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

[4solo]

You know I'm enjoying all of the new tackle animations with the removal of suction but I have had some suspect plays where I just run by the ball carrier, even though I was close enough to make a tackle. Maybe I didn't press the tackle button soon enough but I think EA need to add some grab animation for when you sometimes over pursue.

[Cpre5]

Getting tired of watch my wide open WR/TE get hit in the side of the head with out even trying for the ball.
After playing the 360 again I really wish the PS3 version had the star shadows on top players. It's nice to see who is the impact player without having to click around 1st.

[RoyalBoyle78]

shorts and sweet, finally played the demo and love it PERIOD!

[Ny17Jets]

Thank you! omg man, I throw beatiful passes straight down the field for the ball to either hit him in the side of the head or on the top...wtf is that. Great A.I.

[spit_bubble]

Quote: Originally Posted by spit_bubble

I know it's just a demo, but it seems very ho hum to me. -The team intros, for all their build up, ended up being pretty lackluster... And I know they will get old fast, seeing the same exact cut scenes over and over. -It's still difficult to sub in different packages. Scrolling through subs with the R-stick has the same delay as last year, and is still way too clumsy to be useful. -Also, they still have those really lame photos at the end of the game. -Gameplay seems decent enough, but really just felt like a minor upgrade over last year. Don't see myself getting this, unless Madden really sucks.

^ My previous impressions...

Got some more play time...

The differences in gameplay from last year are starting to stand out. They are subtle, but they are definitely there: new animations, tighter AI, better collisions...

I upgrade my early assessment of "decent enough" to being very nice... It just feels like a good game of football.

A few times I have seen some weird things... The strangest was the AI QB throwing the ball away really soon, like almost right after the snap... Happened a few times... This is on AA difficulty...

Hey, it's the demo. Seems like it could be corrected pretty easily.

Still sticking with Madden for now.

[zpq12]

I like the new tackling. It seems very solid. I have been getting a few too many sacks, but I feel that can be fixed.

I'm concerned about the QB AI on runs and the spread option in general. Oregon didn't frighten me on offense like they should have on AA. On one play Thomas kept the ball on a read option, shuffled a few steps, stood facing the wrong direction, turned around and was destroyed in the backfield. That play was the worst, but overall the Oregon runnng game in all the games I played was really ho-hum. Its just a little disappointing that the spread option isn't a little more dynamic in the game.

On a semi-related note, I wish AI quarterbacks would take off more often. For some reason inthe games I have played against FSU, the quarterback will get flushed out of the pocket or roll out or whatever, shuffle to the LOS and stand around until he's sacked for a loss or minimal gain. TAKE OFF. I'm begging you. Please be a running threat. Hopefully I've just had some bad experiences and the rest of you guys are seeing some better things with quarterback running.

One final note - it takes away from the realism when Oregon dips into their non-shotgun portion of their playbook. I realize that they have those plays, but I bet we won't see Darron Thomas under center, at least not between the 10s, at any point this year. I don't know how EA can fix that without overhauling the playcalling AI, but it can be frustrating. Thats been a gripe about EA football for me for years. A team will go shotgun with 4 wides one play and come out with weak formation twins the next play. I'm not too huge a fan of that.

Despite all that negativity, the game seems pretty fun.

[canes21]

I really like how when you pass it to a WR and he catches it and then gets surrounded you can hit X and they'll fall down to avoid contact instead of the old dive head first and fumble.

[Dynasty411]

Quote: Originally Posted by Geekboy

Bottom line is this.....either the guys at EA (NCAA staff) are incompetent or their hands are tied when it comes to incremental upgrades for the game. Because each year it truly is just slightly incremental upgrades when it comes to game play, etc. The crowd noise (I know it's supposed to maybe be better with the final release) is still a joke. The people that work on this game really don't understand college football. If you had some really college football fanatics working on the game they would blow away all expectations. That leads me again to believe they don't have a clue or their hands are tied because of no competition. This really is a shame.

I agree with you. I don't know if you played NCAA football when it was on the PS2 or not. But, EA is just adding what they already had in the game. Crowd noise was solid in 05 or 06. Every time you had a big run... the crowd was shaking with volume. Especially on long TD's!!