi]

daggit still cant get on xboxlive to download