NCAA Football 12 Retail Impressions/Q&A

[Jr.]

Hey OSers.

I was lucky enough to find a local store that had the retail copy of NCAA 12 for the PS3 hooked up and playable yesterday, so I checked back with them today and was able to spend a couple of hours with the game. I received the O.K. from Steve, so I'm posting my impressions of the 3+ games that I was able to play and try to answer as many questions as I can.

A couple of requests on my end:
1. I didn't look at the rosters for any team, so please don't ask about ratings for anyone or any team.
2. I was only in the dynasty for about 3 minutes to check on something of my own curiosity which I will talk about shortly, so please no questions about recruits or dynasty stuff.
3. I focused my efforts on examining the gameplay and how I thought it was different/better/worse than the PS3 demo, so questions of those types I will able to answer the best.

I played this on a 55" Sony Bravia LED TV (way better than what I have at home), just FYI.

Here's the summary of my time:

First game was ASU(me) vs. Michigan(CPU) on Heisman, 5 minute quarters, perfect weather. I lost 13-10 on a last second FG.
-First off, it looks as though the QB scrambling on Heisman is the same as the demo. Denard had a few QB runs but nothing major. I think he finished with 30 yards on 7 carries, with 20 of those yards coming on 2 scrambles during pass plays.
-The Michigan spread run game was not very effective as they only totaled about 50 yards rushing. They did throw the ball pretty well though. I didn't fare much better with ASU's offense. I think Michigan's defense was bumped up a little bit as their D-Line tore up the ASU O-Line and their pass D was pretty stout.
-My only TD drive was when I was purposefully calling plays that abused the middle (Posts, slants, seam routes, etc.).
-Play action worked as it should. I got time sometimes (and scored my only TD on PA) and got sacked when blitzed from the edge. Didn't feel cheated at all.
-Graphics looked slightly more polished than the demo, but I did still notice some rough edges. I haven't seen the 360 version yet, and according to those who have seen both, I'm going to try not to. The game looks great to me right now and I don't want to mess that up.
-It looks like the glitch with the cutscene showing the wrong players warming up as kickers is fixed too as it had the ASU kicker warming up when I was driving late.

Game 2 was Utah(CPU) vs. Colorado(me) 5 min. quarters, Heisman, at night, clear weather. I think it was 7-0 Utah when I quit
-I think I have good news for Buffs fans as their helmets looked right at nighttime. I just saw a picture of their helmets at night from '11 and that definitely is not the case with the game I played this afternoon
-I only played 1 half of this game because I just wanted to check the helmets. Gameplay wise it was pretty similar to the first game

Game 3 was Army(me) vs. Navy(CPU) Coach mode, 5 min quarters Heisman(first half)/AA (second half), night game, foggy conditions. Navy won 13-0
-The fog looked great, especially from the Broadcast Cam. Great addition by EA
-The CPU option game is still messed up. Each team had a handful of really nice runs, but for the most part the QBs made bad decisions, or the play was blown up in the backfield. I know this is a very limited sample, but I think improving the blocking ability of the WRs would help out a bit. There were a few times where the QB would make the correct decision to pitch, but as soon as he did a DB would disengage from a WRs block and make the play in the backfield. I think this could be fixable though, as I did see the Army QB run for 40 yards on a great decision to keep it. It's there, but I think the community will have to bring it out of the game.
-The middle of the field was open for the CPU in this game too. The one drive that I threatened it was due to 20+ yard passes down the middle.
-Coach mode is pretty damn fun. I've never tried it myself but I definitely enjoyed it. You can move your guys around before the snap, but after that it's all up to them. I think if someone can find a good slider set, people who enjoy this mode will have a blast.

Game 4 was Alabama(me) vs. Oregon(CPU), 5 min quarters, AA difficulty, heavy rain and cold and windy Alabama won 14-0
-I could tell the difference in the ability of the teams after watching Army/Navy almost immediately. From reading Ryno's thread, I think the decision to expand the ratings this year is going to be a good one by EA.
-This game was scoreless after the first 3 quarters. I got a 70 yard TD on a screen and a pick 6 at the end of the game.
-It was really difficult to run on Oregon. It seemed like right when I was going into an open hole, one of their DL would shed a block and make the tackle. It wasn't frustrating for me though.
-Darron Thomas scrambled more this game than DR did in my first game. Their spread option game didn't work either. Not sure if that's because of the game or because of Bama's defense. Oregon was able to run pretty well on me on the demo, so this will have to be tested more.
-I cannot play with AJ McCarron. I couldn't in '11 and I couldn't today. I threw 3 picks with him and he was rattled all game. I don't know what it is about him.
-I saw a few effects of the weather. Richardson slipped on his break running out to the flats and caused an incompletion. I saw Thomas slip on his dropback a few times and some of their receivers slip out of their breaks. I tried to throw deep a couple of times to see if the wind affects the passing game. One throw flew way out of bounds, and another was on the money. My hunch is that it doesn't. I would say the weather effects are there, but not substantial. I don't remember how it was in '11 to compare.

Overall the game felt pretty similar to the demo. The CPU pass rush felt right on both AA and Heisman. I was sacked 5 times in the first game vs. Michigan but 2 of those were my fault. I did feel that when I was in passing situations, the Michigan DL pinned their ears back and got to me a bit quicker. There were also times where I had 5 seconds or more. So to me, it felt good. The CPU run game was a bit disappointing. Neither Oregon, Michigan, or Utah could do much on the ground. Their pass games were much more effective. It looks like the middle of the field is still open for the pass game.

I'm sure that I forgot some things, but feel free to ask questions and hopefully it'll jog my memory. I am going to ignore any questions related to rosters or dynasty, and I hope everyone else will too.

Also, Ryno has done a great job posting videos and I think he's answering questions too, so if someone asks a question that's already been answered in his thread, feel free to point them that way

[Microsoft_Works]

Could you check if conference prestige is dynamic by adding some traditional powers to the Sun Belt?

[NoDakHusker]

The playart thing isn't a glitch, go into "Controls" in the options and turn the playart off.

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by Microsoft_Works

Could you check if conference prestige is dynamic by adding some traditional powers to the Sun Belt?

I knew someone would remind me. I did this. I switched the SEC and Sun Belt and unfortunately the conference prestige stayed the same. I stayed in the preseason, so maybe it changes once you get to the season. I can't say 100% that it doesn't change once you start a season because I didn't go that far (don't ask me why, I'm trying to figure that out myself right now) but I'm going to guess that it doesn't

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoDakHusker

The playart thing isn't a glitch, go into "Controls" in the options and turn the playart off.

Did they make it so it automatically comes up this year unless you turn it off?

[NoDakHusker]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baughn3

Did they make it so it automatically comes up this year unless you turn it off?

Apparently. Not sure why they did that, but it's easily remedied. Still annoying, though.

[BA2929]

I did see the Army QB run for 40 yards on a great decision to keep it.

Tooting your own horn there?

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoDakHusker

Apparently. Not sure why they did that, but it's easily remedied. Still annoying, though.

Ok thanks for that info