The "why I love NCAA 14 three years later" thread

[Isura]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

Agreed. I also don't go too overboard with the presentation stuff, but there was just something cool about the players walking up through the tunnel as they were about to charge on the field. EA did a really good job capturing that pregame feel....it was a shame they trashed it in '14.

My favorite thing about Ncaa 11 was the intro when the players in my ND dynasty would tap the "play like a champion" sign. Still gives me goosebumps!

[jello1717]

I love some of the little things in the game. IE. when there is a player specific story, I love it when the game shows a picture with that player it in.

Granted it doesn't always show the right guy (meaning it might just randomly choose one of your pictures), but it chooses the correct guy often enough that I think it knows which players are in your picture and if you have a picture of the guy in the story it'll use that one.

Here are a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.

[falcor1234]

now that i have a good set of sliders for me. i get very realistic results. ive pulled some upsets off and had some upsets pulled off on me and had shootouts and defensive battles. and most of the time i can pick a game out of real life and go it felt a lot like that game. and one thing i did that helps keep every game feel different was all the assistant coaches i adjusted there huddle tendencies and there run/pass and aggressive sliders so when they became head coaches it wouldnt be like 2 more clones of that hc was in the game. itd be similar but different.

[SilverBullet19]

I love that the game will put you in your place...just like real life.

In my team builder dynasty I rallied 5 straight wins to get to 5-3 with a team rated 63 overall. I was beating up on conference opponents rated close to 20 points better than. Then, just like real life, I collapsed. I got blown out by UTSA (71 overall) and allowed over 60 points. A couple games later I got rocked by Rice (73 overall) 55-17. I finished the regular season 7-5, and I was happy with it. If I boasted a 9-3 record in my schools 3rd year of existence with a crappy roster, I would get bored because its unrealistic and too easy.

I still won my division, but it felt very realistic. A nobody programs comes out of the gates strong, stuns everyone, then falls off a bit. Similar to Memphis this season.

[gopher_guy]

My roommate just brought back his 360 from home, and he has NCAA 14. I'm PUMPED to start a new dynasty.

Absolutely loved the NCAA series; one of my biggest regrets about selling my 360.

Nothing more satisfying than fighting tooth and nail for a recruit, getting him to commit, and then watching him wreak havoc on the field for a few years.

[Deegeezy]

I don't have NCAA '14 (currently play '11), but the NCAA series as a whole is such a re-playable game because the story line is so variant year to year, dynasty to dynasty. The recruiting element really takes the game to a whole new level. It is like a game within the game.

In real life college football, most people have not heard of 98% of the guys that get signed on Signing Day, so the fact that these are fake, generated characters we recruit each year has no bearing on the feeling of the game being real.

Then when you finally reel in that big time recruit and get to see him on the field, it is so fulfilling from a fun factor standpoint.

Then there are so many calibers of teams, so many different play styles to play against each week, both offensively and defensively. So many different legendary stadiums to play in, so many legendary fight songs and band chants to hear each week. The game just offers so much variation.

The difficulty of winning a N.C., needing to be near perfect all season. Unlike Madden, sneaking into the playoffs with 7 losses and winning it all ain't gonna cut it on NCAA.

God I love this video game and have all the way since the mid-90s.

[Cheese2121]

I have to echo everythng Deegeezy and the others have said. I am on NCAA '12 and I can honestly say it is my favorite sports game and sports dynasty I have ever done. I never see myself stopping my current project, that is just how much I love it.

I love tracking the careers and the legacies and the storylines, they write themselves at times it is so good. Add in the coaching carousel and it is just endless entertainment. Watching teams run out of a tunnel, knowing that your entire season rests on one play. It is just heart stopping. I still get chills with the introductory video to NCAA '12....Another season is upon us....

Alright I will get off my soap box now but I am so happy that so many members and this community. No matter if you are playing NCAA '06 or '14 there is so much in this series. Legendary.

[thesportsguru11]

Early on after the game's release, I wanted to trade it back. I couldn't stand a lot of things and I just wanted to go back to playing NCAA '07 or something. I am really glad I didn't. All of my doubts I had then have since been erased or alleviated a bit.

I couldn't get into a dynasty because I don't like the BCS. Next thing I knew, there are ways to run a playoff (the best thing I've ever done in dynasty mode).

Black kickers kept popping up consistently in recruiting (I cannot stand that)...I can fix that if I so choose. From what I understand, there is no limit to how long your dynasty can go in '14...that is unbelieveable. The graphics have gotten better, but that's partially because we got a new TV a while back.

It took time to find sliders I enjoyed, but I am now getting challenged every game on Heisman difficulty. In my current dynasty, my recruiting has been up and down over my first five seasons, and I'm paying for it because I have lots of problems at positions I haven't taken care of or where others have simply recruited better. I won a national title one year, started 6-0 the next season and ended up finishing 9-4.

The unpredictability is unbelievable, and in game more so than in dynasty. I lost a game in triple overtime when my backup QB dove at the end zone for the winning TD and had the ball knocked loose. It was picked up and returned for a TD by the other team to seal their victory. The very next game I came out and trailed the whole game..that is until my third string QB threw a TD, we recovered an onside and threw an improbable hail mary from 65 yards out for the win (with my wideout trucking the last defender and diving at the pylon to avoid a tackle) all within the last two minutes of the game.

Thing is, as other people have mentioned, there is something new every time I fire up the game. Sites like these help open our eyes to new ways of playing the game (playoffs, updated rosters, modding your dynasty file, etc.). It's hard to stack your team and win title after title, there is always some team, player, one bad recruiting class that gets in your way. There are times where the CPU thoroughly whacks me in game, and vise versa. One unsuspecting player can make the difference between a win and loss at any time (usually it's a slot receiver for me ). I notice new animations every game. I know each version is a little different, and yes I still love my PS2 games, but the replayability in '14 is simply incredible, and I expect to be playing this game for as long as I legitimately can.

In conclusion, I am so glad I didn't return NCAA Football 14 in July 2013.