NCAA Football 13 Demo Impressions (Out now on XBL & PSN)

[KNUBB]

The passing game is sex.

[BigBucs]

That ESPN touch is beautiful. That always been in the game?

[Golden Taters]

That ESPN touch is beautiful. That always been in the game?

Bottom ticker and studio updates are new this year.

[Golden Taters]

Looks like it plays exactly the same as every NCAA for the past 10 years.

The more I play/watch NCAA/Madden the more I realize it simply does not resemble real football. The movements, the animations...looks like a video game.

This is an area NFL 2K5 was great in, the animations were very smooth and not robotic.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

This is an area NFL 2K5 was great in, the animations were very smooth and not robotic.

I agree. I think Madden made strides in it and MAYBE the new "Infinity" thing helps out with just overall player movement. In NCAA, I just feel like the entire physics and scale are screwy...from the size of the ball, to how much ground a player can run in a certain amount of time, to the scale of players in relation to the field, to how fast the football travels, to how individual players react to contact of any kind...I just sit back, watch, and realize, damn, this is a video game because it doesn't even pass the naked eye test of normal.

[ThunderHorse]

I've only played one game so far, USC vs. Oregon.

I didn't really pass the ball much although when I did I REALLY liked the user catch animations.

From what I saw though the run game was easy, I did like the defensive shells though it seems like D's are better at disguising what they are doing. Later tonight I'll try using Oregon and running some read option and seeing what that looks like.

[Derrville]

The catch animations are really cool. They really add a bit of freshness in the passing game. Everything else looks and feels like the NCAA we've come to love or hate. The new kicking meter thing is cool. For those who haven't seen it, during my XP in overtime the entire kick meter was frozen solid making it hard to see the power and accuracy bars...I almost missed... it was pretty cool.

[spiker]

Two plays from jms' video to really highlight the new passing trajectories and what EA has done to the pass defense... Skip to 8:40

First play: The TE in the slot is running a fly route and he's man-up with a LB. The TE gets a step on the LB but he's still in his hip pocket since it's man. It was a questionable decision to throw there in past versions because the DB/LB always knew where the ball was, their jump swat ability was overpowered, and the pass trajectory was always too low (unless you lofted it, which gave the LB or safety time to recover, thereby making it a bad decision for a different reason). Jms puts the pass where he needs to and it's completed for a big gain. I have no problem with the result since the pass was on the money and it should be completed. My problem here is two fold: the safety (who is in Cover 2 Deep) doesn't seem to know his assignment (commits too far towards the sideline) and the LB in man coverage tries to make a play on the ball even though he doesn't see it.

I have no idea what the safety is doing here. I'm guessing he's anticipating the wide man to go deep but he totally abandons a safety's responsibility in Cover 2 Deep where the underneath defenders are man up. That CB will follow the wide man and the safety should know that. The safety should only commit when a deep pass is actually thrown down the sideline since the sideline is the "third safety" in coverage, if you will. The safety should be closer to the hashes and acting more as a bracket on the TE so that he doesn't get too deep and watching to see if the RB dumps into the flat. /facepalm

The LB in man coverage isn't supposed to make a play on that ball this year... according to EA. Only players who "see the ball" are supposed to try and make a play. That is the downfall of man coverage - the defender is not watching the QB! I like that the LB wasn't able to pull out the superman jump swat animation this year but I was under the impression that this type of thing was "fixed". I guess not. At least the pass trajectories seem to be working.

Second play: The play immediately following the play I just broke down. The defense is in a true Cover 2 this time - all defenders are playing zone, not just the safeties. The particular route combination of a post and wheel on the right side would be designed to make the safety commit to one or the other in a Cover 2. The offensive play call is dead on to exploit the defense. My problem is that once again, the safety initially commits too far toward the sideline, ignoring the sideline as a "defender". When the ball is thrown to the post route (the correct read) and the safety starts to recover, he shuffles about 3 steps before he really commits to the WR. Why? He should be in full on sprint mode once he realizes the ball is thrown and ideally, would try to separate the ball from the receiver if he gets there on time. It's like EA just nerfed the safety's reactionary animations in order to open up the passing game instead of coding proper defensive assignments. It just seems half assed.

[jms493]

The frozen kick meter has been in the game 2 years now.

[spiker]

I didn't look but did they get rid of that stupid "Game Plan" shit yet?

[jms493]

I didn't look but did they get rid of that stupid "Game Plan" shit yet?

still there exactly the same as last year. I did not use it much. I used it for conservative clock and sometimes on defense for aggressive pass defense.

[Atlas]

yea i hate that aggro/conservative shit, i wish they'd get rid of it...

hopefully the ps3 guys will chime in now that its out for them in the PSN store...

[spiker]

I love the fact that replay mode and changing difficulties are disabled. What are we hiding?

Has anyone got one of those shovel passes to work? You know, the shovel passes they put in the game that do not have a designed play that features the shovel pass.

[MrBill]

yea i hate that aggro/conservative shit, i wish they'd get rid of it...

hopefully the ps3 guys will chime in now that its out for them in the PSN store...

It's out in the PSN store now if you search for it

[jms493]

I love the fact that replay mode and changing difficulties are disabled. What are we hiding?

Has anyone got one of those shovel passes to work? You know, the shovel passes they put in the game that do not have a designed play that features the shovel pass.

I think that is pretty par for the course on Demos. I was surprised there was commentary.