NCAA Football 14 Demo is Available Now, Post Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[BentleyA]

I was not able to play the demo until yesterday but I spent the previous two days before that browsing this thread seeing how the demo was. When I finally had a chance to play it, my cautious optimism turned into a massive grin. Man has this game finally taken that step forward that its been needing for years now. I am happy that it has finally happened and I will be buying NCAA 14 the week it comes out. I have been buying NCAA football since 2003 (I played 2k2 on dreamcast before that) and last year was the first time I did not rush to the store and buy it. In fact, I actually waited until september and bought it used for $25 instead.
Anyways, I wrote some notes down while playing the demo and wanted to share some of the ones that were not talked about on here yet or just talked about less (I have not read all 100 pages of this thread).

First game I played was Michigan vs ohio state and I won 7-6. Before I go on, I wanted to say that I am a defensive minded guy (played safety in HS) and I do not use the hurry up or up tempo offense very much. I usually play 9-10 min quarters so the scores of my games are great because it is like what they would be after 1. Also I am on 360 and use AA settings for O and D.

Immediately I scored a TD on my first drive and I noticed the receiver went smoothly into his TD celebration. I feel like this would not happen in the past. He kept running towards the stands doing the Robert Woods "keep feeding me" gesture.
One play that left me smiling was a run play where the cpu found a huge hole on the left side and cut into it, while I filled it with my FS (thats what I play with mostly), the cpu then immediately cut back the other way to avoid me. That was cool to see the ai be smart there (definitely is still not always smart, but clearly much improved).

Another awesome play I had occur was just a broken up pass play. In the past, I feel like every broken up pass was an animation where the defender looked like a puppy trying to swat his paws at a toy in your hand. On this particular play (a hitch to my slot guy), the defender came from his outside shoulder and stuck his arm in to break it up. It looked very nice and realistic.
I also noticed they fixed the ball trajectory when the QB gets hit. A couple of years ago if the QB got hit, the ball would just pop up really high into the middle of the field and it would be picked off a majority of the time. Last year, the QB would go through his entire throwing motion but hang onto the ball if he was being hit (drove me nuts). This time, the ball came out more naturally when hit and fell harmlessly to the turf (saw this a few times).

Another awesome change I noticed was the way the ball carrier reacts if he runs into the backside of an olinemen. I try to run right off of my linemen's hips a lot to get into the hole and in the past this resulted in the running back just being stopped (he would kind of run in place and then get tackled). This time, I noticed that he makes a sideways cut to brush around the o linemen. This slows him up and is clearly my mistake, but it is much more realistic and just better.

I like the shoe string tackle animations/physics.
The post game stats screen when you exit out of the game is a nice touch.
Had a play where Mariota got tackled ontop of one of my defenders and then tried to get up and keep running but was hammered by 3 more guys. All of them interacting with each other on the play and flying around. Awesome to see. This play happened far down field after Mariota (cpu) completely fooled me and cut back across field. I felt like I was actually playing another player.

Ive had 1 penalty through 5 games (assume can be fixed with sliders).

Again, the new physics engine is awesome and love when multiple guys are flying in to make the tackle. It doesnt look like animations about 95% of the time, which I love. I even saw a few guys piled up. I have literally been waiting to see guys pile ontop of each other like that to make a tackle since I first started playing 2k2 (the one with Drew Brees on the cover).

There were definitely some bad things that I saw. I had the pick in the end zone glitch (picked it off in my own endzone and got 6 points). Also, Oregon was driving down the field at my own 15 with about 8 seconds left (tie game). They had a timeout left, but just continued to run their no huddle. They ended up running a play that was complete for like 5 yards and time easily expired.

Oh and the stiff arm animation needs to be tuned. The runner looks like he is a traffic cop that is way to serious about their job.

Anyways, I have played 5 games now and I am going to continue to play more. I have never played a demo so much and I do not particularly care for any of the teams in the demo, so that is saying a lot.

Good job EA!

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aabsurd18

Who ever get the ncaa game right before the ps4 x box one come out is a sucker an is giving there money away why it took EA sports so long to come out with a half decent game but there to late my money going for the next gen that 4 months away ncaa football still lack what I expect it should have from what I seem on games six years ago like 2k 8 all pro and nba2k the crowd and sidelines are an embarrassment to ps3 and Xbox 360 they have not did nothing to them at all and they want my money for a incomplete game they just now put refs in the game 2k did all that I'm not 6 years ago EA struggles with finding game play every single year since ps3 came out and that horrible and now they found a little something but they forget the essence of football the little things and that looses me while 2k seems to find more than I expect for example movie stars in the crowd ,black and white games with the old teams micheal Jordan etc i mean WOW EA not giving us that in no sense of the word

Maybe the greatest run on sentence ever.

[Armor and Sword]

I played the demo with my own slider tweaks, tried out the shovel option, read option, used Alabama for pro style and pistol.

The more I played the more improvements I am feeling and seeing. Especially the foot planting and weighty feel of the running backs.

The game is an upgrade. No question.

Playing on slow also looks awesome. I am torn though between normal speed and slow. Normal feels more like football but slow the game looks beautiful.

[The JareBear]

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor & Sword

I played the demo with my own slider tweaks, tried out the shovel option, read option, used Alabama for pro style and pistol. The more I played the more improvements I am feeling and seeing. Especially the foot planting and weighty feel of the running backs. The game is an upgrade. No question. Playing on slow also looks awesome. I am torn though between normal speed and slow. Normal feels more like football but slow the game looks beautiful.

This right here will be a big debate for me this year. On slow I really notice, in the demo at least, linemen jostling and hand fighting. However, I don't think it's realistic (that game speed). What to do, what to do

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor & Sword

I played the demo with my own slider tweaks, tried out the shovel option, read option, used Alabama for pro style and pistol. The more I played the more improvements I am feeling and seeing. Especially the foot planting and weighty feel of the running backs. The game is an upgrade. No question. Playing on slow also looks awesome. I am torn though between normal speed and slow. Normal feels more like football but slow the game looks beautiful.

I am also torn at the moment. I am older as well, though, so I am leaning towards slow. Normal feels like a much better pace than Normal has in any previous version however.

[Gronk4M13]

I thoroughly enjoyed the demo. I never got NCAA 13, so the demo impressed me. I definitely plan on buying NCAA 14, especially for imported draft classes in Madden 25.

[Armor and Sword]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

I am also torn at the moment. I am older as well, though, so I am leaning towards slow. Normal feels like a much better pace than Normal has in any previous version however.

Yeah normal plays at a far better pace than in Years past. Slow almost feels like very slow from years past.

Big dilimma for me! I am getting this game no doubt about it now.

[Ziza9Noles94]

I've really been enjoying the demo. I've really been enjoying the Zoom Camera as well as the game on Normal. Wide is fun, in some instances, as well. The Coordinator cam is cool, but I feel too far away from the action.

The game overall, as others have said, just feels better. The players have more weight to them, movements and interactions seem more natural. About the only thing I didn't like was that on some tackles when my runner goes down he would slide/morph about 3ft from the spot he fell. This happened about three times so far. That's probably wonkiness associated with the IE 2.0. I can see that being tuned.

I have played fifteen games on the demo. All on default AA. I'm 8-7. The AI seems harder and smarter. I'm being forced to think more intuitively on both offense and defense. I loved 13 (yeah I'm one of those guys) and was still playing until the demo dropped, but 14 already looks like a vast improvement over last year's.

First NCAA demo I couldn't just stop playing. I haven't seen the DB glitch, but I have seen instances of what I thought was just poor decision making. Or maybe I just convinced myself that's what I saw.

Overall, fun, big step up from 13.

I'm going to play on Slow to see how the game looks there, but I enjoy Normal myself.