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NCAA Football 13 Preview

With all of the hype surrounding Madden NFL 13 and its new Infinity engine, most people are forgetting about the other football game: NCAA Football 13.

Though not as big of a drastic gameplay change as Madden, NCAA does plenty of things right that should keep you entertained.

First of all, the gameplay has seen a few tweaks and adjustments. You notice the new pass trajectories, which is good since it proves it’s not a gimmick. The play-action fake is brilliant; arguably one of the best “little things” I’ve seen in a sports game yet. It also changes the way options work. Gone – OK, not entirely gone – are the days when options were pointless. As an Oregon fan, this is a huge upgrade and game changer. The running game is more polished which can allow a bit more freedom in the lanes. The new animations are noticeable, and the trajectories really help out. But once it’s all said and done, NCAA still feels the same, which isn’t really a good or bad thing in my book. I’m sure, as we play the demo more and the retail version releases, we should all notice some more of the tiny things.

Now on to what will make people stick around with this game: Dynasty.

The biggest improvement is without a doubt recruiting. It has taken a pretty large leap in a very positive direction. Now you can not only call the recruit, but also you can also scout him. Scouting will give you specific ratings for the chosen athlete, which will ultimately decide for you if you want to offer up a scholarship. Also, three- and five-star athletes won’t necessarily become what they’re played out to be; some five-star kid might end up being the biggest bust you know. Then again, that three-star kid who isn’t getting any letters of intent from outside his home state may as well be the next RG3.

Also, when you call a recruit you no longer need to deal with the dreaded pitch carousel. Instead you have the option of pitching whatever the hell you want, or you can gamble and actually ask the recruit what he is interested in. Weird when games implement common sense, right? It’s about time.

Each pitch is based off of how well your team performs on and off the field. For example, if your quarterback is drafted No. 4 overall in the NFL Draft, the Ducks instantly have more pull when it comes to the pitch “Pro Potential” or when recruiting a new quarterback. Also, recruits know the kind of play style you run with. If for example you want the top rated FB, he will only sign on with you if your current FB is actually seeing some reps on Saturdays.

The further you get along with your recruiting, you’ll slowly see the player’s overall rating (yes, the actually overall rating).

One last thing that I saw that deserves mention is the presentation. From the commentary to the ESPN bottom line, EA did a pretty good job. During the game you’ll get dynamic updates which features scores and stats of other important football games. But one thing that isn’t there, that feels like it should, are video highlights. I’m not trying to bring up the old NFL 2K5 argument, just stating that these dynamic updates need those videos. I was told they didn’t want to create fake highlights to avoid repetition, which makes sense. But at least they have actually put the topic on the table and talked about it – something we’ve never really had confirmation of before.

Some of you may be turned off by this preview, especially since the gameplay didn’t get a major overhaul, but with all of the new recruiting tools I’m personally pumped.


NCAA Football 13 Videos
Member Comments
# 41 Wildcats302 @ 06/09/12 02:00 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DGuinta1
Anyone going to play as Jim Plunkett?? Cmon now.
LOL yeah some of these Heisman people are strange to me. I also looked up Tim Brown's stats from his year and chuckled...politics involved in that one I'd say with him playing for Notre Dame.
 
# 42 TuffJuff @ 06/09/12 02:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by thevaliantx
Two thoughts come to mind.

#1 EA did not alter the demo in order to show off a feature. What is in the demo is the foundation of what will be in the final release. All the demo is, is a particular stage in the development of the product.

#2 If you play 8 minute quarters in order for the ads to not be so intrusive, then you are sacrificing realism in order to 'work around' a defect.d
How is 8 minute quarters unrealistic?
 
# 43 Ziza9Noles94 @ 06/09/12 04:45 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildcats302
LOL yeah some of these Heisman people are strange to me. I also looked up Tim Brown's stats from his year and chuckled...politics involved in that one I'd say with him playing for Notre Dame.
You really needed to see him play. He was dynamic and deserved the award. I say that hating the domers. Looking at numbers out of context without having seen the games he helped them win doesn't tell the whole story.
 
# 44 redraider1788 @ 06/10/12 01:46 AM
You have to give credit to NCAA because they have to work on a lot more details than Madden does. Madden has to work with 32 teams, while NCAA has 123 teams to work with. I think that NCAA is much more smooth and fresh, and it plays out better than Madden. I also think it is too much of a rush to add in an infinity engine for both games. I agree that the infinity engine needs more time to develop. NCAA is doing the right thing by waiting until the new engine is more developed, and Madden rushed it into their game. I think the new engine will look more sloppy in Madden this year.
 
# 45 Sanchez_Mareno @ 06/10/12 04:55 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BA2929
I'm REALLY excited to see how the Mock Draft works. I've always wondered how that 78 overall FB who left early (and that I couldn't talk back) fared in the NFL Draft.
Ive wanted this feature for a while. Hope its implemented well.
 
# 46 Jakeboutte @ 06/10/12 06:17 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by thevaliantx
If the college version inherits the engine from the Madden version next year, there is no guarantee that the 'child' of the 'parent' (sorry, reminiscing of my college days taking programming classes, LOL!!!) will use all of those features. EA, if it gets to that point, will pick and choose what it wants to highlight in the college version.
They will let you import the draft class next year.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramminyou
I think people will be more forgiving of the updates when they're playing Dynasty in the retail version. Then you'll actually have some connection to the games and will not be seeing the same ones every time you play, like in the demo.
I agree, the updates we see on the demo have no meaning to us what so ever.
 
# 47 volwalker @ 06/11/12 09:51 AM
With the demo, I am having significant trouble reading the defense (with regards to the passing game). Apparently in NCAA 13 motioning a receiver to tell whether the defense is in Man or Zone does not work anymore. Several times I would motion to see if CB would move with my WR but am getting different results than the norm that we are all used to seeing (CB moves with the WR = Man, etc.). Because of this my passing game has been non-existent even though I like what EA has done with rehauling the passing game. Since this strategy is no longer valid, can anyone help me how to read defenses? I am sure that there are lots of gamers who never used motion in the first place who thrive in the passing game and any help and tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
# 48 Isura @ 06/11/12 09:05 PM
What is the distribution of 5-star recruits? Last year almost all 5-star recruits where RBs, QBs, or Athletes.
 
# 49 Schreck @ 06/12/12 01:10 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziza9Noles94
You really needed to see him play. He was dynamic and deserved the award. I say that hating the domers. Looking at numbers out of context without having seen the games he helped them win doesn't tell the whole story.
Well said. That season Brown won it by a big margin, something like 1400 points to 800 over the number 2 guy, Don McPherson, QB Syracuse (yeah I don't know him either). To give his numbers some context, he was on an option oriented team, so 39 catches for 846 yards (over 21 ypc!) is pretty dang impressive. He also had 3 punt return TD's and 3 rushing TD's. The year before he had over 900 receiving yards and 2 KR TD's.

By today's standards the numbers may look low, but offenses were different back then. Compare him to his era and it was pretty clear cut who the dominant player of the year was.

http://youtu.be/9T67HDocsEY
 
# 50 goduke30 @ 06/21/12 05:14 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by volwalker
With the demo, I am having significant trouble reading the defense (with regards to the passing game). Apparently in NCAA 13 motioning a receiver to tell whether the defense is in Man or Zone does not work anymore. Several times I would motion to see if CB would move with my WR but am getting different results than the norm that we are all used to seeing (CB moves with the WR = Man, etc.). Because of this my passing game has been non-existent even though I like what EA has done with rehauling the passing game. Since this strategy is no longer valid, can anyone help me how to read defenses? I am sure that there are lots of gamers who never used motion in the first place who thrive in the passing game and any help and tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Yeah i use to do that all the time but this what you do i did this alot ill send a tight end or wr on a dummy route to see if the guy would follow him or once he leaves the zone someone else picks up it work for me
 
# 51 BigMVP78 @ 07/18/12 12:15 PM
Wlill the people who didnt buy NCAA from Amazon ever get those 5 pro combat uniforms?????
 

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