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

[LambertandHam]

Quote: Originally Posted by cgalligan

I played both mathups last night on PS3, on All American difficulty... First thing I noticed is the same thing I notice every year. The game feels like its on TURBO MODE... Everything happens way too fast and it makes the game look "fake". The cut scenes look great, and the presentation is nice... Like others have said, the team intros will get old very quickly... Play action passing seems to be an issue, as I was either sacked, or crushed just as I threw the ball every time I called a PA pass... It still feels like the players don't have any real weight to them. When carrying the ball they can change direction in a hiccup without losing any speed whatsoever. Also, when being tackled, (although there are some nice new animations this year) the ballcarriers momentum doesn't seem to factor into the tackle animation... I also noticed the lack of texture on the grass that other people have noticed... Not sure if this is a PS3 thing, a Demo thing or what, but, the grass in my Demo looked pretty much like grass from "last gen". Thats not acceptable imo if its like that in the retail version. I mean, I honestly don't really care about the grass, but, when its hyped up so much, and then you only see it in cut scenes, thats pretty bad on their part... I've only played both matchups, and I haven't really broken down play after play, I'll wait for the real game to do that, but, all in all, I think the game has improved slightly, but, there isn't anything really groundbreaking imo.

The change of direction bit is probably what bugs me the most. I was having a blast, until I watched my younger brother play. He bombs a pass to his WR on the sideline, he catches it. Now the WR's momentum should of sent him out of bounds. A nice catch, etc.

Instead he, on a dime, immediately snaps in and changes direction, accelerating across the field. As for the grass, they hyped it up too much. I had NCAA 11 "lag" for me at times, mostly around the goal line if I was backed up. I can't imagine the lag if 3D grass was viewable at all times. Still when you talk about an addition, you want to see it.

[chen_sc]

the crowd in the demo is very quiet.
the dev team said that the they have improved the stadiums atmposphere but I just can't hear it...
any chance that in the retail version the crowd will be much more louder?

[Cynick]

Quote: Originally Posted by chen_sc

the crowd in the demo is very quiet. the dev team said that the they have improved the stadiums atmposphere but I just can't hear it... any chance that in the retail version the crowd will be much more louder?

There's alot of stuff they clearly left out to keep the demo size down, crowd noise/reaction being one of them. I know someone will say "keep the demo size down? it's 2G!", but I'd be willing to bet most of that is just the gameplay engine itself.

I'm loving the game though. The new collision system and tackling animations are amazing, zone coverage actually works, no superman LB INTs. The retail version will most certainly be better than the demo, and patches will fix the rest.

[sarlndr]

Quote: Originally Posted by bspang2

who has both systems???

I'm sure alot of people have both systems. I know I do.

Both games look good. It's just one looks much better.

[Entiae]

I just pre-ordered the PS3 version. I enjoyed the demo and I think the game looks good.

But..

Quote: Originally Posted by jaredlib

I have been told by a great many people who have been around for a while that last year the demo for PS3 looked worse than the 360 as well but they tweaked it quite a bit before release and the final product was very close to the xbox version.

..I hope this will be the case this year as well.

[Oraeon1224]

I will actually test later but I found many of the flaws with NCAA 11 last year in my statistics in sliders thread, and none of the AI issues seem fixed:

1)Can't run inside/can't PA/able to pass for 500 deep yards: The reason this occurs in NCAA last year is simple. EA didn't program their AI on defense to playcall correctly. The AI calls blitzes (defined by NFL terms as sending 6 or more men...not 5) as frequently with its supposedly low blitzing college teams as do most high blitzing NFL teams. In fact it isn't unusual for them to send 7 or 8 blitzers (Madden has the same issue). This kills PA since it overwhelms the line and these players don't react to the fake run. It also kills inside runs as usually the blitze comes up the middle. Finally because there are so few defenders in pass coverage due to the blitze the deep pass is almost always open as there is little or no safety help. This is the number one reason for NCAA and Maddens defensive woes. Hopefully just like last year this is fixable with sliders (I game tested to show it was). Unfortunately last year if you fixed this the AI then called more zones and then the coverage was so bad that the recievers were frequently open. Hopefully with fixed zone coverage this will now work. Incidentally without the 7 man blitzes the pass blocking is way too good.

2) Prescient AI defensive calling: I tested this last year too and it doesn't exist. The AI calls a lot of blitzes which makes it seem like they figured out your run and stuffed it or blitzed your pass. They also reset their formation any time you audible but will resume formation in a few seconds for a read (that is really crappy programming last year). You can read the AI defense and make the correct call if you learn how to interpret coverages, they are all authentic and not based on your play call.

[Lavar]

Quote: Originally Posted by trobinson97

Tied 7-7 with Bama at FSU with about 45 seconds left. I'm on their 35 and they cut to the sideline to see the kicker warming up. The kicker is Dont'a Hightower.

I was in a close game as Texas , cut scene showed the WR#1 warming up his kicks.

[dochalladay32]

I played 2 games last night on PS3 and slept on it to think about things I noticed. I played the first on varsity just to get a feel for it again... way too easy. Played as Bama, lost to FSU in overtime 10-7.

Put it on all-american for the second game. Lost to Texas 17-14.

Tackling is hit or miss. Yes yes, I know there is a tackle button. But I can be right on top of the guy and press the tackle button, and he'll keep on trucking before finally actually getting tackled, or the cpu will come in and make the tackle for me.

Severe lack of penalties. I saw one holding on the computer called. I would think in 16+ minutes of gameplay, I would have seen more than that.

I'm hoping it is because of 2 minute quarters, but the cpu picks their offensive play automatically. 11 seconds is not enough to find the defense I want all the time. Same with field goals. They call field goal and their already lined up when the screen goes away. Again, I hope it is a demo thing. I don't have 11 around to look at it.

Running I feel happy with. For years, it seems like I've always struggled establishing the run on NCAA and passing was my method. Might finally get away from that this year. I need to set up the buttons the way I like, but after that, I should be golden.

NO CPU SCRAMBLES. Now maybe if I was Texas, I would have seen it by Oregon. Computer did throw the ball away at least.

Sacks were too easy. Varsity seemed better at controlling it, or maybe I was just calling all the right plays with Oregon, but I had 5 or 6 sacks against Texas and most of them, I was just getting there way too fast. Against FSU, they were more because QB was holding on to the ball too long.

Hoping it was just the demo, but I had a fumble blown dead. It was not the last 2 minutes of the game; it was in the first half, so I don't see why it was blown dead.

Punt returns are successful! I got about 10 yards a return.