NCAA 12 Demo Impressions - rudyjuly2's Blog

rudyjuly2's Blog

NCAA 12 Demo Impressions

Posted on June 28, 2011 at 11:42 PM.

(10)

It�s awful hard to get good impressions on a football game with only 2 minute quarters as it hurts your ability to run many plays and you tend to play hurry up and pass more than usual. What really hurts though is the inability to access the sliders. I�d love to see sliders available in next year�s demo. The game does not fit my skill set on either AA (cpu offence is really weak) or Heisman default and so my fun factor isn�t as high as it could be. Overall it�s a pretty decent demo where I don�t see a huge difference over NCAA 11. It looks like it may be a nice improvement but the feel of the game will be similar. I should note these impressions are after only 5 games.

Graphics � these looked good. I saw some jaggies during the pre-game but I don�t really care. The lighting in the night game at Texas looked good. Things were definitely brighter. I did see a goof up in the Bama game in the 4th quarter as a handful of players had a blue tint to them for a few plays. You don�t notice the new 3D grass really. Chip Kelly has a visor but is not that fat lol. I know some things are probably due to likeness issues but he can�t be happy with that gut.

Playbooks � I saw some new plays in the playbooks and the 3-4 defensive playbook looked good. I like the predator formation and there are some new LB blitzes in there as well. Nice. The play call screen got a fix as they now let you scroll through three plays at once without having to hold L2. You can cycle through formations nicely but they removed the ability to toggle between calling your own plays (formation) and �ask coach�. You used to be able to hit R3 and toggle back and forth easily but they removed it. Not a big deal but I don�t know why that had to be changed.

Player Movement � Still a real lack of player momentum imo. I�d really like to see more weight to them or an option to let me get something closer to the way PS2 players felt. There may be less momentum than last year. It doesn�t look good on replays and it just doesn�t feel quite right. The speed of the game felt pretty good although a touch fast for me as I was used to Slow speed last year. The new tackle/collision system can definitely be seen and felt but I feel it�s a subtle improvement and not a big change. There are new animations so that�s nice.

Gameplay � Screen plays don�t seem to work well for either me or the cpu. Play action seems to work better. Other than Bama the cpu offences appear to suck on AA. On Heisman the game wasn�t as tough as I thought. One HUGE negative is the number of pancake blocks in the game. It�s freaking ridiculous on Heisman. The game�s blocking system resembles Tecmo Bowl far more than real football. It�s not uncommon to see the cpu OL bowl over every DL on your team. You can also see this with Bama against FSU on AA although not quite as bad. The Bama OL was knocking down my defensive players left and right. It is awful and needs to be fixed big time. I don�t mind my DL getting beat but have the OL hold his block longer and/or push my DL backwards but don�t have them throw my entire line down on the ground like I�m playing a super arcade like football game. Awful.

I didn�t see the ease of returning TDs on kickoffs but I�m not that good. As usual the cpu sucks to return kicks even on Heisman. This area needs a big boost for the cpu as does the cpu offence in general. In 5 games the cpu attempted two fakes near midfield on 4th down. I hope this isn�t overdone. I don�t think I�ve seen as much blitzing by the cpu on 3rd down although the jury is still out.

Zones work a lot better. I tried calling them quite a bit and they worked. They certainly worked against me as my normally weak passing game just got worse. Play action passes give you more time this year which is nice.

Cpu spread � jury is out. This sucked on AA and I couldn�t tell how it would be on Heisman. I hate that cpu running QBs slide in NCAA. I�d rather they removed the slide altogether than see a cpu QB slide on a read-option play which I saw. I can understand sliding after a scramble (and I did see a few of them! � I like!) but not on a read-option play through an open hole as a defender approaches.

Fumbles and drops seemed good on default.

There isn�t enough arc on passes still. A LB lurking 5 yards downfield can still defend 10-15 yards behind him even though you know you should be able to complete that pass over him. The super swat is toned down but it�s still there imo. Overall the passing game seemed fine. I was able to run the ball, even on Heisman when I tried. No real complaints with that other than the horrible pancake blocking that I mentioned earlier.

Presentation � the new pre-game stuff is nice but will add little long term. The new replay system is better and the gameplan stuff is nice. I liked the halftime analysis. The commentary needs an overhaul. I have no problem with Nessler but Herbstreit just doesn�t work well anymore. He�s good in real life because of good analysis of what is going on but we don�t have enough smart and specific commentary. The commentary needs an injection of energy and humour � bring back Corso! I miss him!

Overall � This game will probably be really good with slider adjustments but the pancakes need to be toned down big time or I will be very unhappy. I hope this is a demo thing only. It feels similar to NCAA 11 but the refinements should be nice. I like the improved playbooks and the fact we can actually use zone defences and that alone should make playing defence more fun. The cpu offence on default AA is so weak that I probably will stick to playing on Heisman unless I�m FSU taking on Bama�s super pancaking OL.

Comments

# 1 Wesman @ Jun 29

and now im thinking about cancelling my pre-order...

# 2 RUFFNREADY @ Jun 29

i agree with everything you stated "RudyJuly2" the cpu running is crazy on AA; my whole D-line keeps getting knocked over on pretty much every run play (Texas (cpu) vs (me) Oregon). I still believe that the CPU / A.I cheats on run plays.
Right now, my decision to still keep my pre-order looks bleek!
I just am not too impressed.
cheers

# 3 rudyjuly2 @ Jun 29

It's not that bad guys lol. But I don't know how much I can play this demo on the default settings. On AA the cpu offence is lousy and on Heisman my offence is lousy. I need sliders to fix some things and I need EA to fix the things like pancake blocks as sliders won't fix that.

# 4 jmik58 @ Jun 29

In regard to the running issue or any of the "super-human" animations, remember you're playing with/against some of the best teams in the game. This always happens in football video games where the player with the best ratings are going to do amazing things that aren't quite natural.

In regard to your review...I feel like you're describing ncaa 11, 10, 09...

I still want the game, but if they still can't spend time fixing gameplay (don't they realize this is the most important thing?? Not rendering light on buffalo droppings for a 2 second pregame entrance that never changes.) ... there's no point in buying this at release.

If the gameplay is as unchanged as all are saying, then this sounds like a late July or August pickup for me from the used rack.

I haven't played the demo yet, but if what you say is true...

# 5 rudyjuly2 @ Jun 30

The juke move has been destroyed by the dev team and I don't consider this a good thing. Quite frankly I didn't think the juke was over powered last year. The spin move is often more effective. As it stands right now the juke move does virtually nothing. That was my favourite move and now it's been neutered completely. It is useless. I guess I better learn to just use the L-stick for moves or rely completely on the spin because the juke is dead. Not happy about this.

# 6 C the Lyte @ Jun 30

I have actually enjoyed the DEMO. I have only played it on Heisman and love how challenging it can be.

Out the box, yea this game will have some minor issues. Games on first day release nowadays are lucky to only have minor issues. I think the majority of what is "wrong" with this game can be fixed via first day patch and tuner sets.

I have been playing games since I was 8 years old. I'm 28 now. I have yet to run into the perfect game. There will never be a game that is perfect to a community. Ever.

I'm not backing EA even though I may sound like it. They could do a lot of things better. ALOT of things.

But to me, this game seems like it will be extremely fun. As well as a good sim game. Good, not great, not perfect.

However, what do people in general want? Do you want a fun game, or do you want a sim game? IMO, a sim game would probably not be very fun, with at max most of the time 3 seconds to pass before you get drilled. For people in general that is. It is a very delicate balance and thin line. No other sport like football and therefore I can only imagine the migraines the guys @ EA catch.

As I said, I aint hip hip hooray let's go EA. Above refers more to gameplay. When it comes to franchise depth and presentation, no excuse. 2k's baseball presentation is second to none, with out a doubt.

# 7 rudyjuly2 @ Jun 30

C Lyte - I turn 39 in two days. I got you beat with the age part although I'm not sure that's something I want to win lol.

# 8 C the Lyte @ Jul 1

Rudy, ran into the perfect game yet?

# 9 rudyjuly2 @ Jul 1

Nope. Some games are better than others but I've yet to play a football that didn't have some problems.

I would say the first Uncharted game when I played it was about as close as you could get to it. My memories of the first MLB the Show game I got (MLB 06) were also fantastic. Hard to go wrong with Tecmo Super Bowl either.