NCAA Football ’13 Review

[NateDogg7240]

Wtf. I figured it would've been with the new ones. How the hell did they mess that up

[JimLeavy59]

Meh ND sucks dicks anyways.

[spiker]

How many games did you guys get to play before you wrote this? It seems way under-reviewed. The following is the only substantive part of that review. The rest of it was a rehash of the back of the box points.

Final Thoughts

With all of the focus on how NCAA Football ’13 could deliver a fresh college football experience minus the “Infinity” engine, it certainly delivers an improved experience over last year. Some areas of concern from last year such as how the CPU QB runs an option offense seemed to be consistently improved though there were still a few head scratching moments. Route running seems very crisp and the new highlighted icons for receivers seemed to work very well. The new passing trajectories seemed to be delivered as promised with very few defensive players batting down a ball thrown to a player 10 yards behind them.

On the defensive side of the ball, the read and react AI is most welcome to see in action. Too long have our video football game goals been crushed by the “Super LB” or “Psychic DB” intercepting or batting down a pass to what would have been a wide open receiver in real life. We won’t say that this is perfectly implemented but it is certainly several steps in the right direction.

The graphics in NCAA Football ’13 are not greatly improved over last year but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. All of the time and effort spent on presentation more than makes up for it. The presentation area of the game delivers a solid touchdown.

The limited time for review did not allow us to adequately dive into the Dynasty, Heisman Challenge and Road to Glory modes but each certainly appeared to very impressive in their own right as we played through a partial season to get a feel for how each performed. We will have a much more in depth review on the Dynasty mode in the near future. As for the others, adding additional Heisman Trophy winners in coming years will certainly bolster the Heisman Challenge feature and the new user selectable difficulty in Road To Glory helps make it more fun for gamers regardless of their stick skills. The Reaction Time feature worked well though some will obviously like it more than others.

Based on what we have seen thus far, VSN rates NCAA Football ’13 as a solid addition to the franchise.

Based on what I've seen and what I've read, I wouldn't entirely agree with your overall assessment either. Aside from the issues that have plagued the series from year-to-year like the option offense and line interaction, all I've been reading is that the big change is that defense is completely and utterly fucked. TGT and OS both crushed this game and they are usually ones to cater to EA's beck and call. The defense is like one extreme to the next - From psychic defenders and super LBs in NCAA 12 to broken or simply non-existent defense in NCAA 13. Where is the middle ground? This series is far from an adequate representation of football and it starts with their antiquated game engine. I'm sure some enjoyment can be derived from the game but without some semblance of balanced gameplay that is derived from true to life football strategy, this game will get stale within weeks, if not days. There are so many good games out right now that I couldn't fathom spending another $60 and wasting my time on this series.

[MrBill]

How many games did you guys get to play before you wrote this? It seems way under-reviewed. The following is the only substantive part of that review. The rest of it was a rehash of the back of the box points.

I was able to play about a dozen games in the 18 hours I had the game before the embargo on posting information based on the review copy was lifted. To contrast, the other sites that posted reviews had the game 7-10 days beforehand as part of their being part of the GameChanger program.

Based on what I've seen and what I've read, I wouldn't entirely agree with your overall assessment either. Aside from the issues that have plagued the series from year-to-year like the option offense and line interaction, all I've been reading is that the big change is that defense is completely and utterly fucked. TGT and OS both crushed this game and they are usually ones to cater to EA's beck and call. The defense is like one extreme to the next - From psychic defenders and super LBs in NCAA 12 to broken or simply non-existent defense in NCAA 13. Where is the middle ground? This series is far from an adequate representation of football and it starts with their antiquated game engine. I'm sure some enjoyment can be derived from the game but without some semblance of balanced gameplay that is derived from true to life football strategy, this game will get stale within weeks, if not days. There are so many good games out right now that I couldn't fathom spending another $60 and wasting my time on this series.

You don't have to agree with the assessment, I put a lot of information out there and people can make their own decisions. The reviews from TGT and OS were hardly crushing the game. Both said NCAA was a good game, which is basically what we said. The rating of 8.0 out of 10 equates to roughly a B- or C+ and was on par or lower than ratings from other gaming sites so it's not like anybody here said to pawn your mothers wedding ring and go buy it. It's a good game with some flaws but it is better than NCAA '12 which makes it worth checking out.

[Maynard]

i didnt expect anything other than a fucked up game. i would have been shocked if it was done right. its EA...this is the model for them and it never changes. some will still get their enjoyment out of it and thats great for them. But for people like me who only want the most authentic, realistic football gaming experience, EA falls short for so many reasons. Maybe one day we will see some competition with the football games and have something worth buying.

[Nevermind]

You don't have to agree with the assessment, I put a lot of information out there and people can make their own decisions. The reviews from TGT and OS were hardly crushing the game. Both said NCAA was a good game, which is basically what we said. The rating of 8.0 out of 10 equates to roughly a B- or C+ and was on par or lower than ratings from other gaming sites so it's not like anybody here said to pawn your mothers wedding ring and go buy it. It's a good game with some flaws but it is better than NCAA '12 which makes it worth checking out.

You know I see you say this and in the chatbox on a few occasions say somethings along the lines of "TGT review basically said 'the game sucks, go buy it'". But I read their review and have never seen them say the game is good/great nor have I seen them encourage people to buy it. Here is what they wrap their review up with.

To wrap things up, NCAA Football 13 had a world of potential to make this one of the best releases on this generation of consoles, but they’ve dropped the ball up to this point. They needed to show fans that NCAA Football 12 was just a year that they set their sights too high, but instead, some will still come away feeling burnt by this year's title. Added that NCAA’s bigger brother, Madden, will be getting two very buzz-worthy features in Connected Careers and the Infinity Engine, but NCAA’s most buzz-worthy feature this year is the Heisman Challenge. Overall, NCAA Football 13 at first glance will offer a fun experience and a lot of users will be able to either overlook or may not even notice the detractions, but days after launch, we can probably expect a segment of the loyal fan base to be disgruntled with the drawbacks included in the game this year. Fans of the series of course already know to expect a patch to fix some of these issues but when that patch comes and what it fixes is right now unknown. That combined with previous years where a patch can correct one issue only to uncover a new one, leads to a suggested caution for those that play the NCAA Football series year-round.

If anything they are encouraging people to be cautious about buying the game. So I am curious as to where you get the idea that TGT is saying this is a good game?

[Maynard]

patches to fix the game that come weeks later and include bugs that need to be patched...which comes months later. by then, your off to madden

sounds familiar

what is TGT?

[spiker]

The summary conclusion paragraph from TGT:

To wrap things up, NCAA Football 13 had a world of potential to make this one of the best releases on this generation of consoles, but they’ve dropped the ball up to this point. They needed to show fans that NCAA Football 12 was just a year that they set their sights too high, but instead, some will still come away feeling burnt by this year's title. Added that NCAA’s bigger brother, Madden, will be getting two very buzz-worthy features in Connected Careers and the Infinity Engine, but NCAA’s most buzz-worthy feature this year is the Heisman Challenge. Overall, NCAA Football 13 at first glance will offer a fun experience and a lot of users will be able to either overlook or may not even notice the detractions, but days after launch, we can probably expect a segment of the loyal fan base to be disgruntled with the drawbacks included in the game this year. Fans of the series of course already know to expect a patch to fix some of these issues but when that patch comes and what it fixes is right now unknown. That combined with previous years where a patch can correct one issue only to uncover a new one, leads to a suggested caution for those that play the NCAA Football series year-round.

http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/content.php?608-NCAA-Football-13-Retail-Release-Impressions

I don't see where they conclude that it is a good game. They suggest caution before buying.

From OS's "two days in" review:

NCAA Football 13 isn't a great game. It's just not. There are way too many things wrong with the title and way too much in context (aka the now antiquated physics within the game) to give this game too much credit. Of course, also just as big of a negative for the game are the things it could do great and doesn't and just settles in with good to merely solid: presentation, existing gameplay, dynasty mode, etc.

But don't get me wrong, NCAA Football is still a good game for sure, as it hasn't really regressed from last year's extremely solid effort -- if you could stomach the major bugs that is. I think the problem is that NCAA 13 is familiar and isn't breaking any boundaries to the upside and a lot of the same problems that have plagued the series this generation are still present and probably won't be going away so long as the current engine is used.

I want to be a believer in the game, because I really feel like the quality is the highest it has been -- but I also think that the game hasn't taken a sizeable step forward which IMO shows the age of the engine and the theoretical approach to the game more than anything. This engine is tapped out and Madden NFL 13 had better show it's much better than what we have or EA Football is in for a long season of very vocally angry fans. But that's a column for another day.

Once again, a cautious and mostly pessimistic review

http://www.operationsports.com/MMChrisS/blog/19079-two-full-days-in-my-early-pre-review-thoughts-on-ncaa-13/

[spiker]

I mean, it's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I encourage VSN to do more reviews. This is content that I generally enjoy reading and it drives discussion, which isn't a bad thing. I just thought it was worth discussing that the review was more in line with IGN's review than with either OS or TGT.

[Maynard]

i just find it hard to believe that any review from OS has credibility when its written by ChrisS

[Hasselbeck]

And this one:



And this one

Not only are the helmets fucked up, Notre Dame is ranked in this video.

Man EA fucked this up BAD

[spiker]

i didnt expect anything other than a fucked up game. i would have been shocked if it was done right. its EA...this is the model for them and it never changes. some will still get their enjoyment out of it and thats great for them. But for people like me who only want the most authentic, realistic football gaming experience, EA falls short for so many reasons. Maybe one day we will see some competition with the football games and have something worth buying.

That's really the dividing point for people over this game. Are you able to ignore the glaring weaknesses in the game enough to derive $60 worth of enjoyment out of it? And if you can, for how long? I think a lot of the people who have been playing the game forever like me are just burnt out. I have fond memories of past games in the series, but in 2012, the game just doesn't draw me in anymore. I just can't get lost in the action. At some point in the last few years, playing this game became a repetitious grind.

[ryne candy]

Not only are the helmets fucked up, Notre Dame is ranked in this video.

Man EA fucked this up BAD

Aren't they always before the season begins and they actually play?

[Playmakers]

Reading some bugs and glitches threads and it looks like the CPU both running and defending the option is bad.

ND's helmets are still pretty off but here is a neat pic from OS posted by Roogy

I think it's pretty sad that the CPU Option attack hasn't worked in this series since NCAA 06....

The CPU QB's actually do a better job scrambling now than ever before. But for some reason they are brain dead in terms of running the Option attack.

Pursuit seems to be the biggest culprit in the option run defense...it's almost as if they programmed the defense from the NCAA 09 version.

The problem with EA is that they try to cut corners with gameplay...there is no middle ground with them it's either something is way too over powered (Pursuit in NCAA 12) or way too sub par (Pursuit in NCAA 13). I mean if you can program the QB's to have smarter scarmbling logic why can't you program them to read and react to the defenders when running the option?

It gets really old having to edit half the game in order to make the CPU Option Attack work just to render decent results by them on the field. I also think their Play calling logic is flawed once again but I haven't really done much with playbooks and sliders yet so it could get better once things are tweaked under hood.

[MrBill]

Looking at the reviews from MetaCritic, it looks like NCAA '13 is averaging a 7.5 compared to our review coming in at 8.0. Definitely within the ballpark of the consensus from the rest of the gaming community. Our reviews will continue to get better as we get earlier copies of the games and have more experience in producing them.