Five Reasons to Hold off on Buying NCAA Football 13

[gopher_guy]

Run/Pass Commit

Defenses can also participate in a guessing game called run/pass commit, where correctly choosing one of four offensive scenarios (pass, run right, run left, run middle) results in the play getting blown up like a scene out of Tecmo Super Bowl. Essentially, Run/Pass Commit functions just like Jump The Snap, only without the risk of ever taking a penalty.

With a 1:4 chance of guessing the right offensive setup and snuffing out the play, the odds in this gameplay mechanic are stacked largely in the defense's favor. At least in Tecmo Super Bowl the defense had only 1:8 odds of picking the right preplay setup.

As some downs will force the offense into obvious passing situations, the "pass commit" option becomes foolproof at times since there's no directional guessing involved like there is in run plays.

It's a mystery why this feature even exists. If the user wants to defend against a running play, why not just send blitzers into the gaps where the run is expected?

Or if the user believes a pass is coming, what's wrong with simply choosing a traditional coverage scheme or an overload blitz to the quarterback's weak side?

Why is it necessary to artificially enhance the defense's ability with a silly guessing mini game that can stifle any offensive play?

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This one puzzles me. I feel like this is feature is pretty fair. You're telling your players to sell out to stop a specific play. 3rd and 29? Hey, they are probably going to pass, tell your defense to drop back because you know a pass is coming.

And if you guess wrong you get destroyed. Especially if you guess run and it's a pass.

[bigsmallwood]

Amazing write up! I thoroughly agree with your assessment and we may not see a fix (if ever) until next gen.

[pirateraider]

yeah i'm not seeing a lot of these problems.. do you have the tuner downloaded?

[WipeOut464]

Quote: Originally Posted by boomhauertjs

Wow! After this no one can ever accuse OS of being shills for EA Sports. Well done. If I do upgrade from NCAA 11 this year, it will probably be to a used copy of 12, not 13.

Do NOT do that. Without a doubt, 11 is better and less glitchy than 12.

Hell, I'll trade you my copy of 12 for your 11.

[skipwondah33]

I agree with pretty much everything in this.

Especially the Run/Pass commit - I cannot stand this feature and have never cared for it.

The same for the Gameplanning feature. Definitely cannot stand it.

[btemp]

GREAT ARTICLE!

Best article I've seen on here in a long time that doesn't ignore so many problems with EA's football titles. If we're not concious of them, how will they ever be fixed.

Top notch work.

[scottyo60]

As I've done ratings adjustments and such the gameplay problems you present are no where near as bad. I got destroyed playing against Georgia Tech (I was temple) and they moved it well.

I also lowered agility on a lot of players. Seemed to slow a lot of the cuts and quick accell. Jumping snap is a problem, but as long as I change up the cadance ever so often it does not present such an issue. The play actions and pump fakes also work very well if not over used and set up well... On total passing control I do agree, but I've not had any wild crazy scoring games. Even with friends the highest on 7 min quarters is only 32-31.

This will take a lot of continued tweaking, but there is a really good game under it all. If you're on the fence I have a roster coming soon and Carson and crew have done a great job on the 360 rosters with corrections. Mix that with the slider workers and those two reasons alone are to buy NCAA.

[fballturkey]

I like 13 and still agree with everything in that article, except the run/pass commit because A) I'm not sure pass commit actually does anything and B) if you guess wrong on run commit you're going to give up a big gain.