I only want to touch briefly on the game's online offerings. The reason for the brief overview is that Online Dynasty mode is essentially a carbon copy of offline Dynasty mode -- Coaching Carousel and all. So if you missed my dynasty review yesterday, and care to go back and read it, feel free. All you have to do is simply imagine everything I've already mentioned available to be enjoyed with a group of friends online.

I've said it in the past and I will say it again, Online Dynasty is the single most important online development to hit sports gaming. The amount of fun that can be found here while competing against friends in a virtual FBS is simply unmatched. The addition of the Coaching Carousel to this year's game is just another feather in NCAA's online cap, with the possibilities being virtually endless in terms of human coaching movement from year to year. However, one downside to the Online Dynasty mode seems to be its exploding popularity. No, really, it seems like so many people are trying to start their dynasties right now that people are being put on a virtual wait list to upload their dynasties to EA's servers. This is leading to folks having to wait in a virtual line for an extended period of time -- generally speaking, folks don't like to wait in lines in video games. This issue will presumably clear up once everyone settles in and creates their dynasties.

This year league commissioners are also able to determine the starting prestige and coaching position of each human in the OD. Want everyone to start off as a scrub one-star defensive coordinator? You got it. The only caveat is that unlike offline games, when playing head to head against another human opponent as a coordinator you will play both sides of the ball, somewhat dampening the experience. Regardless, Online Dynasty mode is still a blast, and I can already see that endless hours of my life will be dumped into this mode.

However, I still think it's a bummer that you can't be the commisioner of multiple dynasties without paying an additional fee. As someone who likes to commish at least two dynasties every year, it certainly would be nice to see the default cap raised to three in a future year, especially with the growing popularity of this mode.

Returning to this mode is the ability to write game recaps and conduct recruiting all from the comfort of your computer. This year the game also features, for a fee, the ability to simulate games against the CPU and advance dynasty weeks. However, at the time of this review, these features were not available. Look for an update at a later date should anything groundbreaking be discovered regarding these features.

Outside of the incredibly deep Online Dynasty mode, NCAA 12 features the usual suite of online lobbies, ranked and unranked games, and even games featuring Teambuilder squads. From the games I've played online, the quality is extremely good, with little to no lag plaguing the experience. The CPU AI also seems to be just as sharp when playing human opponents online as it is off, so don't expect to be "cheesed" as easily as in the past.

That being said, when comparing the online games to the offline games, a couple things stick out. First off, the online games are still essentially bereft of any presentation elements that can be found in the offline game. There are no entrances, or in-between quarter highlights or anything else like that. Beyond a couple of highlights at the end of the game, it's a really boring atmosphere online against your opponents. Really, it makes the online game feel much more hollow, which is unfortunate. EA has done a great job replicating Dynasty mode both online and offline, and it's time to do the same for the presentation elements. In addition, defensive ends seem to be a bit more effective online for whatever reason. They seem to shed their blocks a bit more easily, perhaps because they tend to be user-controlled more often, which tends to make outside runs and option plays a bit harder to come by. You can certainly still run inside the tackles and then break it outside, but sweep plays and so forth seem to be less effective.

Overall, the online offerings in NCAA 12 are quite impressive, bolstered mainly by the highly addictive Online Dynasty mode. I typically veer away from ranked games against randoms because of the cheesing I run into, but with the defensive changes to CPU AI I may venture into the wild more often this year.


Check in tomorrow as my review will be hitting the site, complete with score. As always, if you have any questions about the game, even though many of you have it by now, make sure you shoot me a tweet @Bumble14_OS