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

[renatus]

my BIG problem with this game after playing just once is ..the game is TOO FAST!what the hell happened from 11 to this demo? players are all on turbo mode?

also won 7-3 vs texas w a pick six...couldnt do much running w oregon and had a field day sacking texas qb....

[Giants4Natic]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kid FSU

I just played a game on my dad's 82inch HDTV and wow! All of my speculation between Xbox version looking better than the PS3 version went out the window. My PS3 version is looking smexy!

Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now a bigger tv is going to make the game look better graphic wise? LOL ok

[TheTodd84]

There are some really nice things about this demo, don't get me wrong. But some of the same, easily fixable issues are still there. They honestly need to get rid of the superhuman linebackers making plays on receivers that are supposed to be open. I've seriously said, "he would NEVER make that play in real-life" at least 7-10 times while playing 5 or 6 demo games. That should never be. If a LB is in a middle zone and the QB throws it over his head to an OPEN receiver, 100% of the time, that is supposed to be a play made by the safety or the CB, but NEVER by the linebacker. The ONLY time that play is made by the LB is if the QB is under pressure and he throws it right at his chest. I think the problem is the ball trajectory. It is still off, which is why those LBs make those plays.

I thought warping to make plays like that was gone this year, . And last year, my play-calling was made easy and I could exploit the CPU because their defensive play-calling went like this... Blitz on first down, drop back into coverage on 2nd down... blitz on 3rd down. Wash, rinse, repeat. So, I could put up like 50 points on any CPU defense. It wasn't fun. This hasn't changed from what I have seen in the demo. Really frustrating.

Those are my two biggest gripes from the demo. If they fixed these two things and the psychic DBs that are STILL there in man coverage, I think this game could play infinitely more realistically.

[Kid FSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by Giants4Natic

Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now a bigger tv is going to make the game look better graphic wise? LOL ok

Eh. At least that's what happened for me. I was playing on my 32inch and it looked like crap. Now it looks like a very well polished NCAA 11

[Giants4Natic]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kid FSU

Eh. At least that's what happened for me. I was playing on my 32inch and it looked like crap. Now it looks like a very well polished NCAA 11

If it made the graphics look better then enjoy.

[Gloves 82]

Oregon vs. Texas

I was Oregon

Lost 17-8

All-American

10 yards on a slip screen (clipping called at the very end)
Very little pass rush except on blitzes (1 sack for me, 0 for them)
6 yards on WR mid screen
Plenty of time to throw on PA Jet Sweep



FSU vs Bama

I was Bama

Won 24-17

All-American

Had 9 sacks, they had 1 (I had 4 in a row in double OT, then 1 in triple OT so I had 5 straight sacks) and basically all of them were CPU controlled
PA Boot Screen is still terrible

[89OneHanded]

I have only played the PS3 version, and I've only played it on Heisman, so my write-up here is only dealing with PS Heisman demo. I am normally very optimistic about this sort of thing, but I was very underwhelmed by this demo. I know it's a demo and there are lots of tweaks left to go...but this feels like a beta version of NCAA 11... I've read on here that the XBox version looks better, and I would hope so, because the PS version of the demo looks worse than NCAA 11's full game. I really do hope they plan on cleaning the PS version up graphically before they ship it... the lighting effects look grainy, the crowds look like zombies, the "3D grass" is nonexistent except in a few short cutscenes, and the game looks and feels even more "arcady" than it did before.

I am very disappointed so far, but not just because of the graphics. The gameplay took some steps forward...but also a couple steps back, and there are some of the nagging issues from before that were not addressed at all. Let me do a summary like others have done so far.

Graphics:
+ The warping animations that have plagued the realistic look of the game have finally been dealt with, and I saw several WR catches that impressed me.
- (I know, demo version) The lighting effects looked grainy on the PS3, some of the cutscenes actually seemed to have frame rate issues.
- The crowd looks just as awful as before (T-Virus in Austin, TX?), and the sideline (during gameplay) still looks like I'm playing the game on PSone with players jumping up and down in unison even during big plays by the opponent, all wearing the same number jersey.
- 3D grass is not there during gameplay, only in cutscenes. Gameplay grass still looks like just a flat multi-green colored surface.

Presentation:
I won't spend long on this, because I think intros are a waste of time and space, because I (make myself) watch them once and then press X to skip every game after that. They don't add to the broadcast feel, because you usually don't get to watch the team intros on TV anyway, they're just there to appeal to alumni, and even as an NC State alumnus, I'm not really interested.

I didn't get to see any stat overlays, but I liked the end of quarter/halftime highlights, though there are still some graphical glitches in it, and I'd like to have an announcer TALKING ABOUT those plays as we watch them...but it's a start. I do like the new outside menu, for what that's worth.

Gameplay (the important part):
+ Zone Defense took a BIG step forward. There's still an issue with middle of the field coverage, but this was at the top of my list and I'm very glad to see that they took the time to at least improve it some. I was very tired of 63-17 scoring games.
+ Tackling physics are really really good. This is what I was most impressed with, really. The lack of canned animations really adds realism to it, and several tackles I saw, I was like, "coooooooool."
+ Pressure by the d-line on a quarterback on Heisman difficulty?!? No waaaaaay.
+ Scrambling QBs? No waaaaaay.
+- Blocking is a bit of both worlds.
+ There were some improvements by taking out suction blocking, and no more of the animation that just looked like they were indefinitely hugging one another. Also, the fact that blockers continue to run with you when you break a long one stood out to me, because previously once you hit open field they would immediately peel away from you to go block the closest person behind you (worthless) However...
- In some ways, blocking seems to have taken a slight step backwards with the new physics, simultaneous pancake blocks are one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. WRs only block CBs for half a second. Most of all, it seems like the pass blocking AI is not quite intelligent enough now that suction blocking is no more, which is evident any time a blitz is called. Where before all the blitzers would be unrealistically picked up by suction, now too many of them are let through the line while o-linemen stand there and do nothing. The strangest thing is run blocking. It seems a bit too good for I-form, but not good enough for shotgun. I don't know how to better describe that (partially because I didn't get a close enough look at it without being able to analyze replays) but I do know it doesn't make sense.
- The ballcarrier movement is painfully unrealistic. The players turn on a dime as if you're playing a racing game with a one-wheeled car. Ballcarrier movement is one of the worst looking things I saw in the demo yesterday. Cuts NEED to reduce speed, otherwise running will be soooooo overpowered it's not funny.
- Computer AI is still awful, all facets of it. Their playcalling is still predictable and semi-********, ballcarrier decisions are still boneheaded, QB decisions are sliiiiiightly improved but still needs a lot of work, and defensive playcalling is still psychic (and therefore, easily exploited. This game will not ever feel sim until the AI playcalling on both sides of the ball is scrapped and completely re-built. The AI feels exactly the same as the AI from 2011 (and it probably is the same). The only difference I saw is that psychic defensive playcalling now sometimes audibles when you audible.
- Special teams is almost exactly the same as last year, with only minor blocking improvements, and of course, beautiful tackling.
- I did not experience leaping linebackers during the 7-8 games I played, but I still think they're in the game, because I did have a pass picked off by a DT, and to pick this ball off he had to leap (looked like warping a little bit...) almost 8 yards to the left to get his hands on it. If DTs are doing that, I'm sure LBs are too.
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These are only my opinions, but unless I see a huge improvement when I rent the game upon release, I will only be buying Madden this year (I usually buy both). Last year NCAA was the superior game to Madden, this year it looks to be the other way around. (Like in 2009 with Madden 10 vs NCAA 10) Are we taking turns now EA?

As some others have said, the game this year feels like a patch of 2011 (one of those patches that fixes some things and breaks others), and that is very disappointing, because you wouldn't believe how excited I was for a coaching carousel. *shakes head*

[Hova57]

one issue I have its more of an art issue is why cheerleaders don't have team symbols on their shirts or initials of school . it looks goofy that they are flying flags with school name on them , but can't get any logos on the shirts of the cheerleaders.